So was everyone else as baffled by Phil Garner’s apparently inept handling of his team today as I was? Pulling Clemens, double-switching to get Biggio out of the lineup as early as he did, not double-switching to keep Lidge available longer, etc.? Granted, he’s seemed desperate several other times in this series, but today was something special.
I always liked Garner as a player, but I haven’t followed his managerial career that closely – has he always been like this?
Garner had one of those days where everything he did was wrong. I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a string of miscalculations. I think he had a good reason for doing what he did. But nothing worked.
Let’s not get all crazy for Garner here. Remember, his history as a manager in terms of W/L is absolutely miserable.
Admittedly that was with Milwaukee and Detroit but he should have gotten SOMETHING out of them. His overall winning percentage of .469 (708-802) isn’t one that inspires confidence.
Oh come on. Get something out of them? Like what? It was the 90s Brewers and the 200-2001 Tigers. Those were atrocious teams. They had no stars and barely had good players. What, pray tell, do you think he should have won with those teams?
Something better than 1 second place finish in all those years. Frankly, I’m astonished that he lasted as long as he did. I bet he interviews really well.
1992: 2nd
1993: 7th
1994: 5th
1995: 4th
1996: 3rd
1997: 3rd
1998: 5th
1999: 5th
2000: 3rd
2001: 4th
2002: 5th (only 6 games)
That’s where his teams finished each of those years. Heck, over that amount of time he should have gotten SOMETHING out of them. Even Dandy Don Zimmer got a 1st place finish out of a seriously flawed 1989 Cubs team.
Well, there’s an inherent problem in judging the quality of decision making by the actual outcomes, as opposed to the sum of likely outcomes. If you’re trying to decide whether to let Juan Cruz pinch hit for J.D. Drew, the fact that it might have actually been done once and worked in some Bizzarro World scenario wouldn’t mean that it’s the right decision – because in 999 out of 1000 cases (or more) you’re better off with Drew than Cruz.
For me the astounding thing about the moves Garner made wasn’t that they didn’t work or caused other problems, it’s that what happened was what you’d expect to happen in at least a majority of instances if you did the same thing a thousand times. You double-switch Biggio out of the game in the seventh inning of a potentially deciding game with a three-run lead – Biggio, who’s been the soul of the franchise for a decade and a half, who had a single, double, and homer and 3 RBI so far in the game – for whatever defensive upgrade Jason Lane represents? Likewise, taking Clemens out after 5 IP, especially when he’d retired the side in order in the fifth, is inexplicable – even if Qualls had come in and struck out the side yesterday, I’d still expect that move to backfire in some way almost every time you did it.
I’m not complaining about the outcome…
Go Braves!
(d&r)
While I wouldn’t bother trying to justify his other moves, it has been widely reported the Roger even said he was running out of gas and basically had nothing left after coming back on 3 days rest and a nasty virus.