I think managers are supposed to find ways to get their teams to play the game well.
Not hit. Not throw a curveball.
Play the game. Know how, and then do it.
Literally one of his primary tasks.
At any level, in any team endeavor, inside or outside sports, leadership gets the level of execution it allows.
If hitting the cutoff man doesnt matter to the manager, it won't matter to the people performing the task.
I dont know how many times this needs to be explained. I'm not asking Rocco Baldelli to teach Royce Lewis to keep his back foot in place in the box.
I'm asking Rocco Baldelli to demand his team play the game of baseball properly and find ways to ensure that happens. Cutoffs are hit and proper bases thrown to. Bases are run with intelligence and aggression. Throws are backed up. Opponents running games are controlled. On and on and on.
The exact things that Baldelli led teams routinely and often did at a level below their opponents.
It took till this year, ferpetesakes, for Baldelli to make BP mandatory. They STILL didn't regularly take infield.
None of which addresses his many other weaknesses.
Long overdue firing.
Let's hope the Next Guy has a better understanding of how to get more from his personnel, rather than less.