Don Mattingly's disgrace

[ShaimOnYou]

The Dodgers season ending in dramatic failure. No one expected to see them lose to the Cardinals this year after spending bags of money putting together essentially an all-star team. Yes, they had problem areas, the bullpen being a stand out issue, but with their starting pitching, this was supposed to be their year. They had chemistry, and a lot of fun in the clubhouse.

After seeing many games this year and witnessing the mishandling of the pitching staff, I have drawn the conclusion that Don Mattingly is largely to blame for the Dodgers failures. Consider the following:

The Dodgers were either leading or tied in every NLDS game against the Cardinals after 6 innings, but still lost 3-1. Every single pitching change Don Mattingly made when removing his starter, failed. Every single one.

In game 1, Kershaw, pitching a 2-hitter through six in 100 degree heat all day, came out for the 7th and gave up three straight singles. Bases now loaded, nobody out. And the bases were loaded because PUIG picked up that third single. NO one tries to run on Puig's arm, if they're smart. Any manager worth his weight in salt makes a mound visit under these circumstances, if for no other reason, to change the flow, to break the rally. Something. But let's stay focused and follow standard baseball procedures: Why not see if your PITCHER is OK? No one was getting up to warm up in the bullpen. No "visit" to the mound by Mattingly. Don Mattingly just sat there on his thumbs.

Kershaw gave up two more hits. Now, with the lead at 6-4 and only one out, Mattingly finally makes the trek to the mound. He asks Kersh how he's feeling, and gets the status quo response, so he leaves him in. Bang. BANG. Two more hits, the last one devastating as it clears the bases. Dodgers now losing 7-6, so Mattingly comes out and removes Kershaw.

What presence, Don. What leadership. A pro-active machine, steering the ship!

He then injects a Rookie into the game who promptly blows any chance the Dodgers have by giving up a three-run bomb, extending the Cardinals lead to 10-6. EIGHT runs scored in the inning. How in the WORLD does a manager worth his weight in salt allow this kind of an implosion by his team?? AGAINST his team!!?

Dodgers lose, 10-9.

Game 2: Greinke is pitching a no-hitter through 4. He finally gives up a double, but snuffs out any threat. He takes his tremendous game into the 7th where the Cardinals announce a left handed pinch hitter to start the inning. Greinke, who just walked out to the mound, is instantly removed by Don Mattingly to a standing ovation, and a cumulative sound of 55,000 swallowing hard and then holding their breaths. In comes Don's choice, J.P. Howell, fresh off two recent implosions. J.P. immediately gives up a lead off hit, then a devastating 2-run bomb by the Dodger killer Matt Carpenter. Greinke's tremendous shut out is vaporized as quickly as a lit match dropped in water. Matt Kemp would come through and hit a home run in the 8th, giving the Dodgers their only win of the series, but the screaming mishandling of the pitching staff, now exposed in all it's glory, is painfully evident to anyone breathing. Dandy Don has mastered the disrobing, perfecting himself as the master exhibitionist of the Dodgers shortcomings.

But perhaps the final blow would just smear dirt frosting on anyone's cake. Kershaw, on three days rest, is called to pitch a must-win game 4. In typical Kershaw greatness, he would pitch another 6 innings of winning perfection in a must win game 4, only to be pants'ed again by Donny baseball who let him start off the 7th with two straight singles, and again, do nothing. Anyone still conscious probably uttered the same "here we go again" concerns and likely thought "don't repeat the debacle, Don...get off your butt and at least go TALK to Clayton".

Nothing.

Up comes Matt Adams. I murmur to myself and friends as we watch the game, "This guy is dangerous, maybe it's time to call time out and discuss the approach on how to pitch this situation?"

Nothing. Clayton throws a curveball. A pitch no lefty has clobbered off him all year.

BANG. Gone.

On three days rest, Clayton is tired. You see, he is human. Made of flesh and blood. He is not a GOD. He is not a robot. He is a human. And he was, once again, left alone to die on the vine.

And he has feelings. And they are now destroyed. Something Mattingly is also exceptional at. He is, as my wife puts it, "The GREAT Destroyer". He can demolish anything he puts his touch on. In no time, too.

3-2, Cardinals.

2-0 lead...gone. Game, done. Dodgers moral, finished. Players backs, broken. Season...OVER.

And if all is right in baseball....Mattingly's managerial career: FINISHED.

But possibly more important, more devastating in regards to the Dodgers future, Clayton Kershaw now has a horse collar of "Complete post-season LOSER" to wear for the rest of his life. And WHY? Because he's not that great of a pitcher?

He's one of the best in the game. Many argue THE best. So how is this possible? What happened? Who is to blame for this debacle, this "double failure" by an ACE on a strong Dodger team with nothing more than weakness in the bullpen?

Don Mattingly. I say not most, not some...but ALL his fault. He mismanaged the Dodgers pitching staff to perfection. You HAVE to TRY to be THAT bad. The Cardinals are not as good as the Dodgers made them look. As Don Mattingly made them look.

