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September 27, 2009

On the Beat

Weekend Update

by John Perrotto

When Joe Torre began his managerial career 33 years ago, he did not believe in the old baseball adages about good pitching always beating good hitting, pitching winning championships, and pitching being 80 percent of the game. Torre believed hitting was equally as important as pitching. That was understandable, considering that Torre was quite the hitter during an 18-year career that spanned from 1960-77, as he had .297/.365/452 slash stats with a .298 career Equivalent Average and 252 home runs in 2,209 games.

Then Torre made the transition from player to manager during the 1977 season with the Mets. With that new frame of reference, it did not take long for him to understand the importance of pitching. "We'd had the great starting rotation there but because of ownership reasons we had to start trading guys away," Torre said. "First we traded Tom Seaver. Then we traded Jon Matlack. After that, we traded Jerry Koosman. The late Rube Walker was our pitching coach, and after every trade I'd say that it was OK because we needed to have an offensive identity and we couldn't always be looked at as strictly a pitching franchise. Every time I would say that, Rube would shake his head. Eventually, I understood why Rube always shook his head."

Torre found out the hard way with the Mets, suffering through seasons of 96, 99, and 95 losses before being fired in 1981. But Torre has had much success since those Mets' days as his 2,245 victories in 28 seasons rank him fifth on the all-time list behind Connie Mack (3,731), John McGraw (2,763), Tony La Russa (2,551), and Bobby Cox (2,411). Torre has won 12 division titles, six pennants, and four World Series.

The Dodgers became the first National League team to clinch a playoff spot yesterday, which means Torre will be managing in his 14^th consecutive postseason next month when he leads them into the playoffs for a second year. That comes after guiding the Yankees to the postseason in 12 seasons with them. Thus, Torre fully understands what it takes to be successful in October. "You have to have pitching," Torre said. "You have to have good starting pitching and a good bullpen, too. If you have starters who can get you through six innings and keep it close and then a bullpen that can take you through the seventh, eighth, and ninth innings, you're going to give yourself a chance to win. In the postseason, you really have to play for one run at a time. You can't put yourself in a position where you're going to need to score five runs in an inning because you are just facing too much good pitching."

A month ago, there were questions about the Dodgers having enough pitching to make a significant run in the postseason. They were so thin on starters that they signed right-hander Vicente Padilla, even though the Rangers had released him while in the midst of the pennant race in the American League because he had caused so many problems in their clubhouse. The Dodgers also traded for Diamondbacks right-hander Jon Garland on August 31, the last day players could be acquired and still be eligible for a team's post-season roster.