2017-18 baseball off season

[Jerry Garcia]

It begs the question if you even need a manager. Or a manager that is remotely competent. If they are nothing but a conduit, does it matter if they know anything? I guess the Phillies figure putting an actual baseball guy will still matter with the fans, but, ultimately, if this goes the way JC is suggesting it won't matter much if the fans like Kapler or not.

Since the players still really are people, and the season is long, I think a successful manager still needs to be a motivator, cajoler, thinker, schemer, etc. And of course if the MLB manager corps in 2-3 years consists of 30 cyborgs, many of those cyborgs will be profound losers of baseball games. Then someone will hire Girardi and win the pennant. Re Philly, Klentak will only be able to ignore loud boos for so long - if it comes to that.

One final note: "JC" I think still is inVA. "JG," on the other hand, is alive and well on this board.

[Blue&White]

That's not a typo. I've actually anointed you my personal savior. And, lucky you, I am pretty high maintenance. I'll send you a list of things I need later.

And, you make a fair point about the players still being humans. I don't know enough about Kapler to know if he's the guy to motivate them or not but guess the Phillies will find out. It's interesting the Yankees dumped Girardi given the season he had. No one was picking them to do much of anything and they made it to the ALCS. I think he's a good manager. I would not have been upset if the Mets grabbed him. If you want to go with a more analytical approach, that's fine. I have no objection to that in general, but Girardi wins. He did pretty well with a bad team in Florida and he never was below .500 in New York for the 10 years he was there. He only won one World Series (which is one more than most managers win) but he made the post season a bunch of times. And, frankly, I think winning a World Series involves a lot of lucky breaks. Getting to the post season consistently is all I think you can really ask a manager to do.

We will see. These things tend to ebb and flow. Meanwhile, I need to work on my list.

[Jerry Garcia]

That's not a typo. I've actually anointed you my personal savior. And, lucky you, I am pretty high maintenance. I'll send you a list of things I need later.

Anointings with personal saving don't come for free. I advise you to drop the silly NY sports team fascination, pronto. And no, Philly teams don't need your fanhood...may I suggest perhaps a lovely midwest operation...Kansas City maybe? How does Cincinnati sound? And Minneapolis could always use another new fan or two...

[Blue&White]

I've been observing how people view religion for a long time and I think you're misunderstanding how this personal savior thing actually works. It's actually all about me.

[PittGradPSUMad]

At lunch yesterday, one of the teachers...a female thirty-something....commented that she likes the Kapler hire because "he's so damned good looking". Well, at least he has that...and her undying support...going for him. Should carry him through that first home stand in April.

[PittGradPSUMad]

I've been observing how people view religion for a long time and I think you're misunderstanding how this personal savior thing actually works. It's actually all about me.

I hate to burst your bubble, but you're wrong.....it's actually all about me.

Isn't it?

[psu_dad]

You're both wrong.

Mrs psu_dad: All three of you are wrong.
Me: No one asked you.

[Blue&White]

Mets hired Ruben Amaro Jr. as their new first base coach. Didn't see that coming.

[Shore Lion]

Mets hired Ruben Amaro Jr. as their new first base coach. Didn't see that coming.

Does anyone ever see a first base coach hire coming? I mean really, do people actually discuss that sort of happening?

[psu_dad]

Good luck with that. The Red Sox were a Horror Show on the base paths this year. There's a stat (forget the name) that measures the percentage of times a team was successful in advancing to a base when it wasn't required due to a force play. This includes things like stretching a single into a double, going from first to third on a base hit, that sort of thing. The Red Sox were near the bottom of MLB in that stat. They have good team speed and decided to be aggressive. I like that. But they frequently went beyond aggressive to reckless and often went to "WTF did you do that for?".

I presume Ruben was available because Cora wants to hire his own buddies. He won't be missed.