Great and terrible managers have that. Talent trumps all in the end. An idiot can run a team like the Dodgers and guide them to the playoffs. Your deviation comes from when you have a team like the Giants, who have 1 hitter on par with Justin/Fredi, 1 on par with Gattis and one a bit ahead of Jason, and a much weaker starting pitching, and they win 9 games more than us. could it be random luck? Entirely possible, but that drastic of a luck difference is supposed to normalize over 162 games. Giants composed a very good team with only 1 superstar (Posey) and we couldn't do it when we have 3 (2 offensive 1 combo offensive and defensive) that says a lot about our manager JMO.