Bochy is a 3x Champion. Shades and Toothpick had the best of the best player in baseball (juice, or not juice), Dusty failed him. Dusty is equivalent to Barry Switzer, former coach of the Cowboys.
#1- Baseball managers in general are the equivalent to Switzer #2 - The Angels have had the best player and 2nd best player in the same team, but cant even make the playoffs. Which just says this isn't basketball. I don't like dustys lineups either, but he's had a very good career.
Doc Rivers... one ring but underachieving overall despite the super teams that he has inherited but overrated by media and players due to personality.
He really is a shitty manager. It’s not hard to see why he had never won a World Series prior to last year
Joe Torre had a .471 W% in 1897 games, finished over .500 4 times in 15 years, and went 0-3 in his only postseason before he got the Yankees job.
Dusty Baker was handed the best roster in baseball with the Astros. The Yankees were mediocre at best then got better with Joe Torre. Would you really choose Dusty as your manager over Torre? Or consider him an equal?
True-ish. False (2nd in the ALE / 1st in the ALE in 94 strike year / 2nd in the ALE (145 games) and lost ALDE 3-2) in the 3 years prior to Torre. They won the WS the next year with 92 wins, a W% of .007 higher than Showalter (they also changed out about 60% of their rotation, Pettitte went from rookie to 21 game winner, and Mariano Rivera was in the bullpen full-time for the first time). Oh, and '96 was also Derek Jeter's rookie year.
The Yankees made the playoffs the year before Torre, for the first time in 13 seasons. Baker took over a WS team. As said, the Yankees greatly improved under Torre. Good thing Baker was Jeter’s manager that rookie year in 1996. He might of sat behind a .205 hitter because his defense was considered too good not to play, even though in reality the defense was subpar and ranked darn near last in the league. I say this in jest, I think.
Good thing Alan Ashby stayed on the team in 1990 to allow this rookie named Craig Biggio learn the position of catcher.
I think most managers are basically fungible. If they weren't, then you would see managers with $30-40M/yr deals. However, Dusty illustrates that, while the tail is skinny for this distribution, it still exists at least on the lower end.
What's even more maddening is that Dusty may even be back next year...how I wish he would have won himself championship and rode off into the sunset....
Only way he's back is if the Astros win the World Series and Crane offers him another lukewarm 1 year deal. I'll take another year of Dusty if we're back to back champs.
