2012 AL Manager of the Year: Ned Yost

[JET15]

Combing through Lindy's 2012 Baseball Preview and much to my surprise I see them predicting Ned as AL Manager of the Year. Wow. No explanation for it. Even when I looked at the KC preview and tried to read between the lines. KC is stockpiled with young talent may be the only leading indicator I saw in Lindy's, but there was very little directly on Ned. I just thought it was interesting.

[RockCoCougars]

I think that Ned is a very good manager for that team. His Achilles heel is a complete inability to handle a bullpen.

 

To be honest, I'm starting to draw comparisons between the 2012 Royals and the 1987 Indians. Just way too much hype.

[Schlitz001]

What sort of a record does Lindy's project for the Royals in 2012? If they somehow make the playoffs he would be guaranteed to get the award, or maybe even if the Royals finish the year north of 81 wins. You know how these awards work.

[JET15]

What sort of a record does Lindy's project for the Royals in 2012? If they somehow make the playoffs he would be guaranteed to get the award, or maybe even if the Royals finish the year north of 81 wins. You know how these awards work.

Good point. They're got them coming in third in the ALC

[Oldcity]

If the Royals learned anything from Ned's time with the Brewers, this should be his last year. After that, the team will probably be too good.

[TooLiveBrew]

Clearly, the Royals didn't learn anything from Milwaukee, or themselves... as they actually, voluntarily signed Yuniesky Betancourt.

[clancyphile]

I think that Ned is a very good manager for that team. His Achilles heel is a complete inability to handle a bullpen.

 

To be honest, I'm starting to draw comparisons between the 2012 Royals and the 1987 Indians. Just way too much hype.

That said... I think Yost would have been a far superior option to Macha in the 2009-2010 timeframe.

 

Macha screwed things up with JJ Hardy, IMO. Had Yost been kept on, the Brewers would still have had an All Star shortstop.

[Baldkin]

I think that Ned is a very good manager for that team. His Achilles heel is a complete inability to handle a bullpen.

 

To be honest, I'm starting to draw comparisons between the 2012 Royals and the 1987 Indians. Just way too much hype.

That said... I think Yost would have been a far superior option to Macha in the 2009-2010 timeframe.

 

Macha screwed things up with JJ Hardy, IMO. Had Yost been kept on, the Brewers would still have had an All Star shortstop.

JJ Hardy screwed things up with JJ Hardy. It took him being run out of two cities to actually get back into shape and work on his game again.

[CheezWizHed]

...as they actually, voluntarily signed Yuniesky Betancourt.

 

But he is such a gritty battler!

[Teatoe993]

A hard-working-gritty-battling-gamer.

[JohnBriggs12]

I don't think Yost has ever finished in the top 4 in any Manager of the Year vote. Maybe 2007 and that's it. Manager of the year candidates usually come from teams that do unexpectedly well. He's had plenty of teams that not much was expected from and they didn't disappoint.

 

I don't think Lindy's factored in Prince's signing. Royals could finish 3rd in AL Central and still be 25 games back. Progess? Hope? Not really. This is baseball. The Royals have done a real nice job recently in building a nice productive farm system with tons of young talent. Under normal circumstances that would pay off with a contender either this year or the next. But because an 80 something year old mutli-billionaire who can afford to lose money (and at his age doesn't care) breaks the bank to sign a player thanks to no salary cap, all the work the Royals have done is rendered meaningless.

[jerichoholicninja]

I don't think Yost has ever finished in the top 4 in any Manager of the Year vote. Maybe 2007 and that's it. Manager of the year candidates usually come from teams that do unexpectedly well. He's had plenty of teams that not much was expected from and they didn't disappoint.

 

I don't think Lindy's factored in Prince's signing. Royals could finish 3rd in AL Central and still be 25 games back. Progess? Hope? Not really. This is baseball. The Royals have done a real nice job recently in building a nice productive farm system with tons of young talent. Under normal circumstances that would pay off with a contender either this year or the next. But because an 80 something year old mutli-billionaire who can afford to lose money (and at his age doesn't care) breaks the bank to sign a player thanks to no salary cap, all the work the Royals have done is rendered meaningless.

