I'm not going to defend Grady Little but I think this is worse. As has been pointed out Grady left one of the best pitchers ever in game, yes he was done and should have been pulled but it was Pedro. Buck never allowed a guy, who while not vintage Pedro was pretty damned close, to pitch and instead put in Ubaldo Jiminez who managed to lose the game in 5 pitches.
The fact that he had used him in a similar situation earlier in the year makes it even better.
This is where I am. You can understand leaving in Pedro. It was a horrible move, but the logic behind it - he's PEDRO MARTINEZ - at least you can see how it might work. My recollection of my mindset during that inning (to the extent it hasn't been wiped away by the ensuing years of awesomeness) is oscillating between "get him out of there" and "ok, he's not changing pitchers, c'mon Pedro!"
There can't be a single Orioles fan that was thinking, well it's not Britton but c'mon Ubaldo you can do it. Maybe hoping, but not believing it. I mean, the only logic behind it is "saving him to close the game out if we get ahead" which is idiotic because if you give up a run here you don't ever get to bat again.
Staying too long with the greatest pitcher ever is fundamentally different from using a garbage pitcher instead of a guy who's just completed what is arguably the best relief pitcher season of all time. Not that Little wasn't a complete fucking bonehead, but it's way easier to see a situation where his move works than where Buck's move works. Little put his best player in a position to fail. Buck left his best player out of the game and put definitely not his best players in a position to fail. The second seems obviously worse. (Also, he used Duensing to start the inning against a lefty. I guess there were no better lefties out there to pitch. Oh, wait...)
I honestly can't believe I'd ever say this, but I'd take Little's shit for brains move over this one every day of the week and twice on Sunday. Which is amazing because Little will rightly never again get anywhere near the managers office.
In the end, I still wish we had playoff Tito...