Impressions of Roenicke so far (part 1)

[southpaw121505]

The computer would explode before allowing Loe to face lefties.

[Nottso]

The computer would explode before allowing Loe to face lefties.

And rightfully so.

[JohnBriggs12]

It's not just Loe facing lefties. He's bad against righties too when he gets the ball up. The thing is you can tell whether Loe has his good stuff or not from the first batter he faces.

 

If the ball is up, any professional hitter, much less a major leaguer will hit it hard somewhere. It's an 89 mph cookie. Guys in indy leagues don't get away with that. Loe gets movement only when the ball is down. He's shown he either has it out of the bullpen or doesn't. Leaving him in there hoping he finds it is stupid.

 

Roenicke is so much like Yost it's scary. What's also scary is that Yost lost his job eventually not so much for his poor strategy decisions, but because he started being defensive and testy when questioned about them.

[endaround]

Uh no. Yost lost his job due entirely his strategy. He was fired for having Shouse walk Howard to face Burrell. It was the 1st game of a DHer and if Attanasio was in Philly for that series its questionable if Yost would have been around for game 2.

[RightFieldCoder]

This is the quickest I've hated a Brewers manager since Davey Lopes.

Precisely my feeling. I can hardly watch lately.

 

Also, I immediately burst out laughing while reading the billyjohnston post. Well done, sir.

I changed my pic to the "Fire Roenicke" picture during the offseason. I did it as a joke. Since 99% of managers are fired, I thought I'd jump on the bandwagon early and jump off before it started to get crowded.

It should be telling that I changed it half way through April.

 

[yoshii8]

I was a fan of his in the beginning, mostly because the players seemed to like him a lot. However, there have been way too many bizarre decisions and I have quickly soured on him. I would start listing them, but most have been talked about frequently.

 

 

Is it that hard to find someone that's a decent game manager who the players respect? I guess so.

[JoeHova]

I don't know what exact overall % of the total team at bats that Betancourt, Gomez, Kotsay, McGehee, Nieves, and Counsell have taken this season, but i'd be surprised if their combined OBP is over .270 and their combined OPS is over .600.

Those six guys have accounted for 36.4% of Milwaukee's plate appearances thus far. That's including pitchers hitting so they've accounted for an even higher percentage of the team's position player PA's. Doing a quick and dirty calculation of OBP, I get .273 cumulative for those 6 guys. Calculating slugging would take pretty long but considering that only 2 of those guys have slugging percentages over .330, it's safe to say that their cumulative slugging percentage isn't too pretty either.

 

edit: I went ahead and calculated slugging percentage for those 6 as well. I get .320. So, their cumulative OPS is .593.

[bcvilly24]

It's early to rate him in my opinion, but with the line-ups he has made out the past few games his rating is going down. I don't see how he can even consider batting Yuni and/or kotsay behind Prince. I'm shocked Prince is seeing pitches to hit. With Braun out I think weeks should be in the 3 hole with hart bating 5th. Morgan can lead off, but RR is too stubborn to move rickie out of the leadoff spot due to his success. He does the same with lucroy bating 8th due to prior success there. I really don't get his reasoning with that.

Also, Melvin hasn't helped assuming it's his call by having both council and Wilson and kotsay on the 25 man roster.

At least RR didn't put kameron bloe in the game for the 8th today...

[greeg35]

If Roenicke/Melvin would do any/all of the following I'd have a much better impression of him/them:

1) RR, please learn to MANAGE a bullpen rather than assign roles in stone and call names. Thinking is not a bad thing. I am hoping that yesterday was a sign of things to come; but I am not holding out much hope.

2) Melvin, please take away all of RR's toys, and give him some alternatives (and make sure he will use them). Mostly referring to Kotsay as far as taking away; but also alternatives to Yuni/Counsel/Wilson and McGehee. Boggs/Carrol would go a long way here. Gamel should be considered for use at third AND in the outfield (over Kotsay) on a regular basis. If Gamel is not a regular option for 3rd in your mind, call up Green. Great job removing Nieves and giving him an alternative in Kottaras; however, please talk to Wolf and tell him that no matter how much he whines, he will be throwing to Lucroy if we are facing a lefty.

