This is just riddled with implicit assumptions that I think aren't true. Assumption #1 - a manager's goal is to go 162-0. I don't think that's the case. Baseball isn't football. You're not going to win every game. Managing like every last game is the most important game ever played burns people out over a 6-to-7 month season and leaves them nervous and on edge, questioning their talent and looking over their shoulder. You want to put people in the best possible position to achieve the goal of making the playoffs and maximizing their contribution to the team - if that's not working then you make a change - quick and clean.
Wow. So, at the beginning of the certain games, the manager just goes, "Welp, we can't win them all." No. You play to win the game. If you start managing with the notion that "we'll get them tomorrow," you will never pull out a victory.
Assumptions #2/#3 - HRod is a failure as a relief pitcher and simply can't be used and Zim is completely ineffective as a hitter. That's not what the historical past pattern says. Admittedly, they've been terrible lately - I think it's a mistake given Davey's public statements to think that he hasn't noticed. But for most of last year and much of this year HRod's been unhittable. Zim has five years of data saying he's a pretty good-to-great MLB hitter. This, I think is the key question - how much should one balance past performance over a longer-term vs. what-have-you-done-for-me-lately. As a fan, we all think nearest of near-term. Harper's a HOFer, no wait, he struck out five times, no, wait, he's TEH AWUSUM again. Managers who manage with the panic monkey style aren't good managers.
I never said HRod failed as a relief pitcher. I said he failed as a CLOSER. Becaues Davey Johnson's belief that he had "closer stuff" he used HRod as a closer. HRod continued to fail. Several outings in a row he completely and utterly failed to throw strikes. Despite what was obvious to the rest of baseball (Clippard should have been the closer), Davey continued to trot out Henry Rodriguez.
Ryan Zimmerman is hitting putrid, by his own admission. Davey Johnson has already said he's concerned. And yet Davey does nothing. Not a drop in the order, not a day off, nothing. Just keep trotting him out there with runners in scoring position and act baffeled by the lack of production.
Assumption #4 - there are any number of equally good or better players ready to step in and pick things up. Look, I as much as anybody fall for the flavor of the month - Lombo, Moore, Corey Brown, Bernadina, etc. Some of those guys undoubtedly will develop into good MLB players - others will turn out to be better than the guys they're currently playing behind, but another side affect of panic monkey managing is that your solution can turn out to be worse than your original problem. HRod sucks - let's get Lidge. Wait, Lidge sucks - let's get Matheus. What if he sucks? Back to H-Rod we will go.
We have good players on this team. Lombardozzi stepped up huge when Zimmerman went down. So much so that Davey was forced to find a way to play him everyday. We have continued to have guys step up and perform from their roles on the bench this season. Chad Tracy, Lombardozzi, Bernadina, Burnett, Moore ... guys are showing they want the playing time and they can produce results.
Assumption #5 - a move affecting one player has zero affect on any other player on the club. Every one of these guys (except mayber Harper and Stras) know that eventually, there's going to be a younger, faster, better player to replace them on the roster. Every one of them knows that when it comes to Lidge, there but for the grace of God go they. When you jerk people around, you can make people focus on that and not on doing their job. Suboptimal performance can result, which could costs you more games than the guy who was causing the problem in the first place.
It's a business. And Davey has already been jerking people around. Lannan goes to Triple A? Detwiler, despite pitching quite well, gets yanked for Chen Ming Wang? It's funny, it doesn't seem to have affected the rotation very much.
You perform, you keep your job. We're not team building anymore. We're competing. We might actually have a shot at this division this year. Or we can worry about hurting people's feelings and keep people in position to lose the club ball games. Afterall, the players don't really care about that, so long as everyone in clubhouse is getting along good. Heck, someone go get Brad Lidge ...
