Don Mattingly is a good manager because I said so.

"They've moved Matt Kemp's left foot back in the batter's box."

"They."


"It's just a few inches but still enough, they hope, to allow Kemp to clear quicker on the harder stuff inside."

Baseball is a game of inches.


"Over time he'd nudged that foot toward the plate, probably so he'd have a more reasonable shot at sliders on the far side of the strike zone, though it may have been unconscious."

OK, good to know.


"Either way, Kemp's setup had become closed, and now his stance is, while not open, at least sneaking up on neutral."

Sneaking up on neutral?


"The techies upstairs report the ball is coming off Kemp's bat well enough, presumably with the kind of velocity and trajectory that suggest better than one home run, eight extra-base hits and a .277 batting average through more than 150 plate appearances."

Who are the techies upstairs?

And who are they to conclude that the velocity and trajectory are better than .277 and 1 HR?


"This, anyway, is what Dodgers manager Don Mattingly said."

Anyway.


"It's small stuff – an inch or two of dirt or bat or ballpark that are the difference between an offensive anchor in the three-hole and a five-tool superstar in the National League West. Then, you take that inch or two, spread them over a roster, over a disabled list, over a stadium-full of expectations, and they amount to something.

Currently, they add up to the relative instability of Mattingly's employment, or at least the daily public referendum on his employment, because the Los Angeles Dodgers – as a result of all those misplaced inches – have been nothing like anyone figured they'd be."

Mattingly sounds like he'd make a heckuva batting coach.


"Generally, the conclusion to fire a manager is the call of the uninspired. The domain of the simple-minded. These are the same people who rail against the waiter when the fish of the day runs out."

Yes, the uninspired, simple-minded people who call for the firing of a baseball manager are ... the same people who rail against the waiters when the fish of the day runs out.

Not to rely upon simple-minded, nonsensical generalizations, or anything ...