The main reason we’ve been running the Managerial Tendencies series at Alarm this year is because there’s simply not much discussion of the issue on the vast interwebs. It’s a unique angle we like to bring to you, the reader.

But it is admittedly getting tougher the deeper we go into the season to find new ways of discussing the impact managers have on the fantasy game. As a result, yours truly was scouring the aforementioned interwebs to find any sort of meaningful discussion of managers in an attempt to jar loose an idea for this week’s article.

Thankfully, my old boss at Rotographs, Eno Sarris, wrote a thoughtful post last October about how he planned to use his first vote as a member of the BBWAA, which was for AL Manager of the Year. In that post, Eno got right at the heart of what we’re trying to do with the Managerial Tendencies series and listed out tangible ways in which managers have an impact on the game. Here’s his list:

  • When he uses his best relievers.
  • How rigid his approach to the bullpen is.
  • Where he puts his best hitters in the lineup.
  • How often he bunts with non-pitchers.

While there are a few other managerial decisions we’ve discussed here this season, Eno’s list really drills down on managerial actions that have a clear right and wrong to them. But what was “right” from Eno’s perspective as he tried to vote for the best manager of the year isn’t always the “right” answer for fantasy owners.

This is primarily true when it comes to bullpen management. From the view of a sabermetrician like Eno, managers should be using their best relievers in the highest leverage situations rather than saving them for use in “their” inning. Eno discusses the difference between rigidity and flexibility in bullpen management. Objectively speaking, better managers will be much more flexible with how they deploy relievers, but as fantasy players we’re subjectively looking for rigid managers who stick to well-defined reliever roles.

The teams with the most reliever role rigidity last season that also have the same manager this season are Toronto (John Gibbons), Detroit (Brad Ausmus), San Francisco (Bruce Bochy), New York (Terry Collins), Philadelphia (Pete Mackanin) and Texas (Brian Bannister). Several of these teams have dealt with some closer turnover due to injury or abject ineffectiveness from their closer, but when these managers have something resembling a trustworthy closer, you can count on them to keep the guy in the role.

On the flip side, Anaheim (Mike Scioscia), Minnesota (Paul Molitor) and Oakland (Bob Melvin) were the most flexible with their reliever usage. Cincinnati, Tampa, St. Louis and Cleveland all also ranked highly in the flexibility measure. It’s not as if these teams aren’t going to use a singular closer, but there is a bit more risk their “closers” don’t always pitch the ninth. This is especially true if the team happens to be good. Cleveland shows up on this list, and we all know how they’ve used Andrew Miller and even Cody Allen in non-traditional spots.

Once we get past bullpen management, what Eno is looking for and what fantasy players are looking for become the same. When it comes to filling out a lineup card, we want the manager to do his job well and put hitters in the proper spot in the order. To see which managers fill the lineup card out best, Eno got a little help from Jonah Pemstein and the projection guys at SaberSim. Jonah took daily wOBA projections and compared a player’s ideal lineup spot to their actual lineup spot.

The managers who came closest to filling out ideal lineups last year were Pittsburgh’s Clint Hurdle and, surprisingly, Anaheim’s Scioscia. Those two teams were by far the closest to utilizing ideal lineups. Other teams that ranked highly were Chicago (NL), Baltimore, Miami, San Diego and Toronto. Teams that ranked poorly in this metric were Chicago (AL), Oakland, New York (AL) and Kansas City.

The last thing Eno looked at was bunts with non-pitchers. The advanced numbers show it’s rarely beneficial for teams to do so, and we’ve discussed previously that bunting is not conducive to the most fantasy friendly outcomes. For this stat, we can look at results from this season since it’s much easier to look up than the fancy stats Eno and his friends created for the other variables.

The five teams with more than 40 bunt attempts by position players this season are the Padres (with a league-leading 49), Mariners, White Sox, Twins and Indians. A pox on these small-ball-friendly managers. The six teams with less than 20 bunt attempts by position players this season are the Dodgers (with only 13), A’s, Mets, D-Backs, Tigers and Nationals.

Using the three variables discussed above, rigidity of bullpen management, ideal lineup cards and few bunts, I whipped up some very rudimentary calculations to determine who are the most and least fantasy friendly managers.

On the plus side, John Gibbons leads the way with rigid bullpen management and fairly optimal lineup decisions even though he bunts a bit more than average. Other fantasy friendly managers include Clint Hurdle, Brad Ausmus and Terry Collins. Those guys wouldn’t all be the first names to come up in a discussion of the best managers in the league, so it goes to show you the difference between the actual game and the fantasy game.

On the flip side, Paul Molitor stands out as the least fantasy friendly manager. He’s very flexible with his bullpen, not optimal with lineup decisions, and the Twins bunt way too much. Rick Renteria, Bob Melvin and Terry Francona join Molitor at the bottom of the rankings.