JaysRule15 wrote:Any idea why we fired the Vancouver Canadians' manager right after the team won the championship? I know that coaching turnover is high in the minors, but still, seems kinda crazy to fire a manager right after his team wins.
The only reason I can think of is he wasn't following development. In the minors, winning is beyond an afterthought. It makes some sense in Buffalo just because if we field a terrible team, the team is allowed to affiliate with another club after the deal is up forcing us to go back to the PCL (Where breaking balls don't move, everybody hits .300 and a 4.5 ERA is considered elite).
In the low minors most games start with the big league club per-determining pitch counts and usage. They might say "Start player X and pull him at 60 pitches or after 3 innings, whichever comes first" for example. They also usually choose which bullpen arms get the innings and such. Really a manager is mostly a figure head and focusing entirely on development. When we had Syndergaard, Sanchez and Nicolino in Lansing we would have two guys combine 6 innings, so Sanchez would throw 3 innings, get pulled and Syndergaard would throw 3 innings. Piggy backing starters was controversial but it wasn't the managers move, it was the brass. When I started attending minor league games I quickly noticed the feel is very similar to spring training. Moves have no merit and everyone is on a track. If Sanchez is assigned 60 pitches and gives up 59 first pitch home runs, he is still out for pitch #60. Some pitching changes are half way through AB's and such. Even teammates don't really know each other too well, last names are all that are remembered by players due to the roster constantly changing.
In Millers case it looks like he may have strayed from those parameters. Especially when he started pulling guys half way through innings when struggling and such, didn't look like it was managed like those clubs usually are. Left out good arms and quick hooks for the struggling ones would be one reason for firing.
