What is people's fascination with Girardi about?

[CaliforniaRaisin]

The pitcher then had a season ending arm injury in the same game.

 

I didn't realize forearm tightness was a season ending injury?

 

And here this whole time I though they were overly cautions since there was only 2 1/2 weeks left in the season and playoff hopes had faded.

 

:roll:

 

So it didn't end his season?

[CubinNY]

Girardi is a leader.

 

What does that mean?

 

Again, are you kidding me? Not too hard to understand what that means.

 

What does leadership have to do with winning baseball.

You really don't think that a good leader vs. someone who is lousy at leading makes a difference?

 

Not in baseball. The manager's job is to put his team in the best position to win. If you want to call that leadership, I'll go with it.

 

Aside from making a lineup card and changing pitchers I don't see how a "leader" has any effect in a baseball game?

[Flames24Rulz]

Girardi better be managing the Cubs in 07.

 

Why?

 

Are you kidding me? He managed a team with a $14 million dollar payroll, and had them in contention for the wild card untill the last 2 weeks in the season. Everyone predicted the marlins to lose over 100 games this year.

 

The team didn't have a winning season, had some of the best young talent in baseball and he was responsible for sending one of their best young pitchers out after a long rain delay. The pitcher then had a season ending arm injury in the same game.

 

He is infatuated with the sac bunt, made poor personnel decisions at the begining of the year and was told to make changes.

 

I don't see any reason why the cubs better pick him.

 

Yes, Girardi was given a team with talent, but it was largely unproven ML talent. Either it was flat out luck or Girardi (and his coaching staff) had something to do with it.

 

Exactly. Sure they had a lot of talent, but like you said, most of the talent hardly had any ML experience. To win 78 games after many people say they could have one of the worst records in recent memory is unbelievable. Girardi has to get some of that credit, right?

[Laura]

Mark Zuckerman / The Washington Times[/url]"] The club's first order of business is the most obvious one. With Robinson's departure, the Nationals must decide who will lead the team in 2007.

 

Neither Bowden nor Kasten will reveal specifics about their gameplan, but indications are the two will conduct a comprehensive search for the new manager and don't necessarily feel an urgency to get it done immediately.

 

That could change in a hurry, though, if the rest of the open managerial market fires up as it appears it might. The Florida Marlins are expected to officially fire Joe Girardi today and name Atlanta Braves third base coach Fredi Gonzalez as his replacement, which could set off a chain of events that significantly affects the Nationals.

 

Both Girardi and Gonzalez were expected to be candidates for the Washington job, and with Girardi a hot name around the sport, Bowden could feel pressure to move quick and try to secure a guy who may win NL Manager of the Year.

[Soriano12]

The pitcher then had a season ending arm injury in the same game.

 

I didn't realize forearm tightness was a season ending injury?

 

And here this whole time I though they were overly cautions since there was only 2 1/2 weeks left in the season and playoff hopes had faded.

 

:roll:

 

So it didn't end his season?

 

Yeah it did. But I compare it to the same kind of nonsense of people who say Rex Grossman of the Chicago Bears has had 2 season ending injuries(counting the injury to his hand in the last game of the 03 season)

[Mizzou]

Girardi is a leader.

 

What does that mean?

 

Again, are you kidding me? Not too hard to understand what that means.

 

What does leadership have to do with winning baseball.

You really don't think that a good leader vs. someone who is lousy at leading makes a difference?

 

Not in baseball. The manager's job is to put his team in the best position to win. If you want to call that leadership, I'll go with it.

 

Aside from making a lineup card and changing pitchers I don't see how a "leader" has any effect in a baseball game?

Motivating players, refusing to allow lazyness, making sure the players don't forget the fundamentals, etc. I think that by doing all of those, a manager can make an impact on the game. Maybe not an enormous difference, but obviously a team with a manager that stresses the importance of playing hard is going to be better off than a team with a manager who is laid back and won't care if you dog it or make a boneheaded play.