But here is the frosting on the cake. Take a look at this story:

http://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/mlb/...puigs-lack-of-
effort/ar-BB8DuRg

Of all the things Don Mattingly is, a complete hideous disgraceful coward is not something that would not jump out, even to us Mattingly critics. But that's exactly what he is. He has apparently stooped so low in an effort to deflect responsibility of the Dodgers failing to win in the post season this year onto the back of one of the teams star players, in an effort to keep his job.

Mattingly did the same thing last year. He handed over game one of the NLCS to the Cardinals and continued to mis-manage the team, primarily the pitching staff, and lose. Year 2, De ja vu. He benched Puig opening day for showing up late to the park 15 minutes, enraging the Dodger fans. (4-starting outfield players problem solved...for one day. Coward.)

Then he sits Puig in a must-win game? Puig, the strongest most accurate arm in ALL of major league baseball, a guy who will KEEP runners from taking that extra base, and more importantly, from making that attempt TO SCORE, out of the most important game of the year? Why, because he's striking out a bit more than desired? He hit a TRIPE the game before, scoring the Dodgers ONLY RUN in a 3-1 loss, so BENCH HIM? He is ALWAYS only one swing away from a HOME RUN, so, BENCH HIM? But that's Don Mattingly's M.O. Every player who had a great game during the year, could COUNT on being on the bench the following day. You see, Don is also a fireman. He extinguishes every "fire" presented before him. Only problem is, the fires he extinguishes are always on the Dodgers. He's such a dysfunctional manager, he fans the fires of our opponents.

This article spells out just how low of a human being Don Mattingly is, just how low he'll stoop to keep his job, a job I might add he has NO right having. In an effort to justify his benching of Puig in a must-win game, he comes up in the aftermath of his 2nd-year-in-a-row managerial failure with these meaningless examples of how "Puig didn't give full effort"??? Unbelievable. These two examples are shameful, one having NO IMPACT on the game (his "lack of hustle" to get to a ball Hanley ran down. CARL CRAWFORD was CLOSER to the ball and made as POOR if not LESS of an effort to get to the ball than Puig did), and the other a strike out?? EVERY player strikes out! How is that a LACK OF EFFORT when he SWUNG at the PITCH??

I have been a season ticket holder at Dodger Stadium these past two seasons, and I have told anybody who will listen to reason that this Dodger team, no matter WHO is on the roster, will never win ANYTHING with Don Mattingly managing it. He is a complete failure in regards to having a feel for the game. He doesn't know how to motivate, to rally the troops, but ironically instead is a career destroyer. He destroyed Andre Ethier's, and now possibly Clayton Kershaw's due to his lack of effort to MANAGE when MANAGING was called for. I fully expect the intelligent ownership of this Dodgers team, after careful review of the season, the players, the management, and what went wrong, to follow the arrows pointing to where the real problems are and act accordingly. The bullpen will be addressed.

And I am confident the Dodgers will start the 2015 season with a real manager.

Dusty Baker. Someone who actually WON something as a player. Someone who knows how to win. A Dodger at heart. But most importantly, a winner and World Champion.

Don Mattingly MUST be fired. He is incompetent. He never won anything as a player, and certainly will never win anything as a manager. It's clear to anyone paying attention that he's already proved that.

I welcome any and all comments.

Chris

[ShaimOnYou]

That "link" I posted didn't seem to post correctly.

Here is it again:

http://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/mlb/...ort/ar-BB8DuRg

[ShaimOnYou]

My apologies, I also have a typo.

This quote:

"Of all the things Don Mattingly is, a complete hideous disgraceful coward is not something that would not jump out"

...should read:

Of all the things Don Mattingly is, a complete hideous disgraceful coward is not something that would jump out

There is no edit feature so I am correcting it here, my apologies.

Chris

[slab0meat]

Don Mattingly is largely to blame for the Dodgers failures.

Don Mattingly. I say not most, not some...but ALL his fault.

Sooo.... largely to blame or totally?

He is incompetent. He never won anything as a player, and certainly will never win anything as a manager. It's clear to anyone paying attention that he's already proved that.

I can't count how many times I heard this about Francona with the Phillies. But hey, if you say he certainly won't, who am I to disagree?

[Roady]

Too bad Mattingly didn't pick up a bat and put himself in the lineup. He probably could out hit most of the lineup in the last half of the season.

[onlyalbert]

As they say hindsight is 20/20. If Kershaw has gotten the outs and he left Grienke in and he got outs you would all be saying how smart DM is. Bottom line is the players must execute. They are highly paid to do this. Also, sometimes it seems a team just has your teams number. Maybe God is a Cardinal fan, but in any case.....you guys may pay Kershaw......but the Cardinals OWN him.

[ShaimOnYou]

As they say hindsight is 20/20. If Kershaw has gotten the outs and he left Grienke in and he got outs you would all be saying how smart DM is. Bottom line is the players must execute. They are highly paid to do this. Also, sometimes it seems a team just has your teams number. Maybe God is a Cardinal fan, but in any case.....you guys may pay Kershaw......but the Cardinals OWN him.

