Saturday, September 18, 2010

Mattingly Anointed Successor & PECOTA Eliminates Dodgers

Don Mattingly will be the Dodgers manager in 2011. This is disappointing since many reputable prognosticators believed that Tim Wallach would be given the job. While I would rather have Wallach as manager, if Torre takes the Mets job, perhaps all of Torre's cronies (Bowa, Schaefer) will go with him. There is a possibility that Tim Wallach will take a spot on the staff as hitting coach or bench coach if mandated but, if it is up to Mattingly, that probably won't happen. 

Bucking Torre from the manager's spot is good. While we don't know how Mattingly will fare, he will be motivated to succeed and may choose the correct path to do so rather than dashing into forays of small-ball and veteran crushes while managing on reputation. Joe Torre was hired to win while in a championship window but when it closed, the circus rolled into town nearly overnight. 

As we know, the manager isn't the Dodgers most glaring problem. With every passing month that the McCourts keep Ned Colletti at the wheel, Logan White, Kim Ng, DeJon Watson and Tim Wallach become more desired and opportunities to construct a World Series team are stagnate or are thwarted by Colletti's stupidity. 

All I can say right now about the Don Mattingly hire is that he and whoever his accompanying coaches should handle and nurture the talent of Matt Kemp, Jonathan Broxton, Russell Martin, Clayton Kershaw and Chad Billingsley better than Torre did. Torre is not , by any means, Dusty Baker but he certainly mishandled the aforementioned players, especially Kemp. The next manager should know that Matt Kemp has far more value and worth than Scott Podsednik ever has had (yes, even in 2005) or will have. 

Mike Scioscia's Tragic Illness post on this situation is worth reading. At these crossroads, I hope that Don Mattingly is as good of a manager as Mike Scioscia has been because Tim Wallach might very well be the next ex-Dodgers "managing prospect" to enjoy years of success elsewhere. When an organization such as the Dodgers has made as many mistakes as it has recently, it's hard to trust their judgment on this one. I will support Mattingly but I don't know if this is much of a "changing of the guard" as it is a continuation of the Torre managing system where players are not developed but bought and expected to win. 


No comments:

Post a Comment