I was against pulling out ace pitcher too but enough with the Cash bashing. You guys didn't follow the Rays or watch us throughout the regular season. You guys are clueless because Cash NEVER let Snell go past the 5th or 6th inning throughout our WS run. He trusts and loves his bullpen and his trust of his bullpen pitchers got us all the way to the WS. Pulling Snell wasn't anything new he does it every outing. It didn't work that time but it worked almost every other time. Hard to bash a young manager who just took one of the lowest payrolls all time to the world series. He'll learn from this and become a greater manager but Cash is awesome. Hard to bash a strategy that got us to the world series. I'm proud of this Rays team and I'm proud how Cash stuck up for us against the billionaire Yankees.
The problem is that this wasn't just another regular-season game. It was an elimination game in the World Series. Even if it was the right move to pull Snell, it's difficult to defend the decision of which reliever to bring in. This guy had been getting knocked around during the Series. I'm an American League guy and was rooting for the Rays, but I get the sense that Cash started believing he was as smart as the press said he was. Hitters are remembered for what they do in big spots in big games, pitchers are remembered for how they pitch in the big games, and managers are remembered for the decisions they make in the big spots in the big games. Like it or not, that's just the way it is. Casey Stengel may have been one of the top managers of all time, but he still gets shit for starting the immortal Art Ditmar instead of Whitey Ford in Game 1 of the 1960 World Series. As for whether he'll learn from this, we'll see. Too often, when an analytics-based decision backfires, the decision-maker writes it off to the randomness of baseball and learns nothing. Do you think Brian Cashman learned anything from his decision to start Garcia in Game 2 of the playoffs and pull him for Jay Happ in the second inning?
I think we agree. I wholeheartedly agree with the statistical approach and using it to guide a broad strategy that will be most successful over the course of an entire season. but you can’t depend on the exact same approach that will work more often than not over 162 games when making an immediate decision for just one game. At that point the macro strategy can’t be used for the micro moment and the stats more relevant to Micro moment ignored. No, he can both be criticized for his move that was clearly wrong and clueless of the moment as it was happening and be applauded for his managerial tactics over the entire season that brought overall success. One does not negate the other as you are trying to argue. Just because his strategy works, overall, over the course of a long schedule doesn’t mean it’s the right decision for every individual situation. And he was absolutely wrong, even the a Dodgers were celebrating when he pulled Snell, and rewarded that cluelessness with 2 runs on the next three batters who hadn’t touched Snell.
