Bryan Keefer

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Bryan Keefer is a bestselling author and Director of Product at The Daily Beast. [read more]

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Bad baseball management 101

How many ways can a manager screw up? Ask Grady Little.

In the harsh spotlight of the playoffs, managers have a tendency to overmanage or second-guess themselves. Too often, they go away from what’s worked all season to try and get a better result - and usually, it doesn’t work.

Grady Little, as far as I can tell, did everything he possibly could to keep Boston from winning in the playoffs. It’s a testament to the Red Sox that they played as well as they did, and came oh-so-close to knocking off the hated Yankees.

Take the obvious example: Game seven of the ALCS. He had Bill Mueller, the American League batting champion, batting eighth. Why put one of your best weapons in a spot in the batting order guaranteeing him fewer at-bats?  Sure, Mueller hadn’t looked great in the playoffs - but maybe that’s because Little had him batting so low in the order throughout both the ALDS and ALCS. Similarly, why bat Trot Nixon so low in the order (eighth in game six of the ALCS, seventh in game seven)? The guy had a great on-base percentage (.396) and a fantastic slugging percentage (.578) to go with his .306 average. Theo Epstein put together a great team - why did Grady Little waste it?

And then, of course, there were the pitching decisions. Red Sox fans are going to be reliving the sequence of Little heading to the mound in the 8th innning, talking to Pedro, leaving him in, then watching from the dugout as the next hitter, Hideki Matsui, slapped his second double of the game to cut the Red Sox lead to one run. Then there’s the decision to leave Wakefield in for the 11th. The Yankees had already burned their closer, Mariano Rivera, and had only a couple of situational relievers and their number five starter left in the bullpen. Why not bring in your closer, who presumably has the best chance of keeping the Yankees from scoring, and hope your lineup can get a run or two off the scrub pitcher the Yankees have to run out there in the next inning? In other words, why give the Yankees any more of a chance than you have to?

I could go on forever, really (for more, see my http://www.bryankeefer.com/archives/000009.html">essay on the A’s-Red Sox series). But the point is, Little may have done the worst job managing a team in the postseason that I’ve ever seen.

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