The Charlie Manuel Gamble
By the end of Wednesday November 4 we will all know who's the baseball genius. Sure there's a little competition between Charlie Manuel and Joe Girardi. But there's a more fierce battle between Charlie Manuel and the second guessing "never coached a major league ballclub in their lives" sports journalists. On Sunday night Manuel sent his 4th starter, Joe Blanton, to the mound in the World Series with his club down 2 games to 1. Nothing out of the ordinary, except that Girardi sent his ace, CC Sabathia, out on 3 days rest and his Yankees promptly crushed the Phillies and the fragile souls of Philadelphia residents. Blanton stunk, Sabathia rolled, Phillies fans began to remember their previous 3 decades of torment, questions began to be asked.
Listening to the next 24 hour cycle you may have thought sports talkers had sent out an "Amber Alert" for Cliff Lee. The defending champs were down 3-1 and Charlie Manuel was to blame for not matching up an ace against an ace. Forget the fact that Manuel would probably not even have been in a predicament to be questioned had the Phils been hitting. Slugger Ryan Howard forgot to bring a bat with him and has been singing an invisible jedi lightsaber while setting the World Series record for strikeouts. By the end of Game 4 Jimmy Rollins was only hitting .232 as their table setter and third baseman Pedro Feliz and left fielder Raul Ibanez were batting a Mendoza-esque .196 and .213 respectively. Do we even need to mention Brad "cross your fingers and pray this doesn't bounce" Lidge?
"I told you to stop making those light saber effect noises"
But on Monday the Phils dominated the Yankees AJ Burnett, who was on 3 days rest. Cliff Lee pitched decent enough to win and the Phils now don't look as rough in these dire straits. Manuel's response without actually answering the Cliff Lee questions was the performance of Lee, who was decent not dominant on 4 days rest. It can be implied that 3 days may have gotten the same result as pitching Blanton. Although admittedly Blanton was awful and murdered his teammates like they were kids at Camp Crystal.
The subtle strategic genius on Manuel's move is that every one of his starters pitches their final game with one more day of rest than their opponent. This was a long term maneuver in the series as opposed to a short term fix for one game. As an added bonus, he got a 1 vs 2 matchup in Lee vs Burnett and now gets to throw his #2 starter, Pedro Martinez, against the Yankees #3, Andy Pettitte. This would be ideal and unquestionable had the Phillies not been down 3 games to 1 going into game 5. So Charlie Manuel is either crazy or has rocks the size of CC Sabathia. Whomever comes out on top, Girardi is probably glad he's facing Manuel across a baseball field and not a poker table.
A man with a poker face of stone and a fungo bat face of a child
Listening to the next 24 hour cycle you may have thought sports talkers had sent out an "Amber Alert" for Cliff Lee. The defending champs were down 3-1 and Charlie Manuel was to blame for not matching up an ace against an ace. Forget the fact that Manuel would probably not even have been in a predicament to be questioned had the Phils been hitting. Slugger Ryan Howard forgot to bring a bat with him and has been singing an invisible jedi lightsaber while setting the World Series record for strikeouts. By the end of Game 4 Jimmy Rollins was only hitting .232 as their table setter and third baseman Pedro Feliz and left fielder Raul Ibanez were batting a Mendoza-esque .196 and .213 respectively. Do we even need to mention Brad "cross your fingers and pray this doesn't bounce" Lidge?
"I told you to stop making those light saber effect noises"
But on Monday the Phils dominated the Yankees AJ Burnett, who was on 3 days rest. Cliff Lee pitched decent enough to win and the Phils now don't look as rough in these dire straits. Manuel's response without actually answering the Cliff Lee questions was the performance of Lee, who was decent not dominant on 4 days rest. It can be implied that 3 days may have gotten the same result as pitching Blanton. Although admittedly Blanton was awful and murdered his teammates like they were kids at Camp Crystal.
The subtle strategic genius on Manuel's move is that every one of his starters pitches their final game with one more day of rest than their opponent. This was a long term maneuver in the series as opposed to a short term fix for one game. As an added bonus, he got a 1 vs 2 matchup in Lee vs Burnett and now gets to throw his #2 starter, Pedro Martinez, against the Yankees #3, Andy Pettitte. This would be ideal and unquestionable had the Phillies not been down 3 games to 1 going into game 5. So Charlie Manuel is either crazy or has rocks the size of CC Sabathia. Whomever comes out on top, Girardi is probably glad he's facing Manuel across a baseball field and not a poker table.
A man with a poker face of stone and a fungo bat face of a child
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