Why don't sabermetricians manage baseball teams

They did DL Lackey for a couple weeks, I believe, but you can't force a guy on the DL if he doesn't want to go. Also, as bad as Lackey has been, it's not like the alternatives - Wakefield, Kyle Weiland, Andrew Miller - were any better to fill up those last two slots in the rotation. The Red Sox are essentially using street free agents and/or dipping into the 10th, 11th and 12th guys from their start of the season depth chart for starts in September.

You can argue that maybe they should have stockpiled even more pitching depth, but it's not like they didn't try. They cut lose Millwood from Pawtucket because he knew he could get a Major League job (in Colorado, I think) and because they didn't have any need for him at the time. (He also wasn't pitching that great.) Umbaldo has been OK, not great for Cleveland. Doug Fister would have helped, but I think it's hard to get a read for how he'd do in the AL East, since he went from one cavernous ballpark to another. Kuroda wouldn't waive his no-trade clause, Harden couldn't pass a medical exam, etc. etc.

 

sgreenwell--

That's reasonable. Let's be honest, nobody saw this happening. But when a team goes 7-28 at the front and back ends of its schedule, and a great deal of that has to do with depth, you wonder what the hell is going on in their system. Where a skilled GM really earns his money. Epstein, for all the pleasuring he gets from the national media, hasn't fielded a homegrown shortstop in his tenure.

 

A skilled GM proves himself in the farm system? Isn't that what the scouting and development directors are for?

Honestly, though, I'm beginning to think more and more that the influence of a GM is overrated. You are right that the farm system's production has a huge impact on the success of teams.

 

Wasn't this all recently on an episode of The Simpsons?

 

Well, Jed Lowrie is homegrown, but he is a poor man's John Valentin with all of the injuries. They've gotten a good amount from the farm, and done OK in trades. But they've had to rely on free agency, which is always a crapshoot. Pretty much every time has at least one contract on their roster that they regret because of free agency.

 

Wow, of all the pompous, idiotic, ridiculous things I've read on this board.

You're so smart that you already know that in, what, 2016 the Phillies will be horrible. Because you know exactly what their roster will look like in five years, don't you. You know what kids who are now in high school they'll draft and develop, right? You know who they'll trade for, who they'll sign, which prospects will develop.

Man, it must be amazing to be as prescient as you. Hey, who do you like in the NBA Western Conference finals in 2018? Any thoughts on that one?

 

You don't think a big part of a GM's job is whipping the farm into shape?

What the fuck sports do some of you guys watch?