A STERLING SKIPPER

               As a writer and fan I’ve done my share of criticizing in sports, but I usually draw the line when it comes to second-guessing managers and coaches. Yeah, they get things wrong, but they usually have good reasons for the things they do and, like every decision-maker, lack the advantage of hindsight that their critics possess.

               It’s my general observation that the differences among coaches is not in their technical knowledge of their sport, which exists in abundance in their class, but in the way they deal with their players, which is to say their psychological aptitudes. This skill (or lack of it) mostly is exercised in private, outside of public view, so it’s tough for an outsider to assess. Further, it doesn’t always show up in the won-lost column, which is the way coaches are ultimately judged. As Casey Stengel once said (or is said to have said) after a loss, “I managed good but they played bad.” I’m sure many another manager has been tempted to say the same thing.

               It is thus with some humility that I declare my choice for the best manager in baseball today. He’s Bob Melvin of the Oakland A’s, who has made a career of turning lemons into lemonade (never ignore a good cliché). His team right now is headed for another post-season with a cast of youngsters and retreads that ranks low on the economic scale by which athletic excellence usually is measured-- their paychecks. In the just-ended regular season the A’s were fifth in the Majors in victories (with 97) while ranking 25^th in payroll (at $95.3 million) among the 30 teams. 

               Melvin’s selection shouldn’t surprise because he’s won three “manager of the year” awards in his 15 years at the helm of three teams (the Seattle Mariners, Arizona Diamondbacks and the A’s), all for doing well with unprepossessing rosters. Those seem to be the former catcher’s lot in life. Indeed, his accomplishments with this season’s A’s don’t quite measure up to what he did in Oakland last year, when he took a team that had gone 75-87 the previous season and added 22 games to its win total despite an opening-day payroll ($68.5 million) that ranked dead last in the Bigs. He won a M of the Y prize for that one. The A’s had to ante up a bit this time around, but they’re still paying lower-crust wages for upper-crust results.

               And by me nothing he’s done with the A’s is as amazin’ as what he did with the 2007 Diamondbacks in my new hometown of Phoenix. That gang was outscored by 20 runs over its 162-game regular schedule, 712-732. The Figure Filberts say that statistical difference is supposed to yield a 79-win season, but those D’backs went 90-72, won the National League West title, and went all the way to baseball’s Final Four before bowing. With an offense led by such easily forgotten players as Orlando Hudson and Eric Byrne, they did it by winning a passel of the one-run games that most test a manager’s tactical guile.

               Melvin has been described as a “players’ manager,” whatever that means, and isn’t loath to juggle his lineups to suit conditions. Mostly, though, he’s adapted his approach to fit the more-collegial style of managing that’s been the recent vogue. He admitted as much in a recent interview. “Front offices are more a part of it now. You have to understand that,” he said. He was referring to the increased influence of “analytics” in baseball strategizing, which is to say that just about every team now employs computer people who parse every pitch and produce printouts managers are expected to utilize.

               The A’s former general manager, Billy Beane, pioneered that development, which was chronicled in the best-selling book “Moneyball.” When the book was made into a movie Brad Pitt played Beane, fulfilling the waking dream of just about every American man. Beane now is 57 years old and has the more-dignified title of executive vice president, baseball, for the club. The A’s current GM is 43-year-old David Forst, a Harvard grad who fits the brainy model now in vogue for front-office inhabitants.

               Managerial smarts are a particular requirement for the A’s, who must make do with less long-term. They’re the No. 2 team in their Bay Area market and play in an antiquated stadium best suited to football. Even when they win they don’t draw well, meaning they don’t have the money to compete at the upper levels of the game’s free-agent market. Thus, to succeed they must be clever with personnel.

               And indeed, good drafting has contributed mightily to the A’s standing; their regular first baseman, Matt Olson, was the team’s first-round draft choice in 2012 and their third baseman, Matt Chapman, was its No. 1 pick in 2014. The two young men (Olson is 25 years old, Chapman is 26) are rated as the game’s best power-hitting corner combo, totaling 72 home runs and 182 runs batted in this season.

 The A’s success with using other teams’ discards is seen in their starting pitching rotation. It’s anchored by Mike Fiers, Chris Bassitt, Brett Anderson and Homer Bailey, all of whom had been deemed expendable elsewhere. It’s seen best in the guy who’s probably their best player, shortstop Marcus Semien. Part of a little-noticed 2014 deal with the Chicago White Sox, he’s progressed to All-Star stature both at the plate and in the field. His late-season rating in the arcane WAR (wins over replacement) category was third best in the American League, behind only Mike Trout and Alex Bregman.   

Chances are that the A’s will bow out of the post season somewhere before the end. One Las Vegas website I visited had them a 22-to-1 shot to go all the way, with the Houston Astros, LA Dodgers and NY Yankees all between 2 1/2-to-1 and 4-to-1. Smarts are good but talent is one of the things money can buy. Life is unfair.