First thing’s first: Ron Washington deserves to be the next manager of the Oakland A’s. Oakland’s loyal, underrated third base/infielder’s coach has turned Eric Chavez into a perennial gold glover at third base, fixed Miguel Tejada’s inability to make the routine play, and has made Mark Ellis the American League’s best defensive second baseman. Heck, the man turned Scott Hatteberg into an above average first baseman. The players love him. The fans love him. Even the media is pulling for him. Washington has said it would be a dream come true to manage in the big leagues. And, this is why I hope he DOES NOT get the Oakland job. Don’t get me wrong; Washington absolutely deserves to be a major league manager. He has paid his dues and his stock has never been higher. But, Washington also deserves to be in control of his players, coaches and clubhouse. As long as Billy Beane is running things in Oakland, he, or anyone else, will never have that opportunity. Billy Beane parted ways with Ken Macha for the second time in two years. This time, he won’t be back. Days after the A’s were swept by Detroit in the ALCS, Beane cited “communication” problems with Macha and fired him. Usually when a manager takes a $60 million dollar payroll to the ALCS, communication problems work themselves out. Not in Oakland. Macha, growing tired Beane’s my way or the highway approach, began voicing his frustrations in the media, and Beane noticed. While many things in life are questioned, the fact that Billy Beane is the commander in chief in Oakland is not one of them. To question this is the equivalent of begging to be fired. Macha did. His services are now available. We all know Beane does not think too highly of the managerial occupation. If it were up to him, he’d probably abolish any rule that says a team has to have a manager. They are there to not screw up the cast of players Beane has assembled. They are, in a sense, Beane’s puppets. Sounds like a real dream job, huh? Ron Washington has worked his way up the ladder of the coaching ranks. Many feel he should already be a manager. And while I hope he finally does get the chance to manage his own team, I hope for his sake it is nowhere near Billy Beane. Now that would be a dream come true. Just ask Ken Macha. www.oldskoolsports.com
oldskool ..... For all the intimate knowledge of the game that Beane has. A lot of it seems to have deserted him over the past year or so !
He's interviewed Hershiser and is supposedly casting a net wide afield in order to get the best candidate possible. But if really looked back on the A's season a lo of their problems stemmed from their undue timing in forgetting how to hit and play some small ball when necessary. His blaming Macha was just a crock and if he's stating the obvious that there was a lack of communication between the manager and his players. Then he's a bigger fool than I thought him for, as the reponsibility
for the team's poor play isn't just Macha's alone.
Everyone was at fault, from management on downwards to the players onfield.
Billy Beane has done a nice job with Oakland, but he should not get any more praise than that. You put Oakland in the East division and they go to the playoffs maybe twice, but probably only once since 2000.
I was thinking about doing a post on Beane as well, because the situation in Oakland is a very interesting one.
On the one hand, you have a team with a payroll regularly in the bottom third of MLB that has made up for the losses of Giambi, Tejada, Mulder, Hudson, and Ramon Hernandez by constantly reshaping the team. And they just keep winning. Beane has been a huge part of all that.
And the Macha firing didn't surprise too many people in the Bay Area, because the players had been griping about him for a while now. The common mantra by the players was that Macha "didn't have their backs" and wouldn't stick up for them either with umpires or with the media.
When he was eventually fired, several players publicly expressed relief that he was gone.
But the other side of the coin during Beane's tenure has been, as you pointed out, his disdain for managers and his insistence that it is Beane's was or the highway. Clearly, Beane doesn't want a strong personality to manage his team, and I think it likely that he won't hire Ron Washington for just that reason.
He'd have to compete with Wash for the players' loyalties, and he doesn't want that. So, the modus operandi has been to hire these bland, compliant types like Macha and Art Howe.
Don't be surprised if Bob Geren gets named manager in the next week or so.
Beane is not a manager's dream to work with, but are they worse off with a dominant manager and no Beane to acquire talent or the other way around? I do agree, though, he could work on that if he wanted, which it appears he doesn't.
After reading Moneyball, I also agree that Beane probably doesn't think the manager wins or loses many games each year. Funny thing it, he may be right.
First thing’s first: Ron Washington deserves to be the next manager of the Oakland A’s. Oakland’s loyal, underrated third base/infielder’s coach has turned Eric Chavez into a perennial gold glover at third base, fixed Miguel Tejada’s inability to make the routine play, and has made Mark Ellis the American League’s best defensive second baseman. Heck, the man turned Scott Hatteberg into an above average first baseman. The players love him. The fans love him. Even the media is pulling for him. Washington has said it would be a dream come true to manage in the big leagues. And, this is why I hope he DOES NOT get the Oakland job. 