[ToupeeOnFire]

Wow, some of you are being harsh. While I am not sold on Girardi, you cannot deny his team vastly exceeded expectations. People were predicting them to finish dead last and rightfully so. I don't care how good their prospects were; young teams with a preponderance of rookies, no matter how talented, generally struggle. For the Marlins to come back after a rough start and flirt with the .500 mark for a good part of the second half was a remarkable accomplishment. Who could have expected Hanley Ramirez and Dan Uggla to play as well as they did? Ramirez was considered a prospect, but who could have expected that he and his .720 OPS in AA would translate into an .833 OPS in the bigs. Or how three rookie pitchers, all 22 years or younger - Josh Johnson, Scott Olsen, and Annibel Sanches (none of the them consiered can't miss) - would turn in outstanding rookie seasons.

 

I don't have any pre-season projections in front of me, but I imagine just about every rookie played at the high-end of their expectations. Tom Tippett and his baseball simulation, Diamond Mind, had the Marlins pegged for a 69-93 record.

 

Of course he also had this to say about the Marlins, which sounds remarkably prescient:

 

At least one other predictor pegged the Marlins for 54 wins this year. That could happen, but I think they'll be quite a bit better than that. There's a lot of very interesting young talent here. I wouldn't be shocked if they hang around on the fringe of the division race for a good part of the season, though I don't think they'll be there in the end.

 

The million dollar question is: how much credit does the manager deserve? Was he just the lucky beneficiary of inheriting an outstanding group of major league ready prospects; or was it his guidance, patience, and coaching that allowed the young players to flourish? My guess is that it is mostly the former, but it's hard not to give him some credit for how the team exceeded expectations with a very young core.

 

I have reservations, but I wouldn't be too upset if they hired him.

[Laura]

I liked what Girardi had to say tonight. I have concerns, but I'd vastly prefer him to Piniella. I'm concerned that Hendry may not want to hire him more due to his perceived popularity amongst Cubs fans than because of his managerial philosophies.

 

And quite frankly -- I don't want Hendry kow-towing to what his Florida Marlins Front Office buddies tell him and the thought of that infuriates me to no end. Hendry seems to have a problem doing his job on his own, whether it's Dusty supposedly weighing in on player decisions or intimations that he can't get anything done without MacPhail there to direct his actions. He's the GM. Let him make the decision, not Beinfest or Loria.

[Mark_R]

 

You may be overstating the case here. I don't think I would call that an infatuation.

 

 1  Colorado        119
2  Houston         100
3  Chicago Cubs     84
4  San Francisco    80
5  Atlanta          78
6  NY Mets          77
7  Washington       76
8  Florida          76
9  St. Louis        71
10  Cincinnati       66
11  LA Dodgers       66
12  Pittsburgh       62
13  Arizona          61
14  San Diego        59
15  Milwaukee        58
16  Philadelphia     57

 

Fred, I think you're the best at debunking the "perception is reality" concept ;)

 

Dierker averaged just under 68 SH's per season and did maintain a much better pitcher % SH than Girardi did. I really like Girardi, and hope that is one thing he would change if he came to Chicago. His SP shouldn't have less SH's than his hitters overall. But he doesn't have this bunting fetish.

[Laura]

The obligatory quote of yesterday's Trib.

 

Paul Sullivan[/url]"]Girardi, one of the three heavyweights on general manager Jim Hendry's short list of four or five candidates to replace Dusty Baker, said Wednesday he would welcome an opportunity to serve under a management team that keeps its internal problems under wraps.

 

"I think the ideal situation is to be able to work with everyone and feel comfortable with everyone and know that everyone is on your side," Girardi said Wednesday in an interview on Comcast SportsNet, which is partly owned by Tribune Co., the owner of the Cubs. "And understand the people who brought you in are the people who wanted you here. That's the most important thing for me because I think the general manager-manager relationship is vital to the success of an organization.

 

"Obviously you're going to have disagreements on players, but that's OK because you're going to throw ideas off the wall. That's what you do when you sit around a room. They're meant to be internal [conversations], and you sit around and talk about different things. That's what I want—I want to be able to have a relationship with people in the organization you're comfortable going out to dinner, or going out to lunch (with)."

