The narrative of Kapler getting a lot out of this team is overblown. Quite a few hitters regressed. I have a hard time thinking of a hitter who flourished under Kapler and his staff. Wilmer for this season but was it because of the staff? Many of the pitchers regressed.
And no, I don’t give Zaidi a pass. I think the whole organization, including the owners, need to figure out what they want to do. They refused to make moves during the season to strengthen their playoff push. Was that Zaidi or was that the owners not opening the purse.
And then the fast track of the prospects. What was the plan there? You know they will be up and down in performance so you usually live with it if they are helping. And I thought Matos was holding his own as was Bailey. Why bring up Meckler? Jumped 3 levels including MLB. Weird. Why bring up Luciano only to send him down. Did his clock start?
Not sure what the plan was. Now we are supposedly back to a mix of analytics and old baseball guy knowledge in Melvin. Hope it works. Word from his last org was he was not very good at managing the pen but that could just be fan talk. Seems like a former catcher should be able to manage a pen well.