The reason to be concerned about Don Mattingly becoming Dodger manager next year is not that he doesn’t know some arcane baseball rule. It’s that he isn’t experienced or authoritative enough to effectively handle much more common aspects of helming the team.

Is he good with strategy? Can he manage a bullpen? (What of him having Hong-Chih Kuo warming up Wednesday, a night after the fragile lefty threw two innings?) Is he an effective motivator of players? Does he sound too much like Toby Flenderson in an interview? These are all questions that existed long before Tuesday’s chaos.

Mattingly might turn out to be a good manager, but the point is – and has always been – that there might be better candidates.

In any case, our friend Bob Timmermann has everything you could want to know about Rule 8.06 in a post at L.A. Observed’s Native Intelligence.

* * *

  • The national media seems way more concerned than people locally about whether Joe Torre will manage another season in Los Angeles. I think many people here will react to Torre’s decision with a shrug.
  • Kenley Jansen is too good to ignore for the Dodger bullpen, contends Chad Moriyama of Memories of Kevin Malone.
  • One of the best features I’ve seen all year is this piece on former Cardinals and Padres shortstop Garry Templeton, by Dan O’Neill of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
  • At StoryCorps, Harvey Sherman tells his tale of attending the final Dodgers game at Ebbets Field.
  • For those who are still talking about Chad Billingsley and the 2008 National League Championship Series, I have this advice for you: