Job Insecurity

In his Daily Scoop column today at SI.com, Jon Heyman doesn't travel very far out on a limb when he pronounces Mets manager Jerry Manuel as "on the hot seat." I'm going to preface what I say next by noting that I am not a "quick trigger" guy when it comes to managers and coaches. Too many get fired simply for the sake of making a change, and usually any improvement in the team's performance that comes as a result of these firings inevitably proves to be short-lived. Count me among those that believe that managers don't make a huge difference in baseball. The vast majority of the games are won by players on the field, with in-game strategy counting for a tiny percentage of all decisions. I'll take a very good team with a mediocre manager any time over a mediocre team with a top manager. That being said, managers tend to outlive their usefulness at a rate inversely proportional to whatever skills they bring to the table. That's why Da...