Some thoughts on Tracy

You've all probably noticed that my opinions on Jim Tracy have been noticeably absent thus far, mostly because I didn't really have any. I've done some digging and some thinking and I think I've finally formed an opinion on him. Which probably means the Carlos Tosca era will begin Monday. But here goes anyways:

1. The fact that Tracy managed in LA for 5 years and I know precious little about him besides his falling out with DePodesta is a good thing. Anytime a guy manages in a market that big for that long and remains relatively unknown mostly means he didn't do anything to screw up too badly.
2. Both Bill Plaschke and TJ Simers are not pleased with DePo and McCourt on this one (thanks to lcfplayer in the comments for the Plaschke link, both are LA Times articles so a free registration is required, but it only takes about 5 minutes and it's worth it to read these). True, someone from outside Pittsburgh would read Cook and Smizik and think McClendon was done a great injustice. But the tone of both of these articles is differernt than "If we would've got him some players he MIGHT not have sucked so much," which was about the best anyone could say for Lloyd. The general feel of both articles is that Tracy was doing just fine with the Dodgers until DePodesta came in, shook the team up, told him how to manage, then fired him for finishing 20 games under .500 with his gutted, injury riddled lineup. You can stand on either side of the Moneyball argument here, but DePodesta's demands on Tracy did seem unreasonable.
3. DePo fired Tracy for not following his Moneyball style of management. That's definitely not a problem here as Littlefield isn't putting together any thing that resembles a Moneyball team. I don't think you necessarily need to follow the Beane model to win on a low budget, look at the Twins or the Marlins 2 years ago for example, but you do need a GM and a manager on the same page.
   
4. Despite their large payroll, the Dodgers teams managed by Tracy weren't very good. The money was misspent (Kevin Brown, Darren Dreifort, Eric Karros, Chan Ho Park, etc.) and he still had them over .500 every year but this one, even winning a surprise division last year. In other words, they overachieved.
   
5. Charlie, who has done his own research on Tracy, says that BPro lauded Tracy for his ability to get great work from part time players. Man, do we have a lot of those on this team.
6. Charlie's post also talks about some of the disagreements between DePodesta and Tracy. While it's true that DePodesta is known for getting more out of unknown sources, it's also true that Tracy may be less willing to trust him after he ripped his first place team apart at the deadline last year, then again in the offseason.

So he's quiet, which will be a nice departure from our last manager, he's got a career winning record, and he seems to have a pretty good track record with young players and part-time players (besides in 2005 which can be argued is a different situation). I'd say Jim Tracy would be an acceptable choice.