Best of luck to Turnbow. Hopefully he can turn things around in AAA. I'm a pretty big fan of his, but we couldn't afford to have him trying to work things out in the majors.
The study does give a slight advantage to managers with losing records , but there is zero correlation between losing managers being near the top and winning managers near the bottom in the rankings. Ron Gardenhire, who has had quite a few winning seasons is at the top, and Clint Hurdle, a perennial loser until last year is at the bottom. But obviously the methodology is severely flawed because it claims that Yost is a good manager.
One assessment says quite the opposite. Of course their study is very limited, but it think it has more value than some random number. http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/info-baseballMgrs08.html?n=50&page=1&sd=ASC&sort=overall
I think some people actually look forward to a Brewers loss so they have a chance to post their Yosted garbage. I know he makes mistakes but some people seem to have unrealistic expectations of managers.
I don't think the Rays will be able to keep it up this year, but next year look out AL East. Kazmir, Shields, Price, Garza, Niemann...wow. They have an insane collection of good young pitchers at or near the majors.
A lot of it depends on the type of team you're playing. On most of the teams we play, the guys are righthanded and try to pull everything, so we have our girls at C, 2B, 3B (our girl at 3B is very good), RCF, and RF.
I'll admit I never liked Gross much, but I wish him the best of luck in Tampa. It was nice that he could go out with a bang in Milwaukee. Melvin getting a recent second round pick for him ain't too shabby. This place won't be the same without the monthly Gwynn/Gross debate.
The thing is, Turnbow was only an adjustment away from having a decent outing. His fastball was still in the mid 90's and his breaking ball was around the plate. Once he and Kendall realize that hitters are looking for that first pitch fastball, he won't look nearly as bad.