Originally Posted by Jayhawk Bill
Cheez, I dunno.
In 2005, the Marlins went 83-79 under Jack McKeon, a good manager. After that year, they traded away or let go two extraordinarily good pitchers (AJ Burnett and Josh Beckett), their closer (Todd Jones, 2.10 ERA, 40 saves), their set-up man (Guillermo Mota), their All Star catcher (Paul Lo Duca), their MVP candidate (Carlos Delgado, 6th that year), their MVP candidates the two previous years (Juan Pierre and Mike Lowell), their All Star second baseman (Luis Castillo) and, FWIW, two of their three other starting position players (Juan Encarnacion and Alex Gonzalez). They invested nothing in free agents to fill the vacuum: Brian Moehler was the second-highest-paid player on the 2006 roster at $1.5 million.
Let's Check WARP1:
Beckett: 6.7
Burnett 6.0
Castillo 5.2
Delgado 7.4
Encarnacion 3.5
Gonzalez 1.6
Jones 7.1
Lowell 2.4
Mota 1.3
Pierre 2.8
Total 45.0 wins
Despite losing the 45-odd wins represented by the players I listed above, Joe Girardi came in and, in his rookie year as a manager, he brought the Marlins to a 78-84 record, second only to the 97-win Mets in the NL East as late as September 12th, only five games back of the 2005 team which had fifteen million-dollar-salary players despite having only two million-dollar players left.
I remain impressed with Girardi's 2006 results, and I see nothing in his 2008 record thus far to convince me that he's not an excellent manager. Of course, YMMV.
Edit: Left off Lo Duca...heck, you get the point.
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