Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Joe Torre: Best manager of this era?


Is Joe Torre the best manager of this era?

From this corner, the answer appears to be “yes.”

If/when Torre leads the Los Angeles Dodgers into the playoffs this season; it will be the 14th consecutive time his team has reached the postseason.

That would tie Bobby Cox of the Atlanta Braves for the all-time record of 14 straight times in the playoffs.

What’s more, Torre’s 80 postseason victories are more than any other manager in MLB history.

Oh, sure, you could point out that 12 of the postseason appearances were with the high-payroll of the New York Yankees … and the 13th was with the Dodgers and late-season addition Manny Ramirez.

Speaking of the Yankees, did you notice what happened without Torre in 2008? For the first time since 1995, the year before Torre became their manager, they did not make the playoffs.

Certainly, Torre has taken advantage of leading some extremely talented teams.

But having the highest payroll/most talent doesn’t always equal the postseason.

Just ask Joe Girardi and the 2008 New York Yankees.

1 comment:

sam said...

Torre's lucky to have been able to manage talented teams. I wonder how he would do with the Pirates or Royals ... not that he would take those jobs!