Will he stay? yes or no He's made some questionable moves. Sometimes I wonder whats going on in that brain of his. But hey, thanks for that wildcard run!
yes .....no doubt IMO maybe next year, hell have a few extra players to work with that will put us over the top
We would be holding our nuts tonight had it not been for Phil f'n Garner. He is the reason for us even making the playoffs.
Yes he will stay but he shouldn't. The fact he let Dan Imbecelli pitch in the playoffs and give up 3 game winning HR's is unbelievable - It's not unbelievable someone can pitch that poorly, it's unbelievable any manager would allow someone to do that. It took him 2 games into the NLCS to realize Wheeler had mettle. Some of his moves are absoultely baffling. He is Terry Collins redux. Next year Brad Lidge will become the 1st reliever to pitch 200 innings.
Words from a genius. I like your style. Your second paragraph says it all. That makes me seriously question his managing skills very hardly.
Springer was there. He's not Major League quality either but at least he hadn't already given up 2 game winning home runs in the playoffs.
He will stay, but they'd better send him to managing school during the offseason. He is a great motivator and he is inspirational, but I wonder about his baseball smarts with some of the moves he has made.
Garner will stay and has earned the right to do so, just by getting this team to the playoffs, but I've completely soured on him, based on the playoffs. I don't want him, but I don't have a choice.
Garner manages like Terry Francona, one got into the series the other lost in game 7 to get in... Heck yes he stays. DD
The thing that I think Garner overlooked when failing to start Roger Clemens for game 6 is that a visiting team had never won a NCLS game 7. He decided to go with the stat that Roger wouldn't pitch as well on 3 days rest. He should have known better that game sevens are much more difficult to win regardless of who is pitching and tried to take care of business in game 6 instead. But, the whole thought process was we will go for it in game 7 and, if we win game 6 with inferior pitching and more offense, then so be it. I think if Garner would have made more right decisions this series...we wouldn't be hanging it up for the off-season right now. Sure, you can ultimately blame the players but Garner sure didn't help any. For instance, his stubornness about putting Miceli in tight games because he was the 8th inning set-up guy during the season while ignoring the fact that Miceli lost a few games up to that point by giving up homeruns to the same people he was facing really cost us a game IMHO. Yea...the Astros had their chances to win game 6 but you don't go back to what you know doesn't work at the critical part of the Cards line-up. In summary and not that it matters now, I think it was Garner's managing that cost us the Cards series. Every little thing counts in the post-season. A bad managerial move can cripple the team just as much as bad play can. Again, Garner was trying to play off the odds of a 3 day rest start of our top pitchers but I think he failed to recognize the other odds of how difficult it is to when a game 7 on the road. Of course, you can look back at the offense not coming through or whatever but these high level moves killed us. I think we all agree he made several mistakes in the post-season. But, I welcome him back anyway because the last 2 months we have done more right than wrong.
I think he rejuvenated the team, and perhaps equally important, he improved the team's relationship with fans and the media. Guy was extremely classy up there in the post-game press conference. SInce the team missed out on Tony Pena, and the absence of other candidates (just the smae tired re-treads), I say we re-up him for a few years. And Gaetti and Hickey.
There's no way he doesn't turn the first NLCS appearance into at least a 3 yr deal. Which is unfortunate, because he screwed up games 2 and 4 in the NLDS, which put us in a bad position opening the NLCS (Backe on 3, Munro). Messed up again last night, not wanting to pull Clemens early despite the fact he was obviously falling apart in the 6th. Devil's Advocate: What if the turnaround was due mostly to the players' shame for getting Williams canned, Beltran's emergence, and managment telling the new manager on no uncertain terms that the best lineups be used, seniority (re: Biggio) and egos by damned? Is it possible that the new manager himself wasn't the direct cause? Evan
I don't think you can necessarily give the manager all the credit for the turnaround. Obviously, he stands to gain from it. But, it's like Garner said in his own words...there is no pep talk or speech he can give the players that they haven't already heard many times over. They knew what needed to be done and no words could bring that about. It was the players that had to execute. So, while Garner deserves some credit I guess for being the manager, it was really the players just doing their thing. Maybe we don't see the tangible things Garner does in the lockerroom that contributed to this? I give the players most of the credit for the turnaround. You could have fired Jimy and put a blow-up doll in the manager's spot. It may have ended in the same result. The players just got their crap together and played up to their potential. But, I'm not really in a position to judge Garner because I'm not there day in and day out to know exactly how he may have helped the team other than the obvious managerial moves made during the games...which have been criticized. He strikes me as a manager who stands by his decisions no matter what. He almost seems to go with whatever worked in the regular season regardless of whether it is actually working now or not. Miceli is an example of that. He commented often that Miceli was his go to guy or set-up guy in the 8th. So, he will always go to him. Yet, he didn't seem to alter his decision based on Miceli's performance in the post-season. I think he is kind of stubborn which can be good and bad in a manager. How much of our success is Garner is difficult to determine. I think the team just turned it around regardless personally. Therefore, this streak we went on could have happened with a blow-up doll manager in the dugout. But, regardless, the manager is always going to get the credit or the blame. That's just the way it works.
