8/3 Benintendi Hype Train vs Seattle

[a700hitter]

Again, thanks for your civility. I think we come from different perspectives. I don't think managers win or lose games to the degree that players do. I also assume the every manager in MLB has access to better information/stats and better advice (pitching coach, bench coach) and has more experience than any of us. I therefore assume every decision is reasonable regardless of the outcome.

 

But there is another school of thought that believes outcomes are the only basis for evaluating a manager. I believe that's true in terms of the overall performance of a team. If they are underperforming, the front office has every right to consider getting a new manager, which is exactly what Sox management did after the September 2011 debacle.

 

However, I must add that, when Francona was the manager and I was on that other site, Francona was basically blamed for every single loss to Sox had--by some fans, anyway. Those fans assumed that good managers don't lose, period, as preposterous as that sounds. After every loss, without exception, there would be a few who said, "Francona should have done this or that." It is because of that experience that these days I tend to defend the manager on specific decisions even when I agree that overall wins and losses should determine his fate.

Blame comes with the territory. If they truly have no effect on the outcome of the games and the batting order is similarly meaningless, then the manager is largely irrelevant and a trained monkey could do their jobs. If they are irrelevant to the outcome of a season, no manager should make more than the league minimum. And certainly we never should have had to make a trade to acquire our manager. I think managers would prefer to take the big 7 figure salaries and the blame that comes with those salaries.