As Craig Counsell's Cubs take on his old club -- Pat Murphy's Brewers -- we dive into the impact of big-time manager moves.
When the Brewers visit Wrigley Field on Friday for their first meeting with the Cubs this season, the focus will be on the managers: Pat Murphy of Milwaukee and his one-time protégé, Craig Counsell of Chicago.
"He's a friend," Counsell said."He's been an important person for me in my baseball career. He was a person who made me mentally tough, because he challenges you a lot." During the modern era, there have been just 66 instances of a manager being at the helm of the same franchise for eight or more consecutive Opening Days. At the end of last season, there were five such tenures in progress -- Counsell, Terry Francona , Dave Roberts , Scott Servais and Kevin Cash . With Counsell now in Milwaukee and Francona retired, Cash's nine seasons and counting in Tampa Bay make him baseball's longest-tenured manager.
By and large though -- since even longterm managers tend to leave their jobs when teams are down -- on average those teams bounce back a little when the new sheriff pulls into town. They couldn't improve despite hiring Gene Mauch because they were an expansion team -- though winning any games at all in that context might be viewed as an improvement.After 12 seasons with the Padres, Bochy took over an ancient Giants team at the end of Barry Bonds' career, and San Francisco declined by five games in Bochy's first season. Things eventually worked out for Bochy and the Giants, however.
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