Torre’s an upgrade, but how much of one?

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?

Torre definitely deserves credit for his World Series titles with the Yankees — but not all the credit. Those Yankee teams were extremely talented, and we’ve seen some not-so-brilliant managers win World Series in recent years like Bob Brenly and Ozzie Guillen.

Dodger fans should be thrilled Grady Little is gone, and Torre is in. But they shouldn’t expect Torre alone to turn the Dodgers into a great team. It’s up to the front office to figure out exactly what they want to do — keep signing bad free agents, or let the young guys play?

If Torre can convince Alex Rodriguez to come to the Dodgers (and owner Frank McCourt to shell out the money), that might be the single best thing he could do for the Dodgers.