Torre’s an upgrade, but how much of one?
November 2, 2007
It’s official now. Joe Torre is the Dodgers’ next manager.
He has to be upgrade over Grady Little — there a few managers I’ve seen make more mind-boggling moves than Grady Little.
But in-terms of in-game management, how much of an upgrade is Joe Torre over Grady Little?
Torre has been criticized for over-using his primary set-up guy, so was Grady Little. Torre’s been criticized for overusing his bullpen in general, throwing too many pitchers in one game over and over again. So has Grady Little. Torre’s been criticized for doing odd things to his batting order, so has Grady Little.
And Torre hasn’t managed in the NL recently, so we don’t really remember how he handles pinch-hitting for pitchers and double-switches.
I’ll listen to the argument that Torre will be a huge presence in the clubhouse. But how many games is that worth over a long season?