Dodgers: Jerry Hairston Jr. Talks About Evaluating Dave Roberts as Manager
Undeniably, Dodgers analyst Jerry Hairston Jr. has provided some big quotes this off-season already. Remember, Hairston Jr. spoke about Clayton Kershaw no longer being a top pitcher.
Now, Hairston Jr. is asked another tough question upon joining 670 The Score for an interview. Around the 25:00 mark, you can hear the topic we are about to discuss. Indeed, Hairston Jr. is asked to evaluate Dave Roberts as Los Angeles Dodgers manager.
However, before getting into his assessment of Roberts as Dodgers’ manager, he lays the groundwork for how analytics come into the play not only in a regular season, but in a playoff series as well.
“We talk about this quite a bit. Obviously, in the postseason especially when everything is magnified. So many ball clubs have game plans throughout the season and a certain series – what players need to play against certain pitchers and hitters against certain pitchers.”
Of course, Hairston Jr. and anyone listening could begin to think about the Dodgers’ NLDS series against the Washington Nationals. First, Roberts stuck with Clayton Kershaw a little too long; and it cost the Dodgers a season. Then, the Dodgers were taken to task by analysts like Pedro Martinez on national television for how they use analytics.
Still – if you’re expecting Hairston Jr. to drop the hammer on Roberts – you’re going to be disappointed. Indeed, Hairston Jr. feels that Roberts does a solid job when it comes to being a manager and using analytical data in-game. Check out the transcribed quote below on the subject.
“As a manager, you have to know the pulse of your clubhouse… there are a lot of things that go into it. Not just with the analytics. You have to find that proper balance. Alex Rodriguez said it best, A.J. Hinch had the best pitcher in the game in Gerrit Cole and didn’t use him because of the data. In a playoff series, a lot of these analytics go out the window. Analytics over the regular season 162 games is great. But in a short series, you have to be able to decipher that. I think that Dave Roberts has done a pretty good job of that for the Dodgers.”
Finally, it’s tough to know Hairston Jr.’s true feelings on this subject. While it’s hard to believe he thinks that Roberts does a perfect job, he gives mention to the importance of the manager knowing his own clubhouse. Without question, Roberts is master of that domain.
How do you feel about Hairston Jr.’s comments on Roberts? Do you think Roberts does a good job overall – and where can he improve? Sound off in the comments below with any and all thoughts.
If you believe that BS I have a bridge in Brooklyn I’ll sell you. Anytime a Dodger criticizes anything Dodgerblue you know the world is coming to an end. And lastly, why would I care what Hairston says. He played a little baseball. So what.
Dave Robert’s is doing a good job managing the ball club.IT just is he picks the wrong time for a brain cramp.Thats why we can’t finish.He has to have a lineup that’s plays most of the time….He substitutes too much. ….
Fire Dave Roberts
Hairston is pretty far off. Roberts does not know his clubhouse. He only knows his vets and he will and play them even if they are obviously declining. That creates a silent problem in the clubhouse where it’s us the youth, vs them the Managers pets…The Vets. The real poor vets and I mean these guys kill us in the playoffs… Taylor, Kiki, Pollock get a load of playing time. Hairston has a job to protect on SNLA and can’t go too far. Roberts had the right pieces available to use and for the 3rd straight year blew it with wrong choices. With a 3-1 lead in the 8th you don’t want Kershaw anywhere near Rendon. The rest of the decisions just get worse. It is not really an outlier, Roberts just doesn’t have the in game knowledge to win games in the Post season. Fans who support him see a mirage with the 106 wins. They would have won easily 110+ games with a good Manager. Just consider 1 simple thing, his use of someone other than Jansen who had 9 blown saves would have given the dodgers at least 5 more wins making it 111 to 115 wins!!!. That’s how the dodgers could have been with the right manager. But no, Madden got away because Fraudman is cheap and has to make the Roberts contract pay off.
I often chuckle at how fans like you have 20/20 hindsight vision. While Roberts made some questionable decisions, we wouldn’t be talking about it had the player(s) performed to their ability. But to say Roberts is responsible for only winning 106 games and it should have been closer to 115, just shows you really have no clue. Roberts has had to manage a team full of talent, and convince players that their a team, not individuals. When dealing with world class athletes and their world class egos, Dave has done a remarkable job. The Dodgers have to get to the post season in order to have a chance at making a run at winning 11 games. But the players must perform. The one thing Dave Roberts and the Dodgers front office has done superbly is not listen to idiot, armchair quarterback fans like you. I want a championship as much as the next guy; but I don’t need someone to blame when ‘the team’ didn’t perform to their ability. The team that gets hot and gets breaks during the playoffs are who end up winning. Just look at the Giants three championship years. They had no business being in the playoffs tow of the three; but they got hot. And it wasn’t Bruce Bochy’s infinite wisdom that won the championship. The players performed as expected. I’ll take 106 wins every year and I’ll hope it’s my team that gets hot during the playoffs. We have an unbelievable team with a remarkable manager that knows how to deal with personalities and make tough decisions during the regular season. The team needs to perform and make it happen!!!