I would generally agree with you except the Rays have done pretty well competing against both the Yankees and Red Sox and to a lesser extent the Blue Jays. Those three teams are better than any team outside of Detroit in the AL Central.

[gregmag]

I think that Ned is a very good manager for that team. His Achilles heel is a complete inability to handle a bullpen.

 

To be honest, I'm starting to draw comparisons between the 2012 Royals and the 1987 Indians. Just way too much hype.

That said... I think Yost would have been a far superior option to Macha in the 2009-2010 timeframe.

 

Macha screwed things up with JJ Hardy, IMO. Had Yost been kept on, the Brewers would still have had an All Star shortstop.

JJ Hardy screwed things up with JJ Hardy. It took him being run out of two cities to actually get back into shape and work on his game again.

I'm not challenging you at all -- I would be very happy to know you were right about this, because it would mean this wasn't so much of a screw-up by the Brewers -- but I haven't heard this sort of account about Hardy before. Is this just your sense of what happened, or are you basing this on specific information?

[JohnBriggs12]

I don't think Yost has ever finished in the top 4 in any Manager of the Year vote. Maybe 2007 and that's it. Manager of the year candidates usually come from teams that do unexpectedly well. He's had plenty of teams that not much was expected from and they didn't disappoint.

 

I don't think Lindy's factored in Prince's signing. Royals could finish 3rd in AL Central and still be 25 games back. Progess? Hope? Not really. This is baseball. The Royals have done a real nice job recently in building a nice productive farm system with tons of young talent. Under normal circumstances that would pay off with a contender either this year or the next. But because an 80 something year old mutli-billionaire who can afford to lose money (and at his age doesn't care) breaks the bank to sign a player thanks to no salary cap, all the work the Royals have done is rendered meaningless.

I would generally agree with you except the Rays have done pretty well competing against both the Yankees and Red Sox and to a lesser extent the Blue Jays. Those three teams are better than any team outside of Detroit in the AL Central.

It helped the Rays that the Red Sox and Yankees were knocking each other off. The Tigers have virtually no competition in the AL Central and figure to win over 100 without much trouble playing all those games against the Twins, White Sox, Indians and yes the Royals. To top that off, the Rays had a much better manager than the Royals do.

[RightFieldCoder]

That said... I think Yost would have been a far superior option to Macha in the 2009-2010 timeframe.

 

Macha screwed things up with JJ Hardy, IMO. Had Yost been kept on, the Brewers would still have had an All Star shortstop.

JJ Hardy screwed things up with JJ Hardy. It took him being run out of two cities to actually get back into shape and work on his game again.

I'm not challenging you at all -- I would be very happy to know you were right about this, because it would mean this wasn't so much of a screw-up by the Brewers -- but I haven't heard this sort of account about Hardy before. Is this just your sense of what happened, or are you basing this on specific information?

JJ's horrible rookie year: .711 OPS | 86 OPS+

JJ's last year with MKE: .659 OPS | 75 OPS+

JJ's year with MSP: .714 OPS | 96 OPS+

Something caused him to drop .100 points in OPS for two years, only to get it all back when he's in line to get a new contract.

[DHonks]

Yost's attitude was great for a young team. I still think he's been one of the best managers recently, because more often than not I agreed with his decisions. It seemed like every time he made a questionable bullpen move, people on here blasted him for it, and we later found out that the guy(s) they wanted to pitch were unavailable. Plus, I was told that the pitching staff was pretty much left to Maddux to manage, with Yost just yanking guys when he had to. I loved how he wasn't afraid to get in a guy's face to tell him to start throwing strikes.

[owbc]

I hope Yost has learned to get along with the media if he's going to win MOY. He certainly didn't win himself any votes in Milwaukee--and his bad relationship with them almost certainly hastened his demise.