Bobby Cox

[rawaction]

Is this guy a good manager? Every Braves fan I've ever known has hated the guy. A guy I work with is a Braves fan and he says Cox has cost the Braves at least 7 or 8 games this year with his boneheaded moves. I don't follow ATL that much, but from what I've seen, he does make some odd choices. Then you have the whole ejection thing, which I get the feel that most Braves fans are sick of his whiny little tantrums. Does the 14 division titles show that he is a good manager or does the 1 title in those 14 chances show he's not anything special? He has had a lot of talent with 3 HoF starters atop his rotation for most of those 14 years, not to mention the offense of guys like Chipper, Andruw, McGriff, Sheffield, Lopez, Klesko, etc. Obviously, I think a HUGE percentage of the Braves success has to be attributed to the front office. But how good is Cox as a manager?

[mul21]

I think the 14 division titles say a lot more about a manager than winning the WS any nmber of times. There is so much variability when you get to the playoffs, running into a hot team, having a guy or 2 get hurt, that I think it's less indicative of a manager's abilities than continued regular season success.

 

In either case, you need a bunch of good players to win. Some of his best guys just didn't perform in the playoffs.

 

He does seem to be getting a little senile in his old age though.

[Transmogrified Tiger]

I think Cox is a lot like other managers, with the greatest deviation being his willingness to play younger players, and play them a lot. I'm not sure how he is with handling starting pitchers though, good or bad.

[soapy]

I think Cox is a lot like other managers, with the greatest deviation being his willingness to play younger players, and play them a lot. I'm not sure how he is with handling starting pitchers though, good or bad.

 

this is what i was going to say. it may just be perception, but Cox has consistantly been willing to use young players in any situation immediately upon their arrival in MLB. he's not afraid to stick a young guy in there and give him time to adjust to the league, and it's paid dividends.

 

obviously he's had the incredible advantage of a great front office and outstanding pitching staff (both performance-wise and injury-wise) for much of his tenure.

[bukie]

I'm of the belief that managers can do little to make a team win, but a lot to make a team lose. A manager's responsibility is to put the team he's given in the best position to win.

 

Some managers feel the need to affect the game every chance they have, and that's where mistakes are made more often. Managers in this vein are Cox, Tony LaRussa, Lou Piniella and Dusty Baker, just to name a few. In these cases, the flaws the manager do have are greatly amplified, because they try to directly affect the game so often, they will make more overall mistakes.

 

Does that make them bad managers? Well, if a manager does nothing but make the lineup cards and call the pitching changes, it's the players that really affect the game most. I'm not sure that makes someone a good manager if they don't affect the game a whole lot, but at least they don't screw things up that way.

 

As for the Braves 14 years of success, I think you have to credit Schuerholz at least as much as Cox for that.

[rawaction]

I'm of the belief that managers can do little to make a team win, but a lot to make a team lose. A manager's responsibility is to put the team he's given in the best position to win.

 

Some managers feel the need to affect the game every chance they have, and that's where mistakes are made more often. Managers in this vein are Cox, Tony LaRussa, Lou Piniella and Dusty Baker, just to name a few. In these cases, the flaws the manager do have are greatly amplified, because they try to directly affect the game so often, they will make more overall mistakes.

 

Does that make them bad managers? Well, if a manager does nothing but make the lineup cards and call the pitching changes, it's the players that really affect the game most. I'm not sure that makes someone a good manager if they don't affect the game a whole lot, but at least they don't screw things up that way.

 

As for the Braves 14 years of success, I think you have to credit Schuerholz at least as much as Cox for that.

 

I think the GM(s), scouts, and minor league instructors should get a lot more credit than the manager. Bobby Cox probably isn't in baseball if the Braves didn't have the best run organization in sports the last 20 years.

[moochpuppy]

He is the Marty Schottenheimer of MLB (minus the one title). Great in boot camp but gets killed in the war.

[vance_the_cubs_fan]

As far as managers go, Cox is pretty good. However, I'm not always sure the manager makes that much difference, or not as much as we tend to give them credit for.

 

I'm not sure who I heard make this analogy, but regardless, I'm stealing it.

 

The manager is like the groom at a wedding. He has to be there, and he looks important, but he might be the fifth or sixth most influential person at the ceremony. The bride is the most important, followed probably by the mother of the bride (yeah, we all know she called half the shots), the minister, the father of the bride (who had to fit the bill), probably the pianist, caterer , and then finally the groom somewhere along there.

 

The manager looks important, but the success of the team depends more on the individual players, the GM, the Latin American scout, and then maybe the manager.

 

Or better yet, read this blurb from a conversation years ago between Tommy LaSorda and Paul Mainieri.

 

What would happen, Tommy Lasorda asked a young Paul Mainieri when he was the coach at Air Force, if the car they were riding in to a Los Angeles Dodgers game against the Colorado Rockies got in an accident?

 

The game would still go on, Mainieri replied.

 

What if the team bus got into an accident on the way to the ballpark, Lasorda asked?

 

The game probably wouldn’t be played, Mainieri said.

 

“Always remember,” Lasorda, then the Dodgers manager, told Mainieri, “it’s about the players.”

 

Link.

 

So, while I think Cox is a good manager, his run of greatness is more due to the work of the Braves front office than Cox. But, his willingness to play the young players and constantly work those players into the fabric of the team probably helped the success of the franchise.