Will Grady Little ever manage a ML club?

[Steak]

What does Grady Little has to do to get a job? Another job opening goes to a another retread manager who has not won much in Buddy Bell. There were lot of job openings in the offseason for the managerial position, but Grady Little apparently was not good enough for the job. That bothers me. Why are teams so scared to hire Grady Little? Grady Little is willing to manage a small-market team. He is willing to manage a team with no hope. He is not cherry-picking his job. Grady Little has made lot of mistakes, but every manager makes mistakes. It seems he has not been forgiven for that gaffe in Game 7 of the ALCS two years ago. Just because he made that mistake does not mean he should not be hired. Grady Little is a better manager than guys who were hired as managers. It's a joke. Little did a darn good job with the Red Sox. To manage in a tough market and a demanding fanbase is not an easy thing to do, but Grady made it look easy.

I think it's sad that he is not managing for a ML club. He is more than capable of managing and he would do a darn good job for that team.

[aTrUeCUBsFaN]

I have a feeling that Grady Little will be the next Cubs manager.

[Fishercat]

Little was in Boston for a couple years...he really wasn't that good a manager even considering his game 7 gaffe.

I compare him to Francona. Yes, Francona inhertied two great players who made a big difference in Schilling and Foulke. However, Little's perfect season (with a completely overachieving team not in the pen) was 3 games worse than Francona. He gave Damian Jackson 150+ AB with a lineup that was essentially healthy the whole year. He was a poor pen manager, never letting players settle into a role. That was not completely his fault. BP puts it well that roles are crutches for managers in managing a bullpen, Little needed the crutch and Theo took away the crutch and threw him into a busy hallway. If the Sox had Foulke in 2003, would they be celebrating back to back WS? Dunno.

Perhaps the thing I disliked about Grady the most was his lineup management. The Sox had an amazing offensive year in 2003, on pace for over 1k runs. They ended up with a good 40 less then that. First three hitters? Johnny Damon (.345 OBP), Todd Walker (.333 OBP), Nomar Garciaparra (.345 OBP). The .333 OBP was the worst in the starting lineup. The .345 OBP was second worst in the starting lineup. Essentially, your three worst guys at getting on base are batting 1-2-3 most of they year. No wonder Manny only had 105 RBI with such a massive offense and over 1.000 OPS around him. Even better, his second and third best OBPs (Nixon and Mueller) were hitting 7th and 8th.

Little can manage a team, I just don't believe he is particularly good at it. He's likely better than Bell, but Bell is a development guy who is used to suckass teams.

[Providence A's]

game 7 gaffe? You sox fans are crazy...Little was screwed no matter what he did unless it worked.

If he took Pedro out and they lost, you'd be saying he should have left him in.

He did leave him in and they lost and you complain.

If he left him and it worked, you wouldn't say squat

If he took him out and it worked, you also wouldn't say squat.

He was damned if he did and damned if he didn't unless it worked out.

quit playing monday morning qb...or in this case monday morning manager

[awefullspellare]

I have a feeling that Grady Little will be the next Cubs manager.

That makes a ton of sense to me. Dusty is falling out with the fans and Grady would be and excellent choice. I would love to see him be the new manager if we do get rid of Dusty.

[rockin500]

grady has been the one rumored to be the one being groomed especially considering he is in the cubs front office right now.

[love_that_reefer]

Amen Providence. Grady didn't let people in the pen settle cause they were horrible. Not his fault. I thought that him bringing in Wakefield in extras was the biggest mistake he made. Wakefield might have owned them all series but knuckleballs are the easiest pitch to hang and I knew when they brought him in that the game was over. Grady Little did a lot of good for the Red Sox. The only difference between Francona and Little is that Francona won,

[Steak]

If Grady managed the Red Sox last year, he would have won the WS.

I think a great story for baseball besides Cubs and White Sox winning a WS would be seeing Grady Little win the WS. The national media, the Boston media, and even the NY media really made a mockery of Grady and that bothers me to no end.

[joek]

game 7 gaffe? You sox fans are crazy...Little was screwed no matter what he did unless it worked.

If he took Pedro out and they lost, you be saying he should have left him in.

He did leave him in and they lost and you complain.

If he left him and it worked, you wouldn't say squat

If he took him out and it worked, you also wouldn't say squat.

He was damned if he did and damned if he didn't unless it worked out.

quit playing monday morning qb...or in this case monday morning manager

I couldn't have said it any better. You are 100% correct in your assessment of what happened to Little. And YES, I think he will manage again.

[HuskerFan2002]

I honestly thought Grady would manage the Royals for some reason.

[joek]

He may not want to restart that low. Spoken after they have trounced the YANKEES twice.

[Fishercat]

game 7 gaffe? You sox fans are crazy...Little was screwed no matter what he did unless it worked.

If he took Pedro out and they lost, you'd be saying he should have left him in.

He did leave him in and they lost and you complain.

