Which League is Harder to Manage?

When presented with the baseball jobs I want the least, manager is damn near the top.  If you’re successful you’re praised for being brilliant when you know in your heart that all the credit belongs to the players on your team.  And of course if your success is followed by a down year, everyone calls you a fluke and you’re run out of town.  Obviously it’s the least important “coaching” position of all the major sports because your main job is creating a lineup card, calling maybe two or three plays and then setting the game in motion.  But, within the sphere of baseball, American and National League managers are two very different jobs.

I guess conventional wisdom is that it’s harder to manage the National League because there’s so many more decisions that a manager has to make.  He has to pinch hit for the pitcher around the sixth or seventh inning every night meaning he has to have a plan on who he’s going to use; he has to then decide whether to make a double switch and pull a pitcher who’s cruising in exchange for an extra run.  The NL manager uses his bench more frequently than his AL counterpart so he has to have a feel for the matchups and he’s also more likely to use up all of his position players in close/extra inning games.

The AL manager could go weeks without making an offensive substitution and because of that is able to keep a deeper bullpen which then allows him to use more pitchers based on matchups.  Whereas the NL manager is more hesitant to waste his entire bullpen/bench early in a close game for fear that he might run out of substitutions in late innings, the AL manager doesn’t have to worry about running out of offensive players and can instead focus on preserving leads through multiple pitching changes.  Joe Girardi, for example, blows through pitchers faster than Alyssa Milano.

However, because these are expected going in, there’s almost a certain amount of pressure removed from the NL manager.  If he uses his best pinch hitter early and another nailbiter situation arises in a later inning, it’s hard to fault him for not having a clear option available.

I guess what I’m asking, is it harder to manage knowing that you’re going to have to use your bench or is it a tougher decision to pull a guy from the starting lineup and replace him with a bench player when you don’t need to?  Is it harder to do nothing if nothing is expected of you (even with the options) or is it harder to make the decisions that come organically throughout the game?

It’s funny, the criticism against NL mangers is that they don’t do enough to win a game whereas when people complain about AL managers, it’s because they tried to do too much.  The AL manager was over thinking things; he shouldn’t have put on the hit and run; there was no need to make that substitution, etc.  The NL manager, on the other hand, seems to get the most criticism for not trying to squeeze out an extra run (often at the expense of a big inning) which again goes to the different set of expectations.

Just as a reference, the following people have won manager of the year trophies in the past 5ish years:

Tony Pena (KC), 2003.  For leading the Royals to third place in the AL Central.  I don’t necessarily disagree because that team was garbage.  At one point after the AS Game, he had a 7 game lead in the division.

Buck Showalter (TEX), 2004.  For leading the Rangers to third place in the AL West the year after getting rid of ARod.  I guess people were so shocked that the team didn’t just quit after losing their best player that they gave him the trophy out of obligation.  Also, everyone on that team was on steroids.

Ozzie Guillen (CHW), 2005.  For swearing at his players in public and private and for happening to be the one at the helm when every player on that team all had a career year at the same time.  He has since been unable to duplicate his success at motivation through swearing.

Jim Leyland (DET), 2006.  For turning a team that once lost 120 games into a World Series team (which promptly lost to the Cardinals! in the WS).  He too has been unable to duplicate any sort of success at motivating his players even though most of the team remains.

Eric Wedge (CLE), 2007.  See the last two entries except replace “World Series” with “AL Championship” game and overly emphasize the “failed to duplicate success” part.  You’d think the voters would have learned not to vote for an AL Central manager with young players after three straight disappointments.

Joe Maddon (TAM), 2008.  Turning a ragtag bunch of miscreant youths into a WS team.  So far, he has been unable to duplicate his success and now has trouble filling out lineup cards.

Bob Melvin (ARI) 2007.  Turning a ragtag bunch of miscreant youths into an NL Championship contender.  He has been fired from his job because the miscreants turned on him and spray painted curse words on his car.  He was replaced by someone who never even managed a Circle K.