At this point in the season, I'd like to see him throw the situational stuff out the window. In particular, let Cedeno face more than left handers in 'game' situations.
I'd agree with that - I think that's the way people improve. But that's not really "managing to win" and those are the kinds of in-game decisions people seem to be questioning.
Altuve Lowrie/Gonzalez Martinez Maxwell Johnson Castro/Snyder Moore Bogusevic Altuve had spent months in the majors already. You know how many times he batted 8th as an unproven rookie? 0. I'm not talking about his bullpen now, since it is in flux. I'm talking about the days of Wilton Lopez pitching the 6th inning, then 8th inning, then 7th inning. At times burning Lopez for one batter when he is the most proven and effective pitcher in your bullpen. Lopez/Myers was the easiest decision he had, and he couldn't get it right half the time. Lyon once he proved himself healthy should have been the easy decision 7th inning guy.
Unfortunately, we will never know how good a manager Mills can be. He is in a no-win situation. He doesn't have the players to routinely compete game in and game out and the bullpen is abysmal. Just go with the Dierker approach. Don't manage by the book and shrug it off as letting the young players learn how to act/react in situations they may not otherwise be in. Leave the starters in longer to try and work out of jams. Have situational lefties face more than one hitter. Start left-handed hitters against left handed pitchers. What has he got to lose?
That doesn't really improve the lineup any. Moore's OPS is higher than your #2 hitter and the same as your #3 and #4 hitters. This is a lineup full of interchangable, terrible players - replacing Moore with other guys with the same stats isn't really going to do much. OK, fair enough. But he was pretty bad last year, with a 0.660 OPS and a sub-0.300 OBP. Jordan Schafer has a higher OBP now than Altuve did last year. There was no reason to put him at the top of the order at the beginning of this season based on that. This year, he spent all of a week at the bottom of the order before moving up. That doesn't seem all that unreasonable.
I totally agree on this. I don't care AT ALL if the team wins or loses this year. I think all the managerial decisions should be focused on developing the players and learning about their strengths and weaknesses.
Scott Moore is a terrible baseball player. He strikes out 30% of the time. Sort of like Jordan Schafer It was that he started him at the top of the lineup, he was red hot and moved him to the bottom, where he stayed hot, got moved back up, then down, then up permanently. 2,2,2,2,2,8,8,8,8,8,2,2,2,8,8,7,2,2,2,2,2
