...playoffs but no more!

It's easy to see why Macha's lack of communication got him fired. It was his inability to communicate effectively with Beane as well as his players.

Kotsay's myopic view failed to take into consideration that when he played too much he got hurt. The last 6 weeks were used masterfully by Macha to keep Kots fresh for the playoffs. That was Macha's gamble. It prevailed in allowing the A's to get to the playoffs but it failed in that he should have been replaced by Kielty at strategic moments during the Detroit series.

Macha was an engineering major for Pete's sake! Those aren't the most touchy-feely individuals you'll find out there. His introvertish nature lent him more to be defined as the thinking man's manager. All we had to do was follow his logic and see what the results would be. Simple enough? Hardly. He had questionable decisions at times, but overall he steered this team to the playoffs in impressive fashion.

Macha was frustrated as we all were this year with the injury bug. It was unbelievable how well he managed the team through this amount of adversity. No one was complaining (loudly) in August, but everyone knew that Beane stacked the roster to handle the potential devastation during the early months and all Macha had to do was keep it together. He did.

When the injuries hit a couple of players who were referred to as "non-entities" it was perceived as an insult. Hardly. It was "Macha-ese" for saying those players have zero effect b/c they aren't on the roster to be inserted into games to help. That's not an insult, it was the reality at the time.

Let's give Macha credit late in the year for also bear hugging Bradley late in the year when he was riled up at questionable umpire's call. That bear hug wasn't so touchy feely as some would have hoped but it did save MB from a suspension.

During the ALCS I was jealous every time I heard references to Leyland and his ability to guide, encourage and intervene at the appropriate times to get his players to perform. It drove me nuts thinking about what he would do with our team. I WANT A JIM LEYLAND TYPE OF MANAGER IN OAKLAND!

I don't know if we are going to get one. Our current list doesn't thrill me. I just hope Beane has the werewithall to find someone who's effective in Leyland way of doing things. We shall see.

I thought the overall point he was making was that it was unfair to sit Kots vs. lefties for most of the regular season and then expect him to hit someone like Santana in the playoffs. True, the position he took was that Kots should have hit vs. lefties in the regular season as well and not that Kielty should have been used in the postseason, but his point regarding Macha's inconsistancy in that regard is valid.

You didn't say anything about Chavvy's comments, which I thought were equally significant, in character, and less easily dismissable as ego or bad attitude.

i don't know of many managers who can walk up to an irate milton bradley and non chilliantly carry him back to the dug out.  

with regards to injuries, it should be noted that macha is a black belt in karate and possibly sees pain/injury as something that is mental and preventable.  granted, guys are going to get banged up.  

with regards to holding the team together during injuries, it's not as if he traded for or signed marco scutaro, bobby kielty, kirk sarloos, duke, and every other key guy who chipped in when our starting nine dropped this year.  credit goes to the front office for compiling a roster that was able to replace starters with guys who held the team together.  macha simply did the obvious, what any of us would have done.  harden gets injured, you put sarloos back in rotation.  

with regards to our bullpen, it's as if we have two bullpens with the depth we had this year.  we could trot out one group one day and another the next if we so cared.  it was very impressive.  

is that he has, from time to time, shown a great deal of respect for his guys.  Witness the following quote:

"Keeping him on the field is huge,'' manager Ken Macha said. "The guy is a grinder. You want all your guys playing like that. He sets by example what to do, and he's pretty much in charge of the dugout.''   Macha 7/17/06