Comments on: A Great Manager Makes All The Difference

By: Seligman

Seligman — Sun, 14 Oct 2012 15:07:22 +0000

Totally disagree with you Moe and a couple of the others. One or two games a year? So you’re saying Jerry Manuel could have led the 1969 Mets to the World Series? That the difference between him and Manuel is 1-2 games? One word, Outrageous! It’s fans like you why Gil isn’t in the Hall of Fame because unfortunately too many voters think like you do and that there’s no such thing as great managers. I’m here to tell you and them you’re dead wrong.

By: Moe

Moe — Sun, 14 Oct 2012 14:12:43 +0000

“There are baseball fans – even Mets fans – who think managers have very little impact on a team’s performance. That teams win only because they have the best players or that it’s all random luck. I think fans who subscribe to that are just naive. Either that or they haven’t been watching the game long enough.”

Joe, your view reeks with condescension. And it’s wrong too. The role managers play is overrated. The difference between a ‘great’ manager and a ‘good’ manager is one or two games a year, if that. At the other end, bad managers don’t last — they get fired. The difference these ‘bad’ managers create is usually found in their people skill, not their technical skills. They lose their team in the clubhouse.

By: Martin

Martin — Sun, 14 Oct 2012 12:31:30 +0000

Managing is not very important and should be done by the book. Girardi manages by the book. Yankee fans hate him for it.

By: Anthony

Anthony — Sat, 13 Oct 2012 18:27:22 +0000

omg….Girardi is a terrible manager. Even my friends that are Yankees fans think so. No one in baseball manages their bullpen worse than he does. And how was it gutsy to pinch hit for or bench arod? He’s horrible….every manager in baseball makes that decision.

By: Metsie

Metsie — Sat, 13 Oct 2012 17:23:36 +0000

A Manager is only as good as his Roster when push comes to shove…

You simply can not make a good call if you only available option is from Bad to Worse.

People got on Terry for his moves in the pen…When you HAVE to go to the pen because the Starter can’t go on you can’t blame the decision of who he went to when all choices sucked in the first place!

By: Ken Tomlin

Ken Tomlin — Sat, 13 Oct 2012 16:16:27 +0000

Are you saying Terry is not a great manager? I find that shocking.

By: hotstreak

hotstreak — Sat, 13 Oct 2012 14:17:46 +0000

Wally Bachman ?

By: srt

srt — Sat, 13 Oct 2012 13:36:24 +0000

Great comeback win for the Cards last night.
Never mind the whole Strasburg decision, which I’m sure will be speculated to death now…you have to wonder why Johnson left Gio out there in the 5th. I suppose he was pushing him to finish that inning to get the win as the booth speculated. But it was all for naught. Gio was not sharp at all and even the the Cards didn’t break out that inning, they did score twice on a double, a single 3 walks and a wild pitch. I thought it was foolish to stick with Gio after that bases loaded wild pitch. There was no tomorrow if they lost that game, which is exactly what happened.

Good for the Cards and Beltran. They just wouldn’t quit.

By: Bayonne Mets Fan

Bayonne Mets Fan — Sat, 13 Oct 2012 12:45:53 +0000

not at all,

Davey Johnson is still a great manager and the loss was not his doing in the least bit. In fact i felt bad watching Davey on the post-game last night

By: Donal

Donal — Sat, 13 Oct 2012 12:18:39 +0000

On benching Rodriguez: that was an easy decision. He’s been ice cold and everyone hates him. Now, he gets to deflect all the criticism to Rodriguez and there will be nary a mention of the fact that only 2 Yankees are hitting above .217. that Swisher, Granderson and Cano hit a combined .143 with 1 HR. that the Yankees scored 16 runs in 5 games.

That move was window dressing. You know what would take balls? Benching Cano.

By: stick

stick — Sat, 13 Oct 2012 12:10:44 +0000

I guess you need to edit this to remove Johnson from the list now?

By: tie dyed

tie dyed — Sat, 13 Oct 2012 07:37:27 +0000

Great article, Joe. I’ve loved this post-season as well. But yes, it is bittersweet. I see these teams that may be low on talent but high on drive and desire. Seeing this caliber of play in October is bittersweet cause it shows how far away we still are from being on that level.

As a side note, I think Bochy has done the best job of all.
The Giants lost their closer for the entire season. Then, as the pennant race was heating up and the Dodgers made a big trade, the Giants lost their top hitter in Melky Cabrera. And keep in mind, one of their top pitchers, Tim Lincecum, had a downright awful year.

By: XtreemIcon

XtreemIcon — Sat, 13 Oct 2012 07:26:50 +0000

Joe, your point about Girardi (amongst the others) using their gut instinct? I should tell you…there’s a large portion of Yankee fans who hate Girardi for NEVER using his gut and always going by his binder, which contain matchups, platoon splits and things like that. It’s become the stuff of legend. “Girardi’s Binder” has no fewer than two twitter accounts, a facebook page, and has drawn backhanded remarks from blogs and the mainstream media alike. Girardi is decidedly not a “gut” manager.

By: XtreemIcon

XtreemIcon — Sat, 13 Oct 2012 07:22:14 +0000

I’m so tired of all the talk about the “gutsy” decision to pinch hit for A-Rod. It wasn’t a “gutsy” call, it was the right call. Kudos for Girardi for making the right call, but he’s a major league manager and that’s what’s expected of him. Even if Ibanez struck out, it was the right move.

There was no chance Girardi could look his team in the eye and tell them he gave them the best chance to win if he let A-Rod, who was barely making contact, let alone getting on base, hit for himself with a RHP on the mound when there was a power hitting lefty salivating over that short porch. Similarly, it was the right call to play both Chavez and Ibanez against the RHP Hammel in Game 5.

How low have our expectations of managers fallen when making the correct call gets so much hype?