- This topic has 889 replies, 23 voices, and was last updated 1 year, 9 months ago by
.
-
Posts
-
Braves were fortunate to have qualified for bonus baseball and I’d have to say were the one of the primary underachievers of the baseball regular season.
I think it’s more than a bit amusing that the manager of the team that eliminated the Astros was suspended for a year for infractions that he was accused of committing while he was situated on the top step of the Astros dugout in 2017…Haha! I guess there’s a lot of truth to the concept known as the circle of life.
1td, same here on Hinch. Funny stuff. I think the irony, humor, or whatever you call it, is not lost on a lot of people. I lived in the same town as Hinch when he was a top high school prospect.
Yeah, Hinch’s story is definitely worth noting, Euro. At any rate, I wouldn’t want to play his team right now. Those Tigers have been engaged in a do or die battle for more than a month’s worth of games and are almost certainly oblivious to any pressure at this stage. I hope they continue to advance to a Tigers/Royals ALCS…Haha!
I saw an article where some O’s blogger was lamenting their inability to even manage a productive out with the bases loaded. Maybe we and they could get a volume deal on two high tech virtual reality hitting experience booths for our new high tech hitting labs.
First non-Astros ALCS since 2016. I saw where the Tigers had a .2% chance – that is 2/10 of one percent – to get to post season as late as August. Man, that is some turn around.
But who knows how those percentages are calculated.
How Schildt’s players interacted with him postgame, caught my eye. That clubhouse looks together.
The Padres at Dodgers will test them now as the visitors, but that’s divisional.
Schildt managing vs Edman. Not long ago, Mike couldn’t make out a lineup card without Tommy leading off.
The Padres are a really good team and probably the team I am picking for the World Series. I would like to see Cleveland, but San Diego has been playing very well and is hot at the right time.
How Schildt’s players interacted with him postgame, caught my eye. That clubhouse looks together.
This is a key that I think gets lost in the proverbial line of “managers make only a couple or few games difference in a season.” That’s probably close from the perspective of lineups, bullpen management, in-game tactics, etc., but not always true from the leadership impact. Getting 26 guys willing to bust a wall down for the team’s goals everyday can have a bigger impact, although of course the talent is a limfac.
On the downside, the negative results of poor leadership have a very low floor. Dissension, apathy, single-mindedness, etc., all hurt performance and can cause win-loss results well below potential. It caught my ears during the last game when the announcers were talking about how Shildt transformed their culture from a disharmonious group of guys, who in some cases didn’t like each other last year, to what we’re seeing this year. He recognized this was his number one issue when he took over and quickly talked to the guys about how to get past it all. Eventually the jelling took place and then the Padres took off. They obviously respect Shildt as their leader.
Of course, some might have philosophical differences about how much of all that should be attributed to Shildt’s role as skipper, hehe.
I am a firm believer that the good managers make more than 3 or 4 games difference. Whitey Herzog was a genius in his ability to identify winning ball players and I think Shildt picked up some of that from him
Then there is the clubhouse atmosphere. Think that was a big problem for the Cardinals this season. While the players seemed to be congenial with Ollie I believe that his crazy linups, use of green pitchers late in close games, his obsessiion with platooning and other issues had to lead to soome dissatisfaaction. And maybe the players blame Mo rather than Ollie.
Shildt has a tough task in LA. The top half of that Dodger lineup is pretty awesome.
Shildt seems to be a “player’s manager”, as they call some guys. The clubhouse speech he made after we won that playoff series in Atlanta, while laced with profanities, is the kind of thing players love.
Management really missed the boat when they fired him after his being so successful taking over for Matheny. While there needs to be consistency in attaining goals among a team in any endeavor, there should always be allowances for differing opinions on phases of the process. No one has a monopoly on knowledge or wisdom.
The next round falls into place nicely with SD/LA and DET/CLE, being natural division rivals. We also get a KC/NY series that will have an opportunity to provide plenty of nostalgia in the form of those mid to late 70’s ALCS best of 5 dogfights. And if the Mets can get past the Brewers in tonight’s game, it’ll finish out the field of survivors with another natural division rival in the form of a NYM/PHI series. At any rate, this weekend has a real good chance to provide baseball fans with some entertaining and competitive post-season action.
Our old friend Quintana getting the baseball and working a turn in the most important game of the season for the Mets. He’s remains unscathed through 2.
Will be fun to see if the Royals can get past the Yankees this time. I am sure George Brett will be in the stands.
We sometimes lament the fact that six teams per league get to post season. But those Wild Card series can be some pretty compelling baseball. Also I like October games in the daytime. That is another bit of nostalgia (in addition to Royals-Yankees) as it takes me back to my youth when the World Series was a daytime event and you hoped a teacher would let you watch it in the classroom.
Yeah, all WS games were played in the daytime until I was a teenager. I’m also pretty sure that the last WS day game was between our Cardinals and the Brewers in ’82. Might have been the proverbial “McGee Game” played at County Stadium in Milwaukee.
Edit…Nope, I was wrong again. The Cardinals played in the last daytime WS game but it was in game 6 of the ’87 WS played at the Metrodome. However, I’m not sure that constitutes a day game for the simple reason being that there was never the presense of God’s wonderful bright sunshine in that forsaken venue…Haha!
Quintana now through 5 on 77 pitches. Lots of green stains on the bouncing baseball. I’ve yet to see an out plucked from the air. I’ll be surprised if the Redbird manager doesn’t go out and get him…
Enjoying a good game tonight. I know others wont agree, but i wish these series were five games. Your teams makes the playoffs, the fans deserve a home game. I know time isnt on their side due to stretching out season but maybe change the season bqck to 154 games or less. Then its quite possible.
The pitching ive gotten to see in the few minutes of games ive been able to see in the playoffs has been awesome. Outside of atlantas starter for the first game, its been superb. Watching kc close out the orioles, i was amazed at how good of stuff their pitchers had. A lot of it was truly unhittable.
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.