After struggling through his second week of the season, Ryne Sandberg had a few questionable moves again this week but to his credit nailed a crucial decision.
Sandberg ended the week and the Atlanta series off a tremendously positive note. The Phillies, Sandberg, Larry Bowa and whomever is on the other end on that replay phone in particular, have really struggled with the new replay system. There have been plays they should have challenged that they did not, plays they challenged and lost or in once case a play in which they could not get a decision out in time.
On Thursday afternoon in the top of the fifth inning, Sandberg made arguably his best decision of the season. I know that is not saying much, but it was a display of perfectly reading a situation, making a calculated risk and adapting to his team and their current state of play.
Playing in a scoreless tie, it was pretty apparent that runs would be tough to come by with Alex Wood and A.J. Burnett engaged in a pitchers’ duel. Andrelton Simmons appeared to have a stolen base, but he overslid the base and Jimmy Rollins applied the tag. The second base umpire had failed to see it, and incorrectly ruled Simmons safe.
Sandberg went out to have a conversation while waiting for Bowa to inform him whether they should challenge or not. Bowa of course threw his hands up like, “Who knows” and Sandberg was on his own. So not having any knowledge that it would definitely be overturned, “Ryno” rolled the dice, challenged it and won.
It was an impressive decision. He accurately read the way the game was playing out, that the Phillies could not afford to have Simmons standing in scoring position the way their offense had been struggling, he saw the reaction of Rollins and felt it was the right time to gamble. He was rewarded when Simmons was ruled to be out. This decision was arguably his best of the year.
Aside from that, not much worked out too well, though. Sandberg really botched the bullpen usage and utilization of the bench.
Monday was a killer of a loss, and it’s not like Sandberg had a smooth run of decisions. He made the decision before the game that he wanted to stay away from Jonathan Papelbon, B.J. Rosenberg and Antonio Bastardo. That’s fine, in 162 games you’re going to run into nights where some guys need rest.
The problem was he deviated from his plan and had an exception to use Rosenberg. He promptly gave up three runs to the only three batters he faced. Papelbon never appeared in the game, and so it was Jake Diekman, a guy Sandberg apparently unformed before the game was going to be the closer, that got the call in the ninth inning.
This blew up in a few ways. Apparently telling Diekman beforehand did not work as he came in too pumped and could not locate his pitches. He would allow a grand slam to Dan Uggla and allow four runs in the ninth as the Phillies lost.
Why did he make the exception for Rosenberg, but not his big-money closer in Papelbon? And did he hurt Diekman’s chances by telling him ahead of time he would be the guy in the ninth inning? It sure seemed like he was a little too nervous.
His eighth inning management was curious on Thursday. After Dom Brown led the inning off getting on first, he had Wil Nieves bunt him into scoring position with light-hitting Jayson Nix on deck. It seemed foolish to burn an out and set the stage for a guy that, frankly, had little chance of coming through with a hit. It probably would have been wiser to try running with Brown.
Finally, and this is a minor thing, why did he pinch run for Ryan Howard on Thursday? In a tie game and the trailing run in the bottom of the eighth, Howard’s run was meaningless. All it did was burn an addition bench player in a game that potentially could have gone extra innings. There were two outs already, so the runner would be off on contact anyway.
Something to keep an eye on: Remember all the talk that Sandberg was going to bring great fundamentals and that was a reason he would be a better manager than Charlie Manuel? Well that seems to be far from the truth. Just keep an eye on their fundamentals and the little things, they don’t seem to be particularly smooth.
