For Those Who Always Wondered What Joe Torre Managing The Red Sox Would Look Like, Here It Is

• Dodgers 7-Rockies 2:

If, during all those long years of Yankees-Red Sox vitriol, any loyalist for the Red Sox

wondered what their team would look like with Joe Torre sitting in the corner of the dugout, hands resting on the knob of a bat, same demeanor whether things were going well or poorly and coaxing, cajoling, dragging and leading his teams to the playoffs no matter what adversity presented itself be it injury, a rampaging boss, spoiled fan base, illness or tragedy need only look at what's going on with the Dodgers because it's being played out right now.
If, during all those long years of the Red Sox-Yankees battles, any loyalist for the Yankees wondered what their team would look like with a quirky, spacey, aggravating, forgetful hitting savant named Manny Ramirez manning left field and hitting, hitting, hitting his way into

everyone's hearts and making them ignore the defensive lapses, tantrums, demands and bouts of laziness, it's being played out right now with the Los Angeles Dodgers.
The calmness that the Dodgers are showing is identical to that which the Yankees showed all those years as Torre guided them through any and all firestorms whether they were baseball or life-related. An eight game losing streak and season-long inconsistency? No reason to panic. Injuries to chunks of the pitching staff? Why worry? Someone else will get the job done, somehow. The Diamondbacks are pulling out all the stops to improve their club by dealing for help in their bullpen and lineup with stunning swiftness? No problem, for all of his bizarreness, Torre will handle Manny as he goes through his "Manny being Manny" act heading toward another big contract after crowbarring his way out of Boston. The infighting with rookies and veterans at odds in the clubhouse that doomed Grady Little and ended the Dodgers playoff hopes in 2007? Torre'll take care of it. The impossible Jeff Kent? Torre will placate him as well as he can.
Anything else? Torre, Torre, Torre. Four championship rings, controls the clubhouse, leads his men. Rookies? Veterans? In-season acquisitions? Lack of hitting? Lack of pitching? Injuries? Press? Naysayers? Mocking from the other coast and staggering Yankees at his

unappreciated skills? It doesn't matter. The one thing that's being proven this year is that despite his strategic ordinariness, Joe Torre handles his team and guides them through anything with the one thing that any manager has to have to be successful----he doesn't panic. Referred to as "The Godfather", Torre is the man behind the desk using his brain, experience and reputation to keep everyone in line and as a result, the Dodgers are heading for the playoffs and didn't panic when the world crumbled around them.
If anyone has ever wondered (publicly or privately) what would have happened had Torre been running the Red Sox for the years 1998-2003 instead of Jimy Williams and Grady Little, the result is on display right now in 2008 with the Dodgers. It adds to the irony that not only is Manny on his team, but so are Nomar Garciaparra and Derek Lowe. Anyone who questions the import of a manager need only look at how the Dodgers are finishing the season with the same placid, stoic personality of their manager. That's why the Dodgers are winning and a major reason why the Yankees aren't.

• Diamondbacks 3-Reds 2:

As important as this game was; as much as Brandon Lyon has been struggling as the Diamondbacks closer lately; and with the knowledge that the Dodgers were winning and another Diamondbacks loss would probably have sealed their fate, why was Brandon Webb,

their supposed horse and Cy Young Award winner yanked after throwing only 96 pitches and eight shutout innings?
This isn't being written because Lyon almost blew the game and the Diamondbacks season; nor is it being written to second-guess how decisions are being made in the Diamondbacks dugout; but after watching how the aforementioned Torre has handled his club through their various crises and how Diamondbacks manager Bob Melvin has been relying on that absurd "book" that's become so prevalent, why would he remove his ace and put such an important game in the hands of that shaky bullpen and run the risk of ending his team's season? If Webb had thrown 115 pitches, okay, but he'd thrown 96; are you telling me that he couldn't throw twenty more pitches to close the game out himself? Is he or is he not the team's best pitcher and guy who's supposed to carry them in times of distress?
Now Melvin is implying that he's considering making a change at closer and replacing Lyon with (I would assume) Chad Qualls. Melvin's quote was that he felt he'd given Lyon "enough rope"; once a manager starts thinking he has to have a certain amount of "rope" before going to his closer, then it's time to get a new closer. And Lyon shouldn't even have been in that situation to begin with because Webb should at least have started the inning and gotten yanked if and only if he got into serious trouble. Webb should've been the closer last night and the near disaster could've been averted completely.

