Second Guessing Scioscia – Have no fear

 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.

In this week’s edition of Second Guessing Scioscia, we delve deep into Mike’s deepest fears which include people of short stature, pinch-hitters and using relievers for longer outing than he is comfortable with.

Achondroplasiaphobia
Apparently Mike Scioscia has a secret fear of little people. That’s the only plausible explanation I can think of Sosh giving Jered Weaver the hook after 6.2 innings so that he didn’t have to face the fearsome Alexi Amarista, all 5’6″ of him. Weaver had been clicking right along throwing some shutout ball and sitting on a palatable 104 pitches. He surely could’ve closed out the inning, but not against the mighty Amarista and his career .329 slugging percentage… apparently.

Ah, but you see, Amarista, in addition to being terrifyingly short, is a lefty. Granted, Weaver’s career platoon splits are virtually identical, this was too great a risk to take in the mind of the great and might Sosh. Instead, Scioscia decided to go matchup crazy, calling in southpaw Jose Alvarez, who isn’t even the top lefty in the pen to face Amarista. Brilliant! Alvarez is death on lefties. Well played, Sosh.

Wait… WHAAAAAAAAT? A pinch-hitter? Is that even legal?

Yes, somehow Scioscia didn’t realize that bringing in a lefty was only going to force Bud Black to pinch-hit for Amarista. San Diego sent right-handed Jedd Gyorko to the plate in his stead. Gyorko isn’t very good, but he has the platoon advantage over Alvarez and used it to pick up a base knock. As did the following hitter, Yangervis Solarte, a switch-hitter.

Gosh, knowing that the Angels weren’t going to have the platoon advantage against each of the next two hitters sure seems like it should have led to a different decision, like sticking with the vastly superior pitcher (even with the times through the order penalty) that is Weaver. If only the manager could’ve foreseen this situation unfolding like that.

VERDICT:

Stretch it out
The previous decision actually spawned another poor strategic move by Scioscia. After Alvarez predictably shat the bed once he was put into that suboptimal situation, the game ended up tied. The bullpen had been taxed entering the game, so Scioscia made the decision to stretch Joe Smith‘s appearance into a two inning outing. Smith hadn’t gone multiple innings in a game a single time this season, but he was so economical with his pitches that he only needed 24 pitches to get the six outs. Plus, he was working on four days rest. This is a workload he can handle. Smart, savvy, Monkey approved!

However, Scioscia didn’t seem to account for the fallout of stretching Smith out for the first time in a long time. Surely there would be some side effects from using him in that manner.

Damn the consequences, Scioscia ran Smith out the very next day in the tenth inning of a 0-0 game. Smith, who clearly hadn’t fully recovered from his extended outing, couldn’t command the ball at all and got shelled for four runs. Maybe it was just a coincidence, but seeing how it was the first time in nine outings that Smith had allowed a run and the first time in ten outings that he’d issued a free pass, I tend to believe there is at least a correlation.

This wasn’t just a poor one-game decision though. The fact that this was even a problem is the end result of poor planning. At an organizational level, the Angels appeared to make the decision before the 2014 season to avoid having relievers pitch over multiple innings whenever possible. This decision was presumably made in the interests of improving performance and/or reducing injury. That’s fine and sound logic.

Where that plan fails is in the instance where you make the exception of having someone like Joe Smith make a multi-inning appearance. He simply isn’t physically prepared for it. He handled it fine in the moment, but his body seemingly had a hard time bouncing back like it would from a one inning outing.

Scioscia didn’t anticipate this, so he went to Smith in this high leverage situation expecting him to shut it down like he had most of the month. Instead, Smith’s meltdown led to the Angels’ demise that night. If only Scioscia had given Smith the night off. –SIGH–

VERDICT: