September 20, 2004
Point – La Russa’s Coaching Strategy Questionable
By Pete Khazen
Congratulations are due to Tony La Russa and the St. Louis Cardinals. They clinched the NL Central Division Championship this weekend, running away with the title. Many fans have been saying that La Russa deserves the Coach of the Year title. Rarely have fans been so supportive of the Cardinal skipper. But with a line-up that some critics are calling one of the best ever and a consistent pitching staff, is La Russa going to be the fall guy if this team falters and doesn’t win it all?
Although it is not quite over, the Cardinals have played a dream season that nobody predicted. They sputtered out of the gates at 23-22, but hit their stride on an impressive romp through the next 91 games at a 69-22 clip.
However, it is safe to say that things have cooled down. They are not currently playing their best baseball as the season winds down. They lost three consecutive series before facing the Diamondbacks this weekend. The Cards dropped two road series to San Diego and Los Angeles. They then returned home to drop two of three to Houston before the series against Arizona. Though they were lucky enough to miss Randy Johnson, they still only took two of three games. They had an opportunity at Busch Stadium to shrink the Magic Number to zero in front of their faithful fans, but fell to the D-Backs 3-2, leaving that Magic Number at one. Instead they’ll hunt for champagne on the road. Does a 5-7 stretch involving three consecutive series losses to playoff contending teams and a lack of drive to clinch at home have fans concerned?
The argument can be made that La Russa has finally adopted a conservative approach to the games in recent weeks. He knew that the team had plenty of breathing room and started giving players days off to rest, which also opened opportunities for bench players to compete for playoff roster spots. The likes of John Mabry, Hector Luna, and Cody McKay have been getting plenty of reps while the fielding blunders have been piling up. Interestingly enough, this strategy is different from how La Russa was managing earlier in the year when he maintained a “win at all cost” attitude. Why the change now? Is it the strategy of a mastermind at work preparing his team for the playoffs?
The Cardinals are coasting behind La Russa into October while the remaining playoff contending teams are playing highly competitive baseball games down the stretch. Most teams will be on a high carrying momentum into the playoffs, while the Cardinals figure to take it easy and hope to return to their dominant ways. But La Russa is managing like the team can just flip a switch and return to that winning, confident level of play. His coaching tactics seem to be messing with the team chemistry and the everyday routine the players have employed the whole season. Is he setting this team up for a collapse similar to the likes of the 2001 Seattle Mariners?
Flipping that switch is not easy, particularly when the nagging, performance-impacting injuries begin to pile up. Most concerning could be the most recent injury, Chris Carpenter’s bicep strain. Just how serious is this injury to the team ace? Will he be able to pitch down the stretch or in the playoffs? As time to prepare for the playoffs and build momentum dwindles away more questions are coming to surface than are answers.
Will Steve Kline be able return to his mid-season dominance after a stint on the DL? Or will he look more like he did the first few weeks of the season? Will Scott Rolen, whose production was already fading, be able to come back to MVP form? Or will the knee and calf injuries get worse as the cold weather settles in this October? Will Jeff Suppan figure out his control issues before those walks become amplified in the playoffs? Will the skipper roll the dice and give away a premium playoff roster spot to a seemingly deserving Rick Ankiel?
Time will tell if La Russa is deserving of Coach of the Year honors. Though the honor should be decided solely on regular season performance, how this team performs in the post-season will be indicative of how La Russa coached them down the stretch. If this team doesn’t return to its dominance, no one deserves the blame more than La Russa. I’m sure that Cardinal fans will give La Russa an earful just as quickly as they’ll rescind their lobbies for the Coach of the Year honor.
September 20, 2004
Counterpoint – La Russa’s Playoff Managing, Not Coaching
By Brian Walton
Counterpoint to Pete Khazen’s article, “La Russa’s Coaching Strategy Questionable”
As a Cubs fan, Pete is to be excused for calling the yearly award “Coach of the Year”, instead of its proper title, “Manager of the Year”. After all, with the many misfortunes the Wrigley faithful have endured this season, coaching each other through disappointment has become a regular Cubbie pastime.
Or, perhaps, Pete is already getting into the football mindset and has moved on to thinking about the Bears’ season. Now, that’s a good idea.
In addition, his unfamiliarity with the award itself is most understandable. After all, the last Cubs’ manager to win National League Manager of the Year was Don Zimmer back in 1989. Before that, it was the “great” Jim Frey in 1984. Not exactly a golden era in Cubs history. But then, none of our parents were yet born during that last golden era.
Anyway, before I digress into Dusty Baker bashing, which is far too easy and has already been done before, let’s take the high ground and focus on the issue at hand.
Tony La Russa is a four-time Manager of the Year winner, having earned the honor most recently in 2002. He clearly deserves to win it again in 2004. Although, had Phil Garner been in the Houston driver’s seat all season, he would be worthy of serious consideration, also.
As I write this, the St. Louis Cardinals have earned the best record in baseball while steamrolling to 97 wins through September 19. They have clinched their division and as a result, have pretty much accomplished every regular season goal they could. Really, the only tangible benefit remaining on the table is to secure home team advantage for the NLCS and NLDS. That also looks to be a lock with a nine-game lead in that category with 14 games to go.
Still, it is fair to note that given the balance that exists in Major League Baseball today, breaks have to fall the right way for any team to win 100 games over the course of a six-month marathon. The Cardinals have been the beneficiary of general good player health, something that has eluded key division rivals Houston and Chicago.