• The promotional ads for the Colorado Rockies:

From when I got the InDemand package, I've seen a lot of promotional ads for various teams, but the most creative and entertaining belong to the Colorado Rockies. Last night was

a funny parody of The Godfather with Todd Helton playing "The Toddfather"; and there was Troy Tulowitzki having his name chanted everywhere he went as it interrupted people from doing their jobs as Tulowitzki had a satisfied and bemused look on his face. The players are actually good actors and they're great spots.

A Lesson From One Of The Best (And Most Ruthless) Executives In Sports

• Dodgers 7-Diamondbacks 0:

I'm not an advocate of rash firings unless they're warranted; nor am I in favor of someone

losing their job especially when what's occurring isn't their fault; that being said, the Arizona Diamondbacks have done everything right in trying to create a championship contender including acquisitions before and during the season; giving young prospects a chance to play; and building an overall roster that should be better than 71-69 and a half game ahead of a Dodgers team that had lost eight in a row until last weekend and can't seem to get out of their own way half the time despite splashy trades of their own. In looking at everything they've done up to this point, the Diamondbacks may have to consider taking the bold step of changing managers at this late stage of the season if they have any hope of advancing as deeply into the playoffs as they thought they would when the team was constructed.
This is not the fault of manager Bob Melvin. He generally makes the correct moves during a game and he's a likable field boss despite the criticism he receives for being too vanilla in his personality. Sometimes a change has to be made for the short term in order to achieve a goal that just isn't going to happen otherwise. The Diamondbacks may want to take a page out of

the book of one of the best and most successful executives in sports----New Jersey Devils hockey czar Lou Lamoriello.
Lamoriello operates in relative obscurity as the Devils are the second fiddle (that's being generous; it could be argued that the Devils are behind the Rangers, Islanders and Flyers in that NHL equivalent of the Bermuda Triangle of the New York metropolitan area); the negatives to that are obvious----they don't get the recognition for being as great an organization as they are; no one appreciates their three Stanley Cups; they have trouble filling their building even when they're on the way to a championship----but one of the main advantages of that obscurity is that Lamoriello can pretty much do whatever he wants and no one's going to say anything. Lamoriello treats his coaches and players as part of a machine; everyone has their value, their role and position and if they start to believe that they're too important to fit into the team structure or if something's not working, there's no vacillation; no wishy-washy hand-wringing over what to do next; Lamoriello acts sooner rather than later and doesn't look back.
Twice he's fired coaches days before the playoffs started as the team was at the top of their conference because he didn't think they were going to be able to win in the playoffs with the status quo. Once it resulted in another Stanley Cup; another time, in which Lamoriello himself took over as coach, it didn't work as they were eliminated in the second round; whether he succeeds or fails when he makes such a decision, at least he doesn't sit on his hands and worry about the public reaction when he feels the right move is to make a change. Players who want too much money or don't accept their roles are quickly dispatched; blockbuster player acquisitions occur without anyone even knowing that the Devils were involved until the last second. Everything in the organization is dedicated to one thing----winning; and they win under a budget. Lamoriello's smart and ruthless and dedicated to that one goal in his professional life----winning----which should be first and foremost with every sports executive even if in many cases, it isn't.
Of course it works to Lamoriello's advantage that he does have carte blanche with the

