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Originally Posted by Jurassic Referee
Um, Chuck, does the name Grady Little mean anything to you? Do you really think that Grady morphed straight into a genius from a moron as soon as he hit LA? Bah-stan basically fired him because he left Pedro in too long
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Grady had detractors, even in the front office, long before the Pedro decision. His handling of pitchers, especially the bullpen, was horrible for most of his stay in Boston. He was also a "player's manager" to the point that he didn't discipline anybody for anything. (A trait that Francona shares, btw.) But they were playing well enough to get into the playoffs, so there was no way that they were going to make a change.
The Pedro decision was simply the last straw. And the problem with the Pedro decision was not that he decided to go with his best pitcher. (That's a real positive face to put on it, tho.) Pedro was done. Every person watching that game knew he was done. My
wife asked me why Little came out of the dugout and then left Pedro in. If my wife knows the pitcher needs to come out, he needs to come out. There was no decision to be made in that situation. It was an utter lapse of baseball sense and judgment.
Torre hasn't made one of those, as far as I can see. He hasn't been criticized for mis-handling the pitching staff, or for hitting Jeter ninth, or for letting the clubhouse get out of control. The only possible mistake that I can see in the Tigers series was not pitching Wang on short rest in place of Wright. And even that is a coin-flip. Pitchers generally don't do well on short rest in the playoffs. So the only obvious thing Torre did wrong was that he didn't win the World Series. If that gets him fired, then shame on Steinbrenner.