Ned Yost Hate Thread

[duncan_idaho]

I had lunch with a former colleague the other day, who was in town to cover the series with the A's for his pub (introduced him to LC's. He was very pleased).

He summed up Yost pretty well: A pretty bad tactical manager who you hope can make up for it by keeping the team loose, and have them being relaxed pay off with good performance.

I don't have much more to add to that.

I will point out one moment from yesterday's game as an EXCELLENT example of Yost making a really shitty tactical decision and having the players cover it up for him: The 7th inning.

With one out, Kratz hits that single. Down 1 in the 7th, lumbering catcher on 1B. Yost decides to not pinch run for him, which means his only chance of scoring is on two hits OR a home run. But I understand not pinch running there, as he's your catcher, you're trying to get your starter a day off, and you still have two more cracks with the top of your lineup still due up.

Then Christian Colon rips that double to left, leaving Kratz at 3B (Cain would have scored from first on that play). NOW Ned Yost pinch runs. NOW.

Jarrod Dyson comes through with a single (after Bob Melvin curiously went to his pen and brought in a RHP to face Dyson), the Royals go on to score two more, and it ends up not being a problem.

But if the A's go to Abbad, he gets Dyson without letting the run score, and retires Aoki, the Royals leave the inning still trailing. And that really poor tactical management pops out much more easily.

[alnorth]

I've said it before, but I think its worth repeating, I'm fine with Ned Yost. If DM gave me the power to hire a new manager, I would retain Yost.

That doesn't mean I think Yost is great or is responsible for a lot of wins. I generally think the manager can't get you many, if any wins, but he can definitely lose a lot of games. A manager is all downside, almost no upside. I think over the course of a full season and including all decisions not just focusing on the bad ones, on a net basis Ned doesn't lose many games. I don't think we can do much better. Assuming a very minimal ability at lineups and pitching changes, there are really only two ways a manager can significantly hurt your team.

1) He can forget that he's in the American League and play small-ball too much, too early. (Ned doesn't, he manages like an American League manager)

2) He can overwork our pitchers and hurt them. (Ned doesn't, he generally pulls young pitchers after 100, and doesn't let our vets go to 120+ more than once or twice in a row.)

Ned meets my very, very low bar of expectations, so he's fine. We had a long line of managers who failed one or both of those 2 tests I have for a manager, and Ned's the first one in a very long time who passes.