Theoretical Love for Ned Yost

Ned Yost is not the best tactical manager in the history of baseball, or of this era, or of really any sizable subset of major league managers, but that does not necessarily mean he is a bad major league manager.  What if Ned is the proverbial ice burg and the 10% we do see isn’t great, but the other 90% we don’t see is?

Yordano Ventura coming from the bullpen in the Wild Card game set off a cascade of anti-Ned national media attention with this being my favorite example.  I agree it was not a good move, but it does not prove Ned is bad at his job.  He bunted a bunch in that game as well, and has had a lot of early game sacrifice bunts in his past, which I will say annoys me more than anything else he has done.  Some of Ned’s lineup decisions in the past have been similarly annoying, such as Alcides Escobar batting at or near the top of the order in past years despite being a terrible hitter.  His media persona, which I would sum up as being a surly cuss most of the time, probably doesn’t help either.

All of that is the stuff we see, and he isn’t always great at those, but what about everything else?  He has gotten better at what we see over the past few years, for example he didn’t bunt nearly as much this year.  That really might be beside the point though.  What if the purpose of his job is only a little bit when to pull the starter, and is much more about managing a club house and the players and personnel surrounding it?

Ned Yost’s players seem to like him, and some of that is because he seems to truly believe in them no matter what.  Sometimes that has been a problem, but right now it might be paying dividends.  The team is as confident right now as they have ever been.  We haven’t heard of much

Oct 5, 2014; Kansas City, MO, USA; Kansas City Royals manager Ned Yost (3) celebrates with center fielder Lorenzo Cain (6) after game three of the 2014 ALDS baseball playoff game against the Los Angeles Angels at Kauffman Stadium. The Royals won 8-3. Mandatory Credit: Denny Medley-USA TODAY Sports

turmoil at all in the clubhouse this season and the players really do seem to get along.  We can’t quantify the value of that, but Ned needs some credit for it along with Dayton Moore for assembling the personalities.  All I know is that down four to John Lester the team seemed like they expected to still win.

The bullpen was used very well throughout the season.  Part of that was how solid Kelvin Herrera, Wade Davis, and Greg Holland were, but again he knew how to back off using certain guys when they were struggling too.  Aaron Crow, a fixture in the pen since 2011 was used less and in lower leverage situations than in the past as the year progressed.  Also, the three guys at the back were not over-used, partly the health and quality of the starters, but it has allowed him to use them more now that the playoffs are here (Herrera 1 2/3 innings against Oakland, Davis 1 1/3 Game 1 ALDS).  The consistency over the last few years of the bullpen has to at least be part Ned.

Overall the pitching has over-performed because of a fantastic defense over the past two years too.  Dave Eiland is pretty good at his job from what we’ve seen, or maybe the health of the pitchers which has been pretty good means head athletic trainer Nick Kenney should get more attention.  Both of those guys are deserving of some love for their contributions.  Part of Ned’s job is to give them what they need, listen to them, and keep everything running smoothly with regards to workouts and such.  Should he get some of the credit for this too, it is entirely possible that the answer is yes.

Hopefully by now you can see my overall point.  Ned, and all major league managers, do a lot of behind the scenes things.  I am not sure that is as true of other sports.  Football and basketball coaches, even called something else, are supposed to scheme and set up offenses and defenses.  That is not the point for a baseball skipper.  Baseball is not nearly as much about scheme, there is no drawing up a play during a time out.  I have seen numerous attempts to quantify the value of a manager in the big leagues and have never seen one that convinced me it was all that accurate.  It might not be possible to do as management in general is about “soft skills”.  You have to get others to do a lot of the work, and Ned has been pretty successful at that recently.

Ned Yost is not the best manager in baseball, at least not in my estimation.  That does not mean he isn’t good at his job.  He has been given an interesting team.  Alex Gordon is great, but probably not quite an MVP level talent.  James Shields leads the staff and is in my opinion a step down from an ace, just meaning he isn’t on par with the handful of most dominant pitchers in the game.  The strengths of this team are speed, defense, contact hitting, and those things have been used very well.  Maybe it’s time we start seeing Ned as part of the answer because I am pretty sure we are going to see him in the dugout for a while yet to come.