Bill James Guide to Baseball Managers, The (45 page)

Uses as few lineups in a season as any manager in baseball. Uses as few pinch hitters and as few relievers as anybody. Never calls pitchouts.

LOU PINIELLA

Led the American League in pinch hitters in 1994, and was second last year. Who would you pinch-hit for, in his lineup? Will order a pitchout.

PHIL REGAN

The 1995 record was unremarkable.

JIM RIGGLEMAN

Fairly stable lineup, but manages as if he had a twenty-eight-man roster once the game begins. Uses many pinch hitters, many relievers. Never misses a chance to call a pitchout or order an intentional walk.

BILL RUSSELL

Too early to draw any firm conclusions. Experimented with his lineup less than Lasorda had, used three times as many pinch runners. Substantially reduced intentional walks (compared to Lasorda), although they remained fairly high.

BUCKY SHOWALTER

Relatively conservative manager, doesn’t use large number of relievers or substitutes, except that he will pinch-run if the potential run is meaningful.

JOE TORRE

In 1994, when his team had no obvious defensive sore point, he used zero defensive subs; last year he led the majors, with 55, mostly getting Mariano Duncan and Wade Boggs out of the lineup in the late innings. Platoons some, uses his bullpen heavily, makes substantial use of one-run strategies.

BOBBY VALENTINE

This record doesn’t go back far enough to establish what he usually did with Texas.

Most Successful Managers:

1. Bobby Cox

2. Cito Gaston

3. Lou Piniella

4. Tony LaRussa

Most Controversial Manager:
Dallas Green

Dallas Green was the last of the hard-ass managers, surviving from the pre-free agency era.

Others of Note:

Felipe Alou

Mike Hargrove

Dave Johnson

Tom Kelly

Kevin Kennedy

Jim Leyland

Stunts:
As you know, many pitchers are most effective when they are told to go out there and throw as hard as they can for as long as they can, without having to worry about pacing themselves. Baseball freethinkers, for that reason, have long discussed the possibility of abandoning the roles of “starter” and “reliever,” and using all of the pitchers on a staff in two- or three-inning stints.

On July 24, 1993, the Oakland A’s decided to try it. The A’s formed three groups of pitchers, each of which would be assigned to pitch three innings every third day, with a bullpen of two or three pitchers to close out victories and cover any unexpected gaps.

This was Dave Duncan’s idea, and Tony LaRussa’s decision to put it into practice. Needless to say, the A’s were struggling at the time, or the idea wouldn’t have had much appeal. They continued to struggle, losing four out of five games before deciding to chuck the plan. The pitchers didn’t like it, and it just didn’t work.

Typical Manager Is:
better educated than in previous generations. Over 80% of current managers have attended college (twenty-three of twenty-eight), and four of the five exceptions are among the oldest managers in baseball. About 40% are college graduates. Within twenty years, almost all major league managers will have degrees.

Percentage of Playing Managers:
None.

The last playing manager was Pete Rose, who retired as a player after the 1986 season.

Most Second-Guessed Manager’s Moves:

1. 1995, Bucky Showalter lost confidence in his bullpen during the American League Championship Series. David Cone started the fifth game on three days rest, threw 146 pitches, and surrendered the lead in the eighth inning. In the ninth inning, Showalter turned the game over to Jack McDowell, who

a) was pitching on one day of rest,

b) was making his first major league relief appearance, and

c) had been hammered two days earlier. McDowell lost the game in the eleventh.

2. On May 29, 1993, Texas manager Kevin Kennedy used Jose Canseco to pitch the final inning of a 15–1 blowout. Canseco seriously injured his arm, a “complete tear of the ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow,” and had to have the Tommy John surgery to repair the damage. He was out essentially the rest of the season.

Player Rebellions:
1992, Montreal against Tom Runnells.

Buck Rodgers was (or is) a relatively high-pressure manager. On June 3, 1982, a struggling Milwaukee team replaced Rodgers with a good ole boy named Harvey Kuenn. “Have fun,” Kuenn ordered his new team. The Brewers relaxed and surged to the American League championship.

On June 2, 1991, the Montreal Expos also decided to replace Buck Rodgers, but they went the other direction. They opted for a more intense, higher-pressure manager named Tom Runnels. They coasted along the rest of the season, about the same as before.

At spring training, 1992, Runnells addressed his team in combat fatigues. The press talked about Runnells’s running a boot camp; he was apparently trying to lighten the atmosphere, deliver the message, “Yes, it’s a boot camp, but let’s keep our sense of humor about it.” The incident made Runnells look silly, and his team began to drift away from him. By mid-May, the thirty-seven-year-old manager was described by Peter Gammons as “a nervous wreck.” He was fired on May 22.

Evolutions in Strategy:
The most notable trend now in motion in the major leagues is the dramatic increase in the frequency of pitching changes. The number of pitchers used per game has increased more than 20% in the last five years, as roster spots traditionally reserved for pinch hitters, pinch runners, and defensive substitutes are now being used for extra relievers.

The number of complete games in the major leagues now is less than one-half of what it was in 1988.

As you no doubt know, we are in a high-scoring era. In mid-1990s baseball there are many walks, fairly high batting averages, and historic numbers of home runs. This tends to discourage the use of all one-run weapons—sacrifice bunts, stolen bases, intentional walks. They’re all down some. Double plays are up.

The number of hit batsmen per game has increased by more than 60% since 1989.

Evolution in the Role of the Manager:
As escalating salaries have made it more impossible to keep a core of talent together, the manager has come to represent the “center” of a team in a way that he did not twenty years ago. At the beginning of spring training, many teams are composed of strangers. The manager has increased responsibility, or if you prefer, increased opportunity, to establish the tenor of the team.