Former Cleveland president Gabe Paul once jokingly said that “the manager really gets paid for how much he suffers.”
If so, Tony La Rusa deserves a raise.
No one has suffered as much as Chicago White Sox manager, who is still talked about baseball on the Friday after the “walk.”
Ever since Kevin Cash lifted starter Blake Snell into Game 6 of the 2020 World Series, a strategic move has generated so much disregard.
By ordering left-hander Bennett Souza to deliberately give a walk to the Los Angeles Dodgers striker Trea Turner with a 1-2 count and open first base in the sixth inning on Thursday, La Rusa inadvertently opened the door to a world of pain.
When Max Munsey followed a three-run home run, the second most profitable manager in history knew the decision would be called into question. However, La Russa kept the position after the match that he was completely surprised by the interrogation, which made the moment exponentially worse.
It was a deliberate walk heard around the world of baseball, in which a 77-year-old manager made an unprotected move, then defended himself, trying to protect him. If it was just the usual Sox crowd on Twitter behind him, La Rusa could probably dismiss it as another bump in the road to his widely publicized return after leaving the dugout in 2011.
From the incident with Yermin Mercedes last season to the deliberate walk on Thursday at 1-2, La Russa has been involved in several crazy episodes, but all survived. Teflon Tony was real.
But virtually no one agreed with La Rusa, leaving him on an island. Even Fox News called him “embarrassing” and mentioned a Sox fan who shouted “He’s got two punches, Tony!”
NBC Sports Chicago analyst Ozzy Gyllen told WSCR-AM 670 The Mully and Haugh Show that he was “shocked” by the move. MLB Network showed that 42.8% of strikers with a score of 1-2 strike out, and former major league player Cameron Maybin mentioned other decisions of La Rusa, which scratch his head.
No one was deluded that La Russa would not survive. President Jerry Reinsdorf is a loyal friend. The case is closed. But that gave La Russa’s already large legion of skeptics another reason to call for change.
This move has already reached the top of the charts in “La Russa Top 40”, surpassing “YermínGate”, the dispute for Homer on the ground 3-0 in the defeat. Falling down the charts, La Rusa left Liam Hendrix as a ghost runner last season without knowing the rule, and lured left-hander Tanner Banks to face New York Yankees’ right-hand man Giancarlo Stanton last month.
Unless another manager requests a deliberate walk on the 1-2 pitch, La Russa will have the category to himself for the rest of the time. Imagine this.
One decision in one game is not the end of the world. The Sox entered Friday’s game against the Texas Rangers, knowing starter Lance Lynn would be back soon, and Tim Anderson was not far behind. And La Rusa is not the first manager to make some crazy moves.
Former Cubs manager Don Zimmer, who was loved in Chicago for disregarding common wisdom in the summer of 1989, said this season that he has never worried about the reaction of fans or the media, as long as there is a good explanation for everything. from him a decision.
La Russa also had an explanation: a match on the left – Souza vs. Muncie – had a better chance of succeeding than Souza vs. Turner, even with two strokes. La Russa challenged an MLB.com author by asking if he knew Turner and Muncie’s numbers.
As the MLB Network chart showed, Turner averaged 0.254 for a 1-2 career and an average of 0.378 this season, with a strikeout rate of 31.4%. Muncie scored 0.116 against lefties this season (and was 0.125 before the bat, one of the biggest in the big category). During Muncie’s career, MLB Network pointed out that he has a much more respectable average of 0.252 against leftists.
A statistic ignored by both MLB Network and La Russa belonged to 27-year-old Souza. The leftists hit .364 from Sousa, who has an 8.20 ERA. Being a leftist does not mean that he has been successful against leftists.
No matter. The case is done. Now is the time to watch the consequences.
General manager Rick Hahn did not fire La Russa on Thursday night while everyone slept, despite requests from Sox fans on Twitter. Khan, who did not personally choose La Rusa, accidentally discussed this week how he reacts when bad things happen to the Sox.
“I throw (things),” he said. “I went a lot. I leave the house when I’m not with the team. In fact, here (in the field with guaranteed speed) I go a lot in the tunnels. My wife accuses me of behaving like Jerry West in Winning Time, which I think is (abusive). I don’t behave like that. I think it’s slander, obviously West and I.
Khan is not the first GM of the Sox to wander and gather his thoughts when things turn out badly. When Executive Vice President Ken Williams was CEO in 2002, he went for a long walk around Edison Field during the 19-0 loss to Anaheim Angels, the worst defeat in the team’s history.
At the very least, Sox GM has traditionally intervened during times of stress.
So what’s next for the Sox? Time to hear?
Cubs president Jed Hoyer is talking about adding a new June, before a series of 11 losses led to the biggest sell-off in the team’s history. Khan said he did not expect to be in “sale mode” in the trading deadline.
“I really don’t expect to sit here in six weeks and eat those words,” he said.
The Sox invented the White Flag Trade in 1997. Don’t expect the same on the 25th anniversary this July.
But at least six weeks should be interesting for the Sox and for La Rusa, who seems to be living, according to Gene Mouch.
“I’m not a manager because I’m always right,” Mauch once said. “But I’m always right because I’m a manager.”
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