organization due to those three championship rings (it's a circle, he's allowed to do what he wants because he wins and he wins because he's allowed to do what he wants); and that the NHL has very little attention paid to it until the playoffs start and barely much attention then; but no matter what kind of organization he ran, I believe that Lamoriello would function in the same way----mysteriously, close to the vest, ruthlessly----and do what's best for the moment. For the Arizona Diamondbacks, they've tried everything else, perhaps it's time to set off a bomb in their clubhouse and fire the manager. Melvin is a solid guy and a pretty good manager; he was blamed unfairly for what happened when he managed the Mariners and all of Lou Piniella's and Pat Gillick's players got old at once; there would be a major uproar if they pulled the trigger on Melvin, but it's something to consider even at this late date because as things stand right now, they're well on the way to blowing a division that they should be winning easily and all of those aggressive acquisitions will be seen as a waste because they haven't worked. It may be time to do something drastic and as Lamoriello has proven, firing the head coach/manager is about as drastic as it gets, and it might even work.

• Phillies 3-Mets 0:

When Brett Myers was struggling earlier in the season and wound up back in the minor leagues to get both his arm and his head straight, it was thought that Myers had either never

completely gotten his head and body out of the rush of closing; that he was overworked last season after being thrust into that unfamiliar role; and that he needed to rediscover his fastball and get his confidence back. It's clear that Myers's problem earlier in the season, whatever it was, is gone because he was confident and determined in the dominating performance against the Mets last night and, most importantly, he had his fastball back.
Whatever the cause, Myers's fastball was short that critical few inches to make his wicked curveball effective. A devastating curveball isn't as much of a challenge for the hitters if all they have to worry about is an 88 mph fastball, which is what Myers was throwing early in the season. Last night, he was popping 93-94 which puts the hitter in the position of gearing up for the fastball and adjusting to the curve rather than waiting for the curve and knowing he's going to be able to catch up to that average fastball. I'm sure Myers still misses the rush that comes from being the closer and having every game and everyone's hopes pinned on his shoulders, but after last night and the way he's pitched since returning from the minors, he's not letting that stop him from pitching as well as he did last

night in a game the Phillies had to win.

• Reds 10-Cubs 2:

I quit gambling, but if I had one bet to make today, I'd wager a chunk of money that Cubs manager Lou Piniella is a likely candidate to get ejected and go on a base-throwing, red-faced, Lou-natic-asylum level tirade tonight in Cincinnati. His team needs to be woken up and snapped out of this malaise; flipping out and getting ejected (sometimes for no reason) is Piniella's thing. It's worked before.

• Mariners 3-Yankees 1:

As Tim Lincecum has overcome his doubters (due to his size, quirky mechanics and "stage-father") to become an All Star, there have been questions as to what the Mariners were thinking in drafting Brandon Morrow five spots ahead of Lincecum especially since

Lincecum is from Washington and pitched at Washington State. After watching Morrow handcuff the Yankees last night as he begins his transformation from the bullpen to the starting rotation, I have to say that even with the hindsight of the past two years, I'd still take Morrow over Lincecum. Morrow's fastball was in the upper 90s, his motion is clean and he just looks like he's going to be more durable over the long term than Lincecum.
The argument to ignore "tools" over performance isn't to be completely ignored, but the jury, to me, is still out on Lincecum. Listed at 5'11", he's about two or three inches shorter and that motion and his specially-designed exercises will

only be borne out in the even greater hindsight of five or six years from now; Morrow, 6'3", simply appears like he'll be able to handle a heavier workload and his fastball matches that of Lincecum. There's been righteous indignation as Lincecum has risen to All Star, Cy Young Award contender and cult hero to the undersized, but Morrow was a safer pick and if I had to choose between the two even now, I'd still take Morrow; the Mariners shouldn't be faulted for a scouting decision that took everything----size, mechanics, projectable future----into account because the final results remain to be seen.

