What it takes to be a major league manager

[Orange Juiced]

What we fans see with respect to a manager are his in-game decisions. Lineups, bunting, hit-and-run, bullpen usage, etc. And we evaluate the quality of a manager in light of that sort of stuff.

 

But, and I've argued this over many years, baseball managing is about MUCH more than the X's and O's. In fact, I'd say over the course of an entire season, X's and O's comprise a very small part of the job. The most difficult aspect is managing *people*. Think about it. You have a group of 25 players (really around 35-40 when all is said and done), and a half-dozen coaches, plus staff. You're together from February through October. That's 9 straight months, almost every day, together. Managing the egos and personalities and situations with all these people is an immense task.

 

Case in point. Peter King's MMQB article today talks a little about some good books, and he highlight's Francona and Shaughnessey's book. Here's a snippet:

 

"For instance: I always felt Francona coddled the immature and disruptive (and, as this books shows, likely disturbed) Manny Ramirez, for instance. But Shaughnessy gives a clear picture of what happened with Ramirez, and how Francona constantly had to weigh what was best for the team winning games with keeping the team together. How do you deal with a player who, for instance, takes himself out of the lineup more than a few times, once complaining of vague knee pain, but when the team MRIs both knees not even a minor irritation shows up? As GM Theo Epstein told Shaughnessy: "We were constantly walking a tightrope with Manny. We understood if we asked Manny to live up to everything we expected from the other players, we wouldn't even get past the opening series of the year.''

In 2007, Francona exploded at one of Ramirez's agents, Gene Mato, on the phone, screaming, "You're half the f------ problem here, telling Manny all that s--- about being disrespected ... Knock this s--- off!" In the last year of his contract, 2008, Ramirez got worse and worse. At the end of June, Ramirez assaulted the team's traveling secretary, Jack McCormick, in a spat over player tickets to a game in Houston. As Shaughnessy writes:

... Francona called Epstein. "Theo, we've got a bad problem,'' said the manager. "We've got to do something. We've got to send Manny home.'' Manny was not sent home. Ramirez was brought into a meeting with Francona and McCormick and apologized to McCormick. He started in left field the night of the incident and hit a game-winning home run a day later.

Once again, Francona had to go before the media and say things he did not believe ... He had to bite his tongue, more than at any time in his tenure as Red Sox manager.

Ramirez was a great talent. He knew he could get away with murder, and did. The ownership group had the attitude: Don't tell me how tough the pregnancy was, just tell me if you delivered the baby. And it was up to the manager to make it all work. The book is a succession of those stories explaining how, through it all, Francona helped deliver the first two world titles the Red Sox won in a zillion years. Even if you're apathetic about baseball or the Red Sox, it's a very good sports read."

 

(http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/nfl/news/20130610/robert-griffin-iii-peter-king-monday-morning-quarterback/#ixzz2VpZNH4AF)

 

This is why we fans really don't have a clue what's going one. Why did the manager use pitcher A instead of pitcher B in a given situation? Well, it may have *NOTHING* whatsoever to do with a better matchup or whatever. It may have everything to do with stuff that we're not privy to at all, and that we'll never know about.

 

Managing a major league baseball team is really hard. Francona was as good as it gets at managing PEOPLE. Valentine.....eh.....not so much.

[Bellhorn04]

I agree that it's not an easy job. My own rough formula for the components of the job is something like this:

 

1) Managing the clubhouse and the media 50%

2) Managing the pitching staff (such as not burning out the bullpen) 30%

3) Offensive strategy and in-game decisions 20%

[a700hitter]

Good players. Period.

 

As far as the clubhouse stuff goes, Casy Stengel used to say that 5 players will love you, 5 will hate you and 15 don't have an opinion. The trick to a good clubhouse is to keep the 15 that don't have an opinion away from the 5 guys that hate you.

[Bellhorn04]

No question that good players are required. Casey Stengel had some great quotes about managing. Earl Weaver did too.

 

Looking at it a different way, some managers can really f*** things up, whether it's Valentine with the clubhouse and the media, or Ron Washington with the in-game decisions. So maybe the test of a good manager is that they f*** things up as little as possible. Farrell seems to have minimized the f***ups so far.

[a700hitter]

No question that good players are required. Casey Stengel had some great quotes about managing. Earl Weaver did too.

 

Looking at it a different way, some managers can really f*** things up, whether it's Valentine with the clubhouse and the media, or Ron Washington with the in-game decisions. So maybe the test of a good manager is that they f*** things up as little as possible. Farrell seems to have minimized the f***ups so far.

I think that scale is as good as any.

