Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Ron Roenicke, in my opinion, is the worst manager in Brewers history, period. He was awful this year and there's a reason why he got fired. He was okay last year and he only led the Brewers to the playoffs once, 2011. Ken Macha was pretty bad; resigned after two bad seasons with the Brewers. The hiring of ex-Brewer player Craig Counsell certainly didn't make it any better; it only got worse! As for other managers outside of Milwaukee, I also vote for Bobby Valentine with Boston, Terry Francona for Cleveland, AJ Hynch, Joe Torre for the Mets, and Manny Acta.
Jimy Williams for the Blue Jays. He replaced Bobby Cox after the 1985 season and had one of the most talented teams in the Major Leagues. The team either underachieved or choked (1987) in his tenure, although they had enough talent to be above .500 in those seasons.
Have you ever watched Don Mattingly manage? It's like having chlorine poured on your eyeballs for 3 hours. Only that idiot wouldn't have noticed his 3rd baseman was 80 feet out of position in game 5 vs Mets which led to them losing.
Have you ever watched Don Mattingly manage? It's like having chlorine poured on your eyeballs for 3 hours. Only that idiot wouldn't have noticed his 3rd baseman was 80 feet out of position in game 5 vs Mets which led to them losing.
A discussion of baseball's worst managers would not be complete without Maury Wills.
Wills had managed in the Mexican League after he retired as a player in 1972 and lobbied hard for a job as a ML manager. He even wrote a book titled " How To Steal A Pennant" in which he claimed that he could take any team and make them champions within four years.
Wills was finally given the chance in 1980, hired by the Seattle Mariners late in the season. Wills guided them to a 20-38 finish.
His tenure there was a disaster. His in game decisions were often inexplicable, he was a terrible communicator and quickly alienated most of the players on the roster. He would do things like announce that So & So was going to be his permanent shortstop, and 24 hours later announce that the same guy was being benched in favor of another. Wills once called for a relief pitcher he had forgotten to tell to warm up. Wills once left a spring training game in the sixth inning to fly to California on personal business.
Wills' biggest foul-up came on April 25th, 1981. The Mariners were at home against the A's who had a staff of curve ball pitchers. Wills reasoned that if his batters could get closer to the mound, they would be in a position to hit the breaking balls before they had a chance to break. Under this dubious theory, he ordered the Kingdome grounds crew to repaint the batter's box, extending it by a foot toward the mound.
Unfortunately for Wills, this was when the A's were being managed by Billy Martin who noticed everything. He immediately saw that something was out of whack with the batter's box. He demanded the umpires investigate and under their interrogation, the head of the grounds crew admitted what had been done and who ordered it.
Wills was fined and suspended by the AL for the action. He lasted only a week after he returned. With the Mariners at 6-18, he was fired. His career winning percentage as a manager was .317, among the lowest of any non-interim manager in ML history.
Wills was never hired to manage again, not even in the Mexican League.
Under this dubious theory, he ordered the Kingdome grounds crew to repaint the batter's box, extending it by a foot toward the mound.
Unfortunately for Wills, this was when the A's were being managed by Billy Martin who noticed everything. He immediately saw that something was out of whack with the batter's box. He demanded the umpires investigate...
Two years before Martin instigated the "Pine Tar Incident". I still think MacPhail was wrong to over-rule the umpires in that one.
As for other managers I would also say Net Yost with Milwaukee (only one good year which was 2008 when they made the playoffs). I'm sure there's other worst MLB managers.
I also found out Don Mattingly, Mariners skipper Lloyd McClendon, and Nationals skipper Matt Williams were all fired.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
