2 Tony La Russa innovations that caught on and 1 he'd like to forget

1. The modern bullpen

In the early days of baseball, if the starting pitcher didn't go nine innings (or, in some cases, more), it was a cause for concern. As baseball evolved, the relief pitcher grew in importance as managers began to realize that putting in new pitchers was a sound strategy to change up the looks for hitters and preserve pitchers' arms. But with the Athletics, La Russa took bullpen management to an entirely new level.

The ninth-inning specialist was not the brainchild of La Russa and Duncan, but they were among the early adapters of the role when Duncan decided to place Dennis Eckersley at the back of the Oakland bullpen to use him in as many games as possible. Eckersley proceeded to craft a Hall of Fame career in the role.

To allow Eckersley to receive a large number of save situations, La Russa concocted the role of the bullpen specialist to allow matchups to sway in his team's direction. Instead of intentionally walking batters, La Russa would put in a pitcher of the same handedness to force an outcome that would more likely benefit the pitcher.

His frequency of pitching substitutions led La Russa to set a major league record of 397 pitching changes in 1991, which was especially notable given Oakland's spot in the American League, where pitchers didn't bat and therefore didn't need to be replaced with pinch-hitters.

In 1993, La Russa attempted to further segment his pitchers into specialized categories, as he separated them into three groups, where each pitcher in a group would ideally pitch three innings every third day, with a couple of other pitchers designated to serve as insurance policies in case something didn't go one of the scheduled pitchers' ways. After a 1-4 record while using this system, La Russa scrapped it.

La Russa continued his reliance on the bullpen in the 2011 playoffs with the Cardinals, as he set a postseason record by going to the bullpen 75 times. Now starters rarely go more than six innings in a game, and La Russa's strategy of using a pitcher for one batter has been outlawed to improve pace of play. There has been a lot of criticism regarding the declining use of starting pitching in the modern game, but it's impossible to deny that La Russa's strategy worked wonders.