Ranking baseballs managers.

Sparky was way ahead of his time with the way he used his bullpen. Of course, he did it based on "feel," but he certainly recognized the weakness of the Big Red Machine (starting pitching) and used a strong bullpen accordingly. Still, seems like a chimp could've won with Griffey/Rose/Morgan/Bench/Perez/Foster.
 
50PoundHead said:
Let me put this in historical context. Sparky Anderson and Tommy Lasorda were two of the dumbest f*cks to ever pilot a baseball team and they have five world championships between them.
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Joe Torre fits with that group as well. He was a world class dumb ass until becoming the beneficiary of the Yankees' unlimited payroll.
 
Current managers I rate highly: Bochy, Melvin, Girardi, Francona, Redmond, Maddon

Five I consider worse than Fredi: Mattingly, Williams, Collins, Sandberg, Gibson
 
nsacpi said:
Current managers I rate highly: Bochy, Melvin, Girardi, Francona, Redmond, Maddon

Five I consider worse than Fredi: Mattingly, Williams, Collins, Sandberg, Gibson
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Williams appears to be a very good manager based on first 2 months.
 
Fredi is above average, IMO. The bullpen management argument is a valid one. What I believe, though, is that the relatively recent custom of throwing everybody one inning is what is burning bullpens out, not necessarily Fredi. If somebody had the seeds to break with current convention and go to two innings each, that would be a huge improvement in bullpen burnout. Getting warm is almost like half an appearance.

Sparky Lyle won the Cy in 1977 throwing 144 innings over 72 appearances. He threw more sliders than fastballs.

I think it's worth a try. How many more pitchers need to get TJ before somebody tries something new?
 
GovClintonTyree said:
Fredi is above average, IMO. The bullpen management argument is a valid one. What I believe, though, is that the relatively recent custom of throwing everybody one inning is what is burning bullpens out, not necessarily Fredi. If somebody had the seeds to break with current convention and go to two innings each, that would be a huge improvement in bullpen burnout. Getting warm is almost like half an appearance.

Sparky Lyle won the Cy in 1977 throwing 144 innings over 72 appearances. He threw more sliders than fastballs.

I think it's worth a try. How many more pitchers need to get TJ before somebody tries something new?
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That would help.

The other thing that would help would be to not be so rigid about roles. We've tended to be streaky. Which means there are times when the guys used when we are behind get too much work, and times when our high leverage guys get too much work. I think he needs to pay more attention to usage rather than going so much with pre-determined roles.
 
I usually rank managers by who is least bad. I think Bochy and Showalter are the least bad managers in the game.

I'm being facetious to an extent, but baseball strategy (especially in the AL) is really not that difficult to grasp, making player utilization the top priority for a manager. I always thought Whitey Herzog said it best (and I know I'm paraphrasing and maybe it wasn't Whitey Herzog who said it) when he said a manager's job is to put players in a position to succeed. Only real gripe I have on Gonzalez is his erratic bullpen usage pattern.

Joe Maddon gets a lot of props for being outside the box in his thinking, but I think he just does a bunch of crap just to do it. He's a good manager, but I'd hold the genius tag.
 
Bill (Spaceman) Lee summed it up best.

"The main job of a baseball manager is to be sure everyone is on the bus"

The older I get the more true that gets in both it's literal and figurative senses.
In baseball and life
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Truth be known so many of the decisions Fredi is criticized for are made in conference calls hours before the situation arises
 
57Brave said:
Bill (Spaceman) Lee summed it up best.

"The main job of a baseball manager is to be sure everyone is on the bus"

The older I get the more true that gets in both it's literal and figurative senses.
In baseball and life
....................

Truth be known so many of the decisions Fredi is criticized for are made in conference calls hours before the situation arises
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And Hale missed the bus for a ****ing week.
 
My guess is that was an organizational decision. Perhaps he was working with McDowell, Harang, or even Don Sutton during the day. Or perhaps his innings are being monitored. I tend to give the benefit of the doubt when it comes to handling young talent. Especially a team with a reputation of development the Braves have.

My guess is also the organization understands full well what they have in Hale . As well as Woods
 
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