Last week I posted something about Lou Piniella, because watching the Devil Rays' games and his slovenly appearance, I got the idea he was nothing special as as manager. Apparently I'm wrong.
The other guy I most frequently see on t.v. (because I'm in Florida) is Jack McKeon. McKeon's head is apparently on the block. I must admit I don't see much brilliance there either. Some of that is his media personality. He speaks in short clipped sentences and certainly does not appear to enjoy being interviewed. He never sounds insightful.
So I did the same analysis on McKeon as I did on Piniella, using the Bill James measures.
Under Method 1, McKeon gets 13 points, which I mentioned in the Lou Piniella post. That's not too bad, but nothing special over a 14-year managerial career. He does poorly on Method 2, earning only 7 points over 14 years. That's 60 expected wins behind Piniella.
McKeon is an odd study. Those numbers don't look too good. He got his first managerial job in '73, with Kansas City. Since then, he's had two stretches in his career where he went 6 years or more without managing a club. And he's never managed a club for more than 4 years.
Unless the Marlins start winning fast, he's not gonna make 4 years at Florida either.
But he's won Manager of the Year twice (1999 and 2003).
Sounds to me like McKeon is an average manager who occasionally hits it big when the team he happens to manage gets hot.
