In the wake of the decision to hire Mike Shildt as the full-time manager, there were a lot of interesting comments from national sportswriters. Great writers questioned the notion of hiring a manager based on 38 games (at the time he was hired), and noted the unsustainable bullpen performance in the face of their middling second half peripherals. Craig Edwards did a great job of addressing much of this at Fangraphs, so I won’t belabor it. Just read his article. However, among the criticism, one comment in particular jumped out at me.
[Mike Matheny double-switches and puts the pitcher in the middle of the lineup]
"BURN THE WITCH!