Management fail?

The team’s on the road now. Last night in Cleveland they chalked up another frustrating loss. The streak now stands at 12, several of which were played at home against teams we should have been able to beat at least once in a series.

And the finger-pointing has officially begun. Naturally the call-in drunks are full of theories, but now even real baseball people are joining in. Yesterday on Facebook Amy posted the following: “This is the last thing I'll say on the matter: I think they honestly don't know what it takes to win in baseball. Hire the best coaching staff for the job? No, they hire people who buy into their outmoded and ineffective ‘process.’ My team is the youngest in baseball; they need coaches and managers (on and off the field) who know what they're doing. This bunch might as well be a bunch of talking monkeys. The proof is in this quote from Ned: ‘you can't get too crazy because then these guys will go crazy.’ Okey dokey. Whitehead out.”

She makes some excellent points. And of course she drew a slew of responses. Some weren’t exactly front-runners for Riposte of the Year. I’m especially non-fond of the “musical lineups” gripe. Little is certain in this universe, and in baseball even less. But I’m willing with confidence to assert two things about the sport: changing the lineup isn’t automatically dumb, and carving it in stone isn’t automatically smart. Ned Yost has made some peculiar moves (I personally whined about his choice of lead-off in Game Five), but settling into one dysfunctional groove isn’t any smarter than fiddling with it.


Some other criticisms – such as mentioning the word “Wal-Mart” – were made with considerably less injustice. This team’s been put together to maximize profit, not to win ballgames. Keep that simple principle in mind, and nothing the Glass Royals ever do will surprise you.


Maybe Yost sucks. Maybe Yost needs to go. But in order for that to be a legitimate criticism rather than merely an angry complaint, we have to have a better alternative waiting in the wings. And as long as the front office remains dedicated to fielding a team that’s good enough only to keep beer sales consistent, we won’t get managers, coaches, players or anyone else good enough to play a decent game of baseball.


So how do you get the boss to fire himself?