Justin, On Narron and the Firing:
His biggest fault, at least as I’ll remember it, is a general lack of consistency. He certainly did things that bothered the heck out of me, like using Juan Castro and Chad Moeller as pinch hitters an inordinate number of times, putting too much stock into small sample size-matchups or lefty/righty platoons, playing favorites among players, etc.
But in the end, while I’m sure many will disagree with me, I don’t think he was all that bad of a manager. He seemed to have good control over the clubhouse and seemed to be a good communicator, something that was in stark contrast to his predecessor, Dave Miley (though I’m sure we’ll see some criticism from players and media in the coming days). He was an advocate for his players in the media. He seemed good about trying to keep certain players rested (particularly Junior), and keeping his bench players “fresh.” And he did understand at least some of the key lessons from statistical research (particularly OBP and SB%), even as he ignored others…