Evaluating Baseballs Managers

This ambitious study of major league managers since the formation of the National League applies a sabermetric approach to gauging their performance and tendencies. Rather than focusing solely on in-game tactical decisions, it also analyzes broader, off-the-field management issues such as handling players, fans, and media, enforcing team rules, working with the front office, and balancing pressure versus performance.

A brand new way of rating and evaluating baseball players, pitchers, teams, managers, and minor-league prospects, this innovative statistical method is highly sophisticated yet extremely simple to understand. Includes a team-by-team analysis of the '93 season and predictions for '94.

The man Newsweek once called “the guru of baseball” offers profiles of top managers, sidebars, statistics, and snapshots of each decade. Widely considered to be one of the greatest minds in the history of the game, Bill James has changed the way we think about the sport of baseball. In this chronicle of field generals, strategists, and occasional cannon fodder, James writes with piercing insight about the men who hold what may be the most important spot in the dugout. For nearly forty years, James has led the vanguard of how we measure the game. From sabermetrics to his Baseball Abstracts, James has influenced even the casual fan all the way up to the top brass. Somewhere in the middle of that spectrum, however, is the manager, and Bill James has penned a guide on some of the most innovative and renowned men to ever hold that position. Some of the game’s greatest managers have been Hall of Fame players who put down a bat and picked up a lineup card: Frank Robinson, Mel Ott, Joe Cronin, Tris Speaker, and Rogers Hornsby. Others have achieved greatness from their ability to assemble legendary teams: Billy Martin, Tommy Lasorda, Connie Mack, Joseph McCarthy, Dick Williams, and Leo Durocher. Here, Bill James explores the history of the manager, and its evolution from 1870–1990, in a decade-by-decade chronicle, examining the successes, the failures, and what baseball fans can learn from both. The Bill James Guide to Baseball Managers is a thought-provoking, entertaining, and seminal guide to a vital part of the national pastime, written by one of its most groundbreaking iconoclasts. “A delightful collection that will satisfy baseball fans of all ages.” —Library Journal

Explains the importance of statistics, percentages and other mathematical calculations to managing a winning baseball team.

What do Hall of Fame baseball managers like Connie Mack and John McGraw have in common with today's business leaders? Why are baseball managers like Joe Torre and Dusty Baker better role models for business, government, and non–profit management than respected corporate giants like Jack Welch and Bill Gates? And just what does Peter Drucker have to do with Oriole ex–manager Earl Weaver? Management consultant, baseball writer, and columnist for InformationWeek, Computerworld, and InfoWorld, Jeff Angus shows how anyone can become a better manager by taking lessons from the leaders and nuances of the one game that is the truest test of managerial prowess. As proven by Angus' highly popular blog, Management by Baseball is a fun, story–filled guide that gives managers and anyone in business practical, actionable, understandable tools they can use to improve performance: How do you start an organization from scratch? Take a page from baseball's 19th century origins. How do you adapt to changing markets and social conditions? Learn from the man who invented Babe Ruth. What are the simplest ways to turn around a weak department? Pick up Dick Williams' proven tactics. How do you redesign corporate strategy in response to your competitors? Learn Joe Torre's secret advantage. How do you develop emotional intelligence as a leader? Find out how Ichiro Suzuki made his transition from Japan to the Major Leagues a historic success

Earl Weaver put his best defensive players on the field early in the game rather than make late-inning defensive replacements, and he didn't like to bunt, figuring if you played for only one run that's all you'd get. Whitey Herzog, by contrast, became one of the greats by using players who could bunt and by playing for one run over and over again. Full coverage of them and 600 other major league managers over a 125 year period can be found in this work. The entries are based on interviews, standard data and anecdotes from owners, coaches, and players. Information includes birth and death dates, teams and dates managed, win-loss records, winning percentages, and standings. Lists are included of managers of 1,000 games or more, those with one-game careers, those with the best winning percentages, and those with the most wins. A complete list of managers in the history of each team is provided.

