8 replies to this topic

[Oriole85]

Ranking the best MLB managers (Boston Globe)

 

8. Buck Showalter, Orioles — Showalter has one of the great managerial minds, always a step ahead in his thought process. He is respected throughout the game for the firm nature in which he takes control and the discipline he preaches to his team about playing the game hard every night.

 

[McNulty]

Any list that has Joe Girardi above anyone, much less Buck, is ridiculous.

 

However, putting Ron Washington at 11 is pure insanity.  He is truly terrible at everything but interacting with people.

[DJ MC]

Ranking the best MLB managers (Boston Globe)

 

God, if that's the tripe they offer about Showalter, I honestly don't want to read the rest. Seeing that Washington is 11th just clinches it.

 

I get that the traditional baseball media has a vested interest in holding tight to the idea of baseball manager as clubhouse colonel, but since a significant portion of the job involves, you know, making the moves that help win games, it's probably a good idea to include that in the analysis.

[Pedro Cerrano]

Showalter lost a peg or two last year with the way he handled Jim Johnson. He went from top 3 to top 5 IMO.

[Mackus]

I would imagine that these rankings correlate pretty highly with two things, just about every year:

 

previous year's record

team payroll

[SammyBirdland]

What I like about Showalter is that when one of his pitchers obviously doesn't have it, he sits there and lets the pitcher see three to twenty more batters than he should.  This usually allows the game to get completely out of hand and ensure the loss.  It's genius.

[BSLMikeLowe]

So basically, having Red Sox ties (unless your name is Bobby Valentine) automatically puts you in the Top 3 of the Globe's list. I'm curious how many of their hacks were calling for the head of their #3 choice after the 2011 collapse?

 

#chowderheadsarehypocrites

[Oriole85]

Hardball Talk: Which major-league managers were the best players?

 

Ryne Sandberg is obviously #1 since he's the only HOFer. I'm surprised Ventura is ranked ahead of Don Mattingly. Just skimming throught he list -- the top 5 all had pretty good careers.  6-11 have atleast some value I'd say; after that there's a drop-off. Walt Weiss seems like he should be higher than #9.

 

Here is Buck's btw:

28. Buck Showalter

Category: Pinch-hitter type.

Showalter hit .294 with a good on-base percentage in the minors but he had shockingly little power for a first baseman/outfielder type. He slugged just .365 in the minors – lower than his on-base percentage. He did get 32 games in Class AAA.

[DJ MC]

Hardball Talk: Which major-league managers were the best players?

 

Ryne Sandberg is obviously #1 since he's the only HOFer. I'm surprised Ventura is ranked ahead of Don Mattingly. Just skimming throught he list -- the top 5 all had pretty good careers.  6-11 have atleast some value I'd say; after that there's a drop-off. Walt Weiss seems like he should be higher than #9.

 

Mattingly has the hype, and Ventura doesn't have quite the career-length advantage I expected. But in ~500 more plate appearances, Ventura hit 72 more homers and walked ~500 more times (compared to Mattingly's ~275 hit advantage). He was also a great defensive third baseman compared to Mattingly being a good defensive first baseman. Mattingly would have needed a full additional WAR every year to make up the difference between him and Ventura.

 

Matt Williams also has a career WAR advantage, but I think Mattingly's peak is significantly greater.

 

I probably would put Weiss above Ausmus and likely Black, but a lot of that is personal bias. Ausmus had a much longer career, and arguably was a more important player to his teams. They were actually fairly similar: quality defensive players who could get on base a run a bit.