Manuel Managing Report Card: Game 39, Or: The Curious Case Of Pinch-Hitting

by riversmccown on May 20, 2009 2:10 AM EDT Comment 36 comments

STARTING LINEUP: C-

Jerry finally got his three best hitters in the top 4 spots of the lineup. *applause* He even managed to get the five best hitters in the lineup that he created into the top five spots! That's a pretty big accomplishment for Jerry.

The problems started in the six hole, where Ramon Martinez batted ahead of Jeremy Reed and Omir Santos for...uhh...you know, I have no damn idea. I'm at a loss for words. He had big hits last year in September? That's about the only reason he's on the roster, in the big leagues, or employed in general. So theres your explanation. This came back to bite the Mets hard.

Look, I dig Jeremy Reed as a fourth outfielder, but that is all that he is. Starting him so often over Tatis for platoon effects is a waste of resources, I don't care how big a slump Tatis is in. Moreover, if you are going to end up with him and Murphy in the same lineup, and Murphy was referred to by Omar Minaya today as "someone who might be a long-term first baseman", then why the hell are you playing Murphy in left and Reed at first? Instead of having one guy at a position he's uncomfortable in, we have two guys at positions they aren't comfortable at. Excellent.

Finally, Jerry's Santos fetish is well known at this point, and for the second time in three entries, I'll put up the fact that he doesn't deserve to split time evenly with Castro. 40% I can see, given Castro's injury problems. But 50/50 is too much time for a catcher who can't hit.

BULLPEN MANAGEMENT: B-

I think I'm okay with where he took out Maine. While Casey Blake delivered that big bomb, up until then Maine had been pretty solid at keeping the ball out of the back of the outfield. This wasn't a situation where Maine needed to be rushed out.

I was alright with Takahashi, glad that he saved Pedro Feliciano, especially since he brought Ken in while we were trailing. That worked itself out pretty well. Sean Green for the third game in a row was a little weird, but it was a good situation for him to pitch in since Juan Castro is an easy out, he had two righties, and Ethier has been struggling lately. Curious, but not indefensible.

Bringing in K-Rod in the ninth is one of those moves where you look back at last night, realize that he could've pitched in a high leverage situation instead of a low leverage one tonight just to get work in, and want to strangle your manager.

IN-GAME TACTICS: D+

Tactically, Manuel managed to stay the heck out of the way of his lineup for the most part in the first six innings. He deserves all the kudos that come with that. That said, there was still plenty to be discussed tonight.

-Jeremy Reed's 2-0 bunt: if you squint your eyes really hard, you can kind of pin this one on element of surprise, but I'm inclined to say that it was pretty dumb. Especially because Billingsley was already having problems finding the strike zone early on. Still, it was in the realm of feasible idea.

-Danny Murphy getting caught stealing in the first. Murphy has stolen 21 bases in his entire career: minor and majors. To me, this almost smacks of projection. If we don't see Murphy in the lineup at second for awhile, and Jerry talks about how he isn't good on the bases (or hates on his intangibles or something else stupid), keep this play in mind. Huh, put a guy who doesn't have the skills for the job in a position to fail and shockingly he doesn't come through. Manuel needs to know that Murphy is a station-to-station player and use him accordingly.

Now we get into the three big beefs: two pinch-hitting situations that were, and one that wasn't.

-With one on in the top of the seventh, Manuel pinch-hits Pagan for Takahashi and Torre goes to the bullpen to get a lefty specialist. Angel Pagan has a sub-.300 OBP against lefties for his career, and a .684 OPS against them overall. Manuel may have wanted to save Sheffield for an even higher leverage situation, but even despite that, he has two guys who absolutely crush righties on the bench in Tatis and Castro. On the plus side, Pagan had teh 4 hits last nite omg!!!111. Pagan struck out looking.

-Later in the seventh, after Jose Reyes made it 2 on and 2 out, Manuel did go to Sheffield and force Torre to bring in a right-hander. So the question becomes, is there a big difference between Sheffield vs. a right-hander or Murphy vs. a left-hander? Intuitively, I'm inclined to believe that Sheffield is a better option. But if you look at this years splits, Gary is only hitting .163 against right-handers, and he only hit .220 against them last year. Small cherry picked sample size, yes I know. Meanwhile, in a similarly cherry picked sample size, but one that is unavoidable due to the Mets almost never letting him face lefties, Dan Murphy is hitting .360/.400/.640 against lefties in 30 plate appearances.

I'm not entirely willing to concede that pinch-hitting here was a BAD move, but it certainly wasn't a good one. Furthermore, you're just continuing to give Murphy more bad messages. Screw up once and you're out of the game. You're not better than a 42-year-old Gary Sheffield.

