Which skipper gets the boot first? '06 Edition

[Guest BGarrett7]

How Bruce Bochy has managed to keep his job in San Diego for twelve seasons, I have no idea. He's had a grand total of three seasons over .500, not including last season's one game over finish. I guess it benefits greatly to be in a division that is routinely quite bad top to bottom. Anyways, if the Giants or Dodgers can manage to pull away and the Padres continue to not hit the ball, he should be the first given the gate.

[Guest Felonies!]

Kevin Towers likes Bochy a lot. Also, if he's been here 12 years, it's gonna be tougher to fire him for a weak start. Also, he's had a lot of crappy teams to work with.

[EVIL~! alkeiper]

I think it's refreshing to see a team stick with a manager through bad seasons. We all know that a lot of times the manager creates problems. But all too often the manager is a scapegoat for lousy roster construction. Bochy by all accounts is a good manager.

[Guest BGarrett7]

I think it's refreshing to see a team stick with a manager through bad seasons. We all know that a lot of times the manager creates problems. But all too often the manager is a scapegoat for lousy roster construction. Bochy by all accounts is a good manager.

I'm not really saying he isn't a good manager -- what he did with that '98 team speaks wonders in itself -- it's just that when you think of managers who have had a span of at least a decade with a team, you would assume the manager had at least been remotely successful. Yeah, he's got three division titles under his belt, but only has one other winning season and has never finished higher than third in an almost always sub-par NL West. I think '98, like I said, really speaks loads about how he is as a manager. He took a cast of underachievers, helped them put everything together, and it all clicked at the right time. Honestly, the rebuilding years in '02 and '03 aside, he's had very similar groups to that '98 team, but hasn't been able to accomplish anywhere near what he did almost a decade ago. At some point, Towers is going to have to just bite the bullet and accept that maybe, just maybe, Bochy isn't working out and it's time for a different managerial direction. Heaven knows they've taken enough different personnel directions on the field of play, maybe it's time to start looking towards Bochy as to why these teams haven't been able to only win 90 games twice in the past thirteen years.

[Guest Felonies!]

I think Kevin Towers is the problem, and Sandy Alderson should bite the bullet.

[EVIL~! alkeiper]

Looking at the majors, 18 of the 30 teams have won 90+ games two times or less over Bochy's span. The Padres are usually not a team to take big plunges into the free agent market, so they've never assembled super teams that should have won loads of games.

 

Is there a specific argument against Bochy, or just the lack of a championship?

[Vern Gagne]

They underachieved last year. Also after so long, a change is often needed. Reguardless of how good a manager is.

[Guest StylesMark]

Manuel will catch the boot.

 

Or maybe the Orioles fire another manager.