Bochy one of the good skippers Nick Canepa is trying to tell us how good we have it with Bochy as a manager, but he doesn't make a very strong argument.
Wow that's a glowing review. I'm a big fan of Bochy and I think he's a good guy. I've had some run into him a time or two in my shady past and I've found him to be a sincere, straight forward guy.
We hear that he is admired by every player that works for him. Bochy has the rare skill of being able to work with ego-maniacs. When troublesome players come to San Diego, they almost instantly flourish under Bochy's command. Rickey Henderson was a problem with the Mets, but each time he was in SD he was a great team player. David Wells seems like he's a problem with every club at one point or another until he came to SD. San Diego has not really had a problem with a player with Bochy in the dug out. That's a pretty amazing thing considering the primadonnas that inhabit the MLB. Sure there were problem players, but Bochy was able to get rid of them pretty quickly or change their attitude. Phil Nevin was the only player that really tarnished Bochy's record. It seems like Bochy did everything he could to try and keep him under control but Nevin could not be domesticated.
I wish I had a better idea of how he dealt with problems inside the clubhouse. The constant criticism of him is that he isn't tough enough. I'm hoping that he is tough behind closed doors. Every once in awhile you'll hear players talk about Bochy going on a tirade. Last year in April Bochy supposedly went ape sh!t on the team in SF and the team turned themselves around. They credited Bochy for this turn around. I couldn't help but wonder why Bochy didn't tear into them again and again in June, July, August, September or October. He seemed like he just kept defending them to the press. They played many months of uninspired, losing baseball. He didn't seem fired up enough to turn the team around. If it wasn't for our fantastic May, we'd have a horrible losing record for the 2005 season.
My criticism of Bochy between the lines is that he doesn't seem to adapt well to situations. He gets an idea in his head during spring training and it's hard to get him to change a horse in midstream. Like last year, his whole managerial philosphy was that they were going to move baserunners from station to station and steal bases. Well that didn't turn out to well, when he found out that Dave Roberts was the only person who could steal a base and the rest of the team couldn't hit. At that point I would hope he'd try something else, perhaps send base runners home in a risky situation instead of leaving them stranded. He also seems to be too loyal to some players. Look how much time we wasted on Klesko, Nevin, Ruben Rivera, among many others.
I still think that if you give Bochy some decent talent he can make the most of it. All in all I like Bochy and he's more than fine, OK and all right in my book.