Manager Approval Rating

by OkayJay81 on Sep 18, 2009 5:19 PM PDT

As the season winds down it seems like a good time to take survey of AN and see how people feel about our manager Bob Geren. There were a lot of calls for his head earlier this season but as the play of the team has improved this seems to have calmed down. Should be interesting to see how the community feels about him after almost three years at the helm.

I'll start the discussion by going out on a limb and say I still think he is a pretty good manager and is worth keeping around. I like the way he has handled the youg starters this year and think he has done a good job with a bullpen full of largely new faces this year. The line-up has left me with some questions but I tend to feel that he really hasn't had a lot to work with and if given some good quality players he would do a good job. He was touted for being good at communicating with his players if not with the media and it seems like the team hasn't tuned him out or turned on him yet which has always been my number one qualification in a manager. After three losing seasons maybe he doesn't deserve the benefit of the doubt but I still think he could get the job done. Of course maybe I am just terrible at judging manager performance so lets turn it over to the community for discussion.

Poll

How do you feel about Bob Geren?

I'm still a believer, we just need to get better talent for him to manage

19 votes

I'm not sure he deserved the extension but I think he has been good enough to keep around

62 votes

I think the team should look at getting a new manager in the off-season and if a good candidate is available make the switch

102 votes

FIRE GEREN NOW!!! Anybody would be better than him

40 votes

223 votes | Poll has closed

Tweet Comment 33 comments | 1 recs |

Do you like this story?

Comments

HAHAHAHA I WIN

my vote is 100% of the poll.

There are differing opinions on me. According to Iglew "DFA is PT with a sense of humor. PT is DFA with introspective self-doubt. I like them both" but according to sirbed Im "The Stats Killer"

by designatedforassignment on Sep 18, 2009 5:22 PM PDT reply actions

and it still is.

Al: We gotta form a government for the settlement.
Merrick: Who does?
Al: Us! You and me. Come to me in a vision! You stupid bastard

by Leopold Bloom on Sep 18, 2009 5:25 PM PDT up reply actions

Hey I'm with all the smart people

we’re at 52%. If this was like Chicago politics in the 1960’s I could vote several times even after I died.

by sirbed on Sep 18, 2009 6:01 PM PDT up reply actions

You were already dead in the 1960s?

Wow.

I like Cindi. A. She never pretends to know more than she does. B. She has unbridled enthusiasm for her "Hotties," and isn't afraid to show it. -IM4Oakgal

by Nico on Sep 18, 2009 6:57 PM PDT up reply actions

My personal Hell is having to follow the A's all year long

by sirbed on Sep 18, 2009 7:07 PM PDT up reply actions

and don't forget all the voting.

Al: We gotta form a government for the settlement.
Merrick: Who does?
Al: Us! You and me. Come to me in a vision! You stupid bastard

by Leopold Bloom on Sep 18, 2009 10:23 PM PDT up reply actions

From the games I have seen......

….he seems to be asleep at the wheel quite a lot.

I don’t know who the candidates would be to replace him, I just don’t want a “big shot” manager.

You never know, Best Man Bob might end up surprising us, but he’s not passing the eye test at present.

Is this the real life-
Is this just fantasy-
Caught in a landslide-
No escape from reality-

by Daniel777 on Sep 18, 2009 6:36 PM PDT reply actions

I have seen some growth with Bob, but too little to late

FIRE HIM

by ryanmoser on Sep 18, 2009 8:24 PM PDT reply actions

If that's your motto, then you should petition to get the whole team canned this year.

by LoneStranger on Sep 21, 2009 3:05 PM PDT up reply actions

I'm honestly not sure Bob has been given a fair opportunity.

Lets be honest, what team has Bob had that he was a real contender with? The 07 team was good, but hurt, and without the Big Hurt. Granted he hasn’t done anything to really make me scream KEEP HIM!!!! I think We have a good group.

I'm the genius who said Chris Carter will slug .650 his rookie season.

by JamesCaprio on Sep 18, 2009 9:56 PM PDT reply actions

See...

Nobody here hates Bob because of the poor records…that was a given. Geren sucks because of the multiple ridiculous bullpen/lineup/PH/etc decisions over the years that have flat out cost us games.

"Chicks dig the long ball, although fat chicks will settle for warning track power" - Nick Diamond

by hero66 on Sep 19, 2009 9:46 AM PDT up reply actions

This

"Baseball is dull only to dull minds." Red Barber

by BERRYJO on Sep 19, 2009 2:33 PM PDT up reply actions

He has done a good job with the starters

Bull-pen management has left me scratching my head, but I fully accept that I don’t have all the information needed to make a good judgement.

Back when there was a fighting chance at a winning season, he made some inefficient line ups (while talking up semi advanced thinking) and bad defensive replacement scemes.

