Baseball people (writers, fans, whoever) seem incredibly inconsistent with this stuff. For the most part baseball is largely thought of a as a series of isolated contests in which outside factors have little impact. The sample sizes of games and at bats are large enough that everything essentially regresses to the mean. That’s a long way of saying that a player’s quality, at least at the plate, is highly quantifiable. “Clutch” as a concept is about as real as chiropracty.
So, if we can measure a player’s contributions so well in isolation, why the heck would it matter how many wins the team had?
The worst team record for an MVP candidate was the Cubs’ 72-82 0.468 record in 1958 when Ernie Banks won. He was a repeat winner the next year when the Cubs improved to 74-80 0.481. Andre Dawson won it with the Cubs in 1987 when they went 76-86 0.472. Is it something about the Cubbies?
Actually, Oldguy, the worst team record for a team with an MVP was the 1991 Orioles, 67-95.
I dunno; it’s just how it is. I think there is something to be said for concluding that we don’t always know for sure who the best player is; I think it insane for a person to be certain the guy with the 8.3 WAR is definitely better than the guy with the 8.1, and in such a case maybe you factor in things like “if he’s so good why did his team go 72-90?”
MOST MVP Awards did not go to the person I’d have picked - well, maybe half - but most were pretty defensible, anyway, and the ones to losing team players have generally always been decent choices because the guy had to be REALLY good. Only Dawson was an awful pick.
I like Beltran, but the track record of manager with no managerial experience anywhere is not great, the track record of hall of fame players managing is not great, the track record of Met hires is not great, and the Met hiring process all of over the place. Thus it is difficult to be optomistic here. Sadly, the best sign is the Yankees considered hiring him too, and they are usually pretty good at this.
The Mariners did that for Ichiro. He signed back to the team in 2018 because he knew his career was winding down (he was the second-oldest active player in the MLB) and wanted to end it with the team he loved. Fans still adored him and it was a popular move. But he only played for 15 games before the team announced that he’d be moved to the front office as a “special assistant to the chairman”. A week later he filled in as interim bench coach for a couple of days.
In 2019 he played in the Mariners’ season opener in Tokyo, and also in the following game, which was his last game played in the MLB. He was the second-oldest player in MLB history to start for a team in their season opener. He left the Tokyo Dome to applause from his Japanese fans and was able to end his career as the player on his home team in his home country. It was pretty special. He officially retired later in the day but returned to his front office role with the team.
So there are definitely ways to honor a player who is immensely popular but can’t really contribute on the field.
I disagree. 8 of the 10 playoff teams this year had manager’s whose first job was with that team (a couple managed in the minors). Aaron Boone was in his first year with the Yankees this year. Cora managed the Red Sox who won the Series in his first year. And whether or not a manager was a hall of fame player is irrelevant. Most former players who are not in the hall who became managers weren’t great managers.
Beltran should get along great with the young players and can help them with hitting or in the field, and he should be able to handle the NY media pressure.
None of this means he will be good but I’m not how much it matters. After the break this year the Mets won more games than all but one team in baseball (I was shocked when I saw this recently, I knew they had a good record but not that good) and they did this with Calloway. I think baseball manager is by far the most overrated job in sports.
Yanks extended Chapman 1 yr for $18m to keep him from opting out. That is up from the remaining 2 years at $15m per. So closer is secure for Yanks at almost no hit to the luxury cap threshold.
The Nats have bought out both matt Adams and Zimmerman. Now they have noone at 1B.
Considering the slim pickings in this year’s 1B free agent market, Zimmerman might be good for another year or two until better options hit free agency.
The Nats now have over 100 million in payroll capacity with noone at 1st, 2nd, 3rd (they will probably want to try Kieboom at 2nd). They also need a starting pitcher for Strasburg’s spot and some bullpen support (particularly whatever Hudson will cost). This is going to be a busy off season for them.
I like the position they are in. 100 million should be enough for all of this plus some upgrades.
The point being made was that Hall of Fame calibre players, which Beltran is, DON’T make great managers.
I don’t know that matters or is even something we can know, because
Most managers are not great managers, not matter how good they were as players,
The number of Hall of Famers who’ve become managers is pretty limited, so it might not mean anything. After all, men motivated to become managers were generally those who needed a job, which former Hall of Fame caliber players often are not desperate for, and
It is certainly the case that some very fine players became good managers, and
It is not obviously the case that the conditions of modern baseball and what makes a good manager are the same as what they used to be. They are VERY different from what they were a hundred years ago; the job of someone like John McGraw was not anything at all like what a manager’s job is now. The record of managers in the 1910s or 1920s has nothing to do with modern baseball and the baseball of the 1950s was very, very different.
I have great respect for Zim’s career accomplshments but at this point he as effectively no value as a player at any salary. They can pick up better ballplayers for very little.
Washington might have had the worst performance at first base of any team in the league. They had to have had the worst first basemen of a World Champion I can think of. I can see why they’d want to upgrade. Maybe they’ll hand Andrew Stevenson a trapper and tell him to give it a shot.
Here are the available free agents that are identified as 1st basemen:
Smoak, Thames, and Moreland are the only ones with a positive WAR. Who am I missing?
Thames is subject to a club option that should get exercised.
I would love to pick up Smoak for a few years after an off year for a reasonable price. Toronto has a rookie that looks promising so they may not fight too hard to keep him.
Toronto will not re-sign Justin Smoak. He’s available. I don’t know that he’s a super attractive option for Washington but he’d be okay for a discount.
You missed Jose Abreu, who is still a pretty good ballplayer, Edwin Encarnacion, who can still hit the ball a thousand feet, and while he’s played very little there, Mike Moustakas is available and could play first base. I am not saying, though, that those are great choices. There are times when maybe you don’t want to fill a hole for the sake of filling it, and especially at first base, which is one of the easier positions to fill, taking a chance on some kids and lower grade pickups might be a good idea if no real A-listers are handy. Save the money and reload in 2021.
37 home runs and 128 RBI from first basemen; remember that’s where Howie Kendrick played the most. That said, they’re going to need an upgrade there. Maybe Smoak or Thames to platoon with Zim.