The world according to Jim:
• This may have snuck up on you the way it snuck up on me, but the Dodgers’ Dave Roberts has the best winning percentage of any manager in what we now consider the major leagues. Ever.
It may have snuck up on us because, as we saw again this week, he’s still a human dartboard in the eyes of the Twitter experts, who as we all know are infallible. ...
• First the numbers: Following Thursday night’s victory in St. Louis, Roberts in six-plus years as Dodgers manager (plus an 0-1 stint as interim manager in San Diego in 2015) was 600-360, for a .625 winning percentage. The only better regular-season records in baseball history were compiled by four Negro Leagues managers: Bullet Rogan, Vic Harris, Rube Foster and Dave Malarcher. The only active MLB manager in the same area code is the Yankees’ Aaron Boone (.614 in his fifth season). ...
• Roberts has won at a higher rate than Walter Alston (.558, 35th) or Tommy Lasorda (.526, 102nd), both Hall of Famers. His teams have won a World Series and three National League Championship Series and have been in the postseason every year of his tenure.
And yet the armchair experts were again tweeting “Fire Roberts” the other night, after he pinch-hit Max Muncy with the bases loaded in the seventh and a 6-5 deficit and Muncy popped up for the second out of the inning. I’ve never figured out exactly why, but it’s the nature of baseball: When the player fails, the manager gets the blame. ...
• We all understand the drill. Every manager