Then there is buck and Gallagher.

by Future Ed on Sep 19, 2009 12:08 AM PDT reply actions

For about the first year and a half...

…I thought he was fine and just got a bad situation. Since then I have been constantly re-evaluating that. Unfortunately, it’s still a bad situation so I cannot conclude whether or not he sucks and should be replaced or given a shot when a good situation does come around again.

I still see some of the good things I saw early on, but then again some of his moves make me scratch my head.

In 2008 I was watching a team that was rebuilding. In 2009 I feel like I'm watching a team that just sucks.

by UncleLeo on Sep 19, 2009 8:00 AM PDT reply actions

I think one of the more underrated aspects of Geren in his handling of his young staff

is that he’s managed, for the most part, to act as something of a protective shield against the frustrations of the fans. There hasn’t been all that much booing at games this season (some might say that this is because there hasn’t been much in the way of attendance), and that which there has been has mostly been directed and certain hitters striking out.

I’m pretty sure if you asked him, he’d be pretty satisfied with the job he’s done in protecting his rookie pitchers from psychic torment.

Overall, whilst I’m not massively confident in him going forward, I also don’t think he’s done enough to get himself canned. There are far easier ways to improve this team than the marginal upgrade a new manager would bring, to be honest.

by bobnothing on Sep 19, 2009 8:58 AM PDT reply actions

his bullpen management was atrocious in April and May,

but he’s done alright since then.

I used to think he was a total ass-clown, but he hasn’t embarrassed himself in the last couple of months.

He needs to remember that a game won in April is a W, just like a game won in September, and he needs to manage appropriately. That extra-innings game in April that Springer lost was inexcusable. Somebody with a pulse should have been pitching that one, just as someone with a pulse should have been managing that one…

"Flea Markets aren't just for blind dates anymore!"- The Reverend Billy Lard

by Gaijin_Suketto on Sep 19, 2009 9:46 AM PDT reply actions

re: treatment of Travis Buck

There has been alot of talk here about how Buck doesn’t seem to get a fair shot. On the flip side, many feel he really hasn’t earned anything more than what he was given.

Does anybody here feel that there may be a personal bias by Geren? Or, that it runs deeper into the organization than that, i.e. Beane ,maybe?

Or, do you feel that it’s really not deep at all (in any sense, organizational or otherwise), and that he simply hasn’t produced, and that some may be allowing their like of the guy to cloud their judgment?

If I had to pick one side, I’d probably pick the latter. Although I like the guy, and WANT him to succeed (for his sake as well as mine as a fan), to be honest he really hasn’t impressed me all that much on the field. At least on a consistent enough basis.

In 2008 I was watching a team that was rebuilding. In 2009 I feel like I'm watching a team that just sucks.

by UncleLeo on Sep 19, 2009 10:47 AM PDT reply actions

Buck hasn't gotten many chances since 2007

"Chicks dig the long ball, although fat chicks will settle for warning track power" - Nick Diamond

by hero66 on Sep 19, 2009 10:52 AM PDT up reply actions

No, he hasnt, but...

…he hasn’t exactly “wowed” in the chances he has had, either.

In 2008 I was watching a team that was rebuilding. In 2009 I feel like I'm watching a team that just sucks.

by UncleLeo on Sep 19, 2009 11:43 AM PDT up reply actions

I keep going back to the double-header in Texas,

when Buck took himself out with a hurting thumb and the A’s seemed really irked. I don’t know why the A’s were so bothered by a player saying he wasn’t well enough to play (isn’t that what we wanted with Dan Meyer?) but something happened between Buck and the A’s beyond his stat lines.

I like Cindi. A. She never pretends to know more than she does. B. She has unbridled enthusiasm for her "Hotties," and isn't afraid to show it. -IM4Oakgal

by Nico on Sep 19, 2009 12:55 PM PDT up reply actions

That to me is about the point where I see them as having started messing with him

All the moves before that made sense, poor start in ‘08, injuries, AAA struggles. Then he had that one moment and it seemed like it didn’t really matter how he performed.

CuttheMullet, from "The Thread":
"Whenever I’m about to do something, I think "would an idiot do that?" and if they would, I do not do that thing."

by DMOAS on Sep 19, 2009 6:21 PM PDT up reply actions

What "chances"?

These 50 AB stints here and there?

"Chicks dig the long ball, although fat chicks will settle for warning track power" - Nick Diamond

by hero66 on Sep 19, 2009 2:55 PM PDT up reply actions

He did well after being recalled in 2008.

.367/.415/.673 – which is why Geren’s treatment of him at the start of the year was even more perplexing, especially his insistence on sitting Buck against every single lefty despite the fact he has almost exactly the same line against righties and lefties, and Sweeney is considerably worse against LHP.

by DeJay on Sep 21, 2009 3:36 AM PDT up reply actions

I never understood the passionate Buck love.

