Ronald Acuña, Sr. Goes Off On Snitker

[50PoundHead]

I'm usually with ya 50, and Acuña can be frighteningly....young, but this team is boring and azz without him. I have NO issue calling him out for his play but it's way overblown considering the dumb ish Swanson, Riley, Contreras, et.al, do almost nightly. I don't think Acuña is getting a pass at all. He has been ripped pretty consistently by purists, casuals and know it alls. I get it.

I don't get Twits constant bs handling of him. If that were my dad "protecting me," I'd just brag to the other kid about how my mom could beat up his mom. I'm still pissed about it. I was at the Cardinal game and section 112 was still talking about it!

No player is bigger than the team. But this entire incident has pushed me to the edge with Twit (as if his game management hasn't done that enough).

To be clear, I'm not defending Snitker and yes, this is probably one of the most whitebread teams in baseball. And I agree with you that Acuna is not alone in the boneheaded play department. Some of that is inexperience in the way of Contreras behind the plate and some of it appears to be a kind of intellectual laziness among the players. The entire team has not appeared to be laced in from the get-go in 2021. Probably contributes to Acuna's not wanting to rely on anyone else to move things along.

I'm not much for crediting managers when things go right or blaming them when things go wrong, but I think where Snitker is really falling down this year is he seems to be buying too heavily into the sad sack bad luck tune (and we have been unlucky). It's easy to manage when things are falling right (like they did in 2020) when every button--even the wrong ones--seems to produce a benefit when pushed. It's more difficult when you're playing short-handed, the 2020 MVP looks mortal, and the pitching staff underperforms. That's when managing gets difficult and Snitker needs to up his game and I think it's a legitimate question to ask if he's truly up to it. Bobby Cox wasn't perfect, but he didn't worry about outside expectations. I think the pre-season expectations are what are haunting Snitker and he's showing himself to be wanting in how to manage in tough times.