[SoxFanForsyth]

Good players. Period.

 

As far as the clubhouse stuff goes, Casy Stengel used to say that 5 players will love you, 5 will hate you and 15 don't have an opinion. The trick to a good clubhouse is to keep the 15 that don't have an opinion away from the 5 guys that hate you.

 

The Red Sox had better players in 2012 than 2013.

[italstallianion]

Having fans is like having millions of really strict parents. You have to live in a bubble and can't make mistakes or else "arm chair quarterbacks" (like message board forum posters) will grill them over every decision, even if they made the "right" call but it didn't work out. Hell, even if they made the right call and it did work out, managers are likely to hear it from some of us. (I think we'd all agree some fans/posters aren't the most logical)

 

Simple freedoms we take for granted, such as saying "f*** the Yankees" or "damn that ump sucks" or telling Jacko to f*** himself, managers don't have. If they say what's on their mind, they can be fined, fired, or both.

 

Then again they get paid a lot so I don't feel bad for them.

[Bellhorn04]

The Red Sox had better players in 2012 than 2013.

 

But good players can have huge variances in performance. Buchholz had a 4.56 ERA in 2012. He has a 1.71 ERA in 2013. Same player, hugely different results. How much can be attributed to a change in management? Nobody knows. A lot of this stuff is completely intangible.

[Bellhorn04]

Having fans is like having millions of really strict parents. You have to live in a bubble and can't make mistakes or else "arm chair quarterbacks" (like message board forum posters) will grill them over every decision, even if they made the "right" call but it didn't work out. Hell, even if they made the right call and it did work out, managers are likely to hear it from some of us. (I think we'd all agree some fans/posters aren't the most logical)

 

Simple freedoms we take for granted, such as saying "f*** the Yankees" or "damn that ump sucks" or telling Jacko to f*** himself, managers don't have. If they say what's on their mind, they can be fined, fired, or both.

 

Then again they get paid a lot so I don't feel bad for them.

 

They do get paid a lot, but some of the s*** that Red Sox managers have taken, I wouldn't wish on anybody.

 

Don Zimmer, John McNamara, Grady Little...they all had costly f***ups, for which many Boston fans have never forgiven them. Even Francona with 2 titles has taken an inordinate amount of abuse.

[italstallianion]

Yeah, but I've gone through s*** in my various office positions that I wouldn't wish on anyone, and I'm sure many working stiffs go through worse to get a meager paycheck and come home to their bloated wife and ungracious mongoloid pregnant teenage kids who give them more crap, and instead of a large paycheck they have to piss in the sink because their wife locked themselves in their one bathroom and won't come out until I admit I have a drinking problem.

[redsoxrules]

The Red Sox had better players in 2012 than 2013.

 

Not even close.

 

Also factor in that some players were injured and had a down year.

 

No managers could of had this team in the playoffs last year.

[a700hitter]

But good players can have huge variances in performance. Buchholz had a 4.56 ERA in 2012. He has a 1.71 ERA in 2013. Same player, hugely different results. How much can be attributed to a change in management? Nobody knows. A lot of this stuff is completely intangible.

The team had starting SS off the scrap heap and they had 2 rookies in the sarting rotation which equals a recipe for disaster. Add in Bobby V's nonsense and there was a disaster.

[Thunder]

I'm reading the Francona book right now and I really underestimated the work the a manager does. They have to act as a leader, but be a source of comfort when need be. A manager can't be too friendly with his players. Only rare occasions, like the 2004 Sox as I found out in the book, can be successful. I really want to be a manager now, and luckily there's still time. Expect to see me play in the bigs though first.

[italstallianion]

I think that Rex Ryan and Mark Sanchez are a good example of what happens when players and coaches get too friendly.

[Thunder]

I think that Rex Ryan and Mark Sanchez are a good example of what happens when players and coaches get too friendly.

 

:thumbsup::thumbsup:

[Spitball]

As a longtime Red Sox fan, I remember a bad manager...or more. Don Zimmer was the worst. It was the considerable talent on the 1978 team that built a 14-game lead, but it was Zimmer who sabotaged that team's chances of winning. Despite the obvious need to make a change, he stubbornly kept Butch Hobson and his bad elbow at third base to make more than 40 errors. Because of personality differences with Bill Lee, he started Bobby Sprowl in the final game of the Boston Massacre. He burned out relief ace Bill Campbell and refused to rest his regulars until it was too late. Zimmer was stubborn, petty, and short-sighted. He was a bad manager.

 

And I don't consider it second guessing to blame John McNamara for not using Dave Stapleton as a defensive replacement for Bill Buchner in game six of the 1986 World Series.