I’m not exactly an Espada fan, but does he get credit for sitting Walker, dezenzo producing and Walker coming around a bit? Or shaking up the lineup, flipping Yordan and Paredes, moving up Pena, etc? I bring this up to say that generally speaking, we give the players credit when the team wins, and the manager gets heaps of blah when the team loses.
Fair is fair, Espada has been good at adjusting the batting order when production is a problem, he was good at this last year too. I'll give him that.
Not perfect, but acceptable. If they made Miller and/or Murphy the asst manager in charge of all pitching decisions it would be perfect.
I think this is the issue that we as fans have. Espada just doesn’t speak well or project leadership or charisma. Here is a fun exercise. Let’s talk about the weighted criteria for judging a manager. I’ll try to assign my value for each. - Lineups: 45% - Bullpen decisions, including when to pull SP, what RP to use, when to pull RP, workload management: 30% - in game position player decisions: pinch hitting, bunting, defensive substitutions: 15% - managing the clubhouse: clubhouse vibes, personality issues, hugs and tough love: 9% - time in front of camera/microphone: 1% I was going to list coordination with GM, but I decided not to bc if you’re not coordinated, you’re fired. Also, that is implicit in lineups, bullpen and in game decisions. It is funny how my 1% assigned value annoys me much more than the 1% should.
Managing the clubhouse/culture: 70% Lineups: 10% Bullpen usage: 10% Bench usage: 5% Face of the team: 5% I personally don’t think there’s a whole lot to putting together lineups, using the bench, or using the bullpen; those jobs are mostly delegated and you can just listen to your coaches and the data. I fully believe I (as someone who never played baseball above little league) could do that part of the job without costing the team wins relative to the average manager. And even though like you said being bad in front of the camera or on the microphone is annoying, it doesn’t really impact the team’s outcomes much if at all. But managing the players: their personalities, their ups and downs, the day to day grind of baseball, and keeping a bunch of adored millionaires in their 20s and 30s focused completely on team goals…that takes leadership and experience and charisma that not very many people have. That’s the part of the job that is important and determines whether or not teams win or lose and whether a manager is good or bad. That’s the part of the job I couldn’t do. I’m not sure how Espada grades there yet, but if the Astros win 95+ games and make it deep into the playoffs after this much roster turnover, he will deserve a lot of credit. If the Astros win less than 90 games and/or miss the playoffs, Espada probably will deserve some blame; if he fails, I think it will be because while he is very likable, he may not be the kind of person who can command ultimate respect from big league ball players.
you’ve got me thinking I undervalued managing clubhouse culture, but that is probably a direct result of me absolutely hating Dusty’s lineup decisions. I remain convinced he cost us big and we won despite him.
Surely it's not possible that we concurrently won despite his lineup decisions and in some part thanks to his clubhouse management.
Yes, I said that part. We also won despite Jose Altuve running the bases like a toddler playing tee-ball on ketamine. We also won despite Kate Upton keeping her top on. We also won despite ironic inability of certain "fans' to conceive of the mere possibility of more than one thing being true at the same time, despite that very fact actually being the ONE AND ONLY thing we even have the remote capability of knowing for sure to be completely true on the subject. We also won despite the fact that those same "fans" didn't bother to learn about nuance because they thought it was a region in France, rendering it gay. Now I must go write a song about their behavior's effect on the game thread every time our hitters get behind in the count during the 1st inning of a game in April entitled: Render it Gay.
That's exactly how something or someone is deserving. It's a verb that expresses the idea of earning/giving something. Typically, due to an action or quality.
Actually entitlement, in the sense that you mean, is closer to implying non-deserving Especially if earning implies effort
