Four days ago, we published a piece about all the mistakes Major League Baseball managers were making in the postseason. Now, that the big cheese stands alone in each league—the Houston Astros in the AL and Los Angeles Dodgers in the NL—and it will be a test of wills in each dugout beginning on Tuesday.
Which team’s skipper better stands out for his postseason managerial prowess? That would be the Dodgers’ Dave Roberts, argues The Ringer, as quite simply put, he was best able to utilize his most talented players in the right game-time situations. One example on the offensive side of things was playing shortstop Charlie Culberson in place of an injured Corey Seager during the NLCS. Culberson seemingly came out of nowhere to knock a pair of game-tying hits in Games 1 and 2.
Roberts has also done the best job of conserving the talent he has available to him out of the bullpen. As The Ringer notes, his septet of relievers all pitched in multiple postseason games, with his three best arms—Kenta Maeda, Brandon Morrow, and closer Kenley Jansen—averaging just about an inning per game. And Roberts also spreads the wealth around, using each of his 25 postseason roster spots.
RealClearLife will also throw in another fact about Roberts that The Ringer left out: that he himself is a postseason hero, having pulled off one of the greatest steals in baseball history for the 2004 Boston Red Sox, who went on to win that year’s World Series. That’s got to count for something, right?
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