31 replies to this topic

[spycake]

 

A rookie manager who walked into a clubhouse that didn't know him, beset by injuries to players, a patch-work pitching staff yet 101 wins.

 

Yeah, he done good.

I don't know if the Twins were really "beset by injuries", at least not relative to other clubs -- and not before many of those 101 wins had already been tallied. And the pitching staff wasn't that patchwork -- after all, we got 146 starts out of our original starting 5 (and most of the remaining 16 starts were again late in the season). By comparison, Cleveland only got 97 starts from their original starting 5 in 2019.

 

He did seem to do well with the pen, which is a big consideration for a modern manager, although some of the pen's "patchwork" nature was by design (i.e. Littell on the Rochester shuttle) and something that most modern managers deal with. But to his credit, he definitely got good, and sometimes unexpected, performance levels out of the group.

[spycake]

 

How on god's green earth did Francona make it on the ballot? I like Tito, but his season didn't exactly scream "Manager of the Year"

Well, Francona finished a clear 6th in this balloting, and his team finished 6th in the AL. Seems appropriate? And Cleveland probably faced greater injury/patchwork challenges than the Twins.

[Bomba2026]

He's still learning and he is very smart and a likeable guy! No one wants to work for an @$$, I can attest to that. Congrats!

[Brock Beauchamp]

 

It may have irritated me also had Boone won the award just because I absolutely hate the Yankees so much. But on the flip side, he did a magnificent job holding that team together with all those injuries all season, not to mention they didn't even make a big deadline splash like they usually do. Boone to me actually did a great job, whereas many of the Yankee managers of the past didn't impress me that much just because they had everything, but I really thought Boone did a great job holding that ship together with all those injuries all year.

Boone did a fine job but it's a hell of a lot easier to "patch together" a season when your front office goes out and picks up a player like Encarnacion because of said injuries.

[Thegrin]

Congratulations to Rocco. Think how good he will be if he ever learns how to handle his bullpen.

[spycake]

 

Boone did a fine job but it's a hell of a lot easier to "patch together" a season when your front office goes out and picks up a player like Encarnacion because of said injuries.

Did they pick up anyone of note besides Encarnacion? And Encarnacion isn't versatile at all, so it's going to take some skill to deploy him properly.

[Brock Beauchamp]

 

Did they pick up anyone of note besides Encarnacion? And Encarnacion isn't versatile at all, so it's going to take some skill to deploy him properly.

My point is that an excess of riches allows the Yankees to have the best of all worlds. A team like the Rays or A's would have been unrecoverable with that number of injuries in play.

[insagt1]

was kind of surprised Boone was runner up instead of Cash.

[VivaBomboRivera!]

A (NY!) friend answered my expression of ambivalence, "He got to playoffs w/team not rated to contend. Nobody in April expected Twins to play that well all season."
The counter is that October is part of that season, and when we got to the Division series we saw that Baldelli and his on-field brain trust (as well as the FO) was outclassed. Maybe time and a better 2020 performance will soften my opinion...

[Riverbrian]

 

My point is that an excess of riches allows the Yankees to have the best of all worlds. A team like the Rays or A's would have been unrecoverable with that number of injuries in play.

 

OPS+

Ford 137

Urshela 133

Tauchman 128

Maybin 127

 

Sometimes injuries make you better. 

[spycake]

 

My point is that an excess of riches allows the Yankees to have the best of all worlds. A team like the Rays or A's would have been unrecoverable with that number of injuries in play.

I get that point, in theory, but it doesn't seem to have played out that way in 2019, so I'm not sure it's relevant to this discussion about Boone. Encarnacion was literally the only in-season reinforcement that NY brought in with its excess resources in 2019, and he didn't even have that much of an impact for them -- 197 PA of 0.7 bWAR (he missed most of the last 2 months of the season for NY too!).

 

As Brian alludes to, the bigger reinforcements were Ford, Urshela, Tauchman, and Maybin -- they contributed 9.5 bWAR over 1204 PA. Oakland and Tampa could have just as easily acquired and deployed those players instead of NYY. (And in fact, Oakland and Tampa often do get good performances from unheralded players like that, and we give their managers and front offices credit for doing so.)

[Brock Beauchamp]

 

I get that point, in theory, but it doesn't seem to have played out that way in 2019, so I'm not sure it's relevant to this discussion about Boone. Encarnacion was literally the only in-season reinforcement that NY brought in with its excess resources in 2019, and he didn't even have that much of an impact for them -- 197 PA of 0.7 bWAR (he missed most of the last 2 months of the season for NY too!).

 

As Brian alludes to, the bigger reinforcements were Ford, Urshela, Tauchman, and Maybin -- they contributed 9.5 bWAR over 1204 PA. Oakland and Tampa could have just as easily acquired and deployed those players instead of NYY. (And in fact, Oakland and Tampa often do get good performances from unheralded players like that, and we give their managers and front offices credit for doing so.)

I'm giving Boone some credit (and I always give Cashman credit, he's a legendary GM), all I'm saying is that the Yankees are in a much better position to rally using a myriad of resources because they have near-unlimited resources. Almost anything they don't do is a self-imposed decision.