Quote:
Originally Posted by SirMichaelJordan
One thing that bothers me is how staff members are handle as far as getting jobs. Far too often I see manager get hired by a MLB team with no prior history of managing or coaching not to mention when they do have a history they would have a terrible career record and then somehow get hired by a top MLB franchise like the Yankees.
But the real annoyance is when those said managers who've been horrible somehow managed to receive great ratings. (Hence why they were hired in the first place) so I guess my beef is that progression for staff members seem random and success doesn't play a role in staff getting better.
Oh and another thing is former pitchers becoming hitting coaches and former position players becoming pitching coaches..
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I don't disagree with your point but in real life the Yankees hired Joe Torre who by any analysis had poor ratings as a manager. Showalter was let go because he wanted to negotiate and Steinbrenner didn't like him. Showalter was a better manager based on results.
To me that's why it is so difficult to provide a realistic coaching/manager module. We don't know anyone is good until after they have success. Even then it is not clear who is responsible for the success. There is a scholarly article somewhere on the web which claims that high profile sports coach/management positions are often made for marketing publicity and media reasons (see Lou Piniella
) instead of verifiable skill. Most analysis available suggests that managers contribute about 12% to the results (good or bad) each year.
MLB teams are showing that they understand things differently now by hiring inexperienced managers based more on personality assessment and straight non-baseball management skills. What I think they're telling us is that being a former player (catchers preferred) is enough ie he will have the respect of the players. After that its very likely the same type of skill assessment that you would look for in any "leadership" position including reasonable media skills. It's pretty obvious that a side benefit of hiring managers with no previous record is that the team doesn't have to answer questions about it. Controlling the media is a big deal.
Given that I think it's reasonable to conclude that MLB teams are telling us they don't think "baseball" management is a measurable skill.