It was cute to have Wash when the team was transitioning from mediocrity to big time contender. It's time for Wash to step up and prove he is an upper tier manager or step down and get out of the way of a team that has passed him by. If I was the GM I'd move on since personally I do not think he has what it takes. As a fan though I am willing to wait a year before I demand his head. What do yall think?

I think wash should've been fired before the press conference after game 163.

I think Wash has already proven he's not an upper tier manager. If the Rangers win this year, it will be because the players performed really, really well. There isn't WAR for managers, but based on subjective reasoning, I tend to think Ron Washington is worth about 2.0 losses per year. At least through lineup construction and bullpen management.

If Wash is not a top tier manager, who in the league right now would be considered "top-tier?"

Joe Madden, Bob Melvin, Jim Leyland, Buck Showalter, Davey Johnson, Bruce Bochy, Clint Hurdle, Dusty Baker

off the top of my head

Ron Washington is about 20 more down on the list

Wash got to where he is because he was able to mentor young players while garnering respect from his vets. He was able to get a group of 25 players to come together, play as a team, and produce some exciting baseball to watch.

A lot of us started forecasting his demise in July when it became apparent he'd lost some of those attributes.

Washington was hampered by his second baseman with a bad ankle, a catcher with a bad ankle and hip, no first baseman that contributed, a bench player who he was told to play daily per the promise made to him by the front office as fallout from the fiasco the year before, a center fielder that had himself listed as the most interesting man in the world, a right fielder that was well below par in the field and lost at the plate for most of the season and losing two of his two starting pitchers that were replaced by washed-up NL pitchers.

Now tell me exactly what Madden et al could have accomplished? Buck Showalter had the same team the year before Wash and did no better. End of story. Give Washington a team that can compete and they will be right there. All of the managers mentioned above have their detractors also. Clint Hurdle? The guy whose had ONE winning season since 2002? Hahahahahahahahahaaha!!!!!!!!!!

C'mon guys, Washington gave you a taste of what it's like to be the best in the world-not once, but two years straight. You're spoiled and being catty and obnoxious about one of the best manager the Rangers have ever had. Is he the best? Maybe, maybe not, time will tell. One thing I will guarantee you is that he is not the piece off shit you paint him to be. Look at his numbers and how short a period of time he has been manager. He is on the fast track to being a great manager. If he were to be fired tomorrow, he would have another team to manage by Monday morning.

I'd love to see you explain all of his assinine management decisions the last three seasons. Decisions that most knowledgeable baseball people consider indefensible.

Are we really going to do this again? Ron washington has take this team to more wins than any other manger in team history, he has more playoff wins than any manager in Team history, and finally more World Series (although not winning it all) than any other Manager in team history. Has he made mistakes? YES! did he take a tired team and wear them out last yr? YES!
I wanted MY benched and Gentry, Profar and Olt to play almost everyday also. I also wanted Nap and Hammy and Cruz to start to hitting hr's again and I wanted Kins and Elvis to stop getting picked off but it didn't happen! And lastly I wanted Cruz to catch that fly ball to win the world series but again it didn't happen.
Does any of that mean he can't handle the job or needs to be fired? HELL NO!!!
I grew up a Cubs fan and was one until I got to TX in 2000 and let me tell you Wash is pretty good at his job you guys are just to close to this and are missing the forest for the trees.
JD and Nolan just trimmed the dead weight off this tree (some by choice others not so much) and without the MY's and Hamiltons I think he'll get back to what made him the the manager we were all happy with when he was taking this team to back to back WS.

wash is not, I say NOT a winner..... too many assinine management decisions, and GUT followings to be a winner.

Win/lose record alone doesnt make a good manager.......going to the World Series doesnt make a good manager

you have to measure what they have to work with (to me anybody could have coached this talent the way wash has)

the teams that the rangers have put on the field the last 3 years have had argueably more talent then any other team in baseball

shit there was a year where if the AL West had an all star team practically the whole damn team would be rangers

Who had more talent last year The Rangers or the A's?

*Win/loss

I guess top-tier manager means (I assume) those managers that have led their team to and won the WS. In the last 3 years, there have been only 2 such managers in Bochy (twice) and Larussa. 2 WS appearances and 3rd playoff appearance is pretty damn good if you ask me!

@trickydicky

well put sir.. well put

Ron Washington is not a top tier manager but Buck Showalter is? I love it when dumbass "fans" haven't been actually following the team longer than 5 years.

Procurion, you are spot on brother.

Wash is a teacher of the game. He knows how it is supposed to be played. Yeah he is old school and makes his fair share of mistakes, but goodness, some of you folks are acting like his managing performance was so poor even Joe Blow on the street could have been the Rangers manager.

