Lynch: Pena wasn't winning with this group of losers. I doubt Tony Larussa, Abner Doubleday, Bobby Cox, Jack McKeon, Ron Gardenhire, or any great manager can make chicken salad out of dog doo-doo. Lou Piniella is a very good manager, but he hasn't won much with the D-Rays because he has nothing to work with. Does that make him a bad manager? Definitely not. Tom Kelly had crap to work with in the middle to late ninties, but does that make him a bad manager, no. Felipe Alou had garbage to work with when the Expos had that fire sale in 1995, but that does not make him a bad manager. Let's judge Pena when he has players to work with and when he has GM who has the right players and the resources to work with.
I think what Porter meant as great was Pena got the most out of his team with what he had to work with.
I can't judge Pena. yet. Was it the right choice of the Royals to pick him in the first place? Probably not considering Buck Showalter was interested back then. Still Pena did as much as he could. He did good enough to get another job as a manager for some team.