So now we're grading these guys game to game. Maybe I should be the first to toss my "Ned Yost Hall of Fame Manager" nomination into the ring. Good Grief, this is what happens with the 24/7, all news, all the time media circus that rules these events.
Lets' employ the KISS principle and Keep It Simple Stupid, OK? One game is the ultimate small sample size from which you cannot draw any real meaningful conclusions. And yet that's what we do. We've been around the block a couple of times with this in regards to Bochy out-managing (??) Mike Matheny and Matt Williams. I guess it can't just come down to the fact that his guys just made plays and the other team's manager's guys didn't make plays. Even though Matt Holliday broke down the Cards - Giants series in just this manner on the Doug Gottlieb Show.
from Hardball Talk:
No, Ned Yost didn’t “out-manage” Bruce Bochy. His players played better | HardballTalk:
It seems to me that, rather than focus on the managers like everyone seems so intent on doing, maybe we can just say that the Giants’ pitchers didn’t make good pitches when they needed to and the Royals handled everything that came their way in that sixth inning. I suppose it’s harder to get 800-1,000 words out of “the Royals hit the ball well and the Giants didn’t pitch too good” than it is to go on about managerial genius or the lack thereof, but the fact is that most games are decided by the players playing, not the chess moves the managers make. Last night was one of those games.'via Blog this'
This gets you to the Hall of Fame as a manager. Make a 26 game difference over the course of about 20 years. That is an almost imperceptible difference over a LONG period of time. But that doesn't fit well into the current news cycle nor the average baseball fans attention span. But that's baseball.
from Grantland.com
Is Bruce Bochy One of the Best Managers in Baseball History? (Yes. Here’s Why.) «:
Beating the Odds
Another way to measure a manager’s effectiveness is to compare his team’s win-loss record with its expected win-loss record. In Bochy’s case, we can see a clear pattern of his teams outperforming what you’d expect based on those run totals.
Bochy with the Padres
| Year | Win-Loss | Expected Win-Loss | Difference |
| 1995 | 70-74 | 72-72 | -2 |
| 1996 | 91-71 | 90-72 | +1 |
| 1997 | 76-86 | 73-89 | +3 |
| 1998 | 98-64 | 93-69 | +5 |
| 1999 | 74-88 | 74-88 | 0 |
| 2000 | 76-86 | 75-87 | +1 |
| 2001 | 79-83 | 79-83 | 0 |
| 2002 | 66-96 | 66-96 | 0 |
| 2003 | 64-98 | 66-96 | -2 |
| 2004 | 87-75 | 87-75 | 0 |
| 2005 | 82-80 | 77-85 | +5 |
| 2006 | 88-74 | 86-76 | +2 |
Bochy With the Giants
| Year | Win-Loss | Expected Win-Loss | Difference |
| 2007 | 71-91 | 77-85 | -6 |
| 2008 | 72-90 | 68-94 | +4 |
| 2009 | 88-74 | 86-76 | +2 |
| 2010 | 92-70 | 94-68 | -2 |
| 2011 | 86-76 | 80-82 | +6 |
| 2012 | 94-68 | 88-74 | +6 |
| 2013 | 76-86 | 74-88 | +2 |
| 2014 | 88-74 | 87-75 | +1 |
That’s a total of 26 extra wins over the course of his career.
Of course, one of the surest ways to outperform your expected record is to have a stacked bullpen. The closer for Bochy’s entire stay in San Diego was Trevor Hoffman, one of the best ever, so that certainly helped. In his eight years with the Giants, though, Bochy has cycled through multiple closers and many bullpen configurations, handing ninth-inning duties to everyone from Casilla and Sergio Romo to Wilson, and the immortal one-two punch of Old Armando Benitez and someone named Brad Hennessey. At a certain point, after 20 years of managing, with two teams and all kinds of rosters, you have to acknowledge the common denominator.
'via Blog this'This is why I cannot get on the "trash Mike Matheny" bandwagon. He went with the formula that got his team to the post-season, which BTW was further down the road than most of the so-called experts and prognosticators saw his team advancing to. So he should at least get some credit after the fact for getting there.
Mike Matheny: One-plan man - Viva El Birdos:
In Will Leitch's column over at Sports on Earth yesterday, he dissected Matheny's postseason managing prowess ad nauseum but this chunk really hit home:
Matheny formulated a plan --Gonzales throws two innings -- and maneuvered everything to rigidly follow that plan. When the plan fell into trouble, he had no backup plan, and he was doomed. The regular season requires only one plan; the postseason requires many. Matheny is a one-plan man.'via Blog this'
The fact that in putting all his decisions under the microscope after the fact may demonstrate some that were questionable is, as always just plain silly. I'm sure Mike Matheny and Matt Williams are smart enough to make intelligent decision with the benefit of 20/20 hindsight. They don't have that luxury however. That's why they get the big bucks.
These same guys who criticize Matheny for being a one-plan man likely also had an article written for the "Matheny screwed up by panicking and deviating from the formula that got his team to the dance" if that scenario had played out.
It's brings to mind the classic Teddy Roosevelt quote about the critic:
THE MAN IN THE ARENA Excerpt from the speech "Citizenship In A Republic" delivered at the Sorbonne, in Paris, France on 23 April, 1910
It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.
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