All we get to see, generally, is Wash's in game decisions and post-game remarks. Do we really believe that is all that goes into being the manager of a major league baseball club?? Give the man some credit. I mean, this team got to the World Series the year before they were supposedly supposed to just "contend." You can't tell me Wash didn't play an integral role in that.

You cannot deny that he makes some mistakes, but mistakes don't happen if the players perform. Take Wash out of the Texas Rangers equation and I don't know kind of squad you have. That guy is important to this team. The job description isn't just "in game decisions."

The argument is deeper than the in-game decisions everyone loves to (rightfully) knee-jerk over.

Maybe it would be a good idea to re-read this piece from that BBTiA site that occasionally has content.

God I love baseball. Its so easy to sit in your basement and fluff your chest up like uncle Rico and tell yourself you could easily make every right decision with half the world ready to stick it to you when it goes wrong. I would love to sit and watch a week of games with many of you on here and witness the pure baseball genious and intellect on games and choices before they happen.

Trickydick.....REALLY that whole winning games and going to World Series thing doesnt really show a sign of doing something right? So its all the players when they win and has to be the manager when they lose? And your list of better managers than Wash....freaking awesome.

Lets start with Clint Hurdle: NO Div. titles, road a late hot streak in 07 and a bad call in the one game playoff over the Padres to a WS to get swept by the Red Sox. Gets fired in 2009 and Jim Tracy takes that team to the playoffs that year. Goes to Pit and while an upgrade...STILL LOSING BASEBALL.

Buck: Dont get me wrong im a big fan of Buck, but he has yet to show that he can actually take a team to the pinnacle. Twice been fired the year before a WS ring (Yankees,Dbacks). Had a fun run with the Orioles this year, shades of 2004 with the Rangers (short of the playoffs obviously)

Davey and Dusty. Teams both had great seasons only to fold up when it mattered most in the playoffs. Davey being part of the decision to put his big gun on the shelf. Dusty let his team lose 3 straight home games to get booted. Yes Dusty does have a Ring, but he has alot of failures too. See 2003 Cubs. Wash is one Nellie catch away from having equal hardware, maybe Bartman was in Stlouie and used a laser pointer to distract Nellie and made him miss that catch....just sayin...

Bob Melvin: Has 2 playoff teams in roughly 8 years as Manager. 5 -7 in the playoffs. Were the A's an underdog team, yes. But they were not the first team to have less "talent" and win a division. See every other year in MLB. Lets see what the A's do this year.

I will call truce on Joe Maddon and Jim Leyland. and Concede that Bochy wins based on Ring count.(although that isnt the best way to mesure a good manager you say)

So 5 of the 8 you just listed could easily be seen as inferior choices compared to Wash. Could be better in the eyes of some but there is no way to make a sure fire declaration that those 5 are clearly better than Wash.

Well that was fun, now eric will tell me why Sabernerds and theses mystical "baseball People" all think..errr KNOW.. Wash and michael young are the worst things in baseball history. (see Richard Hidalgo and brad wilkerson please)

@David__D: I love it. I thought the same thing.

@trickydick: Do this for me then. Defend your choices as to why they are top-tier managers. And then answer me this: Why would you not consider Ron Gardenhire? Mike Scioscia? Charlie Manuel? Bud Black? These fellows are generally viewed as very good MLB managers. Or were you just basing your assumptions on who did and didn't make the playoffs or did or didn't have a winning record this past year?

@Notorious

"Or were you just basing your assumptions on who did and didn't make the playoffs or did or didn't have a winning record this past year?"

yep that's exactly what he did lol.

I don't know if Wash is a good manager, a bad manager, or a terrible manager. I regularly second-guess his tactics, but that isn't enough for me to come to a conclusion as I have no idea what's going on behind the scenes. My problem with Wash is that he and the front office just don't seem to be on the same page, and that's hurting the organization.

This is going to be an interesting year on the Wash front. A good chunk of the folks that post here about how we've lost too much WAR and are not a playoff team are also saying Wash isn't a good manager. So, if the talent got depleted, and we're short of what we need for the playoffs, and Wash gets them back yet again . . . ? It will be interesting to watch the contortions.

"Joe Madden, Bob Melvin, Jim Leyland, Buck Showalter, Davey Johnson, Bruce Bochy, Clint Hurdle, Dusty Baker"

This makes me LOL

Also, please do tell how Jim Leyland is better than Wash in recent years. He sits back and does nothing while his all-star line up goes out and does business. Gimme a break.

I think it is funny Wash went to 2 of the last 3 WS, yet he is not regarded as a good manager because he didn't win. Only 1 other manager is even active in the last 3 WS wins.