3) Learn to fill out a lineup card. Is anything in a manager's job description any easier than filling out a lineup card? For gosh sake, please stop using ridiculously small sample splits and your gut for the lineup and pinch hitting decisions.

4) Teach your players HOW to play your aggressive base running style and hold them accountable for good decisions, not just encouraging aggressive decisions regardless of situation. This may be happening as I'm seeing fewer and fewer base running gaffes.

[Baldkin]

4) Teach your players HOW to play your aggressive base running style and hold them accountable for good decisions, not just encouraging aggressive decisions regardless of situation. This may be happening as I'm seeing fewer and fewer base running gaffes.

You mean like getting thrown out at second after tagging up from first base twice in the last week when down by multiple runs?

[greeg35]

just like that

[monty57]

It's not just Loe facing lefties. He's bad against righties too when he gets the ball up. The thing is you can tell whether Loe has his good stuff or not from the first batter he faces.

 

So I would assume that Hanel, who has been in the 'pen forever, ought to be able to see if he's on and relay that information to Roenicke. If we didn't absolutely need to label someone "8th inning guy," then using Hanel's judgement might be a sensible alternative.

 

Those six guys have accounted for 36.4% of Milwaukee's plate appearances thus far. That's including pitchers hitting so they've accounted for an even higher percentage of the team's position player PA's. Doing a quick and dirty calculation of OBP, I get .273 cumulative for those 6 guys. Calculating slugging would take pretty long but considering that only 2 of those guys have slugging percentages over .330, it's safe to say that their cumulative slugging percentage isn't too pretty either.

 

edit: I went ahead and calculated slugging percentage for those 6 as well. I get .320. So, their cumulative OPS is .593.

 

If only we had anyone in AAA who were hitting the ball well hwo could replace some of these guys...

 

Doug hired Ned because of his enthusiasm; that was made clear. In Macha, I'd guess that he was looking for a strategic improvement. In Roenicke, I think he was turned on once again by enthusiasm.

 

I think Doug looked at Scioscia's success with the Angels and Maddon's success as a manager after his tenure under Scoscia and thought that being a Scioscia underling was a magic formula to becoming a successful manager. Either that or they shared a moment over the soft-spot in both of their hearts for washed-up veterans.

 

For all those times when someone sarcastically asks if fans would prefer a computer manager... at this point, it'd be worth a try.

 

I'd take the Angels' rally monkey over Roenicke.

[Oldcity]

It hasn't gotten a ton of attention because the Brewers still won last night, but Roenicke's excuse for using Hawkins over Braddock in the eighth is dumbfounding.

 

---

"It was a matchup for 'Hawk,'?" manager Ron Roenicke said. "If we would have done it a little different, it probably would have been (lefty Zach) Braddock."

 

Hawkins entered the game as something of an anomaly, limiting lefties to a .162 average

---

 

I don't know whether to be encouraged to know that Roenicke actually does use splits, or discouraged because he misreads them so terribly. Actually, it's definitely the second one.

 

Apparently 38 appearances means everything to Ron, because that's how many lefties have against Hawkins this year. Meanwhile, looking at 17 seasons and 2,591 PAs, lefties have an .809 OPS against Hawkins. Hey, it's almost like this season's numbers are a statistical anomaly!

 

I can't actually believe it's the second time already this season that he sent up the decidedly wrong reliever to face Votto late in a close game.

[TooLiveBrew]

I also get the impression RRR isn't a big Braddock fan

[logan82]

Hawkins was just coming in as I left the stadium. I was thinking, "why the crap is Hawkins in there instead of Braddock?" So I guess, yes, I have to agree that DPR has some problem with Braddock. He seems to understand splits on some level or at the very least knows they exist.

[fondybrewfan]

IDK, in 2009 Hawkins was pretty darn good against lefties (Can't really county 2010 since he only had 18 appearances). 2008 was pretty bad against lefties, 2007 was pretty good. I don't think that Hawkins recent performance would indicate he is incapable of facing lefties.

 

I wasn't that upset with Hawkins facing a couple lefties; probably only because I was happy it wasn't Loe.

[logan82]

fondybrewfan wrote:

I wasn't that upset with Hawkins facing a couple lefties; probably only because I was happy it wasn't Loe.

