Thursday, June 19, 2008

The Best: MLB manager


Welcome to "The Best," a new series from the people who brought you "Would You Do," "Blogger Interviews" and "What Really Grinds My Gears."

It's just what it sounds like: what's the best ______? "Best" is such a subjective word and that's really the point -- let's get you guys talking! If this works, there will be intelligent, thoughtful debate on the day's topic. And if it doesn't work, well, back to the drawing board.


Funny thing about being a Major League manager: don't really do too much. Call some hit-and -runs, maybe choose to intentionally walk some one and make a double-switch in the eighth.

Aside from that, it sure seems that your average fan could coach a team. But, of course, there are the behind-the-scenes duties like managing your star player's ego, fulfilling requests by the front office and getting your team to gel.

The best current MLB manager? Here's how we'd rank 'em:

5. Joe Torre (Dodgers)
4. Lou Piniella (Cubs)
3. Ron Gardenhire (Twins)
2. Bobby Cox (Braves)
1. Jim Leyland (Tigers)

Your turn.

15 comments:

rstiles said...

In no particular order
- Joe Torre
- Terry Francona
- Lou Piniella
- Dusty Baker
- Bobby Cox

GMoney said...

I hate his team but by far the best manager is Mike Scoscia. Joe Torre does nothing and I'm a Yankees fan.

WCT said...

Wait, you think that Jim Leyland, manager of the most disappointing team in baseball (even worse than the Mets!) is the BEST manager in the bigs? Or were you being sarcastic??

Anonymous said...

Anyone who witnessed Francona in Philly can't have him in the top 5 let alone top 20

Mr. Booze said...

I second the Mike Scioscia nomination. I'm not sure that it's close. Look at that dog crap lineup and they win the AL West nearly every year.

Mr. Booze said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
rstiles said...

I had a brain fart...I forgot about Mike Scioscia...

Add Scioscia to the list

THN said...

I believe that Scioscia is running away with this thing.

Anonymous said...

Mike Scioscia, hands down.

I know his name is hard to spell, but you're putting Gardenhire on this list (No. 3 is ridiculous) but not putting Scioscia on here? Come on.

I'm not even sure if this list is tongue-in-cheek or not. Jim Leyland is No. 1? If you're just messing around, I apologize.

Anonymous said...

I have no idea why that came up as me dot com.

Bokolis said...

Effectively, a manager's perception hinges on whether his bullpen can hold leads and whether the team hits when it matters.

That said, I find it too hard to argue against Scioscia or Piniella.

Here's the deal...from the cheap seats, none of us can grasp the strain of managing the personalities of people that make more than you. Willie Randolph is considered a bad manager because he didn't lay the pimp hand on Jose Reyes. I'm sure Willie wanted to throw that cunt into a locker, but couldn't because Reyes would whine to and was protected by Omar and Tony Bernazard. Imagine that...Willie had to take marching orders from Bernazard, who wasn't a tenth the player Randolph was. When a player has a conduit to upper management, the manager is fucked.

The Big Picture said...

so, yeah, um, we were being serious. really. you guys are smarter than us.

Anonymous said...

No LaRussa?

mrwright8733 said...

Seriously... How could you put any of those guys in front of Larussa?? He will be the second most winning manager of all time by the end of his career, gauranteed! And he has done great things with all three teams he has coached...

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