The Trickle Down Effect of Incompetence

As we enter into the series with the Red Sox this weekend, we should first pause to enjoy the fact that Drayton Mclane lobbied his crony Bud Selig very hard to have us get schlacked for three games so he could sell double-priced tickets. Good call. We should also note the disparity between the Boston Red Sox and our own organization. Just look at the pitching staff they have on the major league level and then if you want to depress yourself further, look at what their minor league players are doing at AA and AAA. In the same off-season in which we spent $100 million for Carlos Lee, the Red Sox spent $100 million for Daisuke Matsuzaka. The Red Sox are a team that knows how to assemble a winning baseball team. Their owner has deferred to some of the smartest minds in baseball to ensure this commitment is realized. Drayton McLane has no concept of how to field a winning team, yet meddles in just about every aspect of the baseball operations; from encouraging us to sign ludicrous contracts with players who won’t live up to the dollar signs; refusing to know when to fold them and unload veterans for young talent at the deadline two years in a row; and refusing to sign the scarce amount of young talent we’ve been able to draft for the last few years. So watch the Red Sox this weekend and drool over what a well run organization looks like.

This trend of undervaluing the strongest correlation to winning baseball games, preventing runs from scoring, pervades not just ownership, but management as well. Journalists apparently also undervalue it. Here’s a quote from Richard Justice this morning:

"If [Cecil Cooper] has a problem, it probably is with the pitching staff... His challenge may be in dealing with pitchers, with explaining why he's doing things, with doing as much listening as talking.”

The quote comes from a column debunking an alleged toxic atmosphere in the Astros’ club house, but if Cooper is failing to communicate effectively or at all with the pitching staff (which the article suggests in some parts) then how is it not toxic? For Justice not to lambast Cooper for failings that he is seeing and hearing in the clubhouse is infuriating.

Let’s break down what a baseball game is. There are 8 position players, who hit and if it’s the AL, there is one fat dude who sits on the bench and swings the bat for the pitcher. So each hitter accounts for 1/9 of offense, which occurs every 1/2 inning, meaning that each hitter accounts for 1/18 of the game. The pitcher, who is responsible for preventing runs from scoring by getting the batter out, preferably striking him out, or making the job of the defenders behind as easy as possible by creating “bad swings” accounts for the other 1/2 of the game. While each defender clearly has a role to play in run prevention it’s not near as much as the pitchers. If Cecil Cooper is failing his team by not properly communicating crucial information to his pitching staff, he’s doing a great disservice to his team. We’ve already chronicled how bad he is at managing an offense to produce runs, but if he’s botching his pitching staff’s mental approach to the game, then he needs to go, because he’s doing an unacceptable job.

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