Hah, the sign of a good manager is lowered expectations.

[FVBrewerFan]

The part I don't understand is why was Braddock even warming up? They knew well ahead of time who was coming up in the 8th, and if RR was commited to Hawkins then why bother warming up Braddock?

[RockCoCougars]

Though he's pitched very well this season, I still don't have a lot of confidence in Hawkins, but I don't have a problem with him going in last night. If there has to be an '8th inning guy', better him than Loe.

[Oldcity]

Exactly. People are so happy he doesn't have a poor choice for "Eighth Inning Guy" in there that they're willing to overlook the fact that having anyone as EIG is stupid.

 

Braddock's numbers against lefties are outstanding in both the majors and the minors. He's the obvious choice against those Reds sluggers.

[DougJones43]

For the past couple of days I've been trying to wrap my mind around how it could be possible that somebody (seemingly) without even a rudimentary understanding of statistics/odds/match-ups/etc and how they relate to success in baseball could become a Major League manager. I mean, there are only 30 of these positions available in the entire world, and with the amount at stake (especially money) you'd think that only the absolute best and the brightest would be chosen. The reality is guys like Yost and Roenicke somehow hold these jobs.

 

Can somebody explain it to me? We should have a dugout full of the most astute baseball minds in the world, but somehow they're rarely able to collectively make logical or even defensible decisions.

 

It has to be the fact that only former Major League players are considered for these jobs. I guess it would be comparable to needing to hire an architect to design a building, but restricting your search to candidates who have spent their lives as brick-layers.

[logan82]

It really does seem at times that some managers are using a magic 8 ball to make decisions. Either that or a tic-tac-toe playing chicken.

[SoCal Brew Crew Fan]

More on the matchups...

 

http://www.jsonline.com/blogs/sports/brewers.html

 

This sounds great...if he actually uses a sample size above just this year or once in 2005.

 

It's a step, I'll take it.

[endaround]

For the past couple of days I've been trying to wrap my mind around how it could be possible that somebody (seemingly) without even a rudimentary understanding of statistics/odds/match-ups/etc and how they relate to success in baseball could become a Major League manager. I mean, there are only 30 of these positions available in the entire world, and with the amount at stake (especially money) you'd think that only the absolute best and the brightest would be chosen. The reality is guys like Yost and Roenicke somehow hold these jobs.

 

Can somebody explain it to me? We should have a dugout full of the most astute baseball minds in the world, but somehow they're rarely able to collectively make logical or even defensible decisions.

 

It has to be the fact that only former Major League players are considered for these jobs. I guess it would be comparable to needing to hire an architect to design a building, but restricting your search to candidates who have spent their lives as brick-layers.

Because it just maybe that being a baseball player isn't that good of training to be a manager. In the NFL is not uncommon for head coaches to not have even played significant college football much less in the NFL. In baseball its almost a requierment that a manager spent at least some time in the majors.

[TooLiveBrew]

It has to be the fact that only former Major League players are considered for these jobs

 

I think a recent BAL manager hadn't played in the majors. Dave Trembley, iirc. And I think I remember hearing YES'S Michael Kay (think it was him) say he was the only active MLB manager to not have played. I agree wholeheartedly with your post, it seems like it'd be an easy decision to seek out the best strategist you can find.

 

Was it during Macha's interview where Melvin quizzed a managerial candidate on in-game strategy? After Yost I think Melvin wanted better strategy, so he went with Macha. After Macha, he wanted a guy his players would like, so he went with Roenicke. Like DJ said, for one of only 30 jobs in MLB, you can't find a strategist that players like?

 

 

It's a step, I'll take it.

 

I will too, but I'm worried that he's going to matchups because he doesn't have anyone he wants to call his 8th inning guy & not because it's good strategy. And once someone (probably Loe), makes Roenicke fully confident in him, he's the new 8th inning guy™ I hope I'm wrong & Ron is making the call for the right reasons.

 

EDIT: there's certainly hope: Braddock will match up against the left-handers. I still have a

ton of confidence in Kameron. We brought him in yesterday and talked to

him. But we're not going to probably put him out there when there's so

many left-handers that he's got to go through."