The MATTINGLY Thread

And that's usually the approach he's taken. Desperate time require desperate measures I guess.

One thing for sure, when Torre, Bowa, and then Colletti publicly ripped Kemp a few years back and benched him, he turned into an MVP.

 

Or....Don is scapegoating one of our best players when he's not even in the top ten in terms of responsibility. And that's what's being reported. Our information is what we hear from the guys in the know, Eric Stephen, Dylan Hernandez and Bill Plunkett, and not hypothetical scenarios.

 

And again, we don't know shit and none of those guys reported anything solid, it's all vague speculation or interpretations of vague comments by Don.

I'll tell you what I do know, and I'm sure you do too. Ethier has been the second worst disapointment in the starting lineup on a daily basis. Is that scapegoating or just calling it like i see it? Ethier is supposed to be an run producer and he hasn't been. Ethier is supposed to be one of the stars on this team...he hasn't. He's been out hit by Crawford, Adrian, Punto, ,Ramirez, and the Ellis'.

Sure he's better than Gordon, Cruz and Uribe...well of course he is.

 

well i'll tell you how it works for me. i have employed up to 25 people at a time in my business history. not that many, but more than most people can say especially without having managers. i would notice that annoying habits, whether it be showing up late, quality, attitude etc. always had a way of creeping in and making my life miserable.
i would have meetings. give guys days off. yell on occasion(extremely bad for my health so i quit doing that). basically do whatever it took and usually to no avail.
you know what worked? firing one of my best guys. it freaked people out and i could see in their eyes "whoa if this guy could get it, how easy is it going to be to take me out?" shit changed fast.
my point is dbb can't fire anyone so trying this can't hurt imo. doesn't matter if its eithier. if the other guys respond to it then it worked. and yeah i think kemp gets some run because of the surgery. and i think its easier to replace what eithier brings. he took out a top guy and maybe that gets peoples attention. and they start playing like "you aren't getting me out" everyday.

 

The difference between your scenario and the Dodgers is pretty obvious. Being good at baseball is first and foremost about talent. Scotty Van Slyke could be the ultimate clubhouse guy/team player, it won't make him more valuable or "better" than Ethier.

 

its to make a point. looks like it worked today. svs isn't replacing andre in the lineup.
and in any business it is first and foremost about talent even if its on a basic level. if a guy can't punch the mcd's cash register fast enough he's gone.

 

Look, I'm not sitting here trying to convince you that SVS is a better talent than Ethier. Fuck give me some credit. I'd assume this is a one day thing, would you agree?

There is times when a manager has to play the less talented player once in a while, injuries, rest, matchups, or disciplinary action. This seemed to be one of those times for whatever reason and look, it worked beautifully...so lets just be happy.

Sidenote: They showed Ethier in the dugout and his right wrist is wrapped up. I wonder if he punched something...or someone!

 

It was one game though.

 

Kemp is being babied. Someone needs to call his ass out publicly. Make him mad. Make him want to shut people up. He's got nothing on the line.

 

We'll all laugh about this in October when we're spraying champagne at the Lair.

 

Haven't weighed in on this but I'm not totally against it either. I'd be a terrible manager then because I'd be honest all the time with things like this. Should have called out Kemp (he is a golden boy and he's been awful), but whatever. Let's just win some fucking games.

 

Can't you give them something easier?

 

No. I hate them.

 

Well, I think the fact I saw Kemp icing his shoulder after the game points to the reason why Don hasn't called Kemp out.
The guy is playing injured, right or wrong, that's not really fair to blame Kemp. Don or Ned or the training staff have to fix that problem or Don can bat him down in the order for the betterment of the team.
If a guy can't perform playing hurt, how is calling him out publicly going to help? Sadly, we went through this with Kemp last season and nobodies learned anything. I assume the medical stafff might have said, the only way to get 100% is to just keep playing...well then don needs to adjust the lineup accordingly, not just putting him in the middle of the order every fucking day.

 

Ford has been around the game long enough to know.

 

If Kemp is injured then I just give up; but I really don't think he is.

 

That's obviously not what I meant. What I meant was making a real world comparison doesn't really make sense to me, because this isn't a similar issue to anything that can occur in real life. If I go to work tomorrow to deliver pizza's an hour late and am lazy I'll get fired and replaced by someone who can complete the job just as competently. In baseball SVS can show up at 6 AM every morning, wipe Donnie's ass every time he shits and mow the outfield grass and he still wouldn't be as talented as Ethier.

Now I hear the one game argument. The point remains that Donnie believed, even for this one game, that starting Scott Van Slyke against a right handed pitcher gave him a better chance of winning than Andre Ethier. He believed that today. And he's 1,000% wrong in that belief. I don't want someone managing my team who believed that, even for one day.

 

I think if he was making a stand he might even be more of an idiot, because he definitely chose the wrong player to make that stand against.