Dave Roberts Can Afford To Take It Easy | Defector

"Dave Roberts, the manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers, has taken great care in these past few years not to act smug or entitled about being the man who guides the best-paid team in American sporting history. That Roberts has more or less pulled it off is one of the great achievements of his stint in that role, but even he cannot hold up the charade any longer."

"Roberts has had perfectly good tactical reasons to let his starting pitchers go on forever in the first two games of the National League Championship Series against Milwaukee; if the Brewers want to pay homage to the dead ball era, Roberts might as well let his starters do their best Mickey Lolich imitations, too. But there is a bit of the imp in Roberts, and he has won these two games while mostly sitting rather than leaning on the dugout railing;"

"Those analytics drones who have seen the diminution of the manager's position can finally point to the Dodgers and shriek, "Excelsior! Proof, if proof were still needed, that we've been right all along!" Last night's 5-1 win was dominated by Yoshinobu Yamamoto, who did some new and startling things after doing the new cool kids' thing of giving up a leadoff home run and then allowing nothing else."

Dave Roberts has consciously avoided an air of entitlement while managing the highest-paid team in American sports. He has recently chosen to limit bullpen usage and allow starters to pitch deep in postseason games, accepting long outings as a deliberate challenge. The Dodgers won consecutive NLCS games by leaning on extended starting pitching rather than frequent reliever changes. Yoshinobu Yamamoto delivered a dominant, well-timed performance, giving up a leadoff home run before retiring batters and topping 100 pitches comfortably. The approach underscores managerial restraint, tactical risk, and confidence in starting pitchers.

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