Dunn Traded To Diamondbacks; Sheffield's Mouth Roars Again

• Reds trade Adam Dunn to the Diamondbacks for three minor leaguers:

Critics can say what they want about Adam Dunn for what he isn't, but that shouldn't detract from what he is. Dunn is said not to hit in the clutch, but his numbers in the clutch

aren't that far off from what they are in other situations; they say he strikes out too much, but he also walks nearly as many times as he strikes out; they say he's a bad outfielder, but he's got a great arm and he's better out there than he's given credit for.
Dunn hits lefties well-enough to not be a platoon player. That he has such bad numbers with two outs and runners in scoring position can be accouted for by his increased on base percentage in those situations----teams don't want to pitch to him under those circumstances; he sees fewer pitches to hit; and the ones he swings at aren't good pitches, so he doesn't get hits on anything other than mistakes. The guy is a useful player who's capable of hitting ten homers in a week if he gets hot, and that's what the Diamondbacks need----a guy that can singlehandedly produce some runs. They won't do it, but I'd bat him leadoff; let him get up there to start the game, either homer, walk or strikeout and move on from there.
The Diamondbacks gave up three minor leaguers to the Reds to get him and two are to be

named later; one, Dallas Buck, doesn't have overwhelming minor league numbers in Single A. The thing about the Diamondbacks that would concern me is not only that they're gutting their farm system to get these veteran players like Dan Haren, Jon Rauch and Dunn, but that their results haven't been there no matter what they've done and even in retrospect four or five years from now, it's going to be very difficult to quibble with the deals that they've made for veteran help.
Early in the year, they looked like they were going to run away and hide in the NL West, but haven't been able to get any traction since even with the best 1-2 punch in baseball with Brandon Webb and Haren; one would think that since Randy Johnson

has been enjoying a renaissance lately that they would've gone on a hot streak, but they haven't. Are they missing Eric Byrnes that much that they can't win consistently without him?
Discounting their record, they have enough firepower in the offense even without Dunn or Byrnes to score enough runs for that pitching staff to work with. The back end of their rotation isn't great, but neither is anyone else's; Brandon Lyon isn't an ideal closer, but they have two other options in Rauch and Chad Qualls if it gets to the point that they have to try someone else. Their problem is hard to pinpoint and there's been speculation that perhaps manager Bob Melvin is it, but he won Manager of the

Year last year and went to the NLCS with a very young team for whom everything broke right. Maybe the absence of Byrnes, with his fiery temper and kamikaze attitude is what's missing. Changing the manager to someone who's going to start flipping over food spreads probably isn't going to do any good now.
If I were the Diamondbacks, my greatest concern would be that they haven't been able to take control of the division despite it's weakness; that they're letting the Dodgers hang around, get healthy, make bigger acquisitions in Manny Ramirez and Casey Blake and use Joe Torre's experience and reputation as a manager whose teams enjoy late season surges to stay within striking distance of first place. As things wind down, Torre isn't going to make the same mistake as Padres manager Bud Black did last season in using Jake Peavy to start on short rest because of his success against the Diamondbacks and make them angry enough to provide a fuse for an explosion; Byrnes was there with the match last September and whipped the entire team into a frenzy at the sheer audacity of the slight; now, without him, it looks like the team is taking on the personality of their laid back manager, and if that's the case, they're going to have to motivate themselves which, thus far, they've failed to do. They're running out of player moves that they can make; it's time to wake up and win some games.

• Gary Sheffield says something stupid? Gary Sheffield?!?

I've defended Gary Sheffield in the past because I truly believe that front office people have

used Sheffield's reputation as a loose cannon to lie to him and try to make him look foolish with some of his off-the-wall statements, but now that he's playing for a manager in Jim Leyland who has done nothing but defend him as a great player and a good guy, one has to question how much Sheffield thinks before he says some of the things he says.
Sheffield is complaining about his perceived role as a platoon player and that he doesn't feel comfortable DH-ing full time----ESPN Story. Leyland and Tigers GM Dave Dombrowski appear puzzled by the allegations; Dombrowski probably halfway expected some kind of Sheffield blowup when he acquired him no matter how much money he was paid or how well he was treated; but

