Clueless, and Not in a Good Way

Short of swearing to the point of a stroke, I can’t put it any other way: White Sox manager Tony La Russa is clueless, and he proves it on a daily basis, as he did yesterday in Kansas City. Your ace Dylan Cease gives up one run in six innings and gets pinned with the loss, you should not be talking about the winning pitcher, Zack Greinke, least of all to “tip your cap to him” because your team was clueless how to score. You should be praising Cease and pinning the loss on his teammates. Period. If La Russa knew how to manage, he would’ve known what to do in the second inning, with two runners on and nobody out. You bunt. But not La Russa. He let Josh Harrison fly out, runners holding, after which rookie Lenyn Sosa grounded into a double play. If La Russa knew how to manage, he would’ve held people accountable for the debacle(s) in the third inning. Debacle #1: runners on first and second, Andrew Vaughn singles to right, but Seby Zavala fails to pick up the flight of the ball and fails to score. All La Russa can do is defend Zavala for not falling victim to a hypothetical double play and add, “I’d rather him get to third base with one out [assuming the] right fielder caught the ball.” BUT HE DIDN”T! Debacles #2-4: Bases now loaded, nobody out, heart of the order up. And what do they do? Eloy Jimenez, strike out. Jose Abreu, strikeout. Yasmani Grandal, groundout. Tony La Russa, tipping his cap to the opposition. If La Russa knew how to manage, he would’ve pulled Luis Robert from the game for failing to run out a ground ball in the seventh inning of a 1-0 game. Royals’ second baseman Michael Massey booted the ball, only Robert took his time getting out of the box. No hustle, no base hit. Steve Stone, and I never thought I’d be singing his praises, called out Robert then as he had Zavala earlier. Not a harsh word from La Russa, though. If La Russa knew how to manage, he wouldn’t have called Johnny Cueto’s questioning his team’s fire “curious.” No, a real manager would realize a veteran player knew what the problem was and demanded accountability from his teammates. Tony La Russa, accountability? The man’s clueless, on that and so much else.