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2019-2020 MLB Offseason Thread


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I think Kapler gets (somewhat of) a bad rap.  He absolutely needed more experience before becoming a major-league manager, and he was not the right guy for this city or this team (at their stage of development), but I don't think he's a lost cause.  I think for a younger team with lots of rookies and unproven guys, in a city where people don't get rubbed the wrong way by his eccentricities, he could enjoy success. 

 

Being a bench coach would certainly help him gain the experience, however it would need to be for a veteran manager, not another inexperienced guy.  I also think that his influence would be far less as a bench coach, and that's one of the reasons you hire someone like him.  I think if you know that you're years away, and you don't have the kind of fan base that cares about the weird things, then just go ahead and hire him.

 

There's a lot that Gabe screwed up here.  The strategic things will come with experience, and while he lacked the balls to discipline or be tough with veteran players, I think it'd be easier for him on a much younger team.  Then fire him when you think you're ready to really win.

"The views expressed here are mine and do not reflect the official opinion of my employer or the organization through which the Internet was accessed."

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On 10/31/2019 at 10:32 AM, Maroon said:

I feel very bad for Royals fans who now have Matheny as their manager.

 

And let me be clear: It's not because I'm anti-Matheny or think he doesn't deserve a chance at managing a team ever again or anything. Rather, I think he is a poor choice for the Royals in particular at this point in time. Matheny has shown a penchant for distrusting young, developing players and preferring "proven" veterans that he can trust. This isn't an inherently bad thing if you have a team that actually has plenty of veterans who are actually good. But we saw it in St. Louis, where Kolten Wong would get benched (or sent down to AAA because he was just sitting on the bench) when his bat was trending down, even if the veteran who started in front of him was just as bad or even worse (and Wong played better defense anyhow). For a team like the Royals that needs to rebuild and develop its young talent, I don't know that Matheny will even let the young talent touch the field if he has his druthers. Maybe he's grown. Maybe the FO has made clear to him to expectations to play developing players. Maybe the expectation to compete for the postseason and a World Series in St. Louis made him feel like he had to mitigate risk rather than pursue rewards. I dunno. But based on his track record, this is not a good hire.

 

Danny Mac released a podcast episode yesterday featuring an interview with Kolten Wong. Danny Mac asked what Kolten had done to take his game to the next level, and while naming some factors, he took a jab at Matheny without saying his name. Made a remark that having a manager that lets him play and believes in him really helped. I think your concerns regarding the development of young players is 100% justified. 

 

 

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Cool, a legitimate feel-good story of rebuilding the right way and a title-less team winning one goes down the toilet. Now I wish the Dodgers had won. 
 

We can’t ever have nice things. 

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What a goddamn stupid hire. He’s basically the one candidate that nobody wanted. I can’t figure this current front office out at all. 

 

 

Granted, to be fair, I was just as mad about the Bruce Bochy hire (actually, probably even more mad) and that turned out to be one of the biggest swings and misses I’ve ever had. But I can’t see this having anywhere near the same level of success. At this point, I’ll take the same approach as I did with the ASU Herm Edwards hire. Just, PLEASE, don’t be embarrassing. 

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On 11/19/2012 at 7:23 PM, oldschoolvikings said:
She’s still half convinced “Chris Creamer” is a porn site.)
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2 hours ago, Crabcake47 said:

Cool, a legitimate feel-good story of rebuilding the right way and a title-less team winning one goes down the toilet. Now I wish the Dodgers had won. 
 

We can’t ever have nice things. 

 

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13 hours ago, Crabcake47 said:

Cool, a legitimate feel-good story of rebuilding the right way and a title-less team winning one goes down the toilet. Now I wish the Dodgers had won. 
 

We can’t ever have nice things. 

I don't understand. I've seen why the Astros are trending down in the public image, but there's nothing tarnishing the Nationals' win that I've seen unless I've missed something. If anything, Washington looks even more like the good guys now, which makes it even better.

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20 minutes ago, Maroon said:

I don't understand. I've seen why the Astros are trending down in the public image, but there's nothing tarnishing the Nationals' win that I've seen unless I've missed something. If anything, Washington looks even more like the good guys now, which makes it even better.


He’s describing 2017.

 

The Astros are quickly becoming one of my least favorite Big Four organizations.

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If you’re not stealing signs then you’re not trying. Technology has advanced, and “don’t use it” or “don’t look at that” aren’t good enough controls. 
 

let the catcher and pitcher use smart watch type things to relay signs. Or come up with some way that’s more defensible against video cameras or a runner on second base. 

"The views expressed here are mine and do not reflect the official opinion of my employer or the organization through which the Internet was accessed."

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There is a reason why no live footage is shown on the jumbo-tron and elsewhere around the stadium only replays. To keep from using the live footage to get signs. It is even worse than the patriots spyware because they were taking advantage of the signs instantly rather than having to wait until the next time they played and hope they didn’t change them in the mean time.

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The Astros aren't the only team doing this; they just got caught. The more significant issue is how to police sign-stealing going forward. Asking teams to "use better signals" ignores the root of the problem, and it's naive to think that teams are going to stop using video to crack signals.

 

What I would do is allow the pitcher and the catcher to have a communication device on them, thus eliminating the need for signs in the first place. The biggest issue with that would be finding a way to integrate it into the game without slowing the game down. But if you can solve that, then that's the way go. As long as teams are using hand signals to communicate information, their opponents are going to do anything they can to crack it, regardless if those methods are legal or not.

 

As for the Giants hiring Kapler, from a baseball perspective, I don't see anything wrong with the hire. In both years, Kapler was in Philly I thought their record lined up pretty well with how talented they were.

 

What I think most people don't understand about a manager is that your in-game duties are only part of what your job is. The win/loss record will take care of itself if you have a good team no matter who the manager is. Your main job is to communicate information between players and the front office. If someone gets traded, it's your job to tell them they need to pack up their lives and potentially move across the country. If a player has an issue with club policy, you go to the manager.

 

The main thing I want in a manager is trust. Trust that's he's going to communicate information in the way I want it, and trust that if there's an issue with a player, or if a player has an issue, it will be communicated to the front office before it becomes a problem. If you look at Gable Kapler's track record, you see a glaring red flag from his time with the Dodgers that would suggest he's not going to be 100% honest if there's a real problem. I can tell San Francisco is going be a lot more sensitive to those issues than Philadelphia, and I'm not referring to the team. The potential fallout from another incident like the one in Los Angeles could last years. That alone would be enough to scare me away from even talking to Kapler.

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3 hours ago, SFGiants58 said:


He’s describing 2017.

 

The Astros are quickly becoming one of my least favorite Big Four organizations.

Oh, okay. Sorry, considering it was discussing a "title-less team winning" I presumed he meant the Nationals. Thanks for the correction.

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I can't see Manfred stripping the Astros of their championship but some other things that might happen:

 

-Large monetary fine

-Stripping of multiple first round picks

-AJ Hinch suspended for a lengthy time

-Astros excluded from free agency for a season 

 

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Lol can’t exclude a team from free agency unless you want the players’ union to sue the everliving f out of the league. 

"The views expressed here are mine and do not reflect the official opinion of my employer or the organization through which the Internet was accessed."

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