Francona out in Chowda land???

[chiefzilla1501]

Originally Posted by Demonpenz

yeah it is a joke. The players didn't play well down the stretch. As frustrating as it is the manager means very little in baseball.

I think the managing means pretty little if you're talking about the Yankees. I still believe Joe Torre was one of the most ridiculously overrated managers in the history of the game. There's enough stuff you can do "by the book" that calling a good game is much less strategic than it used to be.

The one interesting thing about baseball is that you see quite a few managers move from team to team and become extremely successful. Pinella, Leyland, Charlie Manuel, Tony LaRussa, Jack McKeon repeat success on several different teams and, in each of these cases, take bad teams and make them good. That's something you don't really see a whole lot in the NFL. I'm not sure if that's because NFL coaches become complacent or because schemes change so much, but it happens. There's something to be said for that. I think between managing people, being smart about lineup/pitching decisions, coaching up players... and I think with less steroids, teams are being forced to play more small ball, which increases the importance of a manager.