FanPost

in defense of TLR

While it's obvious now that the cardinals would not be in this predicament without his reliance on "proven" bullpen guys like Izzy and franklin (despite horrific peripherals behind even decent results), I'm inclined to say that TLR's style is good for this team, and most of his meddling is either good or a wash.

The hate just seems disproportionate to the results; I'd rather have TLR than Ned Yost, upon whom I'd blame the Brewers' collapse last year, and upon whom I hope to blame their collapse this year. While he does seem to keep the young guys sort of under his thumb, it beats getting into fistfights with them, or ending up with a young team like Arizona where the "hustle" gets out of control and errors are made, or it becomes idiotic and balls end up in the stands.

We can't blame TLR for burning up our young arms like the Cubs blame dusty, or for running Corey Patterson out there to lead off for years after it's proven he is incapable.

Most of the bullpen trouble should be blamed on regression toward FIP ERA's as Izzy and Franklin's BABIP's rose above .250 (both are now in the .320 range). Some of the bullpen trouble this year can also be blamed on the departure of Troy Percival; As unexpected as franklin and izzy were last year, Percival also had 40 innings of an anomalous 1.8 ERA.

The starting of FLopez, because of his anomalous splits vs. specific pitchers the last few days may be based on aberrant information, but sometimes the manager just has to convince people he is helping for them to tweak their results. Like the pitcher who appears to shine the ball, or the pitch that appears to rise, sometimes it's just psychological.

The most annoying things about TLR for me are his patronizing animal love and his DUI. Most of his baseball is sound.