11 September 2015

Matt Williams, Geniu...Um Ditz

Now that the Washington Nationals' 2015 playoff aspirations have been plausibly quashed*, and Matt Williams' boneheaded miscalculations have been picked apart like a Thanksgiving turkey, I have some questions for all the baseball writers who voted him Manager of the Year in 2014.

*I know, this is asking for trouble. But although leads this large have evaporated in shorter periods, the odds are squarely against the Nats, particularly because they have played so miserably all season.

Did the all the smart decisions just leak out of the head of last year's best NL manager?

Or was a he just the random monkey in front of a computer keyboard who produced MacBeth in 2014?

Was he a dope who received too much credit for the team's primacy in the NL last year?

Or is he a genius being unfairly tarred with the brush of his squad's 2015 failure?

Or is he perhaps neither a dope nor a genius, but just muddling along, and happened to be holding the reigns when his team spiked the finish in 2014 (45-23 after the All Star break) and spit the bit in 2015 (22-29 after the All Star break)?

Finally, whichever theory you now subscribe to, how stupid do you feel for electing him Manager of the Year in 2014?

The wildly varying demonstration of skills that should correlate heavily from one year to the next is yet more proof, as if there was any doubt in the first place, that no one has any idea who the best manager is, particularly in a given season, because most of the good work managers do is in the clubhouse, away from public view. Anyone who wants to claim that they know the best managers is going to have to explain why those with reputations as savants -- Joe Maddon, Bruce Bochy, Terry Francona, Mike Scioscia, etc. -- are rarely so honored.

I have the explanation. It's because the honor is meaningless. Abolish the Manager of the Year award.

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