Baseball's Dunce of the Year

"Nobody feels worse than the guys in our bullpen. I thought we played a great game. You can't dwell on it. We have to move on. We have another game to play." - Joe Maddon, Tampa Bay Rays manager.

Really Joe? Nobody feels worse than the guys in the pen? Admittedly, they should feel awful after blowing a 7-0 lead. But how about you Joe? The manager. The dunce.

Let me lay it out for you: your star starter, Scott Kazmir, has just pitched 6 great innings. He's only given up 2 hits and 3 walks. The game is going splendidly. You are 9 outs away from the first World Series in franchise history. Even Boston's unbeatable closer is having a bad night, as he gives up 2 runs to make the score 7 - 0. Your team is rolling. So what should you do?

Well, of course, you throw in a guy cold from the pen. He gives up four hits and four runs in two-thirds of an inning, followed by another guy who gives up three hits and three runs in 1.1 innings, followed by another reliever who gives up the winning run in another two-thirds of inning. Great decision, Joe. And hey, who can blame you? Why not chuck a couple of cold, young guys out there to see if they can take their minds off the fact that they're 3 innings away from a World Series...unless they blow it.

Baseball managers and their love of pitch count and relief pitchers literally makes me sick to my stomach. There's nothing worse than seeing a manager reach for the telephone when his starting pitcher is doing just fine, thank you very much.

Note to managers: no matter how great you think your bullpen is, there is only one reason why those guys are in the pen and not starting games: they aren't good enough. When your starter is rolling towards a shutout, keep him rolling.

Joe Maddon apparently had his nose buried too deeply in the Manager Handbook, or his head too far up his ass, to see how perfectly things were going for his team. Hopefully the players don't suffer for his idiocy by having Boston come back and win the series altogether.