I’m usually the last guy to call for a manager’s head, but I’m sorry, when you call out your own team’s toughness and your boss’ construction of the roster, you’re not long for your job. Here’s Bill Plunkett of the OC Register, quoting Mattingly today about what ails the Dodgers:
Don Mattingly pregame seemed to point finger at not only lack of “mental toughness” from his players but also at poor construction of the team. “We gotta find a team with talent that will fight and compete like a club that doesn’t have that talent,” he said, pointing to last year’s team which led the NL West by 5 1/2 games at the end of May despite a far less-talented lineup. “I felt we got more out of our ability (last year). I don’t know about being tougher but I felt we got more out of our ability. “There has to be a mixture of competitiveness. It’s not ‘Let’s put an All-Star team together and the All-Star team wins.’ It’s finding that balance of a team that has a little bit of grit and will fight you. And also having talent to go with it. “All grit and no talent isn’t going to make you successful. But all talent and not grit isn’t going to get you there either.”
Deep thought: if the team is not getting the most out of its ability, don’t we usually blame that on the manager? A manager giving quotes about the team not playing to its talent level is the manager’s version of suicide by cop.
I doubt he lasts a week at this point.