Kevin Cash Exemplified Everything Wrong With Baseball Last Night

After what was likely a sleepless night for Tampa Bay Rays' manager Kevin Cash following his team's 3-1 loss in the decisive Game 6 of the World Series last night, today was only worse for the Rays' skipper.

Cash was skewered on sports talk shows across the land for his decision to pull the team's ace Blake Snell after 70+ pitches, despite Snell's dominance to that point. The Dodgers quickly scored two runs to grab the lead, leading to immediate second-guessing of the move by Cash.

Analytics have ruled baseball for quite some time now, going back to the Billy Beane glory days at the turn of the 21st century. Those who swear by the numbers will die by the numbers and that's just what Cash did last night.

Analytics are fine. I'll take it a step further, they're a necessity. But they should be used as only part of the equation, instead of the religion they have become. A manager must still be in tune with the action and have a feel for his players. Otherwise, what's the point of having a human being in the dugout when you could just have a computer reading off what the numbers say to do in any situation.

Billy Beane is now a very rich man, but as for baseball accomplishments, he's got nothing. A bunch of 1-and-done postseason appearances and Moneyball, where he was portrayed by Brad Pitt.

Jim Churchill came to the defense of his guy Cash Wednesday on The Drive, but myself and Aaron Jackson have had enough with the fancy sabermetrics.