Get off his jock
Dave Roberts is garbage!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
AMEN
Jerry is wrong. I think that he may have been taken to task about his comments regarding Kershaw. In fact, I believe that it’s just the opposite of how Jerry describes it. Roberts is a ‘pretty good’ manager for a 162 game season, but his lack of a ‘gut instinct’, or at least the nads to use it, is terrible for a short series. The Dodgers have proven that analytics WILL NEVER win a World Series. The 2019 Houston Astros have confirmed it when A.J. Hinch started to manage like Dave Roberts in game 7. The 2019 World Series MVP award goes to A.J.Hinch, at least that’s what an intelligent Nationals fan would say. Dave Roberts is still ahead with 2 of those awards! Go Dave! No, really. GO, Dave.
Are you serious about Dave Robert’s he leaves the pitchers in wayyyyyyy to long, always and in the end cost the Dodgers the playoffs! Also does not let the pitching coach do his job or make any decisions, Robert’s jumps in and does the job for him no wonder he stepped down! Why have a pitching coach if Roberts is bogarting that job too.
LOL.. we shall see how fans feel about loser Roberts… ic case you have forgot.. fans pay for tickets.. not Roberts….. and he has shown he CAN”T win when It COUNTS!!!!!!
Ken, all one has to do is recall how Roberts was soundly booed in that fateful game 5 in the NLDS.
Dave Roberts should have been let go after the 1st loss of the WS he hasnt a clue .
Look we all no Roberts isn’t as big game manager. He has no business managing the dodgers as much as Freeman calling the shots talk about the blind leading the blind.im tired of of all this dodger B’s I’m 57 ive been a fan for a long time . But we still go to the games something has to change and it’s got to start with the fans how much of this crab are we gonna take .seems the ownership is satisfied with a division championship . Kupchak oh I mean Freeman has got to go . He’s leading us in the same direction kupchak did for the Lakers .hope it dosent take 10 yrs to figure this out rite….. We the fans have got to to stand strong . We got to make them realize we’re not idiots and u no we’re I’m going with this . Yuuup slow down on going to the games . Dodgers will always be dodgers but Freeman and Roberts got to go kick rocks . The only way I c dodgers doing anything if they would play ball like Roberts use to play with integrity heart motivation and alot spirit for the fans we love these guys there r boys they represent .they shouldn’t be taking on stupidity from kupchak . He won’t sign no one this year .first phone call he’ll make is yuup the RAYS . Brace urself fans for a long 4 years ahead of us with kupchak and Roberts
Jerrys a homer !! He cant say anything bad against Roberts he is employed by the Dodgers . Roberts still cant manage and Friedman cant do the G.M. , CEO , Pres. thing . Tell like it is ? Ned and the rest of the crew are all employed by the team , see no evil , speak no evil , hear no evil , mums the word …..Say something for crying out loud !! be honest with the fans , no lipstick on the pig reporting ……
Dave Roberts does a great job managing the clubhouse and motivating players over the course of the season. His downfall like Kersh’s has been the postseason. His management of the pitching has been lacking especially the bullpen. Eighth inning against Nats. If you get by Rendon and Soto it’s game over. You have to bring in Maeda to pitch to Rendon and Kolarek to pitch to Soto and let Kelly and Jansen finish it off. Loyalty is a great trait in a manager in the regular season but you have to be cutthroat in the playoffs to win a WS!
If you cannot say Robert’s mismanagement of his pitching staff in the last 3 post season debacles is a major problem and must be a factor in any evaluation then you have no business speaking on the subject.
Roberts should have known that Kershaw is forever unfit to pitch in a postseason. In the days when Kershaw was absolutely preternatural in the regular season, he was still bad in the postseason. Now, with him merely a good pitcher (and for how long now), he really has no business pitching in the postseason except maybe as a mop-up man in blowout losses. Roberts was the Nats MVP for the NLDS. As for Jansen, he is through and the Dodgers had better replace him posthaste.
I have to go along with the consensus of posts here about Roberts. On another blog it was said that the Nats won because they got hot at the right time. Well that is only half the issue as far as I am concerned. First, the Dodgers did not have the pitching the Nats had, and Roberts blew in game 5 in the 8th inning because any team worth its salt must win when they are only 6 outs away with a 3 to 1 lead. Nats may have gotten hot but the Dodger’s offense was no match in the post season. Dodgers were not as good as many thought they may be, in spite of those 106 wins in the regular season by playing in a sub par division and most teams not have the elite pitching we saw in those teams deeper in this year’s PS.
And i also agree with tmaxter and others who have indicated that Dodgers will NEVER win a WS with Roberts as manager so do yourselves all a favor and don’t expect much in 2020 because the same ole 3 ring circus will repeat itself all over again.