-Lastly, Ramon Martinez strolled up to the plate one strikeout shy of the golden sombrero, with 2 on and 1 out in the top of the eighth. Having already burned Pagan, the only left-hander on the bench was Castillo. There is no reason in hell that a replacement player who had little business being in the lineup in the first place should get to hit in one of the highest leverage spots in the entire game. Tatis, Castro, or Castillo all would've been much more preferable options. Jerry stuck with Captain Clutch, who dribbled right into an inning ending double play that took the Mets off life support for good.

Now I can understand why Omar was so hesitant to put Cora on the shelf on Monday. Jerry must have re-painted McFarlanes of Martinez in his office.

OVERALL: C-

Jerry earned this C- with his starting lineup and his bullpen choices. Let the record show that he tried really hard to get back down to a D.

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He gets an F- for starting lineup

I’m sorry, he gets a Q+.

by DevonEdwards on May 20, 2009 2:26 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

I'd rather he get the first five hitters right than the last three

- Rivers McCown

by riversmccown on May 20, 2009 3:05 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

I'm only through bullpen management so far

And I think you’re being generous. Everything up until K-Rod was fine, and even that, whatever, I have no problem in principle with using K-Rod in the 8th inning there. But if you’re willing to ever use K-Rod in the 8th, why can’t you do it when it matters? Why can’t J.J. Putz be ready to face Matt Diaz? Who cares if Garrett Anderson is on the bench, it was obviously the highest leverage pitching situation in the game, and you let Pedro Feliciano pitch to Matt Diaz, and now you use Frankie in the 8th? There’s some funny Jerry math involved here, and so while the use of Frankie tonight was fine in itself, it exposed yet another bizarre line of reasoning that is so convoluted its practically encrypted.

"All energy flows according to the whims of the great magnet

What a fool I was to defy him"

-HST

by Meddler on May 20, 2009 2:40 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Well that's simple

If he actually used K-Rod in the 8th in a high leverage situation, I’d give him mondo extra points. But nobody does that. I’m not going to completely trash him for following the norm; I want to at least GET to the norm before we worry about stuff like high leverage appearances for K-Rod.

I don’t think he’s using K-Rod in the 8th there because he thinks the game is close, I think he’s using him because he pitched five of his relievers last night and hadn’t used K-Rod since Friday. He used him to get him work and spell the rest of the pen, which is also why Ken Tremendous pitched.

- Rivers McCown

by riversmccown on May 20, 2009 3:11 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

No I agree that he didn't use him because the game was close

I think it was the exact type of situation where you should avoid using your best and most rested reliever. You don’t blow him in the 8th inning now, after refusing to so many times before. If you tie the game, all of a sudden all the guys you had decided to stay away from have to work, and maybe even work overtime. I guess if you go ahead, you still have Putz, and that’s fair enough, but it just seemed to me like the one spot you try to avoid using your closer in.

"All energy flows according to the whims of the great magnet

What a fool I was to defy him"

-HST

by Meddler on May 20, 2009 3:17 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Nobody does that?

I don’t think that’s true. A lot of teams don’t use their “official” closers in those situations but that’s usually because they don’t make their best relief pitcher their official closer.

by Gina on May 20, 2009 10:48 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Well alright

Nobody TRIES to do it. They may misidentify their best reliever and end up having their real best reliever do it.

- Rivers McCown, http://frommomsbasement.com/

by riversmccown on May 20, 2009 5:27 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

They don't misidentify their best reliever

They just use their best reliever in the most important situations. Like when the cubs said gregg would be the closer Pinella came out and pretty much all but said they wanted to use Marmol in the high leverage situations and Gregg in situations where he would have as little impact on the game as possible.

by Gina on May 20, 2009 5:58 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Also it's the same thing tampa bay does

They use Balfour who is their best reliever, as a bullpen ace and then Broxton, and then basically use Percival to end games in low leverage situations. There’s no misidentifying about it it’s called having a bullpen ace.

by Gina on May 20, 2009 5:59 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

If you sort by pLI

http://www.fangraphs.com/leaders.aspx?pos=all&stats=rel&lg=all&qual=y&type=3&season=2009&month=0

I don’t see any Rays on the list. Although it’s possible they’ve just played a lot of blowouts.

Could you find me an actual quote on the Marmol thing? The other thing is…well, two teams out of thirty (allegedly) is still less than 10% of the league.

