By any objective measure, Buddy Bell is one of the worst managers in Major League Baseball history. A respected player and well-liked across MLB, Bell just never got it together as a manager. And he earned three chances with three different teams, all of them lasting all or part of three seasons.

In his nine-year managerial career, Bell amassed a .418 winning percentage. That’s worse than any single team currently playing today. It’s even worse than the St. Louis Browns, a club that won just .428 percent of its games between 1902 and 1953.

However, while Buddy Bells tops many lists of bad managers, he’s in good company. Other unsuccessful MLB managers include Ted Williams (who managed the Washington Senators and Texas Rangers from 1969-1972) and Alan Trammell (who managed some bad Detroit Tigers clubs from 2003-2005).

But Bell’s performance, as well as that of Williams and Trammell, begs the question: What makes a good manager?

What Teams Did Buddy Bell Manage?

Bell’ jobs as a manager came after a long career (1972 to 1989) in which he made five All-Star teams, won six Gold Gloves (he primarily played third base) and a Silver Slugger Award in 1984 with the Texas Rangers. His first job managing a club came with the Detroit Tigers from 1996-1998. The high water mark came in 1997, when the Tigers won 79.In 1996, the team won just 53 games. In 1998, the Tigers were 52-85 when Detroit finally fired Bell with 25 games left in the season.

The next stop came in Colorado from 2000-2002. The Rockies went 82-80  in Bell’s first year, but won just 73 games in 2001. In 2002, the Rockies fired Bell after the team started the season 6-16, the worst start in club history.

At the time, Rockies General Manager Dan O’Dowd said the Rockies needed to play with “more joy and more confidence” than they had starting the year. O’Dowd said new manager Clint Hurdle “brings passion, he brings enthusiasm, he brings a charisma I think this ballclub needs.” Under Hurdle, the team went 67-73.

Bell’s final managing job came with the Kansas City Royals from 2005 to 2007. He took over from Tony Pena (8-25) and Bob Schaefer (5-12) in 2005, compiling a 43-69 record through the rest of the season. In his two full seasons, the Royals went 62-100 and 69-93.

What Makes a Good MLB Manager?

The lesson to learn from Bell’s managerial history is that the No. 1 most important factor in a manager’s success is largely outside of the manager’s control. It’s the talent assembled by the front office that makes the biggest difference  That seems obvious, but many “worst managers” lists only mention in passing that those Tigers, Rockies and Royals teams Bell managed featured rosters that, for the most part, lacked great talent.

The same could be said for the teams managed by Williams and Trammell, as well as other managers who make “worst” lists.

Of course, there are plenty of stories about managers taking talented teams and coming up short or even failing, such as Stump Merrill with the 1991 New York Yankees. But overall, as with other sports, people tend to put too much importance on managers.

In baseball, where psychology plays such a big role in success, the best managers are those who can keep players in the right frame of mind. Sparky Anderson, who knew a thing or two about winning, may have best summed up what makes successful managers when he said, “Baseball is a simple game. If you have good players and if you keep them in the right frame of mind then the manager is a success.”

MLB Manager Strategy and the Unknown Unknowns

What about strategy? In the modern era, someone like Joe Maddon is heralded for his moves on the field, especially during his time with the Tampa Bay Rays, where he managed a club to the American League pennant that had a team payroll that was just a fraction of teams like the Yankees and Boston Red Sox.

Maddon is clearly a smart manager. But he also worked with a data-driven front office and a wealth of talented young players picked specifically to fill certain roles. He had a similar situation – but a much larger payroll – with the Chicago Cubs, where he managed the team to a World Series victory.

Things didn’t work out so well with the Los Angeles Angels. Why? It’s hard to know for sure. That’s because there is so much that fans don’t know about what happens behind the scenes.

As writer C. Trent Rosecrans pointed out years ago in Baseball Prospectus, he learned early in his baseball writing career that most fans are unaware of all the factors that go into the decisions a manager makes during a game. He had a theory that  “85 to 90 percent of a manager’s job consists of things we don’t see.”

He talked to others in the game who tried to offer insight into what makes great managers. All other things being equal, they mentioned the following as the factors that have the biggest influence on the success of a baseball manager, in addition to the talent on the field.

  • Preparation for every series and every game so they have a better chance of making the right decision during a crucial moment in the game
  • Excellent communication skills with players and coaching staff
  • Understanding how to construct a lineup both for the short-term and over the course of a season
  • Understanding how to help players maximize their talents and get the most out of their skills
  • Leadership abilities that help them bring people together for a common goal
  • Knowing how to manage the different personalities of different players, from the superstars to the utility infielders

Where did Bell, Williams and Trammell go wrong? The very nature of baseball is that it’s impossible to know for sure, because so many factors influence the outcome of an inning, a game, a series and a season. However, the best place to start is with the talent on the field and then go from there. From that perspective, Bell, Williams and Trammell didn’t have much of a chance. That doesn’t explain everything, but it’s a good place to start.