2014 MLB Lurker/Newbie Appreciation Station

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Sports Argument Stadium > 2014 MLB Lurker/Newbie Appreciation Station

Red: Apr 15, 2003; Yeah, great at getting us into Wawa.

R.D. Mangles posted:

(although Starlin Castro has shown no evidence of being anything but a guy who hits for an empty average and can't field his position)

I was amazed Starlin Castro wasn't traded minutes after the Cubs hired Theo Epstein.

tadashi posted:

My personal opinion is that Mattingly isn't much worse than the average big league manager. He happens to manage a very high profile team so he probably just gets a lot more attention and criticism than a manager in Kansas City or Houston. We may learn more about him overtime and my opinion of him might change but there just isn't a lot to go off of yet. If people want to blame him for the team's poor start then they also have to give him a lot of credit for what happened later in the season. In reality, his players just didn't play very well for a stretch but he continued playing the right players and they came around. That happens all the time. To me, the only bad manager is someone who doesn't play their best players the most often and/or who has a bad relationship with their players and/or bosses.

Several years ago, Baseball Prospectus published a book called Baseball Between the Numbers and there was a chapter about the value of a manager. The writer totaled the win expectancy of the decisions normally attributed to managers (stealing bases, bunting, intentionally walking players, etc.) over the previous 30 or so seasons and found that most managers cost their teams a couple of wins over the course of the season by using poor tactics. Every once in a while, a manager actually adds a half win or so of value (Sparky Anderson had one of the best seasons and one of the worst seasons in the study, for example), but it was never very much.

Most managers are not good tacticians. Their lineups aren't optimized for scoring runs. They call for bunts too much or steal in the wrong situations. They intentionally walk players. They use their relievers in ways that are not optimal. That being said, it's pretty hard to find managers who break from the pack. Manny Acta was one but he lost his job because he managed the Indians at the wrong time and Joe Maddon is considered another one.

This is a great post, and it makes me wish that SA kept a ranking of all the managers. It's hard to grade, but Ron Washington would have to be ranked the worst most of the time.

Red fucked around with this message at 16:04 on Mar 19, 2014

# ¿ Mar 19, 2014 15:59

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ¿ Apr 27, 2024 01:57

Red: Apr 15, 2003; Yeah, great at getting us into Wawa.

Mornacale posted:

This would really be unmanageable. Most posters overwhelmingly watch and care about just a few teams, so everyone will tend to be biased to overrate their own manager's mistakes. You'd really need to come up with some metrics, which is not a goon project I'd expect to see last very long.

That's a good point.

I was pretty sure such a list would really be just a popularity contest, but a goon consensus is something I'd put more faith in than baseball writers.

# ¿ Mar 19, 2014 19:27

Red: Apr 15, 2003; Yeah, great at getting us into Wawa.

leokitty posted:

This is what they mean, from JJ Cooper:

Phil Hughes' walk rate seems a little less impressive knowing it's blown away by Carlos Silva.

# ¿ Nov 24, 2014 17:30

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Sports Argument Stadium > 2014 MLB Lurker/Newbie Appreciation Station