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this team won in SPITE of him, not because of him, hopefully next season he'll use taveras' speed and get him to lay down a f*cking bunt


I don't think Garner was in any way working against the team. His actions, as we've all discussed time and time again, have had good and bad results. However, it's obvious he did something right somewhere because you don't get where they did without a manager pushing you in the right directions.

And all Taveras ever did after Berkman came back was bunt. I was busy praying that Garner would let him swing the bat. When he was swinging the bat (i.e. playoffs and start of season) he was a +.300 hitter. When he was trying to move runners on and bunt for hits his average dropped 20 points. Nothing particularly significant but something that irked the hell out of me during the stretch.

The reason Taveras didn't steal bases was becasue you don't waste an out with Berkman and MoBerg up. If you care to utilize his speed you have to bat him later in the lineup. It'd be great if he stole bases 100% of the time, but willy stole 34 of 45 bases. Great number compared to most but that means he still risks getting out. With as anemic as an offense as we had it makes so much more sense to squeeze Berkman and MoBerg's big hits for as many runs as possible.
"Did we make the playoffs yet?" - Bess Clemens-Booher