Tony's Guys

they didn’t like TJs work ethic, so instead they spent eleventy billion dollars on terrible LHP this off-season.

What constitutes a “TLR Guy” or a “non-Tony Guy”? Its pretty clear that Tony will cut some players a lot of slack, but he will take others to the woodshed. Is there common personality types that Tony latches onto?

BUT. There’s always the bottom line. Consider these numbers:
-Tony has managed for 32 YEARS
-He has (to date) 2,461 wins
-His winning percentage is .534. That’s an average of 86.5 wins a season.

Whatever La Russa is doing, he’s proven his methods work.

Both of these moves are very short term. You can’t give a grade yet on them. I expect both will be up within two months. Mather clearly was off his game and needs a steady diet of at-bats at Memphis. And he really is a Tony guy.

Perez is still young. We’ll see him again. TLR and Duncan like to see guys work on their weaknesses. That’s why Motte is in the bullpen from all accounts. He worked on his slider and now people can’t sit on his fastball. Perez is victim to the need for a long reliever early in the season. That won’t last long. We’ll see Perez in the place of McCLellan or Thompson in short order.

Finally you left off Rasmus who in the blog world is not a TLR guy whereas Ankiel and Duncan are. Still Tony found a place for him. Tony knows talent and if he thinks Rasmus is ready he’ll play him. I personally would have kept him at Memphis but perhaps they are contemplating a Duncan/Ankiel trade and didn’t want Rasmus to be the guy “called up” to replace a popular player.

And I would say the Reyes case is incomplete. They left Perdomo off the 40 man roster and now he is with Giants. Giants were quoted as saying that they thought the Nats and the Padres would claim him off waivers if let go, so there are three other teams that think Perdomo is a major league pitcher. If Perdomo sticks and is a solid reliever and Reyes continues being a cusp ML starter then it looks like this trade is a wash. Just bad roster management on our part to let Perdomo go.

Let’s remember how the whole Rolen issues started: Tony benched a non-producing (and ailing) Rolen in the 2006 NLCS for a hot-hitting Scott Spiezio. Rolen didn’t like it and said so, which is his right to do, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t the right move at the time. I’ve heard plenty of people complain that Tony allows guys to “tough it out” too long (Izzy, Ankiel, etc.) — this is an example of him putting the team first and benching a star player who wasn’t producing in favor of a bench player who was.

I don’t see how this is TLR hating on Scott Rolen — I simply think he saw Spiezio as giving the team a better chance to win. Rolen took it poorly and decided to speak to the media about it, which Tony didn’t appreciate. It wasn’t TLR that went to the press, he usually keeps that type of stuff in house, especially in the middle of a playoff series.

Let’s remember that Rolen was run out of Philly for a lot of the same reasons, which is why the Cardinals got him so cheap. He and Tony seemed to get along fine up until the 2006 playoffs, and Scott not playing much of the 2007 season and not playing well led to the situation where the relationship soured enough that the Cardinals had to make a move.

Regardless, Glaus was worth about 2 wins more than Rolen last year and if he doesn’t play an inning this year, the trade was still probably worth it overall.

Is a tony guy.

LaRussa and Duncan have identified things that Perez needs to do to develop into a major league closer. Who would have a better grasp on what is required for that role than the two guys that elevated that role to prominence? Perez did not have an outstanding spring. Motte had a very good spring. Kinney has a major league track record of being extremely effective. Franklin has been effective as a Cardinal, despite his peripheral statistics. Doesn’t that seem like more than enough situational RH relievers for one roster? Didn’t Perez also have shoulder soreness this spring that these other guys didn’t have? Doesn’t it seem to be better for Perez to work to get better at the things that Duncan has identified for him, while having the opportunity to get healthy without the pressures of maintaining his major league roster spot?

Mather had an inconsistent spring to follow a good, but not spectacular, major league debut last year. He had illness issues, and he was outplayed by Duncan, Freese, and Rasmus. I think Mather has the potential to be a good major league OF. I really like his defense, and I think he can be a solid hitter with good power. That doesn’t mean he is there already, and I think he could use some time at AAA to recover from his spring. When the dust settles, he will probably be the RH OF platoon option. I don’t see how making him earn his way on to the roster identifies him as a Not-Tony-Guy. Wouldn’t we rather see every player on the field have to earn his spot?

Barton probably isn’t the kind of player that LaRussa is looking for, as he seems to put little stock in player speed. I think Barton would already have been given an opportunity on a different team, with a different manager. I don’t think it is a personal thing over Barton’s work ethic or attitude. I just think that LaRussa would rather have Ankiel, Ludwick, Rasmus, Duncan, and Mather in the OF. I’m not sure there is one of those options, assuming Duncan continues to produce offensively at his current rate, that I would rather see replaced by Barton.

I still think that LaRussa sees significant potential in both Perez and Mather, and that he see the best way for them to reach that potential is a little more time at AAA at the beginning of the season. I don’t think that means either player has earned their way on to the infamous LaRussa shit-list.

Every manager or coach has players that he likes and doesn’t like. Whitey was just as bad or worse on this sort of thing as TLR is. Its just part of being a manager, its just that Tony is one of those managers that has the power to do something about it, where as younger managers don’t.