Chicago Baseball Managers

March 18, 2017

Joe Maddon is a good manager. What makes him a great manager is the team Theo Epstein and Jed Hoyer assembled. I’ve said this to people many times. Managers don’t win or lose games. It’s the players that pitch, hit and field.  Maddon created a good vibe that surrounds the team making it easier for his players to perform. He also makes moves that put his team in a better position to win games. However, it is the players that win the games. Maddon does make moves that make him look smarter than other managers. Pitchers batting eighth, the quick hook after three or four innings, pitchers in the outfield etc. You can try a lot of things when you have a juggernaut team racking up 103 wins. However, his managerial strategy backfired in the World Series. Maddon would have looked like a genius if his plan had worked. He took out Hendricks for Lester who was working on short rest. Next he put in an overworked Chapman, (he had pitched the night before getting 4 outs in a non-save situation), for Lester. 

The inspired speech during the rain delay was not from Maddon, but from a player. It wasn’t Maddon who tagged up from first on a long fly to right in the tenth inning. So therefore, it’s ultimately the players that won the game and championship despite the bad managerial moves. This year’s genius idea is Schwarber leading off. After the first inning he may not lead off again.  When he comes up, are the eighth and ninth hitters going to be on base so he can drive in runs? Do you want him leading off against left handed pitchers where his average dips below.150?

The Chicago “loyalty trumps winning” White Sox have their own managerial mess. Robin Ventura was the polar opposite of Joe Maddon. He would make bad moves that negatively impacted games. Bad players and poor managerial decisions is a recipe for disaster.  As for the loyalty, if Ventura doesn’t resign on his own he is still the manager. In the past, they have fired and replaced many managers. However, they never fix the real problem which is the people who work in the front office. They have their jobs until they decide to call it quits, Ron Schueler and Kenny Williams. With the exception of Jeff Torborg every manager they’ve had has had no managerial experience. So it was sort of surprising that after the extensive 24 hour search they hired a manager who has experience albeit for only one year. Hahn will tell us he knew what else was available and Renteria was the best choice. I guess the most important qualification is that he speaks Spanish. Just hope that he didn’t learn anything about managing as Ventura’s bench coach or they are in big trouble.  These same problems exist with Reinsdorf’s other team.