Everyone keeps saying he should be playing on the big-league team, but I don’t see any reason to expect more out of him than the guys who having been playing the outfield ahead of him. Honestly, if for some reason an outfield slot were to open up tomorrow, I’d want to see Aaron Cunningham fill it before Buck.

I’m not sure why Buck is magically immune to the “small sample size” argument that everyone else gets hit with. As far as I can tell, the Buck love is based entirely on his hot 2007 season, because he hasn’t hit particularly well at any level since then. In Sacramento, Cunningham, Patterson, and Carson have all hit significantly better than Buck. (Denorfia has not, but Denorfia is now even more out of the picture than Buck is.) In Oakland, Rajai, Sweeney and Cust have all hit significantly better than Buck. Since coming to Oakland, Hairston has been about the same as Buck, but he was better in San Diego. True, Patterson in Oakland was worse than Buck, but he didn’t last long up here either.

I think the whole “Buck must have pissed off Billy Beane” thing started out as a joke here, but then people started taking it seriously while overlooking the fact that he really isn’t hitting all that well.

"Go ahead and overachieve, you scrappy Brett-Favre-colored walk-takers." —Rev Halofan

by iglew on Sep 19, 2009 6:36 PM PDT up reply actions

+ 1

I agree with what you said. Buck might be as good as people think that he is…but he has not proved it on a consitent basis and I think he gets way too much love considering his actual performance.

by IM4Oakgal on Sep 19, 2009 8:13 PM PDT up reply actions

He's a fan favorite.

Keep in mind, of course, that "the best defense of Derek Jeter's life" ranks somewhere in between "the best fiscal responsibility of Mike Tyson's life" and "the best not-getting-assassinated-ness of James Garfield's life." -FJM

by travdog6 on Sep 19, 2009 11:03 PM PDT up reply actions

He has nice hair.

by LoneStranger on Sep 21, 2009 3:06 PM PDT up reply actions

Best hair award for sure!

by IM4Oakgal on Sep 21, 2009 11:44 PM PDT up reply actions

okay, let's try this again

I posted this rant in the wrong thread. Embarrassing!

Anyhow, I don’t think Geren is necessarily a bad manager… he’s just not very good. I can’t seem to find it now, but there was a great post here a while ago about how Bob Geren is your ideal minor league manager, and at the end of the year when he’s relegated to managing the roster and calling the plays for a team out of contention, he actually does a pretty good job.

Unlike some others on here, I don’t think he does a terrible job managing the bullpen or the starting lineup. He pretty much plays it by the book. The thing is, anyone can probably step in and play it by the book, and I’m skeptical as to whether Geren has the leadership skills that are needed to accomplish all the rest of the parts of running a baseball club. Of course, none of us know what he’s like in the clubhouse, but in the dugout he’s looked taciturn and withdrawn, especially early in the season when the team looked bored and demoralized. Big league managers are supposed to be leaders, and Geren doesn’t strike me as one.

by DDroney on Sep 19, 2009 8:22 PM PDT reply actions

I agree with you that his bullpen management isn't terrible

He was given, IMO, a bad hand by not having two longer relievers and it has forced him far too often to throw 3-4 guys, meaning they pitch too often as well. Not his fault.

And I think your analysis of him being a great minor league manager without natural “major league manager leadership” skills is right on.

I like Cindi. A. She never pretends to know more than she does. B. She has unbridled enthusiasm for her "Hotties," and isn't afraid to show it. -IM4Oakgal

by Nico on Sep 20, 2009 8:20 AM PDT up reply actions

He once hit Jack Cust second in the order.

For that alone, he should have been fired.

He did, however, preside over this new running game (I can’t say if it has was his decision to run, but what a refreshing change from the “hit me a homer” approach the A’s have taken for years). If that was Geren, it’d buy him at least another year from me, for what that’s worth.

by Joneser on Sep 21, 2009 9:29 AM PDT reply actions

Pretty much every objective lineup analysis that I've seen of recent A's teams has suggested that Cust should be hitting either leadoff or second

Linda's in the cold ground, won't see her anymore
Somewhere out on the highway tonight, the drunken engines roar
It's just one of those things, one of those things
-- Al Stewart, "Accident on 3rd St."
In memory of Nick Adenhart and all victims of drunk driving

by PaulThomas on Sep 21, 2009 12:05 PM PDT up reply actions

Exactly. #2 is where I think Custy belongs

And as an added bonus, it helps to remind him that walks r gud.

I like Cindi. A. She never pretends to know more than she does. B. She has unbridled enthusiasm for her "Hotties," and isn't afraid to show it. -IM4Oakgal

by Nico on Sep 21, 2009 5:32 PM PDT up reply actions