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This is the TLR head scratcher thread....not the game thread. Not using Anderson is indeed a head scratcher for many here.

Vidor wrote:Further, turning Bryan Anderson into the pivotal element of last night's game draws attention from other, bigger problems. Like our closer who lacks closer stuff and can't miss bats. Second year of a two-year, $6.5M contract coming up. Are we stuck with him? Should they think about trying to move him in the offseason and giving the closer role to Motte? Is this wishful thinking on my part born out of a desperate desire to never see Ryan Franklin pitch for the Cardinals again?

As mentioned, this is the "head scratcher" thread, so topics focus on that. Also, some of the criticism that go toward managers aren't so much that they are more important than what the players did or didn't do(it's not even close that the players have more impact than the manager), but that they seem easier to fix. Most can't pitch the 9th inning with a 2 run lead and expect to hold it, but many think they can make some in game moves that make more sense and give the team a better chance to win the game.

I checked the x-tra inning record trying to see if my gut feel was right - that gut feel being that it seems that pretty frequently in x-tra's the other team has more tactical bullets in the chamber then we do.

jim wrote: I checked the x-tra inning record trying to see if my gut feel was right - that gut feel being that it seems that pretty frequently in x-tra's the other team has more tactical bullets in the chamber then we do.

this nails it for me+++

Why is that the case?

Some of it is just the result of having the stars and scrubs type team, which leaves us with a weak bench because we are not paying for it.
Some of it is that the roster construction blows-not sure if that is on Larussa or on Mo or both. This is a team head scratcher for me.

And there are weird tactical decisions like last night that leave us short benched.

I like Larussa in a lot of ways, I just dont get why a manager who often seems to think several moves ahead and has an understanding of the big picture, makes decisions that lead to such clear problems in games like last night.

I am sure that he does have reasons, but this season there have been more and more of these that I am slipping into the Larussa is not as good as he was camp and needs to move on.

Another thing I haven't heard mentioned in the Bryan Anderson microanalysis was why Ryan came into the game so early. Have we heard what was up with that?

Vidor wrote:Another thing I haven't heard mentioned in the Bryan Anderson microanalysis was why Ryan came into the game so early. Have we heard what was up with that?

Lopez was horrible.

When the pitcher's spot came up in the 13th inning last night, the Cardinals needed a single to get the lead. If they didn't get that single, they needed Winn, Molina and Craig to produce a run in the 14th and they needed Hawksworth to get six outs to win. Looking at that reality, La Russa thought it was better to save his last bench player and use a pitcher to bat. The game lasted four more batters and Anderson was never used.

The strategy is indefensible.

I brought up the Lopez issue. If you carry 12/13 pitchers with no DH and you pencil in Bozo the Clown at SS, then you pretty much have to stick with him for the game. You just don't have the luxury of pulling players willy-nilly. The mistake wasn't pulling him, it was penciling his name in to start with.

jim wrote:I brought up the Lopez issue. If you carry 12/13 pitchers with no DH and you pencil in Bozo the Clown at SS, then you pretty much have to stick with him for the game. You just don't have the luxury of pulling players willy-nilly. The mistake wasn't pulling him, it was penciling his name in to start with.

I wouldn't have started Lopez, either, but then I value defense over offense. There have been enough posters who claim that defense doesn't matter (check out the Manny Ramirez thread) so I'm not sure what they're complaining about with Lopez starting over Ryan.

jagtrader wrote:When the pitcher's spot came up in the 13th inning last night, the Cardinals needed a single to get the lead. If they didn't get that single, they needed Winn, Molina and Craig to produce a run in the 14th and they needed Hawksworth to get six outs to win. Looking at that reality, La Russa thought it was better to save his last bench player and use a pitcher to bat. The game lasted four more batters and Anderson was never used.

The strategy is indefensible.

At the time I thought LaRussa might have used Anderson against a RHP, but given that Slaten has a slash line of .148/.224/.148 against lefties, as opposed to .290/.402/.391 against righties, he didn't want to squander his last position player in a situation where he was unlikely to succeed.

Of course I have no idea whether that thought crossed TLR's mind, or, if it did, whether it was sound reasoning.

Vidor wrote:Another thing I haven't heard mentioned in the Bryan Anderson microanalysis was why Ryan came into the game so early. Have we heard what was up with that?

I didn't have a problem with that decision. The Cards had a 2 run lead, so preventing runs was more of a concern than scoring runs. Lopez's spot was due up 8th in the top of the 6th, so one could reasonably assume the trade off was 5 innings of Ryan's defense for 1 AB. Considering Lopez had already made 2 errors at SS, I thought this was a good decision by Tony.