Second Guessing Scioscia – Royal Bumble

Welcome to Second Guessing Scioscia, our look back at some of the questionable decisions that Mike Scioscia made in the last week. And, boy, there are some questionable decisions to be reviewed. In the history of this column, we have never once struggled for content. However, we aren’t anti-Scioscia. The official MWAH stance on Scioscia is pro-Scioscia overall. But his in-game tactics need some help and we are here to provide that help by nitpicking incessantly and grading them with our patented SciosciaFace grading system.

This week, we got to turn back the clock six months and relive the ALDS disaster all over again. Yep, it was another sweep at the hands of the Royals complete with managerial bumbling by Scioscia. It is like the ALDS never ended!

4/10 – No hook for Hector
Last year, Mike Scioscia couldn’t pull Hector Santiago from his starts fast enough. If it was later than the third inning and somebody got on base, Scisoscia was coming with the hook. That’s only a slight exaggeration.

This year though, Scioscia showed a newfound faith in Hector, his ability to turn over the lineup and work his way out of jams. This quickly proved to be a mistake.

In this game, Santiago was doing his usual thing of pitching well enough through four innings but also flirting with having the wheels fall off at any time. That is why it was shocking to see Scioscia stick with Hector in a crucial situation that could swing the entire game.

With a runner on second and two outs in the fifth inning of a tied game, Scioscia had a choice: he could let Santiago face right-handed Lorenzo Cain, who had doubled off Hector earlier, or bring in righty-killer Vinnie Pestano. He chose the former and the end result was a go-ahead RBI single from Cain and a great deal of aggravation on my end.

Pulling a pitcher that early in the game is a tough call to make, especially if you are considering keeping the bullpen rested, but that shouldn’t have been much of a consideration this early in the season and having an off day the day before. Besides, Santiago was already over 90 pitches at that point, so he wasn’t long for the game anyway. If Scioscia really thought he could milk two more innings from Santiago, I’d understand, but he was going to be lucky to get two more batters.

What this really seemed like was Scioscia trying to think two moves ahead and outhinking himself. Following Cain was left-handed Eric Hosmer, switch-hitting (but weak from the right side) Kendrys Morales and left-handed Alex Gordon. It sure would be nice to have a southpaw face those batters, so getting Santiago past Cain to face them would be an efficient use of resources.

Or he could’ve just used the two lefty relievers he had waiting the pen. Sure, it would’ve meant burning Pestano on just one batter, but that’s better than waiting four more battes and bringing Pestano in to clean up Santiago’s mess for five outs because, oh by the way, a tiring Santiago started out the sixth inning by serving one up to Kendrys Morales. Oops!

VERDICT:

4/11 – Weaver pleads the fifth
Speaking of not pulling starting pitchers early enough, let’s take a look at the sad excuse for a start that Jered Weaver turned in against Kansas City. Cutting right to the chase, Weaver and his 83 MPH “fast”ball were getting bombed in the fourth inning. Jered faced eight batters that inning and got lit up for five runs. Of the three outs he recorded in that inning, one was a strikeout, one was a deep, well-struck flyball and the other was a caught stealing. In other words, Jered was lucky to only allow five runs.

So what did Scioscia do after this inning? He went right back to Weaver in the fifth, of course!

Why? Because “veteran.”

Sure enough, Jered gets one out in the fifth before surrendering a walk (his fourth of the game) and a single before finally giving way to Drew Rucinski who allowed one of those inherited runners to score. The Angels would go on to lose by two runs. Sure would’ve been nice to have that on run back.

As in the Santiago case, I realize that this is the early regular season and not the playoffs. You have to bite the bullet sometimes to rest the bullpen, which was more of a concern in this game after most of the relief corps pitched the night before. Still, you have to try and give yourself a chance to win the game and sending Jered out for another inning is a decision in direct opposition with that motive.

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4/14 & 4/15 – Aybar leading off… again
Every. God. Damn. Year.

Why? Why do we need to go through this again? What is so hard to understand about not batting one of your lowest OBP batters at the top of the order?

I know that Kole Calhoun was out with injury for these two games, but almost anyone else on the roster would’ve been a better choice than Aybar, he of the career .317 OBP.

Certainly alternatives were limited. Johnny Giavotella is the only other speedy runner on the team, but his bat is unproven, to say the least. Collin Cowgill would’ve been an option had the team been facing a lefty. Heaven forbid that Scioscia give the job to OBP machines like Matt Joyce or Chris Iannetta. For some reason that just doesn’t occur to him even though he’s proven that he’s willing to use an unorthodox leadoff man by having Calhoun hold the job normally.

But no, I know he isn’t going to do that. That would make too much sense and we’ve seen for years that when Scioscia is lacking his normal leadoff man, his fallback option is Aybar. Some things just never change.

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