Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
October 02, 2006
Alou Out

The Giants parted ways with Feliple Alou today. Alou made sure no one thought the Giants record was his fault:

"I'm proud of my behavior, my respect to the game, people, to the cities and countries, the flags," Alou said. "I don't like .500. A .500 man to me is mediocrity. You don't choose your tools."

The Giants are just too old. Sabean faces a tough task trying to make this team younger. Unlike the Marlins last year, he doesn't have much valuable talent to trade to build a team of hot prospects.

Bud Selig must be having a cow. One of the most admirable things Bud's done in his tenure as commissioner is encourage minority hirings. With Robinson, Baker and Alou the first three managers to go, that doesn't leave too many minority managers in the game. My guess is Baker will get a job with another club, but Robinson and Alou probably won't due to their age. I wonder if there will be pressure on clubs to fill this void?


Posted by David Pinto at 03:41 PM | Management | TrackBack (0)
Comments

It sounded yesterday like Robinson has pretty much hung it up as a manager. If he wanted another job I can't see why you wouldn't hire him.

Of course, a team managed by Ozzie Guillen won the World Series last year, and a team managed by Willie Randolph and assembled by Omar Minaya might win it this year, which would make bean-counting complaints over the number of managers at any given time look petty. Success will always be imitated.

Posted by: Crank at October 2, 2006 04:03 PM

I think it's unfortunate that MLB's first three managers out the door were all black/hispanic, and while I respect those three guys as players and integrators of the managing ranks, I'm not sure that they were even particularly good managers: Frank Robinson won SI's "worst manager" category, Dusty Baker kills young arms with his indifference to pitch counts and learning from his own damn mistakes, and Felipe Alou seemed like he had a thankless and mediocre job, but I can't tell how much influence he had.

On the other hand, I think there are plenty of similarly unimpressive white managers, and if they're getting more latitude and time to screw things up, then I think that warrants a closer examination of why teams seem to expect more from non-white managers.

Posted by: Chris at October 2, 2006 08:02 PM

Alou was a good manager for a time there, with a minute payroll, but he's not anymore. Baker has always been bad with young players. Robinson is just old (so is Alou.)
But, honestly, Buddy Bell is a terrible manager, always has been, and he keeps getting work - and will get another season to wreck the Royals development plans. Likewise Bob Melvin. And Alan Trammell was an unmitigated disater at managing, yet he was hired before Willie randolph was given a shot. Baseball is still, larghely, a good-ol' boys network. Things change slowly.

Posted by: david at October 2, 2006 09:32 PM

I saw the Gigantes play on Saturday. They were lackluster, complacent, and uncaring. Ray Durham was so lazy, he let a guy tag up and score on a 110 foot pop-up. Matt Cain caught a guy stealing, and took such a slo-mo throw to second that the base was stolen nevertheless.

Felipe either had no control, or lost it, but his team's performance that day -- rewarded by the Dodger's on-field celebration of making the playoffs -- was a disgrace. He should have been fired on the spot.

Posted by: Floyd Thursby at October 2, 2006 11:14 PM
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