 

Girardi also decried "leaks" in Florida, and said he wanted the focus to be on his players, not him. Girardi, who was fired as manager by the Marlins Tuesday, is the only candidate the Cubs have confirmed for their opening, though former Yankees, Reds, Mariners and Devil Rays manager Lou Piniella and Cubs broadcaster Bob Brenly are in the mix and eventually will be contacted. No date has been set for Girardi's interview.

[CuseCubFan69]

 

You may be overstating the case here. I don't think I would call that an infatuation.

 

 1  Colorado        119
2  Houston         100
3  Chicago Cubs     84
4  San Francisco    80
5  Atlanta          78
6  NY Mets          77
7  Washington       76
8  Florida          76
9  St. Louis        71
10  Cincinnati       66
11  LA Dodgers       66
12  Pittsburgh       62
13  Arizona          61
14  San Diego        59
15  Milwaukee        58
16  Philadelphia     57

 

Fred, I think you're the best at debunking the "perception is reality" concept ;)

 

Dierker averaged just under 68 SH's per season and did maintain a much better pitcher % SH than Girardi did. I really like Girardi, and hope that is one thing he would change if he came to Chicago. His SP shouldn't have less SH's than his hitters overall. But he doesn't have this bunting fetish.

 

My queston would be how many of those were by pitchers and how many were by postion players? I think if you have pitchers that can bunt it will skew those numbers a little.

[waffle]

I have a 2 year old. THey say that any behavior can be modified in 3 days... waking up often.... throwing things...whatever, if you CONSISTENTLY address it. My experience? Pretty much true.

 

Players are only slightly different than 2 year olds. I want someone to come in and INSIST the cubbies play baseball right, or at least as instructed, and to play to win every day.

 

I have a huge respect for boring old fundy baseball. Moving the runner. Taking the extra base. Hitting the cut-off man. First pitch strikes. Hit and run. Working a walk. What do all those have in common? They were not things we saw alot of this year with our beloved cubbies. You can add to that developing youth (and showing patience as they mature).

 

I would have enjoyed this year's cubs, whatever the record, far more if we had seen more of the above.

 

I want Girardi, baggage and all.

[wastra]

Girardi is a leader.

 

What does that mean?

 

Again, are you kidding me? Not too hard to understand what that means.

 

What does leadership have to do with winning baseball.

You really don't think that a good leader vs. someone who is lousy at leading makes a difference?

 

Not in baseball. The manager's job is to put his team in the best position to win. If you want to call that leadership, I'll go with it.

 

Aside from making a lineup card and changing pitchers I don't see how a "leader" has any effect in a baseball game?

 

I am of the opinion that a properly trained babboon could manage a solid major league team as far as on-field game decisions. When they say "by the book", they literally mean it. If you make the logical decision that common baseball knowledge says to make 99.9% of the time, you're doing a good job. Unfortunately, MLB has a fetish for former players in that role who can't let go of the fact that they're not on the field any longer, when a better choice is probably a well-read impartial stats-geek who might or might not have a ton of professional experience.

 

It's motivation and gameplanning that makes a manager special, IMO. When our gameplan for 3 straight seasons in EVERY game was to go up "being aggressive" and not clogging the bases, we've had a managerial failuer.

 

Ultimately, I think a manager can hurt far more than they can help. You don't win because of a manager, but you can lose due to one's incompetence. Just put the logically best lineup on the field as often as possible, and look at the numbers before making in-game changes. Protect guys from injury, and do a decent job scouting opposing pitchers. it's guys like Baker who want to constantly change around lineups, constantly ignore the logical numbers, and bunt and every other at bat who screw it up. Justp ut the best team in th best lineup on the field as often as possible and get the * out of the way.

 

Otherwise, the job of a manager is a PR man and a counsellor. THAT'S where MLB experience can come in handy- helping young guys get acclimated, teaching them the ropes of living on the road for am onth at a time, helping them deal with media pressure and fan pressure, etc.

[dalgreen]

Since it's pretty obvious that some want Girardi primarily because he's a former Cub, why not go and hire Lloyd McClendon? I mean Girardi's team finished with a sub .500 record as did all of McClendon's teams in Pittsburgh, yet I believe that Girardi's team this year was more talented than any of McClendon's teams in Pittsburgh. Just wondering.... I just don't get the fascination with Girardi.

