Tony La Russa must've missed the memo.We've all heard stories about players getting preferential treatment if their manager is running the All-Star team. An extra at-bat here. Another inning there. Happens all the time. But, in the ninth inning last night, La Russa went the other way.
Trailing by a run with the bases loaded and two outs, he opted to keep Cardinals slugger Albert Pujols on the bench and let first-time Phillies All-Star center fielder Aaron Rowand bat. No offense to Rowand, but Pujols may be the best hitter in baseball. He's the only player ever to hit 30 or more homers in his first six seasons. If I'm La Russa, who, by the way, sees "Phat Albert" play everyday, there's nobody I'd rather have at the plate. La Russas's logic: with Miguel Cabrera and Freddy Sanchez unable to play because of injuries, he wanted Pujols on the bench in case the game went into extra innings. Makes sense, except that Pujols could've prevented extra innings with a base hit.
Anyway, Rowand flied to right field, and the NL lost (again!), forfeiting home-field advantage in the World Series (again!). But the fallout is bound to be greatest in St. Louis, where Pujols already has said he isn't happy about going all the way to San Francisco to not play. "He does whatever he wants," Pujols said. "If I wasn't expecting to play, I wouldn't have come up here."
Should be interesting this weekend when the Cardinals visit Citizens Bank Park.
*Nice pre-game tribute to Willie Mays, my dad's favorite player as a kid. Now, there's a player I wish I could've seen.
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I know the fans selected Jose Reyes to be the NL's starting shortstop. But did he really have to get four at-bats? With all the good shortstops in the NL, it seems to me Hanley Ramirez or Jimmy Rollins could've been added to the team and taken one at-bat from Reyes. Speaking of Reyes, the Jose Reyes Spanish Academy at Shea Stadium is the funniest thing I've seen at a game this season.
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Has anybody watched "The Bronx Is Burning," the new ESPN mini-series on the '77 Yankees? I saw part of it last night. It might be good, but I was too distracted by John Turturro's ears. I don't remember Billy Martin's being that huge. Turturro, by the way, is a great actor, never better than in the role of Jesus Quintana in "The Big Lebowski."
*Now that the All-Star Game is over, it's time to look ahead at the season's second half. But, for one more day, we look back. In the 50-cent edition, you'll find a Phillies report card, with grades for each player, manager Charlie Manuel and GM Pat Gillick. Feel free to agree, disagree or tell the professor (me) that he's an idiot.
3 comments:
what was your method to come up with the grades and did you put every player up to the same grading scale?
Scott,
Very nice work. I agree with most of your rankings. Here's where I differ a little bit:
The bullpen received a D- but I firmly believe they deserve a F. Well, actually they don't even deserve that but whatever. They have been flat out pathetic. The Phillies have lost 12 out of 17 one run games. They have had 30 save opportunities and have saved 18 of those games.
Greg Dobbs received a B but I think overall he deserves an A. Relative to expectations and experience, he's been absolutely terrific. You don't see many guys (other than Chase Utley) run out every single ground ball and break their backside every game but Dobbs does. He's hitting .288 with 7 HR and 34 RBI. Additionally, he's been clutch.
Overall, you did a nice job Scott.
Thanks, Matt in Philly. Appreciate the support. You're right about the bullpen. I guess I was grading on a curve since Myers and Gordon haven't been healthy. That's why I gave Gordon an incomplete. I'll withhold a judgment until he pitches healthy, assuming that ever actually happens.
Jamie: I'd be lying if I said the grades were done scientifically. Basically, they were just judgment calls. But I did take into account expectations entering the season. For instance, if Greg Dobbs was batting .215, I'd be more lenient than I was on Pat Burrell for having the same average, if that makes sense.
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