Ruzious wrote:But in baseball, your manager is only as good as his players. At the major league level, you're not going to teach your players much - except for pitchers - and that's more up to the pitching coaches than managers. It's probably more about getting players confident and how well you get along with the media. Strategies matter, but that's more for people to talk about on sports radio than anything else. Basically, everyone copies what appears to be successful. Maybe the top couple of managers - like Buck Showalter - really make a difference and can get a .500 record out of a talent-starved roster (this year's O's had terrible starting pitching).
Well truth be told, the Padres have always had the lowest payroll in baseball, or one of the lowest. The one year they did go all in, Black got fired. Baker knows how to deal with personalities, he managed Bonds, Jeff Kent,, Sosa, etc. Baker will be fine.