If he left him and it worked, you wouldn't say squat

If he took him out and it worked, you also wouldn't say squat.

He was damned if he did and damned if he didn't unless it worked out.

quit playing monday morning qb...or in this case monday morning manager

You, Reefer, and joek don't have the grasp on the situation.

Any Sox fan who had a head on him or her knew a few things just from watching the season

A) Once Pedro hit pitch 100 he went from amazing to mediocre/bad. Both in Innings 7-9 and Pitches 106+ in 2003, all his rate against (BAA, OBPA, SLGA, OPSA) skyrocketed. Just using Batting Average Against
4-6 inning: .218
7-9 inning: .288
91-105 pitches: .231 (up 16 points from the previous 15)
106-120 pitches: .370

B) The Sox pen had been LIGHTS OUT in the playoffs and September after a bad 5 months. Timlin had allowed one hit (or something to that extent), Embree and Williamson were killer. Take a look at the amount of ER allowed in the Yankee series by RP before G7: 2 (Arroyo and Williamson assuming they were both RP in the series). The two runs in the Oakland series were Lowe (1) and Kim (1)

C) He struggled mightily in the 7th inning.

Those three things put together plus two hits in a row to start the inning signals to take Pedro out. I said, in the Top of the 8th, that Pedro was going to be out. My mother said he was going to be out. Almost every single Sox fan would have taken him out (and a lot of these weren't Monday Morning QBing. I know that when he came out for the 8th, I said to my mother "Grady's leaving him in. That's risky".)

You're right, if he did it right, no one would have cared. Of course, that's what a good manager does. He does everything right so no one notices. Torre's SP (Clemens) struggled in the first three innings, so he pulled him. No one mentions that Mussina shut down the Sox for a third of the game because they didn't need to. I don't talk about Francona's idiotic move of bringing Pedro in relief in Game 7, although I don't know if that had any mental strengthening, I doubt it. I don't talk because they won the WS.

The relief pitching was sensational. There's no reason to think, if Grady didn't do what I thought he should have done (Timlin 8th, Williamson 9th), with a 3-run lead, that they wouldn't have won. In that game, Timlin pitched 1 1/3 scoreless.

It's not Monday Morning QBing if you do it Sunday Afternoon, which I did. I proceed to do it anytime brings up Grady not being at fault, at least partially, for the loss. He cost the Sox a few games (most likely) in the regular season due to poor lineups and can argued to cost the Sox a shot to win a WS against the Marlins.

Providence, please don't make assumptions, especially when they are wrong. If he took out Pedro after the 7th inning and Timlin or Embree gave up 3 runs and the Sox lost the same way, I would have supported Grady against arguments.

Reefer: Depends on what you're talking about. The first five months, I already agreed with you there. Theo took away the crutch Grady needed. He had no excuse for the playoffs (or September), as the talent finally stepped up. I liked bringing Wakefield in, but you make a point. I have to think Williamson could have given 2 good innings before Wake was needed.

There is a bigger difference between Francona and Little, and if you followed the Sox throughout the season, you'd notice it. Just the little things. Don't get me wrong, Francona is no Torre nor is he perfect. But he does more things right than Grady.

[Fishercat]

Just quoting some posts of mine from another forum.

10-17-03 (day after):
Myself:
I don't think he should be fired, but he really does need an adjustment to his mentality in the off-season. This happened in the last series too (ALDS, Game 5), he was brought into the 8th with a 4-1 lead (I think) and left out there too long. Even my mother knew they were playing with fire.

Gotta hate it.
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It was really a common sense move. Your SP struggled to get out of the 7th alive (1 XB hit and the game was tied), you have a lefty specialist in the pen (With a lefty-switch-lefty coming up a little later) and a reliever who had given up one hit in about 8.1 IP (I think). The SP was going on short rest and he had been up to about 110 pitches. It makes absolutely no common sense that Grady did not lift him for Embree or Timlin. Any person in that pen would be more suited for the moment than a fatigued Pedro Martinez. I am still baffled that he left Pedro out there.

He could have got himself out of it if he lifted him after Jeter scored, but he didn't, and it may have cost the Red Sox a World Series chance.

It gives some positive thoughts that the Sox can beat the Yankees in a 7 game series and are near their equal (Yankees still better), but damn, Grady Little may have cost the Sox their first WS Chance since 1986.
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In fact, the topic I am getting the comments from, the following people said he should get fired for the move or for his strategies in general:

TF88
Lance
yhova
Emo

People who said the decision was bad but he shouldn't be fired:
waruv
BoSox21
crazyharry
RaiderDee

It's not just me, it's not just Sox fan, and it wasn't just that time.

[Providence A's]

again, by "you" I didn't mean you specifically..."you" meant joe red sox fan...always taking everything so personally for some reason

[Fishercat]

When you say stop playing Monday Morning QB, and I'm the only one in the topic doing it, it's a clear connection.

Of course, I can't seem to defend a viewpoint without being defensive, so why do you even pay attention to me if it bothers you so much.