Mis-management

I would love to see Price start a game against Boston. I have also already moved Price to the Top lefty roll on the team. Price is more than special.

If you just want to walk Bay and not pitch to him, why not just throw the four fingers up and give him the intentional pass?! Dave Wills crucified Maddon and/or Navi for poor game management in that spot? Was he trying to set Bay up?

Kazmir gave up 2 runs in the 1st inning against the White Sox then settled down nicely and pitched into the 6th inning. He only gave up the Pedroia homer in innings 2-4 last night. I do not think Maddon was asking to much for him to make it through the 5th. Heck, Francona let Beckett give up 7 runs.

One smart move that no one has mentioned was having Perez and Zobrist run on Bartlett’s grounder to third in the 11th. If the runners are not going Perez is forced at 3rd or possibly it is a DP ball.

but Maddon is on record as saying he wants Scott to work his way out of trouble and will try to stay with him. The White Sox game was an example of that. I do not think he is inflexible on that matter, but his tendency will be to leave him in a bit longer than many fans would like, and so far he has been right more often than not. That is not mismanagement; it is approach, and one that has been successful, so that when it does not work, it is simply a case of a reasonable tactic backfiring.

As for Price, he is the next to last man in the bullpen, or possibly a situational lefty. The two primary relievers are Balfour and Howell, and Maddon is absolutely correct to use them in the diciest situations. At that point, he needed to get the game under control, and regardless of the inning, that meant using his best pitchers to do the job. Again, the fact that Balfour was ineffective has no bearing on whether it was the right move. He was there to do what he had been doing all season-stop a team on a roll. It is to Maddon’s credit that he is not bound by pre-formed “inning-roles” but uses relievers as called for by the situation.

but that is not the point. Right now, the two pitchers Maddon trust the most in critical situations are Howell and Balfour, and rightly so as they have been nearly perfect in those cases. It would make little sense suddenly to change horses now, and the situation in the 5th was precisely the sort where he needed his most reliable relievers, not an untested one no matter how promising.

I would not be surprised to see Price get more action as the series progresses and even be used in increasingly tight situations, but not all at once. As is, he was brought in in a tight situation and was probably available should the game have gone longer, but at that point there were no other options (other than Jackson).

In any case I think there are essentially two ways to consider a manager’s decisions. The first is to categorically state that one is wrong and then propose the right one. The other is to ask why might the manager have done what he did and then ask whether there is legitimate rationale behind it. In my view, the only proper approach is the second and particularly in the case of a manager who has demonstrated intelligence, creativity and thoughtfulness in the past. One may then propose alternatives and even support them but maintain respect for the one the manager made. It is entirely possible to prefer one option while recognizing that another one is defensible as well.