did i mention i hate don mattingly before?

[Neddy]

i have been calling for his head for the last few years, and yesterday's managing atrocities yet again strengthened my thoughts on this guy. even before the game, i thought he made 3 mistakes already as a manager, and they are

#1. cards lineup have been hitting .280 BA and .755 OPS against the righties all season, with post season also showing them hitting better against righties than lefties. they however, have been hitting .238 and .672 against lefties all season, and dismal .174 and .451 in playoffs.
so, what does our donny do? have only 1 lefty in our bullpen for NLCS roster from having 3 in divisional series. i understand that paco appears to have lost his confidence, but capuano was doing just fine, and could have used him yesterday when we were burning up short relievers all the way through the end of 13th inning.

#2. lineup card... mark ellis has been pretty poor against righties all season, hell all of his career. don decided to play ethier to start, why not plug in what has worked all season and play puig as leadoff, crawford as #2, and after hanley and agon, play ethier followed by uribe and two ellis's? no don chose to play mark as our #2, whom sees most at bat next to the lead off and probable spot to see the most at bat with runners on base when mark has been hitting a whopping .100 points less all season against righties vs lefties at .644.

#3. start ethier if you want to, but why at CF? we all know ether's problem is running, so why have him cover the most grounds after taking a month off? crawford has better speed but with less arm, and puig tops them all in range/speed/arms in all of our outfield that are available at this point. of course ethier botched that flyball at the fence in 3rd inning to allow cards to tie the game.

now to the real problem.
don mattingly's in game managing during game 1 that costed us... where do i start......

#1. of course, the pinch running sub of gordon for agon. 2-2 game, only 8th, why take out our cleanup guy? taking him out not only did not work out at 8th with gordon getting out at 2nd with fielder's choice but that move immediately killed all rest at bats for hanley. why even sub in gordon when yadier molina is their catcher? did he really think there was a chance for a stolen base when gordon even choking in the same situation against mccann in the divisional series, but somehow find a way to make wrongs right against molina?

#2 okay, now you have taken out agon out of the lineup, and we have SVS on the bench to play the first and provide power and protection for hanley, and donny subs in....... michael young? what happened afterwards is self explanatory. young took out the at bats for hanley for the rest of the game and michael gave us in his 2 at bats, a GIDP and a shallow flyout that wasn't deep enough, while stranding 4 runners........

#3 why not have kenley start the 13th inning fresh if you are willing to have him come in with 1 out and 2 on base? either jensen is our closer that donny felt to keep available until we had a lead to win the game, or have him start an inning if donny is willing to use him to hold the tie. jensen has been better with his whip and era when asked to hold an inning, than close statistically this year, so what is the problem here?

#4 why have ethier out there until 13th inning if he was gonna eventually come out of the game for a defensive sub of.... SVS at center? that brings me to the next point...

#5 having skip shoemaker, a clear choice of a defensive substitution in case the game went beyond the duration of what ethier can provide at his first game back from a month long injury, to pinch hit instead of SVS who is clearly the better choice for a pinch hitter and a piss poor choice of a defensive sub at the center...

even if we win the WS, i do not wish to see donny softballs back as our skipper for the 2014... promote trey hillman, promote tim wallach who actually deserved the job far more than donny in the first place, or even hire a retread like ken macha. hell, make a trade and bring in mike scioscia from the angels even if he is an anti-saber manager. i would much, much rather have anti saber head like mike C than an idiot like donny to manage us anymore.

[Kilroy]

I'm with you... Feels like Mattingly is over-managing this... Team seems to have lost all rhythm.

Seems like he's over-thinking it and getting cute, when he should just let the team that got him here play ball.

[Quake Griffin]

so on point with every point you have made in this thread.

i thought management would bring him back after we beat Atlanta.
but I'm pretty sure if we get embarrassed by the Cards, we wont have him back.

but you are so on point...and every point you have made is one that has pissed me off before the game or during.
except the Puig lead off stuff...I never thought of that one.

[Neddy]

cool, looks like every member of this forum has chimed in on this... lol

I'm pretty sure i have read somewhere that donny is most likely be back next season, now that he made at least to the NLCS. I am tell you guys, i don't care how much some players love this guy, he will cost us the prime of many stars on our roster a chance at championship. he is inept at best in in-game managing abilities. god i miss tommy...

man i am so pumped up now that ryu just struck out the 3rd out to finish the top of the first. i think ryu is out to prove that his first PO game was a fluke and the nerves of his first MLB post season game. he is looking sharp!

now come on carl! let's go dodgers!!!

PS- Im sorry that i am diverting the intend of my own thread, but as usual we have no game threads.....

[Quake Griffin]

http://baseball.realgm.com/src_wiretap_ ... s_in_2014/

u can only hope that we lose 15-1 today.
he will be fired then.

[Neddy]

dude why would you wish for us to lose in an elimination game, now that we won game 5, i am pumped up for clayton kerfax to shut them out in game 6 and force game 7 showdown!

with or without a blowout, don had his team option secured the moment we made through the divisional series. i highly doubt he will be getting his 4 year extension he wanted, it should just be his 1 year option getting picked up thus we will be right back here next year for his dismissal if dodgers underperform.

if and only if, the dodgers do underperform, i hope Ned goes with donny softballs. from jason schmidt to brandon league, this guy has been a disaster as a GM. a clueless moron who once signed andruw jones by his clear papers overlapping comparison, with each ballpark outlines to claim that andruw would have hit 30 HRs in dodger stadium with all of his flyouts in georgia without a shred of understanding of altitude and air current, and other factors that goes into a flyball's trajectory.