I was just re-reading your post, and being a Dodger fan, I have to say the Cardinals definitely have our number.

But just as the 2004 Red Sox proved, streaks and curses and "predictable results" can be changed when someone with greatness takes the reigns and steers the troops in the right direction.

All I'm saying is, Mattingly can't even lead a horse to water. In fact, Mattingly is so inept, he misses the horse completely, jumps on a "cargo-haling" mule, and proceeds to wound the beast to death with his spurs when the donkey won't move.

Then in the news conference, he's questioned:

"But Don, when looking at the gut of the animal you were steering, couldn't you see it was bleeding profusely? Why didn't you jump off and pick another animal to ride?"

"DAAHhh, to heck with THAT! The saddle I was on was EXPENSIVE and comfy as all get up, and quite frankly I've ridden those other beasts. I'm still plucking splinters out of my hind end from jumping on those, so I kicked and kicked that darn expensive mule, and the sum beach up and died on me. Not my fault."

"Um...OK Don. I guess you have many friends in the Dodger org which is why you're still allowing us the opp to ask questions. So we'll move on. So Don, in a MUST-win game, why would you bench your human high-lite reel center fielder who would certainly keep runners at bay if the situation arose?"

"WHO? Andre? I played him, what are you..."

"NO...Don. NO.

PUIG....Don. YASIEL PUIG. You know, DON? Arguably the BEST defensive outfielder in the game today?? The player who single-handedly saved your job last year, DON. The player who, unlike you, actually LIT A FIRE under the team, resulting in he and his teammates going on a record setting 42-8 run, DON...which ironically made an argument for you to (amazingly) be AWARDED a three-year EXTENSION during an obvious moment of confusion on the Dodgers ownership's part?"

(In a level monotone, expression blank, no signs of life, no firing electrons in the nervous system) "I'm not going to get into that. I did what gave us the best chance to win. I picked what I thought was the line-up that gave us....the best chance to win."

The press, embarrassed over the empty response to their obvious inquiry directly shining on Mattingly's failures, sat speechless. What more was there to say? And in the stifling silence, there sat Don, eyes empty, glased-over with a blank numbskull look of stupidity. Finally, mercifully taking on the task of ending the bewildered crowd who painstakingly listened to the buffoonisms coming from a man obviously misplaced in his profession, a press member spoke up.

"Yes, Don, you did.

And how did that work out for you and the Dodgers, Don?"

[ShaimOnYou]

So Andrew Friedman had his big day in front of the media while announcing how happy he is to be a part of the Dodger organization.

The FIRST QUESTION from the reporters was "Will Don Mattingly be the manager of the Dodgers next season?"

I would argue the fact that this, being the FIRST question asked of Mr. Friedman in his new position for the Dodgers as President of Baseball Operations, was a statement in and of itself. It tells me the baseball world is aware of the Dodgers biggest problem going forward.

It makes more of a statement than Andrew Friedman's answer.

Mattingly will stay, at least for 2015. So the Dodgers brass have obviously supported their first financial blunder (Mattingly's 3-year extension after showing he knows how to lose last year) with another, adding a layer between ownership and DON. Is that maybe because Don showed even more convincingly he REALLY knows how to lose this year, so next year when the Dodgers are SURE to be under-performing again, blowing games here and there with line-up juggling, mismanagement of the pitching staff, not base-stealing attempting pinch runners, handing outs to the other teams from sacrifice bunts when the situation doesn't call for them, or whatever else Don's little pea-pod can muster up, that they'll have a guy on board to perform the overdue firing?

Here's one soon-to-be ex-season ticket holder anxious to find out.

But no longer caring. Adios, Dodgers.

[helf35]

It is all a game of what if's. What if Mattingly makes the move to the pen for Kershaw and the bullpen emplodes for 8 runs then you would be pissed for not leaving him in. Puig had struck out 8 times in 12 at bats he obviosly wasnt right so why not try and switch it up with a man who is paid 15 million a year to play the outfield in Either. If you want to blame someone blame the gm for overpaying for Either. What will they do with Pederson now. Are they going to run a 5 man outfield rotation again. Just because they have the highest payroll doesnt mean they were the most talented team on the field. The cardinals have owned Kershaw in the playoffs for whatever reason maybe you should just chalk it up to that. There is a reason the Cardinals and Giants have been in the past 5 NLCS. They are good teams too with a smaller payroll.

[scootmagroot]

I wanna read this...but all I see is "wah wah waaaaaah wah waaah waahha sniffle waaahh wahhha waaaaaaaaaah." Then another rant about how the Doyers should be handed the world series ring because they paid for it.

Too bad this is baseball and the Cardinals were and are the better TEAM. Not to mention, if they did get past the Cardinals, the Giants are still a better TEAM.

When that final game ended, I personally could not contain my laughter because I knew I'd see or hear something like this.

And no, I'm not a Cards or a Giants fan....I unfortunately am a Padres fan (another reason why I couldn't contain my laughter)