From: niguma@ug.cs.dal.ca (Gordon Niguma)
Subject: Cito Manages reasonable in Game #1
Organization: Math, Stats & CS, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS, Canada
Distribution: na
Date: Thu, 8 Oct 1992 17:21:49 GMT

   Eegad! Although their is alot of bashing going on to get Cito, I can't
really fault him for game # 1's loss. He even avoided the same kind of
idiocracy (is this a word?) that I expected of him.
   The Lineup- Well this is the same thing that's been going on all year. He
insists on White in the leadoff spot since 1991 so I guess there were no
big changes here. If he wanted to avoid controversy, why not switch Borders and
Gruber? Not a big move and unlikely to make any dividends but it seems like
the obvious. No sense complaining about it now; can't change what's etched in
stone. I don't really feel like picking on him for the order since he's been
doing it all year and I've been criticizing it all year so it's all old news  
right?
   The Starting Pitcher- Well Morrris didn't do what everyone said he could;
pitch to the score. He didn't do half badly though, just hung some splitters
at a bad time. I didn't thing the pitch to Steinbach was all that bad because
it was low and with two strikes it seemed like a good idea. Could have been off
the plate a bit more though.....Anyways Jack's performance was respectable but
not great. No real criticism.
   Pitching Changes- I see alot of people saying they would have pulled Jack out
in the ninth last night....yeah that's pretty easy to say AFTER watching the
HR by Baines. He'd pitched 6 consecutive innings of scoreless ball prior to that
and had allowed few hits. I could respect someone if they said they would've
pulled him `earlier' (say in the 7th or 8th) when there was a runner on but
to suddenly propose that he should have been out in the ninth is a line that
most (note: not everyone) are using now after watching the Baines HR. What
evidence did we have that it would happen at THAT specific instance? Tough
to fault Cito here; perhaps Ward should have come in the eighth or so.
   Bench- As I watched the game yesterday I realized that the Jays bench was
pretty horrid. I mean, we couldn't even afford to pinch hit for Pat Borders!
With the exception of Sprague and Bell, no one on that bench is really deserves
to get an at bat in the major leagues. Cito made a mistake in many ways by 
bringing in Derek Bell to run for Olerud....he used up his best pinch hitter to
pinch run and in effect traded an at bat of Derek Bell and gave it to Kelly 
Gruber. His hands were tied in the respect that he had no other pinch runners 
to use (only Griffin, but taking out Griffin means you can't pinch hit for
Manny Lee). A pinch hitter is much more important than a pinch runner so he
should have let Olerud stay in the game and gotten Bell in as a pinch hitter.
I'm really starting to question the idea of having three catchers on the roster
now (well more specifically Randy Knorr) because Knorr has no real defined role
other than if a catcher gets injured which is a pretty slim chance. Unless 
someone does get hurt Knorr will not play; if they had Turner Ward around he 
could pinch hit and pinch run. Quinlan is another who is only around if someone
gets hurt; he can't do anything but play third and that'll only happen if Gruber
gets hurt (remember they can't really afford to pinch hit for Gruber since they
don't have many pinch hitters!)
   Overall- Well looking back on it I guess Cito did do some kind of dumb 
things last night, but I guess I'm used to it now (like the lineup and 
leaving in Morris). I was just happy that he didn't do anything monstrously
stupid like play Pat Tabler, moving Joe Carter to first base was actually a
reasonable move to make. And at least he brought in Sprague to pinch hit
instead of that worthless bum Tabler. And at least he didn't let Lee hit for
himself vs. Eckersley. 
   SO.......it's pretty pathetic when you are glad that a manager doesn't do
anything heinously stupid. And once again my post has changed my attitude on
Cito; he just wasn't as obvious this time.

					Gord Niguma
					(fav player: John Olerud)
					(1:3 with a walk, .500 OBP!)

Newsgroups: rec.sport.baseball