Even with the injury bug, we've still had a better roster than most of the league. And AA has plugged in holes about as well as you could without trading every asset. In that sense they should have more wins than they do.
When the team was mostly healthy the last two seasons, the offense carried Snitker and made him look like a genius because he didn't actually have to manage, and even then he mismanaged the bullpen many times. The DH being added to the NL really masked how bad of a tactical manager he is, and now that the injury bug has forced him to try and be creative, he's still doing dumb things like putting Ozzie in the 2-hole when OZ has been out for a long time and continues to kill rallies.
The margins are slimmer, and we have a manager who just expects the healthy guys we still have to carry the offense past his inept decision making. When Soler and Olson are hitting 2/3-run bombs and we're winning comfortably then Snit doesn't have to do anything. Then when we're losing these tight games because the margins and room for error are smaller, Snit goes on about how we just can't string any hits or anything.
We likely will win at least 88 games while missing Acuna and Strider for practically the entire season, and missing Murphy, Harris, and Ozzie for nearly half the season, and missing Riley for another 30+ games. Not to mention missed starts from Fried and Lopez.
I don't get this narrative that they should have more than 90+ wins with the players we have missed for most of the season. We would be an easy WC team in any other season in MLB existence, assuming the same 3 WC format. Snit has cost us some games for sure. But his decisions might have won some games we shouldn't have won as well (those are much harder to tell). Overall I would say our record represents the talent level we've run out for most of the season, which is an 88-90 win caliber team. I think Snit deserves at least some credit in providing leadership through countless injuries, but he also deserves a lot of criticism in his managerial decisions costing us some crucial games in the 2nd half of the season.
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