I agree with the lack of talent. I hope you are right about his coaching ability. The jury is still out on that. Early on, he as over analyzed his pitching staff swapping for situational pitching. That can back fire as well as leaving a pitcher in too long. As usual, no one will care as long as he wins. I've been impressed in some areas and have concerns with the mental errors I've seen (misssing the cut off man, base running errors, etc.) Hopefully all of this gets ironed out.
For naysayers only: you all realize he has won more career ballgames than Skip, right? Granted, he doesn't have 5 pieces of jewelry Skip has, but he was coaching at a fairly "unwinnable" place.
That's great. You would think Smoke would have been able to follow the Skipper model to a tee having coached with him. But the styles were totally different. The key for Mainieri is how the players respond to his style. He's goten off to good start so the players will want to buy in. That will build confidence in him and his team.
hes got a solid rep for doing it here. he did it upon arrival and hasnt slowed down a bit. clair is correct, hes brutally honest and emotional. dude wants to win every game which is why bradford pitched the final innings against tulane. win at all costs within reason is likely his mantra. compare that to skips days when he'd march you or me out there against tulanes ace because he already knew what his ace could do. difference is skip didnt have too many 5 game losing streaks or anything to prove. different day different era now. he's top notch, hands-on, diehard coach and a winner. he has a specific system he implements that everyone must abide. wont be any quitting under CPM or you'll be off the team. he saw a lot of that last year and is a large reason for so many defectors, so to speak. dude is hyper-competitive and his teams will reflect that. correct he sounds easy going and smooth as silk in person but dont let that image fool ya. hes an assassin when the lights are on.
PM did not commit the base running error. so why not put the blame where it belongs. These Tigers are 18 through 21 yrs old. (They can handle it) Thats what is wrong with the world today....everybody cant accept blame and are scared to get get their feelings hurt or to hurt someone elses feelings. Grow the hell up! Are you okay with this post. Are you alright big guy? :rofl::rofl:
oh they are similar yet take different paths. different era requires such so maybe bertman would take CPM's path today. oh i could tell some stories of bertman that most would not believe. not really stories more than incidents. you could hear lots of things in his early years when there were only 10 people in the stands on a nice spring day when his pitcher was getting lit up. the way he degraded his players in person came as a shock when you first saw it. certain expletives you never thought you'd hear from your grandfather look-alike.
I remember 1986 like it was yesterday. Bertman going to the mound to chew on a future major leaguer for not throwing a curve ball in the dirt when Skip called for it. The fact most fans don't know is that most of his players didn't like playing for him but loved winning. So that made it easier to take all the ass chewing.
Ben MacDonald got on the radio the other day and said he really didn't know how to pitch to hitters since Skip called every pitch, and that he didn't really fare too well in the majors until Cal Ripken started calling his pitches for him. :rofl:
I'd reckon that it must be that way with every pitcher since none of them call their own pitches on the way. It's not until they get established in the ML's that a manager would even let a pitcher shake off a call.
