TIP: Click on subject to list as thread! ANSI
echo: ml_baseball
to: DAVID LENTZ
from: ED GRINNELL
date: 1997-01-09 18:01:00
subject: Odd Series Stats

David was waived by Sparky Anderson and then ranted:
 DL> You have great faith in Whitey Herzog as a manager.
I'm looking at the fact that he was able to get the best out of Lonnie Smith, 
who has had his adventures on the basepaths. The Cardinals were always smart 
baserunners under Herzog and while you can credit coaching, it takes a 
manager who has an idea about baserunning to make it so. If he didn't care 
about whether his speedsters did better than average, the Cardinals wouldn't 
have been as good at stealing bases.
He took KC and made them into an above average team in base-stealing and that 
continued for years after he left (They had some bad spots but they were 
mostly above average until about 5 years ago). His worst teams in St. Louis 
were his first 4. The first two were below the NL average and while the 
second were above, they were below .700, a figure that the rest of his teams 
were well above. Torre, who I'll never defend when it comes to how he handles 
his baserunners, had teams that were about .100 points below what Whitey had 
during his time. After he left, LaRussa, who has almost always had above 
average teams (His worst were his early squads in Chicago), brought that 
average above the league average to .723.
 DL> The problem with Polonia is that his skill set was so marginal that he
 DL> almost had to steal an excessive number of bases just to do anything
 DL> positive.
Polonia had all the makings of an ABOVE AVERAGE runner. Don't mistake 
stupidity or poor coaching for ability. If you'll look at his career, he was 
a 76.7% stealer with Oakland while he went 66.7% with New York and 68.0% with 
California. LaRussa knew how to handle him and I'm positive that Herzog would 
have as well.
--- TrekEd 1.00
---------------
* Origin: Support Pete Rose and Nolan Ryan for the HOF (1:170/1701)

SOURCE: echomail via exec-pc

Email questions or comments to sysop@ipingthereforeiam.com
All parts of this website painstakingly hand-crafted in the U.S.A.!
IPTIA BBS/MUD/Terminal/Game Server List, © 2025 IPTIA Consulting™.