Randolph and Yost Firings Were Cruel but Necessary

Bill James was once asked the best thing about Sparky Anderson as a manager and James replied, "His record." Managers are most often judged on their won-loss mark and James was giving Anderson the ultimate compliment. But this year managers with decent to good records are losing their jobs while those presiding over terrible teams are seemingly getting a free pass.

Bud Black and Manny Acta have each skippered squads with 90 losses after unexpected good seasons in 2007. And they both still have jobs. Meanwhile, Willie Randolph and Ned Yost have each gotten the axe this year. Randolph's club was just one game under .500 when he was fired, while Yost's team was 16 games over when he was let go 150 games into the season.

What is going on here?

I think fans recognize that players are good at various things but very few of them excel at everything. If you need a home run, Ryan Braun is your guy but you wouldn't bring him into a game in the bottom of the ninth inning for defensive purposes. Well, it's the same thing with managers.

Willie Randolph did an excellent job bringing the Mets back to respectability after the depressing years the club experienced under Art Howe. Randolph demanded effort and professionalism and the club improved from 71 wins the year before he arrived to 83 wins in his rookie season at the helm.

And the 2006 Mets had a lot of things go right and they jumped to 97 wins. But it wasn't anything really that Randolph did that spurred the club to such heights. Perhaps Randolph thinks it was his great managing but all of the traits that helped him get fired this season were evident back then.

That team had a poor bench, which was rendered further ineffective by Randolph's refusal to trust young players. Scanning a list of the reserves, there was a preference for catchers and second baseman. It's hard to believe a 97-win team employed both Mike Difelice and Kelly Stinnett but it happened under Randolph. And the list of current and former second basemen included Kaz Matsui, Julio Franco, Anderson Hernandez, Chris Woodward, Michael Tucker and Victor Diaz.

Only a fantastic season by the relievers, including career years from Duaner Sanchez, Darren Oliver, Chad Bradford and Pedro Feliciano, kept it from being a typical Randolph year.

Randolph gets credit for 2005. He certainly doesn't lose any points for the team performance in 2006. But he was not the right guy for the job in 2007 and certainly he was a dead man walking in 2008.

When he was fired, everyone complained about the circumstances under which it happened. The Mets just embarked on a West Coast trip and won their first game when Omar Minaya delivered the bad news. But if anything, Randolph should be thankful that the Mets screwed up his dismissal. The story became how inept the organization was because of their complete lack of professionalism over the firing. And it's hard to disagree with that storyline. But the bottom line is that this firing was 100 percent justified and that Willie Randolph had no business managing a team that had a leaky bullpen and designs on the post-season.

This brings us to the Brewers and their unusual-timed firing of Ned Yost. I can't think of another team in the hunt for the playoffs that fired their manager 150 games into the season. But you know what? I think they made the right move, too.

Unlike Randolph, Yost has an excellent reputation of breaking young players into the majors. His first team in 2003 did not have a regular younger than 27-year-old Wes Helms. But in the next five years, Yost brought Bill Hall, J.J. Hardy, Rickie Weeks, Prince Fielder, Corey Hart and Ryan Braun into prominent roles for the club.

Yost is a players' manager. He nurtures the youngsters, believes in them and gives them a chance to succeed. He fights for his players, most notably his efforts to get C.C. Sabathia a no-hitter earlier this season.

But at some point the players no longer need guidance and development but rather they need a fire lit underneath them. And I don't think this was Yost's strong suit. The Brewers have collected a lot of talent but they have not transformed that talent into a post-season appearance.

They finished second in a weak NL Central last year and this year a sure playoff spot was slipping through their hands in September. On August 31st, the Brewers were 80-56, had the second best record in the league and a 5.5 game in the Wild Card standings. Fast forward two weeks and Milwaukee lost 11 of 14 games and was tied in the Wild Card race.

Like Randolph, Yost struggled with his handling of the bullpen. Continually giving the ball to Eric Gagne in the eighth inning, despite Gagne's inability to prevent runs, was a mystery. Leaving Brian Shouse in to face righites when he's a lefty specialist is certainly curious.

And I don't think it's a coincidence that Guillermo Mota was a pitcher on Randolph's club that faded in 2007 and Yost's in 2008. Mota's the punk who threw at Mike Pizza and the cheat nailed for failing a steroids test. Just like regression, karma will eventually find you, too.

Anyway, it's a possibility at this point that neither the Mets nor the Brewers will make the playoffs. But the fact that both teams made moves to replace struggling managers is a positive. In past years, Randolph would have retained his job until late in the summer when a playoff appearance was no longer on the table. And Yost would have finished out the season.

It's refreshing to see clubs take a proactive stance with their managers when it becomes clear that they are not the men for the jobs. The Mets and Brewers may have raised eyebrows with the timing of their managerial firings, but in each case it gave the team a better chance to make the playoffs, which is the bottom line.

And at no point this season could San Diego or Washington make the same claim for firing Black or Acta. The off-season is the time to properly evaluate their futures and if they are the right men for their respective teams. Randolph and Yost proved they were the wrong men for the job and that's why their firings were good for the respective franchises when they happened, regardless of how strange the circumstances might have been.