10 MLB teams with new managers for the 2020 season
By Bill Felber
10 MLB teams with new managers for the 2020 season
Major league playing experience
- Question 1: This is a two-part question. Which new manager had the best career WAR as player? Which had the worst career WAR?
- Question 2: Name the three new managers who hit post-season home runs as a player?
- Question 3: Baker, who began his minor league career in 1967, has the longest professional baseball resume among the 10 new managers. Who stands second on the seniority list?
- Question 4: Which of the new managers started the most games at his most commonly used major league position?
Answer 1: Part 1 is easy: With a 37 career WAR, Baker is the runaway leader among the new managers. The answer to part 2 is Matheny, who over his major league career compiled a -0.4 WAR.
Answer 2: With five post-season home runs – two of them on the way to being named MVP of the 1977 NLCS – Baker is the leader. Ross hit three, including a key one in the seventh game of the 2016 World Series. Matheny hit two post-season home runs.
Answer 3: Maddon launched his professional career with Quad Cities in the Angels system in 1976. That was one year before Roenicke made his debut with Clinton in the Midwest League.
Answer 4: The first instinct is probably Baker, or maybe Girardi. Neither is the correct answer. Matheny played 1.285 games at catcher, 38 more than Girardi and 194 more games than Baker started in left field.