Roberts has had what 4 years to get the Wold Series for his team but here we are still looking for the big win. Poor choices in the series does not show he has the ability to get us there. First buying Darvich to start with when he clearly showed he wasn’t the fit for Dodgers and to use him in the final series game was just plain stupid and the this last year he puts in Kershaw who has shown at least 2 or more gone runs in his early pitching was just another bad decision and to leave Joe Kelly in and allow bases loaded a grand slam was obvious. So I ask you can Roberts get us there or will he continually make bad pitching choices and continuely to make bad choices
“Trading” for Darvish was not all or solely on Dave Roberts……….but you were right on when you said starting him in game 7 was stupid. That one stands out to me as his dumbest move EVER!
two things I like about Roberts…..little and nothing
The problem seems to be in on-the-field leadership. We can see the total lack of enthusiasm portrayed by these bumbles. What causes a team to go from a top-level of performance down to the cams and dregs in the blick of an eye? One, a total lack of management to cause players to rally around a common cause and, 2, the underpinnings of self-expressed value. One cannot have players evaluating themselves against others and internalizing their place on the team based upon that false sense of self-evaluation. That only tends to produce a demoralized attitude among other players. The manager may sense this phenomenon and resoond to a , it’s-your-turn to play. To get everyone of thise player egosvto be satisfied requires playing his platers at a variety of positions.
Analytics work in the long season as they average out. In a winner take all you have to be ultra sharp. That what makes a great manager. Kershaw has dropped the ball in critical situations, more than once.
1st of all, The Dodger Players deserve to win. But this Manager has to go, You just can’t play musical chairs with the players. Too many bad choice’s during critical time’s Like taking pitcher out in the 7th or 8th inning who is pitching a no hitter in the World Series, and then losing the game! Demoralizing the players by his poor managing! My beloved Dodgers have gone down hill ever since O’Malley sold the Team, and Tommy Lasorda retired. Not to mention the retirement of Vince Scully! I really feel sorry for the players. Now they are talking about trading a fan favorite like Cory Seager! Seriously? That’s right break up a great bunch of players who grew up in the Dodger farm team, and trade for an over the hill player! This is no longer the team that I grew up to love and cherish!. So sad!
I agree with most comments here in that Robert’s can handle a 162 game season fairly well, but was ultimately responsible for the pathetic decisions he has made in the post season. Kershaw in 2019 was a home run pitcher. He repeatedly gave up lots of home runs in the 1st and 2nd innings the last half of the season, so why in the heck would you let him pitch to Rendon and Soto? And then there is the brain dead decision of letting Joe Kelly pitch multiple innings in the deciding game, when in fact he had not pitched multiple innings the whole season.
Robert’s choked like he always does. Just like he allowed Darvish to pitch the 7th game of the world series in 2017. You just can’t be that stupid as a manager as Robert’s is in the post season. I will be elated when Robert’s days as the Dodgers manager are over, but fear that the ownership will stick with Robert’s for way to long. And the end result will be us Dodger fans continuing to suffer.
We talk about “Playoff Kershaw” and unfairly gets all the blame,…if we look back at “Playoff Roberts” dating back to the WS against the Stros,..we will see “Playoff Roberts” decision making that directly had a negative impact on the series,..but Guggenheim and company are not going to release a mamager who leads avery successful regular season team, and that is enough for good business,..while “Playoff Roberts” and his arrogance sink WS hopes for fans like me.
“As a manager, you have to know the pulse of your clubhouse”………….Dave Roberts does not know his own players “pulses”…………that’s the problem…..that is what drives me crazy about him……….he lacks patience with some and relies on others that he should not. It’s pretty simple really………
when roberts has this team competing against each other is not a way to go…..team is built to compete with other teams but this is not happening…when it is time for them to be managed, the will to win becomes skewed (60+ strikeouts) is a fine example…..another is not knowing your players and use them in situations which totally demoralize their abilities…….no one likes to lose and as roberts says “it’s only one game” and that is what he has said the last few years and most of the losses he has created or contributed to……time to move on……he had his turn
My whole family have been Dodger fans all of our lives. Starting in Brooklyn and following them to the West coast. Dave Roberts is not a good manager. Maybe as a bench coach or 1st base coach. Maybe. He should’ve left the pitching changes to Honeycutt. He doesn’t know when to leave them in or take them out. I started suspecting his pitching wisdom when he pulled Stripling while he was throwing a no hitter. My suggestion for Dodgers manager is Mike Sciosia. A Dodger player who has proven to be a winning manager that I always have trouble spelling his name. I have never been sold on Roberts. In all actuality we should’ve had 3 straight world championships. We have too much talent for one person that has proven for 3 years in a row he cannot handle the job. Winning the pennant isn’t enough. I’m tired of the 31 year drought and I’m running out of time. I’ll be 70 next year and I’ve been waiting to put a world championship pennant on my dad’s grave.
Ketshaw is no longer a great pitcher, at best he is a number 3 or 4 pitcher, and Roberts cannot handle a pist season pitching staff.