There is nothing wrong with swinging early in the count, if they are good pitches. What frustrates me is when a pitcher walks 2 in a row, and the next batter swings at the first pitch, either missing, fouling it off, or grounding or popping up into an out or double play.

You can try to work the count all you want, but the key is hitting YOUR pitch and not the pitcher’s. When Francouer or Diaz swing at the ones in the dirt (or over their head), and take (or foul off) the one’s down the middle, it’s hard to fault Bobby. He could sit them down, but for who? Blanco? Does Blanco give us a better chance for an RBI with a runner on base than Francouer?

I don’t understand how someone can give a MANAGER 100% of the responsibility for losing a game. Baseball managers do not have nearly as much impact on the game as do football and basketball coaches. Even if Bobby made mistakes–which he certainly did and as essentially every manager in the history of baseball has done–it’s absurd to say that he is THE reason they lost.

As much as people here want to pooh-pooh the notion that the playoffs is a crapshoot, it’s true. All you have to do is look at teams like the Cardinals that were lucky to get in the playoffs and then won the WS or the Rockies–basically a .500 team that got hot at the right time and went to the World Series–to realize that. No one wants to acknowledge that much of what happens in baseball is random, but it is, at least in the playoffs.

I don’t understand how you can simply exonerate the players. Is it Cox’s fault that Lonnie Smith didn’t score on the hit against Twins, or that Mark Wohlers hung a slider to Leyritz? Larry might have a point that Cox was too conservative in a lot of the playoff games–I certainly think he is today–but the fact is, if the players had performed the way they were supposed to, it wouldn’t have mattered.

Also, contrary to conventional wisdom, the Braves talent during the 90s, other than the pitching, wasn’t that exceptional. In general, they had a bunch of good players but they were hardly juggernauts. They weren’t nearly as good as, say, the Blue Jays and the Yankees or, for that matter, the Marlins, who had handled the Braves pretty well in the regular season. Yes, they lost to some teams that were arguably inferior–the Phillies, Astros, Cubs–but, in most cases, the teams that beat them were simply better.

IMO, if anyone is to blame, it’s Scheurholz. Throughout the run, he consistently shortchanged the bench and the bullpen in favor of the starting pitching. When the playoffs came, the Braves had relatively weak lineups with especially weak benches and bullpens. The one time they won, they had a substantially better bench, with Devereau and Polonia and a solid bullpen. For most of the run, they did not have this and these lacks probably contributed to Cox having to put in guys in the wrong situations.

I think it’s silly to give a manager credit for his wins but no blame for his losses. But it’s just as silly to ignore his wins and blame him entirely for the losses, especially when it’s so selective.

Re Cox: I think he has his problems, especially now, but I can’t understand the willingness to apparently blame Cox 100% for the playoff losses. You can argue that he contributed to them but how can you say ANY

There’s a genius comment–fire anyone that writes something you disagree with. Glad you are so open minder.

It’s also ridiculous to ignore the games he won. You are saying that the only reason he won in 1995 was because of Glavine but you don’t seem to blame the players for the losses. That’s simply unfair.

My feeling is that baseball manager is the most overrated position in sports. A manager isn’t like a football or basketball coach, whose strategy and tactics really make a difference. In baseball, it makes very little difference. No one claims Cito Gaston is a great tactical manager but he won two World Series. Why? Because he had great players.

As for talent, I don’t think the Braves had exceptional talent, except for the pitching. The lineups were nothing to write home about and this was proven year after year in the playoffs when they failed to hit. Was that Cox’s fault? David Justice was a good but not great player, same for Ron Gant, etc. If anyone is to blame, it’s John Schuerholz for ignoring the bench and the bullpen–he consistenly focused on the starting rotation to the exclusion of other parts of the team that became real weaknesses in the post-season.

I agree that Bobby is not the greatest tactician in baseball, but it’s utterly unfair to blame him for those losses.