Chris Jaffe, a writer at The Hardball Times, recently released a book detailing baseball managers from 1876 through 2008. For more information on the book and to purchase it, visit the publisher's website.
Chris was kind enough to send me all the Boston-related excerpts from the book. I didn't really know what to expect before reading the writeups. I didn't know actually how much information Chris would be able to get for most of the older managers. But to my surprise, every writeup was quite detailed. If the writeups were any indication of the rest of the book, it seems to be quite extensive.
One thing I wasn't fully aware of was Jimy Williams' success in Boston. Williams handled the pitching staff like no other manager has in big league history. Williams' tendencies to yank pitchers early kept his starters healthy, meaning down the line they were that much better. Williams didn't try to stretch his starters; he knew what they were capable of and didn't push them. As a result, his Red Sox teams in the second half always seemed to do better in the first half.
You see the Williams' philosophy of managing pitching staffs a little more today, but no one has quite replicated what he was able to do. Should we see more of it? Perhaps. Then again, Williams never won a World Series for the Red Sox either.