I disagree. I think "data supports the shift" guy is ok. Maybe it wasn't the best way to put things in a press conference, but if he'd said the same thing differently "if you look at this guys ABs for the past 3 years, you'll see he's only hit against the shift 27 times, so he doesn't do it very much. We got burned this time, but I still think it was the right thing to do," or even just leave the numbers out and say he doesn't do it very much, and it sounds ok. For some reason the word "data" and "stats" are approaching profane for the old-school baseball guys. But I think you can shift against some guys almost every time regardless of situation, because they just don't demonstrate the ability to compensate for it.
I would argue the main "baseball" function of the manager is pitcher management. Obviously the pitching and bullpen coaches can help with this, but somebody does have to know when your guy just doesn't have it, if something's off with his mechanics, or if he's just gassed early. And obviously you could pick up on something in the defense or the pitcher's mechanics and call for a steal, but the base coaches can also help a lot with that. There's so much data available now, just making moves because "you had a feeling" doesn't make sense anymore. Looking at the stat sheet with a general knowledge of the game is most of the job, perhaps unfortunately, but at the end of the day it's going to work better than managing by gut without the numbers.