KC Royals Will Not Collapse Like the 1964 Phillies

Mandatory Credit: John Rieger-USA TODAY Sports

7. Gene Mauch made a bunch of crucial errors.  He started two of his pitchers every other game.  Slowly they burned themselves out.  Is Yost likely to do this?  No.  Ned has demonstrated time and again that he is worried about players being tired and giving them the needed time off.

8.  At the end of the season, Dallas Green said that Mauch completely changed his managerial theory.  He didn’t give them “direction” and did not use “what worked all season.”  During the end of the season, Mauch stopped being a shouter, an encourager, and, according to Green, a “recluse.  He didn’t say much…He just let us play…”

Is Ned likely to change his managerial style?  Not likely.  Ned has never been a “rah rah” guy.  But he will speak out.  He does give encouragement.  And he will sit players if they go into a funk.  In short the manager and the type of players that the Royals have does not lend itself to late season collapses.  Yost is not Gene Mauch.

Yost seems to have learned from his mistakes in Milwaukee, where he was fired with 12 games to go.  The interim manager (Dale Sveum) got Yost’s team to the playoffs.  He said that he realizes now that he can’t control everything and he relies on his coaches more. Were lessons learned?  It certainly appears that way.

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