Your Turn: What Do You Want From A Manager?

  I've followed baseball most of my 51 years.  With the game in a state of major change, I now know less than I ever have about what it takes to be a successful manager.  I'll admit, I WOULD like to see a manager that sees that in this analytics-driven age, there still is a time when a sacrifice bunt IS a good idea! There still is a time when stealing a base is worth the risk and that sometimes it's not ok to strike out with a runner on 3rd and less than two out!...lol.

  If I had to make a call here, I think it's a combo of Shelton and Baldelli as manager/bench coach.  Not sure who fills which seat.  

Leadership, of course. Ability to work with both young players and veterans. A personality to deal with the media and public. Someone who looks not only at analytics, but also how the player fits into the lineup and the team as a whole. And someone who has a say in the overall field staff of the team and works closely with management on the new Twins Way.

It's a new world for the Twins. Considering that there might be only half-a-dozen holdovers from the 2017 team and maybe a couple more from the 2018 team in the grand scheme of things go forward towards 2020 and beyond, the manager will be able to put their own leadership stamp on the Twins.

Not a one year deal for sure.

Be interesting to see how the overall coaching staff pans out.

There is only one qualification according to Jim Pohlad: “If I had to pick one requirement for somebody going forward, it’s someone that’s lovable. The only way you can be loved is if you’re lovable. We want someone that can ultimately be loved."

I want a manage that Free agents want to play for.

If we had a team of well-established professionals that were ready to compete for a championship, I'd over-weigh in-game attributes (lineup construction, in-game bullpen/hitting/defensive moves).  And a strong motivational approach.

Sadly, I don't think we have that team.  So, we probably need to lean more to communication, leadership, teaching.  Not sure those guys are the most likely to win world championships, though.

There is only one qualification according to Jim Pohlad: “If I had to pick one requirement for somebody going forward, it’s someone that’s lovable. The only way you can be loved is if you’re lovable. We want someone that can ultimately be loved."

What? Someone who is "lovable"? I served in the 2nd Infantry Division in and around the Korean DMZ in 1968 & 1969. Do you think I wanted to go on night ambush patrol in the Korean DMZ led by someone who was chosen to be patrol leader because he is "lovable"? I think not. I wanted someone who has been there before, someone who knows infantry tactics, someone who will lead by example and not order me to do something he would not do, someone who will communicate with the others on patrol, but will make the hard decisions...it is not a democracy on patrol, someone who is able to make decisions when all hell is breaking loose, and someone who will stand up for his men. 

If—
BY RUDYARD KIPLING
 

If you can keep your head when all about you  
    Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,  
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
    But make allowance for their doubting too;  
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
    Or being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or being hated, don’t give way to hating,
    And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;  
    If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;  
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
    And treat those two impostors just the same;  
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
    Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
    And stoop and build ’em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
    And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
    And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
    To serve your turn long after they are gone,  
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
    Except the Will which says to them: ‘Hold on!’

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,  
    Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
    If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
    With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,  
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,  
    And—which is more—you’ll be a Man, my son!

 

 

 

 

If you can fill the unforgiving minute
    With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run,  
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,  
    And—which is more—you’ll be a Manager, my son!

I want a manager who just gets along with ownership and upper management and who is not all wrapped up trivia like wins and losses. I especially want a manager who is concerned about the players' personal lives and their day to day activities off the field and who wants the players to consider him (or her) to be a friend above all. On the field I want a manger who shows no emotion in the dugout and who rarely protests a call or the opposition's antics. The manager should remain stone faced in the dugout and concentrate on the lineup card, not action on the field.

Post game press conferences should always emphasize that the players are trying hard and there is no issue with effort on the field. Losses are simply part of the game and the result of a bad break here or a bad pitch there.

Finally, the manager should consider club house relationships to be far more important than what happens on the field.

I hope the Twins are fortunate enough to find such a manager for 2019 and far into the future as the year 2030 it will all come together.

1) Know what a tired pitcher looks like.

2) Know how to play matchups.

3) Put the players recently called up from the minors in the lineup and at their natural position.

4) Communicate with players so there are no unnecessary surprises for them, esp. when the front office has a "lapse" in communication.

5) Know the profile for a leadoff hitter.

6) Coach proactively. If the front office has to step in to solve a problem, you lose that player to the minors, a release, or a trade.

This feels all like basic stuff that I shouldn't have to mention.

Note that analytics isn't anywhere on this list. If you can't do the basic stuff nothing else matters.

I want a manager who will post an intro for the game thread with witty informative BS (ala Riverbrian) and is good at math (analytics) but not in the game thread.

Being nice to Seth would be a plus.

I don't want a manager. I want a momager.

Red Dawg

There have been some terrific posts in this conversation and I wish I could be the one who comes  up with the really smart answer, but the fact is - no one knows the managers' duties any more.  It has not been defined.  

The most constant reply is leadership - yet, how do we define a leader - it is very different from manager to teammate.  I think what we are looking for is a psychologist.  Someone to balance the personalities.  

Then we have to figure out what all these other coaches are for and what their powers and responsibilities should be. 

Yup, the more I think about it, the happier I am that I withdrew my application before they threw it out. 

I want a manager who gets Buxton and Sano to play to their potential. (And who gets Joe Mauer a World Series ring.)

Seth,  you wrote:

or could you consider a candidate who wasn’t good in his first manager job

I'd answer a hearty "yes" to that one. There have been plenty of "good" managers that failed miserably in their first time at the job. Terry Francona comes immediately to mind. He was a bust when he managed the Phillies back in the day, but suddenly turned into a "genius" when he managed the Red Sox and Indians. That aside, I don't think we necessarily need someone with MLB managing experience. Take a chance on one of these new faces and try something different.

That aside, I don't think we necessarily need someone with MLB managing experience. Take a chance on one of these new faces and try something different.

The last time the Twins hired a manager with experience Gerald Ford was president, so I wouldn't really call this idea taking a chance and trying something new.