Ryne Sandberg certainly has everyone’s attention. In four short games, he’s had Ryan Howard out of the cleanup spot as often as in it, had his closer question a decision of his and executed two great-pinch hitting calls. Oh, and four lineups in four games has everyone needing to double-check the lineup card.
Going into the week, I thought Sandberg had about as easy of an open to the season as possible. Three games with the designated hitter, and then a return to his own stomping grounds, Wrigley Field. Wrong. In fact, he actually got booed in Chicago.
I was a big Charlie Manuel. It was understated how much he knew and got major league baseball. I’ll say this about Ryno, though—I don’t know if we’ve ever had four consecutive games in the Manuel era in which he was as noticed as much as Sandberg was in these four games.
To be fair, though, Sandberg made one attention-grabbing move that the previous “Skipper” would have never made: pulling a reliever whom had been perfect in a five run game with no men on base and one out away from victory. That was borderline obnoxious, and frankly he did deserve to get booed by the Cubs fans.
Enough comparing the two though, that does not seem very productive.
It is unfair, but the one move that we will probably remember most from this week of “Ryno-Ball” was his curious decision to pull the infield in—not go for a double play—while a double play away from winning the game. I’ll admit it was an odd decision, not going for the win right away on the road with a closer who clearly lacked his best stuff, but the explanation afterwards made some sense.
Sandberg claimed that Leonys Martin was too fast to double up, and that’s why he put the infield in. Frankly, I would have read the game situation and that Papelbon, not having strikeout stuff, needed to get two outs on one play if possible, but I cannot kill him for it—again, it made sense.
Moving past that, my biggest complaint for the week was using Antonio Bastardo against Donnie Murphy, Martin and Robinson Chirinos, two right-handed hitters, while saving Mario Hollands to make his major league debut against Shin-Soo Choo, Elvis Andrus and Prince Fielder. This move seemed to indicate that Sandberg did not think ahead, and was caught pantsed in the ninth inning upon realizing he had no one left. Seriously, why would you use Bastardo against the 7-8-9 hitters but then Hollands against the top of the order? I would not dwell on this one though, as I fully expect Sandberg to learn on the job from this one.
With my two criticisms out of the way, I thought the manager did an otherwise good job. It seems easy to say that looking past the two games he lost, but he nailed the opener with the decision to pull John Mayberry Jr. off the bench and get the game-winning pinch hit, as well as his homecoming at Wrigley.
His quick hook of Roberto Hernandez received criticism from many, but if you were watching the game, you would have noticed Hernandez did not have tremendous stuff. In fact, as Sandberg pointed out, he tired early and topped out at 86 mph in his last inning of work. Instead of rolling the dice, Sandberg did a great job of recognizing the situation and used (part of) his eight-man bullpen.
Overall, as I look at Sandberg’s week, I give him credit for the two victories and only pin one of the losses on him. Although his decision to bring the infield in was controversial, I have a hard time NOT blaming Jonathan Papelbon for that particular loss. Seriously, given a three run lead and only needing three outs and failing to do so is on the closer, regardless of how odd a move by a manager was.
So, Ryno, you have my attention. His decisions certainly are interesting and more importantly he seems to have at least somewhat of a logical reason behind everything.
Overall grade for the week: B.
