The hilarious thing about all of this is that it is all literally unknowable.
Maybe the offense that looked like it was the best in MLB history in May got that way because of the presence of our stoic prominently-jawed hero. Maybe Hanley got on a ridiculous hot streak in September (which hid a lot of suckage from other players) because John Farrell set the appropriate tone at dinner one night in late August. Maybe every single one of JF's many head-scratching moves led to absolutely zero negative impact on any outcomes. Because luck, or something.
Or, maybe Farrell is a tightly wound guy, and that persona carries over to his team in tight spots. Or John Farrell farted once at dinner in early August and JBJ and X forgot how to hit baseballs because they couldn't wash the stench out of their nosehairs. Or maybe any other manager would have handled matchups and starting pitchers better and won 3 more games, giving us homefield advantage, causing us to go on an 11-game undefeated run for our 4th WS win in the last 12 years. Because luck, or something.
We don't know, and we'll never know. Ever.
I personally (as anyone who has encountered me in a game thread knows) think Farrell is a pretty mediocre-to-bad manager. But I won't claim any certainty in that regard (the occasional game thread excursions notwithstanding). I would like to see him go, because I'd be excited to see what Lovullo's tenure would look like, and because JF drives me nuts with his in-game management. Also, because I'm curious to see how vigorously Rembrat would defend Lovullo cocking up a game with bullpen management or platoon screwups. I'm into social experiments like that.