Leyland values reciprocal honesty and loyalty above all with his players and is probably more offended than anything else at Sheffield's rant. For a guy who has defended Sheffield since he first managed him with the Marlins in 1997, Leyland must see this as borderline spitting in his face.
It can't come as a shock to those who have watched Gary Sheffield----a Hall of Fame player who's playing on his seventh team partially because of his mouth----as he begins the process of a divorce from another organization; but as his skills decline and his injuries mount, one has to wonder who's going to take a chance on Sheffield if the Tigers try to dump him, as they most certainly will, after the season. Because he'll still be able to hit and hit for power if he's healthy, he'll be able to play for someone who needs a right-handed bat prone to hot streaks in which no one can get him out; but Sheffield isn't likely to accept a reduced role or that the new team isn't going to

give him a new, long-term contract; or he may agree to accept it, as he did with the Tigers and change his mind or conveniently forget about it when the issue starts nagging away at him and the seed is placed into his perception that the agreement is somehow unfair. It may be that Gary Sheffield just sees things through a prism that only he and his surrounding enablers see as reality and, even as he ages and his career comes to a close, that's never going to change no matter whom he's playing for and how much they defend him.
Just as "Manny being Manny" has become part of the baseball lexicon and was seen as a term of endearment for Manny Ramirez until "Manny being Manny" became too much of a case of diminishing returns for the Red Sox to keep him around, teammates, managers and GMs held a similar view of Gary Sheffield with the lesser known appellation of "Sheff being Sheff" with the same head shake and shrug, it's possible that he too is going to wear out his welcome in another venue; but his production isn't going to make it worthwhile for the majority of teams to put up with "Sheff being Sheff" as he turns 40; then maybe he'll realize his mistake. He'll never admit it, but he'll know that he probably alienated some people who truly had his interests in mind and the giant chip he carries on his shoulder is becoming heavier and heavier by the day; too heavy for a player at his age and with the wear on his body to lug somewhere else and get away with it.

The "Boost" From A Managerial Change

• Is it the new manager or is it the stability?

The Mets have played and looked much better and more relaxed under Jerry Manuel than

they did under Willie Randolph since at least the middle of last season and Manuel is going to receive credit for that with his different take on running his ballclub, but is that fair? Is the improvement a function of the new manager or is it that the players wanted some finality and an end to answering the non-stop questions about the manager's job security if they lose one or two games?
There have been many cases where a team just wanted a manager out of their sight because they couldn't stand him and subsequently went on a tear. It happened twice with former Astros and Blue Jays manager Jimy Williams; with the Marlins when they dumped Jeff Torborg; and with the Red Sox when they fired John McNamara. While it's easy to give credit to the successors----Cito Gaston and Phil Garner replacing Williams;

Jack McKeon replacing Torborg; and Joe Morgan (the veteran New Englander, not the inept broadcaster) in replacing McNamara----it's not that easy to automatically think that the new manager was the reason things turned around.
The perception of playing for a manager's job on a nightly basis can't be easy. Most managerial changes don't just come out of the blue; there's usually a series of leaks to the newspapers mentioning that it's possible (sometimes that's done to gauge the temperature of the situation, the fans and the players and see how they're going to react); many times management wants to get a feel as to whether or not the change is actually going to do any good on the field.
Amid all of that, even the Mets players who didn't particularly like Randolph or pitching coach Rick Peterson and wouldn't have minded them being gone don't want to be seen as responsible for getting the manager and pitching coach fired. It wasn't necessarily that the

players had simply stopped performing for Randolph on purpose, but it can't be easy for a reliever to come jogging in from the bullpen with runners on base and a one-run lead and all the factors he has to worry about in that situation to be thinking that if he doesn't do the job, he's getting someone fired as well. It gets to a point where even the wins are tinged with the repeated questions about the status of the manager; once the idea of a change is in the air, it's going to be there and fall on the players until the matter is resolved.
There's no question that Randolph had lost his effectiveness as a manager, and if the team turns things around Manuel is going to get the credit, but it might have little to do with what he does as the manager and more to do with the players not having to worry about every loss possibly resulting in the manager getting fired.