[Quake Griffin]

dude why would you wish for us to lose in an elimination game, now that we won game 5, i am pumped up for clayton kerfax to shut them out in game 6 and force game 7 showdown!

with or without a blowout, don had his team option secured the moment we made through the divisional series. i highly doubt he will be getting his 4 year extension he wanted, it should just be his 1 year option getting picked up thus we will be right back here next year for his dismissal if dodgers underperform.

if and only if, the dodgers do underperform, i hope Ned goes with donny softballs. from jason schmidt to brandon league, this guy has been a disaster as a GM. a clueless moron who once signed andruw jones by his clear papers overlapping comparison, with each ballpark outlines to claim that andruw would have hit 30 HRs in dodger stadium with all of his flyouts in georgia without a shred of understanding of altitude and air current, and other factors that goes into a flyball's trajectory.

u checkin the general discussion board?

im not hoping we lose...just saying like...if God or the flying spaghetti monster told you we would lose today....you kinda hope it would be in pispoor fashion. It would be the only way to get him out of there. Kind of like, in hindsight, it's a good thing the Clips lost in the 1st round because Vinny would have kept his job if we got further.

we're back i this and I'm not giving up until it's over.
he wouldn't be the first idiot manager to make it to the WS or win one.


btw...i told you that I like Ned. He's okay in my book. Call me crazy...but with the new regime and our scouting department beefed up, I think he's going to make more hits than misses from here on out.
i know you love Logan White...but they seem to be working just fine for me.

if we get Alexander Guerrero for cheap instead of chasing Cano...another victory for our franchise.

[Kilroy]

Don't hate Donnie enough to want us to get blown out so he gets fired...

I see him as an average manager who's been blessed with an embarrassment of riches, and is trying to do too much with them... He just needs to be a little more hands off, and I think our talent will find a way to win.

[Neddy]

just checked and left a reply in general board.

looks like we are gonna be without hanley to start the game 6, hopefully donnie will have him as our #1 pinch hitter tonight instead of michael young.

[Quake Griffin]

this game is brutal.

dunno how to feel bros.
let's work on getting Guerrero at 2nd base, maintaining our depth and beefing up the pen....oh and getting Kemp healthy (or even dealing him and ethier.

since I'm 99.9% sure we're bringing Donnie back.

[Neddy]

mattingly just announced he has doubts about returning to the dodgers because he did not appreciate managing in his last year of the contract. i am pretty sure this is nothing but a bargaining move for a multi year deal, but if he is sincere, this is the best news i have heard this week for sure!

and yeah we got guerrero too.

[Kilroy]

Nice... A few more acquisitions like that and we won't even need a manager.

[Quake Griffin]

mattingly just announced he has doubts about returning to the dodgers because he did not appreciate managing in his last year of the contract. i am pretty sure this is nothing but a bargaining move for a multi year deal, but if he is sincere, this is the best news i have heard this week for sure!

and yeah we got guerrero too.

if the organization calls his bluff and doesn't extend him.

who do you want?

[Neddy]

anybody but mattingly.


if we go low-budget and/or another rookie manager, i would like to see our FO promote tim wallach from within, he paid his due and can't do any worse than donnie. but i would say the front office would probably prefer a manager who has been there before.

the experienced ones, the FO would prefer, are

tony la russa - has been spotted in dodger related events lately, seems to have a good relationship with kershaw already. but everybody in baseball knows he is a big jerk and doesn't get along with strong personalities, which our team does have in plenty of. not my personal favorite, but still miles and miles better than donnie.

dusty baker - true old school manager in national league fashion, a former dodger who won the 81 WS in dodger blue, a vet players' manager whom donnie is imitating to be, basically a successful version of donnie. still don't like him but better than donnie.

jim leyland - love this guy among the old school dudes. have a great track record of managing both high salary, talented teams with egos AND a bunch of league minimum kids deep into the post season with rings to prove it. probably too old and would prefer to call it quits, but hey money talks and he is coming off a disappointing post season with aging tigers, why not one last try with the real big boys( in terms of budget) of LA?

mike scioscia - yeah, he is stil employed unlike the other 3 here but his job is definitely not secure, and it is time to bring home the prodigal son. a traditionalist in the mold of tommy lasorda, not a real saberhead by any means but he does play the national league style of pitch, defense, and small ball to score well. problem is that his style of managing may not fit the team that we have in our hands, a power lineup with shaky defense at crucial areas of mike scioscia brand of baseball.

now my favorite kind, the non-traditionalists list

john ferrell - my personal favorite in this bunch, the new guy around the block who's now taking the sox to the WS in his first year, a true disciple of sabermetrics, but have zero chance being available at this point.

earl weaver - love, love, love this guy. the problem is that he died this year after a hall of fame career as a pioneer saber metric-style manager. "pitch, defense, and three run home runs" is what he used to say to describe his managing style. RIP earl, RIP......

bob melvin - i love ex-catcher managers, and bob is definitely one of those guys. a saber-friendly to top it off as well, but again, he is still employed by the A's.


i guess this is a big list of names and no realistic candidate to target, but my feeling on this is that regardless of the style or the experience level, virtually anybody that we can think of, is better than donnie.