Why The Milwaukee Brewers Have The Best Manager In Baseball
From SABR member Michael Haupert at The Washington Post on October 18, 2011:
Ron Roenicke, rookie manager of the Milwaukee Brewers, is the best manager in baseball. How do I know? Because he is the most efficient manager—and efficiency is important, even in baseball.
Among baseball’s many virtues is the wealth of statistical data that it produces. At least this is the virtue for economists.
Yet despite this wealth of data, it is difficult to determine who is the best manager using the available statistics. The leading home run hitter is obvious. So is the winningest pitcher. The league MVP is debatable—but the debate generally reduces to an analyzable statistic of one sort or other. Determining the best manager, however, is a much trickier proposition.
Exactly what does a manager do? Set the lineup? Change pitchers? Call for a hit and run? Or do they just inspire the players to perform their best? And how do we measure their success? Is it simply the number of wins? If so, then Connie Mack would be the greatest manager of all time with 3,731. But he also has the most losses (3,948), so maybe he is also the worst manager.
Read the full article here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/on-leadership/why-the-milwaukee-brewers-have-the-best-manager-in-baseball/2011/10/18/gIQAVyrZvL_story.html
Originally published: October 24, 2011. Last Updated: October 24, 2011.