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Red Sox meltdown now complete
By adamg on Wed, 10/19/2011 - 5:06pm
The Taiwanese have made a cartoon about it:
Thanks, Kaz!
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Comments
No problem
I have to give credit to Bob over at Soxaholix who linked to it first for me to find it.
gabe kapler
anyone else think he could be a good manager here?
Maybe with a few more years under his belt
There's no denying that he'd be a huge emotional favorite for many fans. But I doubt that the owners would be willing to take a chance on someone who still has relatively little managing experience.
I also don't know much about what coaching style he's adopted, but if I had to guess, I'd imagine he's a "players coach" much like Tito (Gabe strikes me as just too d*mn nice a fellow to be a hardass). I think this would be another strike against him as far as the owners are concerned. Look instead for them to be interested in old-school closers with more of a hard edge.
I think Gabe would be a total
hardass. He always expected a great deal from himself and would insist upon it with any team he was coaching. Did he officially retire? Remember he was coaching and then left to resume playing again?
Not officially, but...
Kapler had a pretty bad season for Tampa in 2010, and was cut by the Dodgers in spring training this past season. He's essentially done as a player.
There's more to being a manager than being a "total hardass." There's a lot that goes into game management, mending egos, pushing the right buttons on the right guys. Larry Bowa was brought into a couple teams when it was thought a "disciplinarian" was needed, but it turned out that Bowa's act got old quickly in both San Diego and Philly. He underachieved in Philly with some really talented teams in the early part of the 00's.
Furthermore, Kapler played with a few of the guys here - you worry that his closeness to some of the players would add an extra layer of loyalty when perhaps some distance is needed (Girardi has been accused of the same thing in NY, since he played with Posada and Jeter).
That said, Kapler has always struck me as a bright guy, and probably has a future in baseball as a coach or manager. If they brought him in as a bench coach or first base coach, I think that would be a good step. But it's crazy to assume after one year of managing in Single A four years ago that he'd be ready to come in and manage at the major league level.