2 senior managers will finish the season over .500 (career) for the 1st time in years

[philliesfiend55]

Jim Leyland (Detroit Tigers) and Bruce Bochy ( San Francisco Giants) have guaranteed that they will finish this season with their career records over .500 for the first time in many years.
Both are currently at .502 lifetime. With 5 games remaining for each team the best either manager can finish at is .503 and the worst either can finish at is .501.
Leyland's record is 1672-1658, .502 for 21 years of managing in MLB, while Bochy is at 1452-1441, .502 in 18 seasons of MLB managing.

[Rich the Giants fan]

Bruce Bochy is a master at handling the bullpen and is in my opinion, the best manager in the game today.

[DClutch]

And Jim Leyland is the absolute worst. A manager in 2012 that doesn't believe in statistics. The only stats he uses are history vs a certain pitcher, where he makes his lineup decisions on sample sizes of 2 at bats. This year he played Boesch, a .240 hitter, because he was 5-10 off a pitcher. Andy Dirks was 0-2. And hitting .330. But Boesch played. And he said those 2 at bats were the reason.

He starts Don Kelly, Danny Worth, and Ryan Raburn in a pennant race. He is quoted as saying that Don Kelly started a big game this month because he is a nice guy and deserved it based on how well he has played in Detroit last year (he hit .220.) He hits Boesch and Delmon 5th and 6th all year (sub .300 OBP's). He has kept a .320 hitter in Andy Dirks in a platoon role all year, although he can hit lefties. He even doesn't play agaisnt RHP sometimes. Leyland brags about using all 25 guys like it's a threat. He played Quintin Berry as little as possible while he was rolling.

He always plays Laird vs LHP. Except Laird has a .599 OPS vs LHP, and a .830 OPS vs RHP. Leyland doesn't know this. He thinks that simply because Laird is right handed, he can hit LHP.

He's just dumb. He has stated that he took the bat out of the hands of the best hitter alive twice with IBB to set up Prince Fielder vs a left hander, who hadn't allowed a hit to a LHH all season.

He manages the slugging Tigers 130 million dollar lineup the same way he would with a team in the '50's. He bunts whenever there is a runner on 1st with no outs. He constantly runs the Tigers out of innings by intentionally bunting, giving away an out, so teams Can IBB walk Cabrera or Fielder, and pitch to Delmon Young who is the worst 5th hitter in baseball. In a game this summer, 4 of the Tigers first 15 outs were given to their opponents by sacrifice bunts.

He hits bench players in the same lineup spot as their replacement. When Austin Jackson went on the DL this year, we saw Don Kelly hit leadoff for 2 weeks. He has a career .280 On Base Percentage. He's only in the MLB because Leyland loves him. He has cleared waivers and was sent to Toledo this season, and still finds himself in the Tigers lineup in September. He is used as a pinch runner to steal bases even though he has well below average speed while people with great speed are on the bench. Leyland just flat out plays favorites. And his favorites's are the .230 white players because they remind him of his playing days.

I hate Jim Leyland. People don't realize how poor of a manager he is. He's stubborn. When somebody questions his lineup, he spits food in their faces (every postgame interview) and screams at them. And then a couple days later, he says the media/fans should suggest their own lineups. But anytime people question the lineup, he goes off ranting. Did I mention he's stubborn?

Look at the talent he's managed in his career and yet he's barely over .500. Look at the talent he's had in Detroit in '07, '08, '10, that all fell well short of their expectations. Look at this years team. Awful lineup decisions by ol' stubborn Jim Leyland has this team barely edging past an awful Chicago team into the playoffs.

Sorry for the rant! Just spreading to blow off steam from the man that is single handedly killing world series hopes in Detroit

[J W]

Bob Melvin has also crept over .500 in his 9th managerial season; he is now 630-628. :cap:

Dusty Baker and Buck Showalter started the season over .500 but both helped their winning percentage.

[philliesfiend55]

Bob Melvin has also crept over .500 in his 9th managerial season; he is now 630-628. :cap:

Thanks for that Info See Next Post (#6).

[philliesfiend55]

Make That 3 Managers (All division Winners) Push Their Career Records to over .500.

Lifetime records For 3 Division winning Managers Top .500 (Career) after 2012 regular season finales for the first time in years.

Through end of 2012 season:

Jim Leyland 1676-1659 .503 win. pctg.
Bruce Bochy 1454-1444 .502 win pctg.
Bob Melvin 634-628 .502 win. pctg.

Bochy and Melvin started the year under .500, while Leyland at 1588-1585 was at .5004, which fails to acheive a .501 and gets rounded down to .500. One Hall Of Fame Manager, Wilbert Robinson is in that category. His final record is 1399-1398 and since that's less than .5005 it goes in the books as .500. If he had won one more of his games to make that record 1400-1397 he'd have finished at .501.

Another recent manager who spent most of his career under .500, but pushed his record over .500 due to managing some good teams late in his career is Felipe Alou. Alou retired after the 2006 season with a record of 1033-1021, .503 win. pctg. after being below the .500 mark most of his career.,