I Am Beginning to See why Kendall dislikes Macha

but if ain’t broke don’t fix it

Until proven otherwise, in Macha (or in anyone not named Nedly) we trust.

Kendall only has to put up with it for one year.

Don’t let the door hit you on the way out, Jason.

If there is a God, this will happen.

I meant to share Kendall’s possible origin or ire, not mine…I hope Macha proves to be a great choice for the Crew.

I think it’s good for the Team to have a manager take a strong veteran like Kendall, who obviously worked over Ned, and put him in his place. Kendall is a great defensive catcher, calls a great game, but it seemed like he really needed more rest through out the year. Machas just putting him in his place to exert his authority.

I don’t think he’s taking Kendalls autonomy completely away, but looks to make sure it aligns with Machas game strategy.

Hopefully this does’t turn into a dumb Yosting, but so far I like what Macha has said/done.

Is this true?

He thinks coaches have a better perspective of what opponents are trying to do from the bench.

I suspect it is. From what I’ve read about sign stealing and the like, it isn’t so much that managers & bench coaches “steal” the signs (that is, they decipher the code and figure out exactly what’s going to happen), but they notice abberant activity—more signs than usual, baserunners looking more alert, a million other things. Not to say Kendall couldn’t notice some of those things, but the simple fact that he’s sitting behind home plate facing the pitcher’s mound means he doesn’t have as good of an angle, and obviously he’s distracted by, you know, calling pitches and catching them and stuff.

Along the same lines, remember that both Randolph and Macha have spent an awful lot of time as bench coaches. Traditionally, the bench coach is the top sign stealer on the coaching staff (though not always), and guys who keep bench coaching jobs forever (Joe Nossek, retired a few years ago from the White Sox, was among these) tend to be the best sign-stealers.

I don’t know how to put this, but…I wouldn’t be surprised if Ned wasn’t the best manager even when it came to stealing signs and putting that knowledge to use.

I’ll bet Macha and Randolph are a lot better at that sort of thing, and they may well need to have more control over the running game to take advantage of that. I wouldn’t be surprised if somebody like Kendall, who has caught for a bunch of different managers now, fully understands.

I couldn’t agree more with your rather gentle, uh, appraisal of the Yost. I certainly have no insight on the mind of Kendall; I suppose if I imagined him as a sort of borderline ADHD, baseball-obsessed control freak, he might be rankled by Macha’s recent catcherly claims. If Kendall is more of the consummate pro, then I suppose it becomes just one or two less things to concern himself with as he catches another low-to-mid-speed “fastball” from the likes of Suppan and Looper.

but I hope that Macha pinch hits for Kendall late in games more than Nedly did.