July 29, 2010

You Can Blog It Up

The Happy, Happy Chuck Tanner All-Stars

by Steven Goldman

Chuck Tanner was the feel-good manager of the 1970s. Before taking over the Pirates, he was best known as the happy manager who could keep Dick Allen focused enough to play (most of the time). He was also cited for unorthodox strategy, bunting or stealing at unusual times and using odd defensive alignments. He won one World Series with the 1979 “We Are Family” Pirates. In 18 other seasons of managing he failed to make the postseason, though he did have five second-place finishes. He was unable to mount a sustained rebuilding of the White Sox. Fired by Bill Veeck, he was signed to a three-year deal to manage an Oakland A’s team that had been devastated by trades and free agency. He lasted a year, at which point Charley Finley dealt him to the Pirates for catcher Manny Sanguillen. This put him in charge of a Pirates team that was coming off of a 92-70 second-place finish and had won the division in six of the seven years before that. He took the team he inherited to one last championship, then watched it fall apart under him at least in part from the rampant drug culture that overtook the clubhouse. “Some guys make so many rules that before they know it they’ve got a dozen problems,” Tanner said, explaining his no-rules philosophy. “I always remember the players are human beings first.”

Unfortunately, human beings need leadership or they slip. Tanner’s last Pirates team went 57-104 and he was let go as the club shifted from private to quasi-public ownership and, not coincidentally, Tanner had to give testimony in the trial of the club's favorite pusher. Ted Turner made him the highest-paid manager in baseball, giving him $500,000 a year to manage the Braves under general manager Bobby Cox. He was dismissed 39 games into the 1988 and did not manage again. He finished with a record of 1352-1381 (.495). The word most used in association with Tanner was “optimist,” but given the losing record, the Pollyanna act doesn’t seem to have been justified.

As always, the format here was inspired by Bill James’ Guide to Baseball Managers, which contains several managerial “best-of” teams picked from throughout history.  

		YR	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	SO	SB	CS	AVG	OBP	SLG	TAv
C	Tony Pena	1984	546	77	156	27	2	15	78	36	79	12	8	.286	.333	.425	.274
1B	Dick Allen	1972	506	90	156	28	5	37	113	99	126	19	8	.308	.420	.603	.363
2B	Phil Garner	1979	549	76	161	32	8	11	59	55	74	17	8	.293	.359	.441	.278
3B	Bill Madlock	1982	568	92	181	33	3	19	95	48	39	18	6	.319	.368	.488	.304
SS	Bert Campaneris	1976	536	67	137	14	1	1	52	63	80	54	12	.256	.331	.291	.263
LF	Mike Easler	1980	393	66	133	27	3	21	74	43	65	5	9	.338	.396	.583	.329
CF	Ken Henderson	1974	602	76	176	35	5	20	95	66	112	12	7	.292	.360	.467	.292
RF	Dave Parker	1978	581	102	194	32	12	30	117	57	92	20	7	.334	.394	.585	.332

 

		YR	W-L	SV	IP	H	BB	SO	ERA	SNLVAR/WXRL
SP	Wilbur Wood	1971	22-13	1	334.0	272	62	210	1.91	9.2
SP	Vida Blue	1976	18-13	0	298.1	268	63	166	2.35	8.4
SP	John Candelaria	1977	20-5	0	230.2	197	50	133	2.34	8.4
SP	Rick Rhoden	1984	14-9	0	238.1	216	62	136	2.72	6.9
SP	Jim Kaat	1974	21-13	0	277.1	263	63	142	2.92	6.3
RP	Goose Gossage	1977	11-9	26	133.0	78	49	151	1.62	8.2

Notes, anyone?

• This was the hardest list to compile. Tanner had a lot of subpar players, and even his good ones had several seasons of roughly equal value.

• Offensively, there is no difference between Tony Pena’s 1984 (above) and his 1983 (.301/.338/.435; .273 EqA). WARP says he was the better player in the former year, 5.5 to 4.9, so that’s what I went with here.

• I called an audible on keeping second baseman Jorge Orta off the team. He was a complete surprise to me at second base. He was a poor defensive infielder and spent half his career playing right field and designated hitter; that’s how I’m used to thinking of him. As with Pena, I had two nigh-identical seasons to choose from, 1974 (.316/.365/.400) and 1975 (.304/.363/.450; .286 TAv). The former seemed just slightly better and WARP agreed, seeing it as the better year, 4.5 to 2.4. Rennie Stennett was very good in 1977 (.336/.376/.430), but unfortunately he only played in 116 games as he suffered the leg injury that would finish him as a useful player. Tanner also had some good second base seasons from Mike Andrews and Glenn Hubbard. I feel pretty strongly that Garner is the better answer here, even though Tanner kept him bouncing between second and third in 1979 so that Stennett could try and make a comeback. Tanner did start Garner at second in every game of the postseason, and he greatly rewarded the decision, going 5-for-12 in the NLCS and 12-for-24 in the World Series. I’m willing to give him some extra credit for that, and WARP says he was a better player than Orta even though he trails in VORP, 44.5 to 33.9. Adding: Reader "J" reminds me that Garner wasn't bouncing but was pushed to second by the acquisition of Bill Madlock. That should have been obvious to me, and I think "J" for the correction.

• Third base was another tough call because Madlock was so good in the shortened 1981 season (.341/.412/.495), but I just didn’t see how I could justify an 82-game season over a full one.

• Tanner’s shortstops were an unexciting lot. I had to pick choose among so-so seasons by Tim Foli, Frank Taveras (70-18 stolen bases in 1977), and Bucky Dent before settling on a Campy that was far from his best. In researching Tanner, I came across a discussion he had with Bill Madlock. Madlock (career .305/.365/.442 hitter, .289 TAv in an 1800-game career) was annoyed that he was batting sixth while  Foli (carer .251/.283/.309, .215 TAv in a 1700-game career) batted second. Tanner gave him a lecture stuffed with unquestioned received wisdom, explaining that Omar Moreno had to lead off because of his speed, and Foli had to bat second because he was a good bat-handler, and Madlock couldn't bat fifth because you had to have a power hitter there. Madlock threw up his hands, but credit him for not just throwing up.

• Mike Easler was just a platoon guy bouncing between left and right field, but he was a very good hitter having his best season. If you prefer a more everyday left fielder, Carlos May ’72 (.308/.405/.438; .318 TAv) would get the nod. May is worth revisiting because he had a strange career. A first-round pick who breezed killed the ball in the minors, he hit .289/.379/.424 through age-24 (better numbers then than now), then rapidly stopped being any good at all, averaging .259/.335/.361 through age-29, after which he was out of the majors.

• Dave Parker’s 1977 was actually a bigger WARP season than 1978 even though it was inferior offensively because it was his big defensive year, with 26 assists and nine double plays.

• Dale Murphy’s 1987 (.295/.417/.580 with 44 home runs; .324 TAv) would seem a natural for this list, but Tanner moved him to right field that season. WARP says his season exceeds Parker’s 8.4 to 5.8, but I let Parker’s slightly superior offensive season in a tougher environment carry the day.

• Rick Rhoden was one of the best-hitting pitchers of his day and even started a game at DH for the Yankees in 1988 (one of Billy Martin’s last trips to the moon on gossamer wings). In 1984, the season listed here, he hit .333/.345/.405 with six doubles in 92 plate appearances.

• Gossage’s 1977 ranks as the seventh-best relief season of all time according to WXRL.

Steven Goldman is an author of Baseball Prospectus. 
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