Can it get any worse?

[fredtoast]

(05-31-2022, 04:08 AM)Forever Spinning Vinyl Wrote: The Reds seem like a dumb baseball team.

They are a bad team.  That does not make them dumb.

You sing the praises of Shelton, but his MLB winning% is over 100 points lower than Bell (.476 to .372).

And you can't prove anything by pointing to a move that worked because you don't know what Bell would have done and you don't know if would have worked or not.

In-game strategy in baseball is a lot like play-calling in the NFL.  If a Bell goes against the odds and fails he is stupid for not doing "what every other manager would have done".  But if he goes with the odds then he is "too predictable" or "doesn't have instincts/feel for the game".

Obviously managers have an effect on the outcome of games because the best ones seem to win with different teams while the worst ones often get the chance to fail with multiple teams.  But in-game strategy is only a small part of it.  

I don't know anything about Shelton, but I know the Pirates have not had much talent in a long time.  As for Bell, he took the Reds to the playoffs after I had written them off in 2020.  I would think the manager deserves some credit for turning around a losing team late in the season.  But then they did not score a single run in the postseason.  Seems kind of like Marvin.

One thing I know for sure.  Bell has the worst talent in years this season.  If he even finishes middle-of-the-pack with this team he should get some Manager-of-the-Year votes