- Rivers McCown, http://frommomsbasement.com/

by riversmccown on May 20, 2009 7:14 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

The Sheffield PH

The thing I wondered here was why not use Tatis if you must PH? Tatis’ splits have been much more reasonable the last couple years, and in fact he’s struggled a bit against lefties this year, which is the last thing you expect him to sustain, and if anything, just make Joe Torre’s decision harder. But during his Mets tenure, his platoon splits are .844 vs. LHP and .847 vs. RHP. Plus, then you get to leave Tatis in the game at 1B and move Reed to the outfield, which significantly improves your defense and retains one of your better bats for another potential big spot in the 9th. What Jerry did was a bit more obvious I guess, he put Pagan in the outfield and saved himself two spots in the lineup, but IMO, the difference between a second AB for Tatis vs. Pagan is worth two lineup spots even if you didn’t still have Castro, Sheffield, and Castillo on your bench, which he did. Plus, you know, Tatis is slumping, and Pagan had four hits last night.

But yeah, this decision should have never even come up, since Pagan’s name should have been scratched off the lineup card before Torre even reached the mound to call for the lefty.

And at least with these situations, I can reasonably piece together Jerry’s line of thinking. Using Frankie in the 8th, I’m just lost on that one. I know he needed to get some work in or whatever, but of all games, down two runs is just a slap in the face to every high leverage situation that has been filled by Ken Takahashi or Sean Green. And perhaps even worse, its a slap in the face to your offense, by essentially telling your team you don’t think they have much chance of coming back. While such a feeling may have been justified, even hinting at it is completely inexcusable for a manager.

"All energy flows according to the whims of the great magnet

What a fool I was to defy him"

-HST

by Meddler on May 20, 2009 3:05 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

I do not want FMart anywhere near Manuel.

by SQUAD on May 20, 2009 10:59 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

can we plese call up f-mart

all we have is a bunch of bums in left and frist put f-mart in lf move hammer to 1st or trade for a frist baseman get rid of reed and martinez they both suck.let f-mart get his feet wet and see what he can do

by JADDENHOPKINS on May 20, 2009 10:02 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs

He's 20 and has only been hitting for like a month

Could we let him actually establish he’s breaking out and not just in a heart streak before we pencil him in for lf?

by Gina on May 20, 2009 10:49 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

heart?

hot

by Gina on May 20, 2009 10:50 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Agreed

But then again, if Jerry insists on giving Jeremy Reed and Angel Pagan playing time…it may be the right call.

"I dunno. I never smoked any Astroturf"
-Tug McGraw

by squid92 on May 20, 2009 10:54 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Anything that may allow Ramon Martinez

to never see the light of day again is aces by me. I’d rather Tatis in a middle infield spot at this point to him.

by AnthonyR on May 20, 2009 11:04 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

i agree with the comment above

manuel will not use f-mart properly. he’ll get a couple of starts, and if he doesn’t hit right away, he’ll be playing once every three or four days. i say give f-mart another month in AAA. if he keeps up the hot hitting and murphy or church don’t establish themselves, then let f-mart come up as a STARTER. right now, he’d only be another bench player.

by englishgrey on May 20, 2009 11:31 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

I don't know if even Jerry's that bad

I think the question is more whether or not F-Mart is ready to be an everyday Major Leaguer. Its not far off, and the way he’s going lately, his opportunity is right in front of him to try and prove that he deserves an opportunity to try, but he should be given more time to try an establish himself. But I really don’t see how Jerry could let him sit more than one game a week. Aside from the fact that he’d arguably be the second most complete outfielder on the team, Jerry’s not a good manager, but that doesn’t mean he has no concept of player development. I think he’d give F-Mart every chance to stick, and if it didn’t work out, he’d be back in Triple-A.

"All energy flows according to the whims of the great magnet

What a fool I was to defy him"

-HST

by Meddler on May 20, 2009 1:19 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

maybe jerry would do the right thing

but if martinez play everyday, then there’s only one spot left on the field for sheff, murphy, and church (assuming murphy doesn’t stick at 1b). i’m not sure jerry will really have the discipline to rotate those three players through RF, which will lead him to keep martinez on a semi-regular basis.

but if jerry treats him as a starter, then i have no problem with martinez being called up. although i would still like to see him get another couple of weeks in AAA to establish himself as major-league ready. the last thing this team needs is another replacement-level OFer.

by englishgrey on May 20, 2009 1:36 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Yeah definitely

I mean, I don’t think if Fernando gets called up it would be on a whim. I think Omar would sit down with Jerry, ask him how Murphy feels at first base, ask him if he’d be comfortable platooning Sheffield and Church in the outfield and Murphy and Tatis on the infield. F-Mart is Omar’s prized project and I think he’ll do everything he can to exercise caution and due diligence with him. And I think they’ll definitely wait a bit longer and give Fernando a chance to do a little more damage in the IL. But Fernando’s performance in May so far, and most notably what he did against Buchholz, has to be at least an eye-opener.

