I agree that managers usually don't do a whole heck of a lot to make a team win more and usually the best you can hope for is that they don't [expletive] things up. Personally, I think the average manager has more ability to lose you a game than actually winning it, but Maddon is basically the one guy I think otherwise about. There's just too much praise for him and the job he does from the right quarters for it to simply be smoke. It's weird how much the Spanish thing is tracking as a reason to not get him, too. I heard from 3 different people people today, my dad included, wary about hiring Maddon because he doesn't speak Spanish himself. One, I assume the guy speaks/understands some Spanish just by being in pro baseball, period. Two, the Cubs having Latin American players is hardly unique, and it's not like he's coming from a team that's had no Spanish-speaking players during his time there. It's a non-issue, especially when you're talking about a chance to snag a manager this good.