A good manger doesn’t hit Bengie Molina 4th every game

..is to manage the bullpen. I don’t like his lineups, but he does manage the bullpen well.

I was surprised to find out that Bruce Bochy is fourth all time in HBP differential, his pitchers having his 145 more batters than opposing pitcher have. It seems odd to me, because I always figured Bochy as a very laid back manager, meaning both even-keeled emotionally and not conservative with substitutions. It probably has alot to do with the personnel he’s used (alot of bad teams with young, wild pitchers), but still surprising to me.

A good manager’s most important job is to stay out of the way. A manager has a pretty limited ability to change a game for the better, because the players are in control of what happens on the field. The manager can, however, take the game away from his players by screwing around a lot. By doing things like double switches in the 6th inning that bring the pitcher up in the cleanup spot in the 9th inning of a tied game.

That’s what I look for first. If a guy is screwing around with a lot of mid-game switches, leadoff bunts, steal attemps when you’re down by four, etc. (those examples are intentionally bad, but I just mean “screwing around with a lot of moves”), then my opinion of him as a manager tends to go down.

Now, all this comes with the stipulation that it’s my personal opinion and doesn’t have a lot of basis in any kind of effort-based analysis.

A good manager is one who does exactly what you would do in any given situation.

As people have mentioned, part of it is managing the bullpen and lineup (although I guess part of the lineup is up to upper management, such as whether to give young guys a look). Some is just keeping players from getting too unhappy. I’m one of the people who basically thinks a good manager just doesn’t mess things up.

Another interesting note I realized from reading 3 Nights in August: some supposedly great managers can be really stupid about some things. The book shows how la russa relies very heavily, and devotes an incredible amount of his life to, studying ridiculously small sample sizes for matchups: 3-7, 0-3, 2-2, etc. Someone just needs to tell him, "You know, you really don’t have to sacrifice your family life for this.

Someone who doesn’t give a starting pitcher the game ball before the game is over.

For starters, we have to remember that what we see is about three hours a day of the team putting on a performance. The rest of the time, and there is a lot of it, we can’t truly say what is happening. Because of this, let us look at our own managers and see what the good qualities are.

For one, I feel a manager works as a fulcrum between his superiors and the group below. He should block the BS that floats down in order to allow workers to focus on their jobs. Ideally he will foster an environment where people both strive to do their very best and get along with each other at the same time.

We have probably all had bad managers at one point or another. We have had good ones, as well. I have no clue if he is good at that part of his job.

I am certain he is horrible at lineup construction. This isn’t even worth discussing.

In general, I think his on field strategy is very generic. This limits him because he does not use information (statistics) to his advantage. I don’t think he is horrendous, usually.

With all that said, I think a “good manager” is one who is good or better at every aspect of managing.

He’s seems to be a terrible “player’s” manager. Yesterday, the Mets announcer, Keith Hernandez, said Bochy loves to get the backup catcher involved because that’s what he was as a player. But I don’t know if that’s really true. Yesterday, Whiteside saw the field in a romp.

Granted, Bochy doesn’t have a lot to work with. But that situation begs for a manager who gets the bench more involved. Instead, Bochy conservatively [frustratingly] favors vets while putting the young players in Be-The-Savior-Or-Sayonara mode.

Obviously, I don’t know how the players actually feel about him, but he seems to manage fearfully, from a punitive standpoint, especially with the young guys.

I was actually thinking of making a fan post with this suggestion, but hey…

Clint Hurdle is unemployed. Has worked with teams heavy with young talent. Has World Series experience. Granted, The Rockies have done a 180 since his departure so I am willing to be completely shouted down because of that suggestion. But what I am saying is we need someone to develop your young SF Giants. So, if not Clint, name me someone else who is comparable.

The one knock on Bochy which would seem to be the most important, given our current roster is his inability or refusal to develop young players. Honestly, in-game managing could be done by any high school coach. Managing a pitching staff is done by managing a pitching coach. (I’m no Rags fan either) Club house chemistry is important, and I think the Giants have done a wonderful job of this these last two seasons. This could be a hat tip to Bochy. But we really need someone who is going to develop the kids.

So, even if you would consider Bochy a good manager given the different tasks identified above and your ratings of those tasks, you still need to weight the importance of these tasks for the given application. In this case it is a rebuilding organization with a need to develop young talent. I don’t think Bochy is the right guy for that job.

I don’t think he’d come back to the Giants because he was bored. America’s not out of wild animals, yet, I think.