Hit the Panic Button (for once)

Winston-Salem, NC -- First, Happy Halloween! Second, and the topic of this blog, I found this article very interesting from Rob Neyer's blog on ESPN. I meant to post this topic on Friday, but free time has been difficult to find. Here's the context: it's Friday, October 26th and the Rockies are down two games to none to the Red Sox with the series shifting to Colorado.

I think of this all the time and it's my point: Why does every manager and coach, no matter the sport, always provide the same old answers when their team is trailing in a series: We're going to stay positive; We're going to keep our head's up; I'm not worried, I can only focus on our guys, etc. Why doesn't anyone PANIC and say, "Yes! I'm flat-out worried that we're going to get swept." But that's unacceptable behavior. Further, why do we have to start your #3 pitcher hoping he can get you through 6 innings? Why not go against the norm and piece together your 4 best pitchers? Anyways, here's Neyer's excerpt, which I completely agree with; I'm glad somebody on the national level brought up this idea...

Clint Hurdle has two problems.
Problem 1 is that his Rockies are not nearly as good as the Red Sox.
Problem 2 -- a subset of Problem 1 -- is that his pitchers can't through five innings without throwing 100 pitches, and the last 20-30 of those not necessarily with any particular effectiveness.
Of course there's nothing Hurdle can do about Problem 1. Not on such short notice. But if he doesn't worry about Problem 2 -- if he doesn't panic -- he's not going to win four of those next five games.
If there was ever a time for Hurdle to panic, it's now.
I know he's not going to panic. It's not considered appropriate behavior for a man of his station. But let's just suppose for a moment. Let's suppose that Hurdle panics, and loses. Nobody would hold it against him; everyone thinks he's going to lose anyway. Let's suppose that Hurdle panics, and wins. Wouldn't he immediately be hailed as one of the great managers of our time?
So if Hurdle were to panic, what would he do? He would throw out the standard model -- open the next game with your best available starting pitcher, and use him until he's obviously fatigued -- and replace it with something nobody's ever seen before. It's fairly clear that his starting pitchers are not going to give him more than four or five innings, and that he'll be forced to use his relievers for at least half the game. So why not make that the model?
Why not ask the starting pitcher for three or four innings, and no more? As things stand now, the starting pitcher is the centerpiece of Hurdle's pitching plans. That's necessary during the regular season, when days off are rare and most teams have only two or three reliable relief pitchers. But the next six days of the World Series -- if it goes the distance -- include two days of rest, and this season Hurdle probably enjoyed the services of more reliable relievers than any other manager in the majors. Why not get them into the game when you want to get them into the game, rather than when you have to?" -- Rob Neyer, 10/26/07, ESPN.com.

Now that we know the outcome, I'm not if panicking could have saved the Rockies. But will we ever see an manager or coach call out his team again or are those days long gone? The coaches that have done this (Jim Mora's playoffs?! playoffs?!) were immediately excused from their position. Of course the Colts have been an elite team since Mora's last season at the helm.