Neyer: Bochy and Bumgarner in 2014

From SABR member Rob Neyer at The National Pastime Museum on April 21, 2017:

Most of the stories in this series have been about, or will be about, some seriously archival stuff. Now, I don’t think managers in the olden days were better or smarter than our recent legends. And I certainly could have written about Joe Torre’s willingness to use Mariano Rivera for more than an inning in October, or about Terry Francona or Joe Maddon or (dare I say it?) Ned Yost.

The truth is that managers today just aren’t as large as they used to be. That is, they’re not larger than life any more. John McGraw and Casey Stengel and Billy Martin . . . these were household names. Today, there are undoubtedly millions of casual baseball fans who can’t name both 2016 World Series managers without a hint or three. There’s also this: With so many rounds of postseason playoffs, managers make many, many more high-leverage decisions than they used to, which makes it more difficult for particular decisions to stand out. Hell, I could write a whole book (or at least a monograph) about Torre’s October moves.

But let’s reserve a spot for the twenty-first century, and specifically for the only manager who has won three World Series in the twenty-first century: Bruce Bochy.

Read the full article here: http://www.thenationalpastimemuseum.com/article/bochy-bum-2014



Originally published: April 21, 2017. Last Updated: April 21, 2017.