[Sosa21MVP]

Why do some people want Girardi to manage the Cubs.

 

Here is what I've come up with in the order of importance

 

1. He use to play for the Cubs

2. He went to Northwestern

3. He was the Yankees bench coach

 

I don't get it.

 

Forget all that. He managed a team with a $15 million payroll and a roster loaded with inexperience. Team started awful and by the end of the season was seriously contending for a wild card berth. So the owner has thin skin and held a grudge against him resulting in Girardi being fired after a managerial performance worthy of MLB Manager of the Year. What does your first two points have to do with anything? Absolutely nothing. Your 3rd point holds some water as Girardi's experience in New York certainly had to be helpful. The guy learned up close and personal how championship teams operate.

 

If you can't understand the interest in Girardi then you really have not put much effort into your analysis.

[Sosa21MVP]

Since it's pretty obvious that some want Girardi primarily because he's a former Cub, why not go and hire Lloyd McClendon? I mean Girardi's team finished with a sub .500 record as did all of McClendon's teams in Pittsburgh, yet I believe that Girardi's team this year was more talented than any of McClendon's teams in Pittsburgh. Just wondering.... I just don't get the fascination with Girardi.

 

:roll:

[Soriano12]

 

Forget all that. He managed a team with a $15 million payroll and a roster loaded with inexperience. .

 

Beware. People are going to argue that those inexperienced players flourished all by themselvles and the influence of Girardi had no effect whatsoever on fostering their development.

[vance_the_cubs_fan]

He managed a team to an under 500 record. I still fail to see the accomplishment.

[VanceJergins]

He managed a team to an under 500 record. I still fail to see the accomplishment.

 

A team that was predicted to lose over 100 games. I dont think it was all because of Girardi, but the team did vastly over-achieve. It might have some to do with his managing, it might not.

[CaliforniaRaisin]

 

Forget all that. He managed a team with a $15 million payroll and a roster loaded with inexperience. .

 

Beware. People are going to argue that those inexperienced players flourished all by themselvles and the influence of Girardi had no effect whatsoever on fostering their development.

 

Where did anyone say that?

 

People did say that he didn't manage the team to a winning record and that, while the roster was full of young players worth $15 million, they were still very talented - much more so than most rebuilding teams. Some posters also feel that Girardi might be favored to other candidates because of his past ties to the Cubs.

[treebird]

He managed a team to an under 500 record. I still fail to see the accomplishment.

 

A team that was predicted to lose over 100 games. I dont think it was all because of Girardi, but the team did vastly over-achieve. It might have some to do with his managing, it might not.

 

how many wins do you think they'll have this year? remember, girardi's gone, so they're all going to go back to being bums.

[dalgreen]

Since it's pretty obvious that some want Girardi primarily because he's a former Cub, why not go and hire Lloyd McClendon? I mean Girardi's team finished with a sub .500 record as did all of McClendon's teams in Pittsburgh, yet I believe that Girardi's team this year was more talented than any of McClendon's teams in Pittsburgh. Just wondering.... I just don't get the fascination with Girardi.

 

:roll:

 

Good come back.

[Soriano12]

People did say that he didn't manage the team to a winning record and that, while the roster was full of young players worth $15 million, they were still very talented - much more so than most rebuilding teams. .

 

The meat of the talent was in that young rotation.

(part of the reason I want Girardi is so we can get Kranitz too)

 

The infield was solid, but his outfield was very bad production wise.

[Sosa21MVP]

Since it's pretty obvious that some want Girardi primarily because he's a former Cub, why not go and hire Lloyd McClendon? I mean Girardi's team finished with a sub .500 record as did all of McClendon's teams in Pittsburgh, yet I believe that Girardi's team this year was more talented than any of McClendon's teams in Pittsburgh. Just wondering.... I just don't get the fascination with Girardi.

 

:roll:

 

Good come back.

 

I agree. Based on what you posted, it's not worth wasting my time to go any further.

[Transmogrified Tiger]

petition to ban rolleyes plz