Give Credit To Joe Torre

I may not have agreed with everything he did while he was managing the Yankees. I hated him bringing in Jeff Weaver instead of Mariano Rivera in the 2003 World Series, I couldn't stand his abuse of relief pitchers, I hated how stoic he could be at times, and I was horrified that he didn't call his team off the field in Cleveland when midges started attacking Joba Chamberlain. But there's no doubt Joe Torre is a great manager.

I think that was reaffirmed last night as he passed Sparky Anderson for 5th all-time on the win list for managers. The four managers above Torre? Connie Mack (who managed for 53 years!), John McGraw, Tony LaRussa, and Bobby Cox. Since he took over the Yankees in 1996, Torre has been to the playoffs every single year. Only Bobby Cox has more playoff appearances than Torre and if all things stay as they are, they'll be tied by the end of the season. The only managers with more World Series wins are Joe McCarthy, Casey Stengel, and Connie Mack. His six pennants are the most of any manager not yet in the Hall of Fame.

I thought that 2006 was his greatest managing season as he navigated around not having Hideki Matsui or Gary Sheffield for much of the season as well as a rotation that had 4th and 5th starters that included Jaret Wright, Cory Lidle (with a 5.16 ERA), Shawn Chacon (with a 7.00 ERA), Aaron Small (with a 8.46 ERA), and Sidney Ponson (with a 10.47 ERA). But the argument that year was that Joe Torre had the unlimited Yankees' resources and he was able to go out and get Lidle and Bobby Abreu and so that's why he won.

So then, Joe Torre critics, why are the Los Angeles Dodgers up 9 games in the NL West right now? He has had Manny Ramirez suspended for 50 games. The most games started on the team belongs to Randy Wolf. Rafael Furcal, their "big free agent signing", has an OPS of .634 and is 4 of 8 on stolen bases. Russel Martin has a .631 OPS with no homeruns. James Loney has two homers and .367 SLG % at first base. The only two other pitchers besides Wolf to have over 10 starts are 24 and 21 years old. Eric Stults has had 9 starts while Hiroki Kuroda has had only 5. They've gotten 11 starts from a combination of Jeff Weaver, James McDonald and Eric Milton. His bullpen is makeshift in front of Jonanthan Broxton. And yet here we sit, on June 19th, and the Dodgers have the best record in Major League Baseball.

So let's give some credit to Joe Torre, for all his faults, he's still a pretty great manager.