LA Dodgers: The Myth Of Donnie Baseball

October 15, 2015; Los Angeles, CA, USA; Los Angeles Dodgers manager Don Mattingly (8) reacts following the 3-2 loss against New York Mets in game five of NLDS at Dodger Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Jayne-Kamin Oncea-USA TODAY Sports

Last week when the inevitable became a reality and Don Mattingly was let go, or mutually uncoupled (thanks Gwyneth), from the LA Dodgers, it meant the end of the last vestiges of the Frank McCourt era.

Mattingly was inherited by the new ownership group and by extension the new President of Baseball Operations Andrew Friedman.

With another disappointing end to the season, it was time for Mattingly and the front office to separate.

If you read the stories when the news broke out, there was plenty of praise for Mattingly and some doubt of the Dodgers front office.

Much was made of the fact that Mattingly was the first Dodgers manger to lead the team to three straight playoff appearances, he won 55 percent of the games he managed, and he was able to win by juggling big egos in the clubhouse.

If you read about the front office, it was usually a nuanced argument about nerds and spreadsheets.

It seems like Mattingly got a raw deal and his days were doomed when Friedman and GM Farhan Zaidi were hired last off-season.

Looking at Mattingly and the end of his Dodgers tenure, it’s not so black and white.

Yes, Mattingly consistently kept his teams above .500 and did win three straight division titles but it should be noted these winning seasons had some flaws.

Certainly the Dodgers benefited from playing the NL West.

During their three division titles they hardly had any competition except for their rivals the San Francisco Giants.

In each year, the Dodgers manhandled at least one division team this year being more pronounced as the Dodgers went for win percentage of .605 against the West.

Once Mattingly was able to overcome the weak NL West the flaws did come out, as he was only able to win one playoff series in three years going 8-11 at .421 clip.

Each playoff year was peppered with Mattingly’s flawed in-game management.

In the 2013 NLDS, Mattingly attempted to have Juan Uribe bunt a runner to third despite the fact Uribe only had one successful bunt all season.

When he failed, Mattingly was only saved when Uribe hit the go-ahead home run.

In Game 1 of the NLCS, with a chance to steal a win on the road Mattingly took out his best hitter Adrian Gonzalez for a pinch runner that failed to steal the base and when the game went to extra innings the Dodgers were unable to score when Gonzalez place in the line up came up twice with the runners on.

This year with Kershaw struggling in Game 1 down 1-0, Mattingly smartly took him out but brought in walk happy Pedro Baez who promptly gave up a hit putting the game away ensuring the Dodgers demise.

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Something that was often cited was Mattingly’s ability to manage such difficult egos, except twice this year in front of very public cameras veteran leaders Clayton Kershaw and Andre Ethier got into shouting matches with their manager.

This begs the question if Mattingly was such an effective general why were his guys yelling at him in plain view of everybody.

The bottom line is that Mattingly was not going to take the Dodgers all the way.

He was in a good opportunity where his team could take advantage of weak competition, but when it came to the playoffs his flaws came out.

And ultimately his best strength was really fool’s gold as players felt it was okay to humiliate him in front of the cameras.

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