…this is a tough one so take your time

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

here's a hint: Dusty is not managing this year

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

ok, ok, I'll shock the world:

Joe Maddon

The only first place vote Joe got across the entire universe of voters came from the guy who covers him, has past employment by the team and is just an incredibly unbiased reporter of the baseball scene

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

he gave an impassioned defense this morning which actually made some semblance of sense to me

and I do think Joe did an excellent job this year.

However, if your rationale is he did the best job with the situation he was given, how does a guy like Counsel still not get the vote. That Brewer team is top heavy and was lucky to get career years from some starting pitchers.

So yes, Levine's vote is defensible. However, casting the lone vote in defense of a Cub manager is so indicative of Levine's career work product.

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

Nope. No way.

The lineup shuffling is getting annoying to the players.

Over pitching Morrow.

Remains absolutely clueless with how to manage a bullpen.

Also, Pedro Strop anyone?

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There is no defense. Overall, Joe had a decent year at best. Sure he managed a MASH unit at times, but there were dozens of questionable moves made by him all year. None bigger than letting one of his only good/healthy relievers hit late in the game. He did not have a "manager of the year" worthy 2018. Not even close. This is indicative by the fact that nobody else gave him a 1st or 2nd place vote, and only one other writer gave him a 3rd place vote.

Levine should have his voting credentials pulled. Its sad and embarrassing, but of course, #ThatsCub.

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Agreed.

and then they gave the entirely appropriate follow up to Zach Zaidman who, almost on que, immediately began with the 42 games in 43 days stat. It's funny because the last time I heard ZZ speak, which was postgame after the last loss, he began with the same exact info.

Didn't the Brewers have some ungodly schedule before the ASB where they played MORE games than days and lost a five or so game lead in the division?

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

Didn't the Cubs play better after the injuries? I thought they were trailing in the division when their health problems began.

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

Wait, this gets even better, the only other vote Joe received across the league was a third place vote...talk about a career defining act from Levine.

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

Hogwash.. Lavine is a dumb ass, counsel deserved it. Maddon is gone after this season.

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Your points makes sense but the shuffling thing was something Bernsie addressed in some weird way this week. He claimed the management i.e. Theo wanted to have the players on edge and always and they should just deal with shuffling like this. Seemed wrong to me or maybe I misunderstood him.

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Elections have consequences.

Baseball players are creatures of habit probably more so than any other professional athlete. I don't think the batting order matters much to the players, but they probably would like to be playing the same position in the field most of the time.

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There is no defense for giving him a first place vote. Even with injuries, Maddon had more talent than Milwaukee and Atlanta. Levine also ignored unexpected contributions from Bote and Hamels. And you can't give Maddon credit for losing Morrow when he may have contributed to losing him.

Mully and Haugh had a good response: if Joe was so good, why is Theo trying to run him out of town?

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You burn people out when their work schedule shifts around too much. Idk how much I believe Bernsie, but even just coming in on Tuesday and you're batting 2nd then Wednesday you're batting 7th would get old really quick to me.

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That's just not the game any more. Super utility players are all the rage.

And that's just the lineup order...even worse are the guys like Schwarber, Happ, and Almora who didn't know if they would even be playing.

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When you have bonafide stars at 1B, 3B, SS, and more than capabale guys in the OF, it should be the game.

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Open your mind up, Frank.

It's best to put out the best possible 162 lineups in season. Sometimes moving guys around aids that. Like in 2016 when Bryant and Baez did it and led to a league MVP, an NLCS MVP and World Series win.

What kind of snowflake bullshit is this?

If they want to play every day, there is a very easy way to do that....be so good he cant take you out.

How many votes did Mr. Raw Deal receive?

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Ha, I think Schwarber and Almora had great days, only to be benched the next day. I'm no Schwarber fan, but I'd rather see him out there every day to see definitively what you've got.

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Or you run the same lineup out there for all twelve postseason games you play and get things done in a historic fashion.

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Im talking about the modern game, not something that happened over a decade a go. Things change, Francis.


Also, I would be surprised if they ran the exact same lineup out there all 12 games. Is that accurate?

Exact same lineup and batting order for their first ten games. The two games in Houston, obviously no DH and the pitcher hit 9th, but the other position players were all the same and in the same order.

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Levine talked about the great job Joe did a lot late in the season. Not surprising he voted for him.

He was out of line when he basically called out management for not giving Joe an extension.

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If the vote is defensible, what's the problem here? Are you saying that he can never vote for a player/manager he covers?

Levine has been accused of bias in his reporting for decades. I think this is a pretty strong and objective piece of evidence that the accusations have merit.

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

The fact that he worked for the team's publication wasn't enough?

Who even disagrees with this?