The Cardinals’ 2004 steamroller season has exceeded everyone’s expectations. As a result, critics such as Pete Khazen have had to work very hard and dig very deep to come up with points of criticism. Still, even when totaled together, they seem to lack any real substance.
However, some of the questions Pete asked were worthy of clarification. So, here are nine 2004 Cardinal playoff considerations. They are listed in my order of priority. Note that La Russa is at the bottom of the list and his alleged “messing with team chemistry” is nowhere to be found.
1) Scott Rolen’s health. The recent knee/shin/calf problem that has caused Rolen to miss over a week of play has to be first and foremost in the list of concerns in the minds of the Cardinal nation. After all, many remember Arizona’s Alex Cintron’s slide into Rolen and his subsequent shoulder injury during 2002’s NLDS Game 2. Without Rolen, the Cardinals floundered. While there is even more firepower around him in 2004, does anyone doubt that losing Rolen would be a tremendous blow?
2) Albert Pujols’ health. At various times, Pujols’ plantar fasciitis seems to cause him more trouble than others. However, Albert is even more tight-lipped than Rolen. So, we don’t really know how much he is hurting. All we can do is gauge his limping and hope he can keep plugging along. Off-season surgery on his foot remains a definite possibility. Would Pujols’ loss before then be any less devastating than Rolen’s? Let’s hope we can avoid this subject completely.
3) Starting pitching health. The Cards’ starting five has been about as injury-free as any quintuplets in the majors this season. However, coming off two major shoulder surgeries, Chris Carpenter’s minor maladies, first back spasms and now a biceps strain, are concerning. While no one will admit if Matt Morris is hiding arm problems as some suspect, there is no debate that his inconsistency has been frustrating. Let’s just hope that Duncan and La Russa will use him where he has the best chance of success – home games at night.
4) Relief pitching health. Steve Kline is still on target to return for the final week of the season from his groin injury. Julian Tavarez had to leave last Thursday’s game with a minor left leg injury and hasn’t pitched since. Cal Eldred and Ray King remain strong. All four are needed at full strength for the playoff run.
5) Edgar Renteria’s mindset. Whether he is batting second, sixth or even fourth is not the issue. Edgar is in a deep slump, hitting just .145 this month on eight hits, all singles. Even after all he has accomplished, Renteria’s importance to the Cardinal offense may be underestimated. It is worthy to note that the last time he went into a funk like this was when there were trade rumors about him at midseason several years ago. But, whether it is concern about his impending free agency or something else, Edgar needs to get it out of his head and heat up in October for this team to be running smoothly.
6) Larry Walker’s health. The newest Cardinal star is 37 years old and more susceptible to injury at this point in his long career. So, it is no wonder that the team’s fans held their breath when Walker aggravated his knee and missed almost a week at the beginning of the month. Still, as with Rolen now and Pujols earlier, perhaps the enforced rest was good for the long run.
7) September record. So what if the team is 10-7 in September? La Russa’s strategy to provide selective rest to key members of his team makes all the sense in the world to me. I have already documented the changes in bullpen usage this month, as the top tier of available relievers, Eldred, King and Tavarez, have seen less work in favor of guys who will not be on the playoff roster such as Randy Flores, Al Reyes and Carmen Cali.
8) The bench. Getting playing time for valuable reserves like John Mabry and Hector Luna can only help, not hurt. I’m not sure where Pete is going when he mentions Cody McKay, since he has only five at-bats this month. Granted, Marlon Anderson, Roger Cedeno and Ray Lankford aren’t adding much. However, just like most any team, having to get deep into the bench during the playoffs is a very, very bad sign.
9) Tony La Russa. If La Russa’s squad comes up short in the postseason, he will take a significant share of the blame. That goes with the territory. Every manager’s moves become magnified in the playoffs, simply because of the stakes involved. If you can find him, just ask Grady Little about that.
La Russa is not relieving the pressure on the team. On Sunday, even though the tiebreaker calculations awarded his team the NL Central crown, La Russa refused to acknowledge it. Whatever champagne celebration the team has will be on the road in Milwaukee and as a result, will be low-key. They know their job is far from done.
Clearly La Russa has personal motivation, too. With all his awards and honors, La Russa’s teams have taken away just one World Series trophy. In fact, in the history of the game, no manager has won as many games as La Russa, yet as few World Series. Don’t you think La Russa is well aware of that? He’s proven that he can win the marathons, but with apologies to Greg Maddux, La Russa knows that chicks dig sprinters. And, it's almost time again for the sprint that matters most.
In Closing
Every team has concerns, and most every one’s list is longer and with more serious questions than are posed in my list of nine above.
Yet, anything can happen in the playoffs. That is what makes it so exciting. (As an aside, I remain strongly in favor of MLB changing its rules to strengthen home field advantage to give more games to the better-record team, but that is a subject for another column.) Only time will tell if the 2004 St. Louis Cardinals will ride their regular season success into a victory parade in late October or instead will join the 2001 Mariners on the list of regular season studs and post-season duds. But, I sure like their chances of having the big party.
One thing I do know, is that there isn’t a single sane Cubs fan in the entire world that wouldn’t gladly trade places with the Cardinals. With a reasonable chance that they will be home watching the playoffs, the Cubs faithful may soon have even more time on their hands to try to spread their gloom and doom to others.
