This is Why We Have the Label "Managers Don't Do That Much"

It's true that managers have some influence on a game, on a team, or in a clubhouse. But, unless a manager re-teaches all his players how to hit, throw and field, it's pretty hard to conclude that a manager can be responsible for a group of players suddenly outperforming their career metrics. But some people just don't get it. I present: Gerry Fraley's terrible puff piece about Tony LaRussa, a consummate baseball wise man and the gritty, disciplined leader of the St. Louis Cardinals.

The Cardinals are outperforming expectations this year. Nobody expected much of them, and everyone's surprised to see them leading the wild-card. How should we account for this?

• Should we account for the utterly unexpected appearance of a guy like this guy, who's OPSing .936 in his first full season?
• Or perhaps we might consider this guy, also in his first full major league season, OPSing .849 with seventeen homers?
• Should we account for this guy's excellent season so far, so excellent that he's almost a full run under his career ERA?
• Or perhaps this guy, who's finally learned to pitch in the majors and is also nearly a run under his career ERA over more starts than he'd had in his entire career before 2008?
• Or perhaps this guy, who has the fifth highest career OPS in all 213547 years of baseball history, has been universally acknowledged as the inheritor to the term "Herculean" and is actually outperforming his career numbers this year?

Nope, Gerry Fraley wants to attribute it all to this guy, who has no homers, no strikeouts, and an OPS of 0.

The best part about this article is that there are some patently ridiculous things in it. For example, Gerry cites how the Cards have had a lot of DL problems:

The Cardinals' injured list has had star power...

This is true. Many of the Cardinals's best players have been on the DL, though I would argue that Gerry's list is a bunch of players with 2005 star power like Mark Mulder and Matt Clement, who have no 2008 star power.

and the front-line shortstop in Cesar Izturis.

What? It's pretty ridiculous to call your shortstop front line when he has an OPS+ of 68 and his fielding averages are only slightly above league average.

The Cardinals essentially have only three everyday players: catcher Yadier Molina, third baseman Troy Glaus and Pujols. La Russa has used every bit of the roster to fill in the remaining spots.

Ryan Ludwick and Skip Schumaker have played 79 and 83 games, all in the outfield. I'm pretty sure those guys are "everyday outfielders". Rick Ankiel might fall below "everyday" because he's only played in 75 games... one more than Pujols. Seriously, Gerry, you have to look these things up before you slap them in print!

There are a lot of quotes in this article as well. In fact, Gerry supports his argument with a lot of quotes from various Cardinals who suggest that their manager's stoic fortitude drives this team forward. Overall, I think LaRussa said it best himself. Here's what the man, the myth, the legend says about the reasons his team is winning:

"It's everybody that's in uniform, everyone that's involved in this clubhouse," La Russa said. "We're all here to compete, whatever the set of circumstances. It's that simple. You grow to like certain teams. I like this team. It has a big heart. They come to compete every day. It's never completely fair, but you don't want to see it get so unfair that the season gets away from this team. That would break my heart."

What?