Why is baseball the only team sport whose managers wear a uniform? Which two managers have led three different teams to the World Series? Who was the last player-manager? Which managers' uniform numbers have been retired? What happened when Ted Turner took over as manager after Atlanta had posted 16 consecutive losses? These and many more questions are answered in Bob Bloss'sBaseball Managers. The perfect book to have for settling a baseball argument, it contains records of each of the more than 400 twentieth-century managers. It traces managing evolution from the original Cincinnati Red Stockings to the Arizona Diamondbacks and from the early days of player-managers and their fourteen-man squads to today's relentless fan and media second-guessing and the emergence of free agency—which now often forces managers to enter battle with teams vastly restructured from the previous season. With chapters on controversial managerial decisions Hall-of-Fame manager profiles and oddball managerial situations, humorous and sometimes poignant anecdotes, and many useful tables listing managers alphabetically, by teams, and by winning percentages,Baseball Managersis a fascinating compilation of statistics, trivia, and memories. Author note:Bob Blossis a freelance baseball journalist who began his writing career in 1960. He has played the role of announcer as well as reporter and is a member of the Philadelphia Sports Writers Association and SABR, the Society of American Baseball Research. Once a slow, second-string high school outfielder in Erie, PA, who could hit a curve ball only when he knew it was coming—and then not very far—Bloss now chronicles baseball and baseball managing.

This book focuses on the application of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) to Major League Baseball (MLB). DEA is a nonparametric linear programming model that is used across academic disciplines. In sports economics, authors have applied the technique primarily to assess team and/or managerial efficiency. The basis for performance analysis is economic production theory, where it is assumed that baseball can be viewed as a production process whereby inputs (player quality measures) are transformed into outputs (wins, attendance). The primary advantage that DEA has over more traditional regression based approaches is the ability to handle multiple inputs and multiple outputs. Further, the approach is nonparametric and hence, does not require a priori specification of the production function. The book develops the theory of DEA in the context of a production environment. A focal point is the assessment of technical and cost efficiency of MLB teams. It is shown that previous frontier applications that measure efficiency provide biased results given that the outcome of a game is zero-sum. If a team loses a game due to inefficiency, another team wins a lost game. A corrected frontier is presented to overcome this problem. Free agent salary arbitration is analyzed using a dual DEA model. Each free agent's contract zone is identified. The upper and lower bounds, representing the player's and team's perspective of value, respectively, are estimated. Player performance is estimated using a modified DEA model to rank order players based on multiple attributes. This model will be used to evaluate current Hall of Fame players. We provide arguments for other players who are deserving of membership. We also use our measure of performance and evaluate age-performance profilers for many ball players. Regression analysis is used to identify the age of peak performance. The method is used to evaluate some of the all-time greats. We also use the method to analyze admitted and implicated steroid users. The results clearly show that performance was enhanced. This book will provide appropriate theoretical models with methodological considerations and interesting empirical analyses and is intended to serve academics and practitioners interested in applying DEA to baseball as well as other sports or production processes. >

Since the 1920’s, the New York Yankees have become the most successful sports franchise in history because of the way they manage their talent and their organization. So how do they do it? The Yankees’ sustained success can be traced to 14 core management principles, applicable to any business operating today. These principles embrace cultivation of home-grown talent, creation of a culture that demands excellence, pursuit and introduction of the most talented players from outside the organization, promotion of a diversified workforce, and utilization of a productive farm system as currency in making talent deals.

-- Why is baseball the only team sport whose managers wear a uniform? -- Which two managers have led three different teams to the World Series? -- Who was the last player-manager? -- Which managers' uniform numbers have been retired? -- What happened when Ted Turner took over as manager after Atlanta had posted 16 consecutive losses? These and many more questions are answered in Bob Bloss's Baseball Managers. The perfect book to have for settling a baseball argument, it contains records of each of the more than 400 twentieth-century managers. It traces managing evolution from the original Cincinnati Red Stockings to the Arizona Diamondbacks and from the early days of player-managers and their fourteen-man squads to today's relentless fan and media second-guessing and the emergence of free agency-which now often forces managers to enter battle with teams vastly restructured from the previous season. With chapters on controversial managerial decisions, Hall-of-Fame manager profiles, and oddball managerial situations: humorous and sometimes poignant anecdotes: and many useful tables listing managers alphabetically by teams, and by winning percentages, Baseball Manager is a fascinating compilation of statistics trivia and memories.