it’s pretty tough to separate their efforts from that of their players – they don’t bat or pitch, so it’s hard to say whether or not they helped anyone win. You can look at whether or not a team overperforms its Pythagorean W-L, but I have my doubts about that.

In any case, I don’t think Piniella is as good a manager as people think he is. He reminds me of Joe Torre in that he gets credit for being on teams with spectacular talent. I’m not sure if Piniella has Torre’s problem with bullpen management, but he had plenty of problems with Zambrano this past year.

Very few managers are worthy of the accolades they receive. When it comes down to it, managers fill out lineup cards and manage their pitching staff. Neither Piniella nor Torre (nor LaRussa, for that matter) seem particularly adept at any of those things. But because they managed teams with spectacular players, they get credit for those players’ successes.

And that’s not to say that there aren’t managers out there who are very, very good. But the most a manager can hope to do is maximize the payoff from his players and keep from getting in their way. Earl Weaver was the king of that. Manny Acta seems like he’s that type of manager (though he doesn’t have a good team to manage, so he doesn’t get any credit).

he was buoyed by some unexpected production from random players and his team took a dive in the second half.

My impression is that the importance of managers is generally overrated.