Ranking Major League Baseball’s managers entering 2015 season

Dalyn

Dalyn

Fredi Gonzalez Supporter
This looks pretty accurate.

http://www.bostonglobe.com/sports/2015/02/15/ranking-major-league-managers/SAW13kzqyXkbju5tvDYjIK/story.html

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Bochy is rightly number one while Maddon and Buck are rightly among the top of the list, but Fredi among others should be lower on the list. Also, I really liked the Rangers hire Jeff Banister so I'd have him ranked a lot higher rather than at the bottom.

This list is a lot better than most I've seen in the past.
 
Braves1976 said:
Bochy is rightly number one while Maddon and Buck are rightly among the top of the list, but Fredi among others should be lower on the list. Also, I really liked the Rangers hire Jeff Banister so I'd have him ranked a lot higher rather than at the bottom.

This list is a lot better than most I've seen in the past.
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Fredi IS actually lower if you consider this part, "As always, we put first-time managers at the bottom of the list." It also explains Banister's position.
 
Gary82 said:
I opened this link and went straight to number 30, but Fredi wasn't there :(
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If you take out the newly hired and rookie managers Fredi is right at the bottom where he belongs. But the excuses made for him are not consistent with his low ranking: "Gonzalez had a bad roster last season and had no chance to turn around the Braves. New team president John Hart acknowledged that and kept Gonzalez as the manager. He’s overcome his bullpen management issues, but now the Braves won’t be relevant until 2017 with a rebuild going on. The experienced Gonzalez needs to produce a team that plays hard even if it doesn’t win."

Nationals manager Matt Williams ranked just below Fredi is the opposite: "We remember the yanking of Jordan Zimmermann in that playoff game with the Giants as a brain cramp that probably cost the Nationals a chance to go far. But there’s a more extensive body of work than that one move. The rookie manager made some rookie mistakes."
 
List seems about right. The two I quibble with most would be Matheny being too high and Collins being too low.

I think there's a 50 / 50 shot that Fredi will be fired during or after the season. Bo Porter seems like the only legitimate option internally if we have a vacancy. Almost every year, a decent coach or two gets fired that's worth giving another shot. For this year, maybe Bud Black is in jeopardy if the Padres don't make the playoffs? Will be fun to keep track of the hot seat this year.
 
Hawk said:
He learned from one of the greatest.
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At least Cox was good at recognizing (usually not always) when a pitcher didn't have it and it was gonna cost us a game he wanted to win. Fredi was great for pulling a guy a batter or 2 too late.
 
"Bad" roster is a bit of a misnomer. I think he had a roster that was tough to "manage" because there wasn't a lot you could do with the personnel other than sit back at let them play and when a lot of the guys were inconsistent or simply playing poorly, there weren't many levers to pull. Talented or not, the 2014 team was one with very shoddy fundamentals. The irony is that they traded two guys who you can actually just sit back and watch play--Heyward and J. Upton--and have hung on to guys like Chris Johnson and Melvin Upton who simply don't have a handle on how to play the game correctly. I think in-game moves can be overrated, but I thought the 2014 Braves really lacked an ability to win "differently." Fredi had to hope they pitched well and hit the ball out of the park.
 
I can't believe ththat whether he had a bad roster is in question.

Of course he did. He probably sucked, too, but you could've had the guy who invented baseball - Tony LaRussa - at the helm and not done much more than break .500. Horribly flawed lineup, bad bench.
 
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