Exactly. The manager is not an innocent bystander! There have been a lot of arguments that it's not the manager's fault that every starting pitcher shit the bed in each of the last two postseasons, that his ace reliever suddenly got diarrhea of the ERA when it counted most, that his leadoff hitters got a total of ZERO hits in this postseason, that his entire lineup regressed offensively from last year, that his team continues to run into out after out after out on the basepaths, that his starter-turned-reliever got tired after 4 innings of work and airmailed a changeup to a RH batter when a RH reliever was available to face him and the next two RH batters (Reed).There's a lot of emotion here, but I've yet to see a cogent argument that Farrell shouldn't be held responsible for what actually occurred under his watch. He simply is. Whether that's "fair" or not is another issue.
If Farrell is average, he should be jettisoned for a new average face at this point.
To which I reply: Nonsense. The manager is ultimately responsible for the performance of his team. He couldn't find a way to get a single goddamn hit from his leadoff man in this series. He couldn't find a way to get a single half-decent start from his starting pitching. He couldn't find a way to get a proper pinch-hitting matchup against Devinski, to use Reed properly in the 8th yesterday with 3 RH batters due up, to even stay in either of the first two games of the series.
Farrell did not succeed at the most basic aspect of his job: putting his players in a position to succeed. His job is NOT to throw up his hands and say "Oh well." His job is to fix problems. He couldn't or wouldn't do it. For that he should pay with his job.