Ned Yost and his current managerial performance in Kansas City

[DuWayne Steurer]

What baffles me (and everyone) is that Yost had Shouse INTENTIONALLY walk Howard, who OPS's .697 off of lefties, to get to Burrell. There's just no getting around the fact that it was just one decision amongst many that was a clue-in to the fact that he just didn't get the finer points of bullpen managment.

 

Joe Sheehan wrote an AWESOME article about it after the firing.

 

http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=8077

 

The best part was this paragraph......

 

"Think about this for a second. Yost had a 481 OPS pitcher facing a 697 OPS hitter. He elected to issue an intentional walk in that situation to allow an 817 OPS pitcher to face a 905 OPS hitter with an additional runner on base. That's when you start looking around the roof of the stadium for snipers, because gunpoint is the only place where that kind of decision makes sense."

[sveumrules]

Not understanding the concept of the platoon advantage falls under the classification of in game strategy for me. Going back to my point above, Shouse wasn't viewed as a loogy in our terrible bullpens, despite not being shielded from righties he still performed as our 2nd and 3rd best reliever in 2 of his 3 seasons here. When your "8th inning guy" is a scrap heap loogy that is on the GM. Discount the role of "8th inning guy" all you want but it was not invented by Yost and he is certainly not the only skipper to run his bullpen as such.

 

How many wins did our bullpen underperform by due to Yost's poor management thereof? Can someone provide even a second example from Yost's tenure illustrating said? How would a hypothetical different manager have deployed the exact same personnel to a better result?

[TooLiveBrew]

Yost consistently made bad matchup decisions with the bullpen. If I can't trust my memory for that, then my memory is worthless.

[sdcheezhd]

Here's something from Hardball Times (ha ha Yost Infection!) about a year before the Baseball Prospectus article that has some examples:

 

http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/article/yost-infection

 

Over a 55 game stretch that year the Brewers had 13 games (almost 25 percent!) where they had a 3+ run lead at some point and lost the game (5 where the lead was 5 or 6). I don't care what your GM gives you, you can't have a stretch like that and be managing the bullpen competently.

 

A couple months ago the NYT Xword clued a 4 letter answer as Baseball Manager Ned. My brother said it was a trick, should have been Baseball "Manager" Ned.

[homer]

Ned would pitch the 7th inning guy in the 7th, the 8th inning guy in the 8th, and the 9th inning guy in the 9th regardless of matchup or situation.

That's dumb but how is that different from Ronald.

 

Not sure why you bring that up in a Ned Yost thread. I happen to think RR kinda sucks at managing the pen too although at least he is willing to let his closer get more than 3 outs. Macha, for all his leadership faults, could at least manage a pen.

[logan82]

Ned would pitch the 7th inning guy in the 7th, the 8th inning guy in the 8th, and the 9th inning guy in the 9th regardless of matchup or situation.

That's dumb but how is that different from Ronald.

 

Not sure why you bring that up in a Ned Yost thread. I happen to think RR kinda sucks at managing the pen too although at least he is willing to let his closer get more than 3 outs. Macha, for all his leadership faults, could at least manage a pen.

Just pointing out how typical bad bullpen management is.

[sveumrules]

Here's something from Hardball Times (ha ha Yost Infection!) about a year before the Baseball Prospectus article that has some examples:

 

http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/article/yost-infection

 

Over a 55 game stretch that year the Brewers had 13 games (almost 25 percent!) where they had a 3+ run lead at some point and lost the game (5 where the lead was 5 or 6). I don't care what your GM gives you, you can't have a stretch like that and be managing the bullpen competently.

 

Look at the 2007 season, at the end of the year we had 2 relievers who posted what I would consider to be good seasons, Cordero and Shouse. Turnbow's complete implosion is Yost's fault? Look at the pitchers who pitched out of the bullpen that year, which ones had success prior to or following their time under Yost's "mismanagement"? It is impossible to manage a bullpen with 2 good options, no matter what option you choose.

 

The last two years under Yost KC has had one of the elite bullpens in all of baseball. Has Ned Yost finally learned how to manage a bullpen? I would wager the answer is no, he hasn't, it's just a lot harder to get bad results when you have 5 or 6 capable bullpen arms at your disposal than when you have 2 or 3.

[TURBO]

Ned would pitch the 7th inning guy in the 7th, the 8th inning guy in the 8th, and the 9th inning guy in the 9th regardless of matchup or situation.

That's dumb but how is that different from Ronald.

 

Not sure why you bring that up in a Ned Yost thread. I happen to think RR kinda sucks at managing the pen too although at least he is willing to let his closer get more than 3 outs. Macha, for all his leadership faults, could at least manage a pen.

 

Maybe he brought it up because both were/are managers who can't manage a bullpen? Or maybe he brought RRR up just as you did Macha. Sometimes things just come into the conversation...

[endaround]

Rany has shown how Yost has been killing KC's chances of winning.

 

http://www.ranyontheroyals.com/

[sdcheezhd]

"Look at the 2007 season, at the end of the year we had 2 relievers who posted what I would consider to be good seasons, Cordero and Shouse."

 

One of the points the Hardball Times post makes is that what Yost did early in 2007 had something to with where the bullpen was later on.

[GB12]

Rany has shown how Yost has been killing KC's chances of winning.

 

http://www.ranyontheroyals.com/

 

Yeah, I can't say I've watch many (or any?) Royals games, but I know a Royals fan who is constantly complaining about Yost holding him back. His complaints sound almost the same as the complaints about him when he was in Milwaukee