04/12/05 - Pirates (Redman) @ Brewers (Glover), 6:35 PM CT

[crichar3]

Quote:

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Just listening to all you guys spew about what a poor job Ned Yost does makes me vomit in my mouth.

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I agree. It makes me want to vomit in your mouth, too.

 

Kidding aside, I know what you are saying, and its the same kind of stuff you read on Packers boards and the like. Many people seem to value strategy over execution to a wildly inappropriate degree in my judgment. Some seem to think that sports is some kind of board game where a good strategy will prevail in a predictable way. But that doesn't always happen when you factor in the wild card of human performance related to that strategy.

 

Most times things don't work in sports it is not because of a flawed plan or a bad decision by the coach, but because some player didn't do his job. Likewise, when things go right it is largely because of what the players on the field do, not what the coach or manager does from the sidelines. Hence the cliche: Coaches coach, but players play. I'm not saying coaching is unimportant (it most certainly is a factor), but it is not as important to winning as player execution.

 

Having said that, I understand the frustration voiced my many with all the failed steal attempts. Obviously, they don't have players who are very adept at this skill (and I believe the stats support that notion). If that's the case and Yost insists on forcing the steal attempts, then that would be on him and not on the players. Asking players to do something they have proven they can't or aren't very good at would seem a questionable tactic to me. However, I am not sure if that's the case in this instance (perhaps it is, as someone noted, failed hit and run attempts or other player issues).

[ja002h]

crichar, your point about strategy vs. execution is well taken, but I think one must be careful, because if players executed everything well, you'd win every game. Players will fail (i.e. get out), that's to be expected (tho you'd hope people could get a bunt down...). It's also important to choose *what* they're trying to execute (e.g. 875 hit and runs in the first 7 games).

[shelmark]

If it is only about execution and not about decisions make by managers, why do managers get fired?

[crichar3]

They get fired way more than they deserve because it is easier to fire one guy and a few relatively cheap assistants than to remake a team that is likely comprised of more expensive talent, many of whom probably have long term deals. Strategy is fun to talk about, but execution trumps it just about every time.