Thursday, June 9, 2011

On Ned Yost


Photo by Minda Haas

Here's my stance on Royals manager Ned Yost: I think he is absolutely the right guy for the job in Kansas City right now. Tactically, some things he does drive me up a wall, but his patience with young players makes him ideal right now. However, here's the thing that has surprised me as I have observed and listened to him over the past year: I really want him to be the guy who molds the Royals young talent into a division winner. Beyond that, I want him to be the manager of those division winning clubs.

There's just something about Ned that makes me root for him to succeed, which has made the last few weeks with the Royals all the more disappointing. Still, his decision to make Alex Gordon the team's leadoff hitter has created a fun ripple effect around baseball, as Tampa Bay and Colorado have followed suit by leading off Evan Longoria and Carlos Gonzalez in recent weeks. Look, Yost certainly has his downsides too. He seems to pitch Tim Collins as much as humanly possible. Last year, he let Jason Kendall drain the offense by always batting him second. His patience with Luke Hochevar is beginning to wear very, very thin.

Yost is one of those old-school baseball guys in some ways. He has a little too much affinity for the sacrifice bunt, seems to leave his starting pitchers in one or two hitters too long, and sometimes ignores left-right splits. (This is another case with Collins, who Yost will allow to face left-handed batters despite lefties getting on base nearly 40 percent of the time against him this year.)

But in a way, you can find successes in those failures. (That is, aside from the Kendall thing which seems to have no defensible explanation whatsoever.) Minor leaguers, when they've been called up, have been put into game action immediately. No time to sit around. Rightly or wrongly, Hochevar has taken some buttkickings because his manager left him in games to work through his self-created jams. Collins continues to get chances despite bad control problems. The common theme is that Ned Yost believes in his ballplayers, expects success right away and will give them every opportunity to succeed, even at the expense of looking like your run-of-the-mill manager who doesn't pay attention to detail.

But I see something a little different in the way Yost goes about his business compared to other managers, especially previous Royals managers. Tony Muser was irresponsible, ruined Jose Rosado, and tried to do the same with Chad Durbin. Tony Pena sent out Zack Greinke to warm up in the 8th inning of his home debut, only to pull him before the first hitter just so Zack could get cheers from the crowd. Buddy Bell said things could always get worse. Trey Hillman rode a unicycle.

In short, each previous Royals manager seemed to always be one step away from total instability for a variety of reasons, and none really ever seemed to be in control. I sense something different from Yost, who I think is a little more aware than we give him credit for.

A Ned Yost story: I remember watching his postgame press conference after a 7-3 loss at home to Cleveland earlier this season. Kyle Davies pitched and had a good outing for Kyle Davies. Somehow he managed to walk nobody in six innings and allowed only 2 runs. However, he still had to come out after six because he gave up seven hits and had thrown 90 high-stress pitches.

Anyway, after the game, a reporter asked Ned what made Davies so good that night. Ned said a few things about having good stuff and whatnot, but then came the interesting part: "But you know, he got his pitch count up," Yost said, emphasizing "pitch count" with an agitated tone. He went on to say Davies had a good outing, but left some sliders up and got BURNED, again emphasizing burned.

I don't know that those statements make him any different from most other managers. Maybe Charlie Manuel or Manny Acta or Joe Girardi would say the same things. But it was an example of why I think Yost is the right guy for this job right now, and could be the right guy in the future. Yeah, I guess Davies had a good outing, but dammit, he got his pitch count up again! And did you guys see those two hanging sliders?

More recently, there's the case of Alcides Escobar. Escobar's a spectacular defensive shortstop whose batting average is nearing the Mendoza Line and whose OPS is nearing the Traditional Royals Shortstop Line. Despite his offensive struggles, Yost has refused the temptation to pinch-hit for him late in games, presumably for fear of having to replace him at short with Mike Aviles.

By now, you have probably read and/or listened to Yost's comments about not pinch-hitting for Alcides Escobar in the ninth inning of last night's 9-8 loss to the Blue Jays, comments that will probably have KC sports radio buzzing for the rest of the week. The big remark was this one:

I want him having as many at-bats as he can get, because there's gonna come a time when we're in line to win a championship and I want him to be able to handle himself in those situations.

We can argue all day about that comment alone, but one thing is for sure: Yost believes in Escobar's talent and is trying to develop him at the major league level. Is it really doing Escobar any good to come up time and time again in pressure situations and fail almost every time? Isn't that ruining his confidence? Would he learn more by Yost kicking him in the seat of the pants, so to speak, and telling him he won't hit in those situations until his overall offensive game improves?

All are debatable points. Those who can't believe Yost is sacrificing chances to win games now for the mythical shot at a "championship" in the future have a great point, one that I agree with. Nothing helps a young player's confidence much more than contributing something -- anything -- to winning ballgames. Which brings up another point: If Escobar's going to hit, why not utilize his speed and go for the bunt single in those situations every once in awhile?

But at the same time, I understand what Yost is doing and why he's doing it. He believes in Escobar, knows what the Royals have invested in him, and is hell-bent on putting him back out there time and time again, even after constant failure to produce. He seems to think that's the best way to approach the situation, and I find it hard to blame him. His intentions are good and he's doing what he thinks is best for the organization in the long-run.

I have no idea whether this approach will work. Maybe Escobar will never figure it out. Maybe Kyle Davies will never learn how to throw strikes. Either way, being a manager of a baseball team is about more than just X's and O's. It's about managing people and getting the very most out of them as possible. Ned Yost expects his players to excel and seems like the kind of guy who will never be satisfied by the way his players perform. He will always push for more. That's the kind of person I want managing the Royals.

I hope that in time, the Royals win a World Series. I also hope Yost is at the helm saying, "Yeah, but we had to play seven games to do it."

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