"All energy flows according to the whims of the great magnet

What a fool I was to defy him"

-HST

by Meddler on May 20, 2009 2:04 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

yes, this is the kind of forethought i would hope the front office would use

but given their track record this year in managing the roster, i’m not convinced that’s the case. guess we’ll see

by englishgrey on May 20, 2009 2:41 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

I was going to disagree with this

and cite his jerking around with Murph’s playing time this year, but then I thought better of myself and remembered that, in theory, Murphy was intended to be only one-half of a left field platoon. Moreover, although Hammer got the bulk of the playing time early, it correlated with that long stretch where the Mets didn’t see a LH starter.

Fartinez won’t be in that situation, or at least he shouldn’t be, because he is seen as the long-term solution to one of the outfield spots. I’d hope that, if he is called up, Jerry would see fit to play him every day. In any event, I agree with many around here that it would be nice to see him put another couple of good AAA weeks under his belt before getting the call-up.

"The definition of edge is going out there and getting a few wins, and then all of a sudden you don’t have to worry about anyone talking about edge anymore," Wright said. "That's a thing in the past. Go ask Omar about that."

by Catsmeat Potter-Pirbright on May 20, 2009 1:40 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

I don't think murphy was meant to be one half of a platoon

If anything Church was likely the one who was going to be platooned. And it’s not like he’s been jerking Murphy around for Tatis it’s been for guys like Reed and Pagan.

by Gina on May 20, 2009 2:06 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Yeah that's a good point

It’s not like we’re seeing quality platooning with quality.

by Catsmeat Potter-Pirbright on May 20, 2009 2:12 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

He's been jerking Murphy around

and hasn’t been playing him at first despite that apparently being their ultimate goal. I’m not sure he’s really shown a concept for player development.

by Gina on May 20, 2009 2:12 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

I guess

But at least the situation with Murphy was somewhat unclear. I can see how it confused Jerry’s fragile little mind. He’s not a power hitter, his position wasn’t set to begin the season, his entire ST was geared towards playing LF. With Fernando, it would be clear, you have a young player who the organization believes can be a “franchise” player (whatever that means), and he only plays ones position. And I think a bit part of Murphy’s future is dependent on what Fernando eventually becomes, but not vice versa. If Fernando becomes a top-level corner outfielder, then Murphy becomes much more appealing at first base. If Fernando doesn’t, then the organization will probably look for other options at first. Furthermore, you could make a case that Murphy was just about a finished product heading into this year, and that development wasn’t nearly as big a concern for him. His approach was advanced, he seemed to be tapping what raw power he did have, etc. This is obviously not the case with the 20 year old.

I’m not saying I agree with the organization’s handling of Murphy, I just can see how things got so messed up, and with Fernando, that would just be completely inexcusable, and I refuse to believe even a human being such as Jerry Manuel could screw up something so obvious. But maybe I’m giving him too much credit.

"All energy flows according to the whims of the great magnet

What a fool I was to defy him"

-HST

by Meddler on May 20, 2009 2:42 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

One Fernando comment to rule them all

PROS: I do think Jerry would handle this differently. And by that I mean I think Omar would tell him “this guy plays everyday or you’re fired.” You don’t mess around with a talent like this and bring him up when there are no at-bats for him.

CONS: I don’t think he’s completely ready. I don’t want him up here learning the Jerry Manuel way of indifference towards things. If Jerry won’t play Murphy at first over Jeremy Reed, I have zero faith that Martinez coming up won’t bury Murphy/Church on the bench.

- Rivers McCown, http://frommomsbasement.com/

by riversmccown on May 20, 2009 5:35 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

I can agree with that for sure

"All energy flows according to the whims of the great magnet

What a fool I was to defy him"

-HST

by Meddler on May 20, 2009 5:37 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Frist of all...

Frist of all, whose on frist, what’s on secund, and I don’t fristin’ care’s on t’urd. Furth of all, how the heck has Ramon Martinez survived 11+ years in the majors?!?!?!? His career record says it all – and Jerry’s got him batting sixth??? This teams too good to be managed by a moron. I’d almost rather have Willie back (did I really say that?!?!?!)

by kjboppster on May 20, 2009 1:46 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Here's what needs to happen

Jerry Manuel needs to knock-out Angel Pagan in the clubhouse for not giving way to Beltran, shattering his jaw in 8 places leaving him out for the season. When he falls back from the blow, Pagan undercuts Ramon Martinez, tearing his ACL and leaving him out for the season.

The cops then come arrest Jerry and put him in Jail until his trial in November while Omir Santos tries to pull Jerry from the Cops screaming “Why, why”. LAPD beat Santos within an inch of his life, leaving him out for the season.

It’s all gravy from there…

by AnthonyR on May 20, 2009 2:07 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs