Earlier this week, I posted a poll on which current MLB managers you, yeah YOU, consider to be an upgrade over the incumbent Angels manager, Mike Scioscia. The results were exactly as I expected them to be, which is great, because now I get to make my point.
Here are the main takeaways:
— The only manager that almost everyone said was an upgrade was Joe Maddon. He had three times as many votes as anyone else.
— The manager runner-up was Bud Black, which I think only shows that a lot of people remember him as a good pitching coach and desire him solely becausee of his Angel ties. There is actually not a lot of evidence that Black is a great manager. In fact, he might be available to replace Scioscia seeing how he is a prime candidate to get fired this off-season as well. I'm not saying he can't be good, I'm just saying that I think he got votes for the wrong reasons.
— The real runner-up is "NONE OF THE ABOVE" which had about half the votes that Maddon did. Clearly Scioscia is still held in high regard by many, but those who voted for that option probably are in the camp that he shouldn't be fired.
— Joe Maddon had nearly six times as many votes as any other non-Bud Black manager. That tells me that there is really no other manager out there that more than a small segment of Angel fans would consider an improvement over Scioscia. Yet, I suspect a very large percentage, possibly even a minority would still vote for Scioscia to be replaced.
So what is the point I am getting at? That firing Scioscia will almost certainly lead to the Angels having a WORSE manager. Granted, the 29 other managers are likely not available for hire, but I chose them because by the sheer virtue that they are employed I think we can safely say that, at a minimum, those 29 guys are amongst the 35 or 40 most qualified managers available to MLB. Or something close to that, right?
Yes, there are a few guys like Terry Francona and Mike Maddux waiting in the wings, but the general point stands that firing Scioscia is more about making fans feel good in that a head has rolled for what is looking more and more like the Angels because there is a high degree of probability that whoever the Angels hire is going to be a lesser manager than Scioscia.
For any job, you always hire the best person for the job whenever possible. That holds true here and your collective vote admit that, barring Joe Maddon escaping Tampa, Scioscia IS the best man for the job. The only justifiable reason that Moreno and Dipoto can thus make for canning Scioscia is that they have a person in mind that they are highly confident is an upgrade AND highly likely to accept the job. They are definitely a lot smarter than any of us, so if that is what they choose to do, I'll accept it, but I will sure as well be dubious of it until the on-field results prove that they are right.
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