• Brewers 7-Orioles 3:

The Brewers turnaround has a great deal to do with Prince Fielder finally hitting some home runs, but it also has a lot to do with Salomon Torres taking over as the closer and not coughing up the games as Eric Gagne was. Russell Branyan has provided a big boost as well, but he's only been back in the big leagues for three weeks; time will tell whether this is

just an opportune hot streak for a veteran professional player or if he's found his niche in Milwaukee. If I had to guess, I'd say Branyan's going to come back to earth sooner rather than later.
The Brewers took a reasonable chance on Gagne last winter signing him to a one-year deal hoping that a return to the National League would revert the pitcher into what he was with the Dodgers and with the Rangers early last season. Instead, they got the pitcher who imploded for the Red Sox on a nightly basis. They turned to the quirky veteran Torres out of desperation more than anything else and, in a prime example of how finding a successful closer is a flip of the coin, Torres has been excellent. For a guy who was a closer off-and-on for the past few seasons and lost the job as a member of the woeful Pirates last year and also had some bizarre incidents in his career (walking away from the game for five years, etc.), Torres might be remembered as the man who saved the Brewers from 78-win season and a major restructuring. The Brewers are still within striking distance of the NL Central and right in the middle of the Wild Card race. If they hit as they're capable, Ben Sheets stays healthy and Torres continues to perform as he has, they could hang around in both races for the duration and that's a far cry from scanning the want-ads for a closer who wouldn't blow games they should be winning.

• Twins 5-Diamondbacks 3:

The expectations for the Diamondbacks were at least as high as that of the Mets this season, but they find themselves with an almost identical record and saved by the unexpected wasteland that the NL West has become. With a starting rotation fronted by two

legitimate aces; a deep and diverse bullpen; and a lineup that, despite it's youth, should be a force, the Diamondbacks find themselves at 39-37 and stumbling along despite hanging onto first place.
Brandon Webb has been getting raked around so regularly that I would be concerned about the pitcher's health; granted it would've been impossible for him to continue pitching shutouts every night, but he's gotten knocked around in three of his last five starts; it could be a mid-season slump, but it's not something to ignore out of hand. Their rotation, which was supposed to be a strength, is looking short. Dan Haren has been everything advertised, but Micah Owings got off to a great start and has been pretty much terrible since late April; Randy Johnson has been more bad than good; and Doug Davis, for all the courage he's shown in coming back from thyroid cancer, is a back of the rotation starter who can't be counted on to pick up for the top of the rotation.
Out of the Moneyball school, Josh Byrnes is probably the closest GM to Billy Beane in

terms of temperament, playing his cards close to the vest and making decisive moves. Even though they're in first place, this could mean one of two things: 1) Bob Melvin might be in trouble if they continue sleepwalking; or 2) a big trade is going to be made to shake things up. I don't think Melvin deserves to be fired (for what that's worth), so I would think that Byrnes is scouring the trade market and other teams in need to make a quick and decisive strike to loosen the cobwebs.

• Tigers 5-Padres 3:

I'm aware of the payroll disparity between the Padres and the Mariners and why the Mariners are a laughingstock because they look like they're going to lose 100 games after being a trendy pick to win the AL West, but the Padres expectations were higher in many

circles than the Mariners; the payroll shouldn't factor in if the Padres were taking credit for being smart and frugal while being almost as bad. No one seems to be flogging the Padres with a similar enthusiasm as they are the Mariners. There's even talk of the Padres crawling back into the race for the division. They're not crawling into any race; the race is tumbling to them and it's not going to last. The Dodgers and Diamondbacks are going to right their ships enough to bury the Padres, but will anyone notice, or will they continue to protect the "smart" Padres management team, which may not be all that smart after all?