Monday, April 14, 2008

The Mistakes of Joe Girardi

Hey, I'm still supporting Girardi and will do all season and next (I don't dump someone after 30 games). But that's no reason not to look at the mistakes he's made. Hopefully, he'll learn from them, which is another reason to keep them in mind - to see if he's adjusting. As for the team, no one is hitting and yet we've won a lot of close, low-scoring games -- to my mind, that's a positive sign since we have the bats and they'll come alive. Winning game 14-3 isn't as encouraging long-term as winning 2-1 and 3-0 early in the season. Onto Girardi's mistakes

1. Putting in a catcher who can't throw -- wasn't Morgan Ensberg available? If your catcher can't throw, don't put him in the game. Not if there's an option. (I know Molina is going on the DL).

2. Not getting Damon to bunt at Boston with no outs and runners on first and second with damon facing a leftie and basically sucking bat-wise, especially against lefties -- a great chance to play small ball with the game very tight. Why have him swing away?

3. Not walking Manny -- sure, always nice to let the pitcher nibble and if the guy threatens to just walk him. But why not just walk him with first base open?

Many more. I'm sure. What am I missing? And try to include moves that you questioned in advance, not just moves that didn't work out.

3 comments:

priv8pete said...

How about not working with Giambi for 2 hours every day to teach him how to lay a bunt down the third base line?

Michael in New York said...

Hey, don't knock the Big G! (That's the new ironic nickname Noam and I have been giving Giambi, as in, "Don't worry, the Big G will knock it out of the park!")

priv8pete said...

I think if we're going to nickname Giambi, we should take a cue from Ball Four and call him "Clank."