Gabe Kapler has handled two games for the San Francisco Giants, both losses lost to the Los Angeles Dodgers, but that hasn’t stopped him from leading the league in forced puppets. Kapler’s sin? An obsession with secrecy.
Kapler did not announce his starting pitcher (Logan Webb) for Saturday afternoon’s game against the Dodgers until 7:30 am local time. He didn’t reveal his starting lineup until 90 minutes before the first pitch, according to Alex Pavlovic of NBC Sports Bay Area. In response, Dodgers manager Dave Roberts expressed a combination of fun and annoyance.
“It’s a bit of a game, we’ll call it,” Roberts told reporters, including Eric Stephens of SB Nation, before Saturday’s game. “To each his own.”
It should be noted that Kapler has no obligation to disclose the above information in advance. In that sense, the only “rule” you are violating is an unwritten one between managers and teams. It should also be noted that Kapler has contemplated the legitimacy and value of that previously unwritten rule, as Andrew Baggarly of The Athletic highlighted last week.
“There may be real value not just in waiting to announce the headlines, but in waiting to make the decision,” Kapler told Baggarly. “Traditional five-man teams without rotations can collect data points on who pitches in last night’s game and how they all look as they play and go through their routines before making a final decision.”
Kapler’s point is reasonable enough, and there may be an advantage in retaining his likely pitcher and starting lineup until later in the process. At the same time, you can understand Roberts’s answer. The Dodgers have outscored the Giants by a 17-2 margin in two games, reducing the rivalry to a biased mismatch. Depending on one’s perspective, that is an incentive to 1) play straight or 2) seek all the fringe benefits.
It is clear which way Kapler is leaning.
