Joe Torre

It's starting to look like Joe Torre is running away with a 14th consecutive trip to the playoffs as a manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers. They've been straight up dominating the opposition in the NL West. Some might say, "Oh, the NL West has the worst teams in baseball. It's the easiest division." Regardless, the Dodgers are where they're at 79 games into the season. All this and they're doing it without Manny Ramirez. They're hasn't been a superstar in the lineup. Everybody on the team is pitching in. Over the past 14 years, Torres had a knack of making things happen with the players given to him yet still make the playoffs.This team is starting to remind me of Torre’s 1998 Yankees. How’s does this Dodger team compare? Let’s take a look.

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Girardi is 1000x better managing the bullpen then Joe Torre. Once the starters began giving some length and Girardi could dictate roles the staff has taken off. Torre really had become Clueless Joe when it came to managing the bullpen. He would burn guys out for weeks at a time till they were dead tired or hurt and couldnt perform. Then he would dump them and find another guy he "trusted." See Scott Proctor, Paul Quantrill, Louis Vizcaino, and Tanyon Sturtz for a short list of guys used and abused by Torre. He even needed rules put in place when Joba Chamberlain came into the equation late last year for fear of over use. And when the rules were gone he overused him the playoffs throwing nearly 40 pitches in game 3 with a big lead.

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While injuries to starters typically can devastate a team, the injuries to the Los Angeles Dodgers’ outfield this season have, in fact, been helpful for the team’s future. Losing Andruw Jones and then Juan Pierre has meant more playing time for their young hotshots Andre Ethier and Matt Kemp, something Torre was either unwilling or unable to do, perhaps because he was stuck by the same “play the most who you pay the most” philosophy that has plagued the Mariners.

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990's was due to the skill of Gene Michael, and to a lesser degree, Bob Watson, Buck Showalter, and Joe Torre. Cashman has made too many terrible free agent signings - Kyle Farnsworth, Carl Pavano, Latroy Hawkins, to name a few - hasn't made any good trades, and only in recent years has stood up to Steinbrenner in regards to not giving away young, talented players. Well, I'm not sure if that counts as much, since Steinbrenner was clearly not as as lucid in recent years. Anyone can push around a senile old man. Also, taking a flyer on washed-up has-beens like Aaron Small and Shawn Chacon doesn't take any skill. Anyone could have picked them up - the Yankees just got lucky that the two of them happened to have a good second half that season.

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