It seems a lot of us are thinking the same thing right about now...
...but lets consider this with rational reason. Or at least with reasonable ration. I for one, am not of the opinion that John Gibbons is a terrible big league manager (although I was much more convinced of that before this season began). He appears to have his strengths and weaknesses, like most skippers who occupy the end of a bench. In the right situation with just enough good breaks, any modestly intelligent baseball fellow can manage a team to a championship. This is why men like Bob Brenly, John Farrell and Ozzie Guillen have as many World Series rings as Bobby Cox and Whitey Herzog. Again, I don't think John Gibbons is a terrible manager. The question for me is: whether the situation is getting away from his control, uh, again. Lets take a quick look at some of the stuff we, as observers, can actually see.
Bullpen Management
Gibbons was brought back for 2013 with his ability to run a bullpen as a major selling point. And that is certainly true of his first tour, as his teams managed to get workable innings year after year out of such castoffs like Scott Schoeneweis, Scott Downs, Brian Wolfe, Jeremy Accardo, Brian Tallet, Vinnie Chulk and his current pitching coach, Pete Walker. Initially that seemed to be the case again in 2013, with guys like Delabar, Cecil, McGowan, Juan Perez (ouch) and Neil Wagner (ouch again) all emerging as useful relief pieces under Gibbons' watch. 2014 was really the first full season Gibbons has managed where the bullpen has not been a strength of his ballclub (you could argue 2006, since everybody not named B.J. Ryan was pretty mediocre at best). Perhaps as a result of that, often times this season it has felt as though the skipper's touch with his relief core has seemed slightly off (to be as wishy-washy in that sentence as possible). There seem to be guys he trusts no matter what (Loup), guys who don't really seem to have a specific role (Osuna, Delabar) and guys who he doesn't trust to start an inning in a close game in the eighth, but who he'll bring in with the bases loaded, nobody out and a one run game in the sixth, a.k.a a near impossible situation (Hendriks, Francis, Albers briefly). You can blame the GM for not providing the personnel (and rightfully so), but I don't think it's crazy to say this is a manager who has made it work with less. So far, that's a point against Gibby.
The Team Playing Hard
Look, it's the middle of May. If the team had already given up hustling at this point, there would be much bigger problems than the manager. Even the Brewers are still playing hard, and why wouldn't they? There are over a hundred games left in the season. At this point in the season, I don't think you can judge a skipper one way or the other in this regard (unless it's extreme one way or the other). The only reason you don't see every Blue Jay chugging it down the line is either because they're injured (which is half the team) or because their name is Edwin Encarnacion or Justin Smoak and doing that on a ground ball to shortstop just means you're ten feet closer to first base before you're officially out. This isn't a point for or against Gibbons.
Lineups
This has confused me a little bit, to be honest. Just a few small things. First of all, Kevin Pillar should never, ever, bat fifth in a big league lineup. I'd rather see him bat leadoff than hit there. I like Pillar a lot, but his bat has some weaknesses. I mean, the dude is slugging .342 right now. That's awful close to Kawasaki level, and who in their right mind would put Kawasaki in the top five of their... ah nevermind. Gibbons also seems strangely tentative to use pinch hitters this year, even though the options on the bench have been mostly fruitful this season. For one thing, I'm not exactly sure Gibbons is aware Justin Smoak is actually a switch hitter (Smoak has only 3 ABs batting RH all year, he's 2-3). Danny Valencia, who was pretty much born to make lefty pitchers curse the day they were born, has only six pinch hit at-bats all season (he's 0-6). Meanwhile he seems perfectly content to allow Ryan Goins, Josh Thole or Ezquiel Carrera to face tough pitchers (often left-handed) late in ballgames. To which I say, um... why? Having the best defense out there on the field isn't quite as useful when at the moment you're losing the game. Seeing if Danny Valencia can play shortstop in an emergency is a better (and obviously much more hilarious) problem than constantly squandering opportunities to score late in ballgames. By the way, I like Valencia's chances of playing a somewhat passable shortstop (two minor league innings there!) over Goins' chances of suddenly figuring out left-handed pitching.
Conclusion
It's not the mayor's fault that the stadium collapsed!
GIBBONS: IF YOU WERE RUNNING A BASEBALL TEAM, HE'D VOTE FOR YOU
Things are being overblown quite a bit. The record isn't as bad as some make it seem (though it sure looked better on Thursday), and all this talk of apathy towards the team is frankly rather annoying. This is baseball. It is inherently a game of failure. And it's freaking May! If this bad baseball nonsense continues into July then yeah, I'll be right with you, or alone in the corner hoping the Reds can steal a wildcard spot. Lets slow down, take this thing one game at a time and maybe stop trying to drill the big picture into the wall for just a moment. It's frustrating (oh goodness yes) but I'm saving my best, sharpest pitchfork for when it's truly time for that sort of thing.
As for Gibbons, well... I feel like managers are like umpires a lot of the time. When they're doing a good job, you hardly notice them. We've been noticing Gibby a lot lately.
...but lets consider this with rational reason. Or at least with reasonable ration. I for one, am not of the opinion that John Gibbons is a terrible big league manager (although I was much more convinced of that before this season began). He appears to have his strengths and weaknesses, like most skippers who occupy the end of a bench. In the right situation with just enough good breaks, any modestly intelligent baseball fellow can manage a team to a championship. This is why men like Bob Brenly, John Farrell and Ozzie Guillen have as many World Series rings as Bobby Cox and Whitey Herzog. Again, I don't think John Gibbons is a terrible manager. The question for me is: whether the situation is getting away from his control, uh, again. Lets take a quick look at some of the stuff we, as observers, can actually see.
Bullpen Management
Gibbons was brought back for 2013 with his ability to run a bullpen as a major selling point. And that is certainly true of his first tour, as his teams managed to get workable innings year after year out of such castoffs like Scott Schoeneweis, Scott Downs, Brian Wolfe, Jeremy Accardo, Brian Tallet, Vinnie Chulk and his current pitching coach, Pete Walker. Initially that seemed to be the case again in 2013, with guys like Delabar, Cecil, McGowan, Juan Perez (ouch) and Neil Wagner (ouch again) all emerging as useful relief pieces under Gibbons' watch. 2014 was really the first full season Gibbons has managed where the bullpen has not been a strength of his ballclub (you could argue 2006, since everybody not named B.J. Ryan was pretty mediocre at best). Perhaps as a result of that, often times this season it has felt as though the skipper's touch with his relief core has seemed slightly off (to be as wishy-washy in that sentence as possible). There seem to be guys he trusts no matter what (Loup), guys who don't really seem to have a specific role (Osuna, Delabar) and guys who he doesn't trust to start an inning in a close game in the eighth, but who he'll bring in with the bases loaded, nobody out and a one run game in the sixth, a.k.a a near impossible situation (Hendriks, Francis, Albers briefly). You can blame the GM for not providing the personnel (and rightfully so), but I don't think it's crazy to say this is a manager who has made it work with less. So far, that's a point against Gibby.
The Team Playing Hard
Look, it's the middle of May. If the team had already given up hustling at this point, there would be much bigger problems than the manager. Even the Brewers are still playing hard, and why wouldn't they? There are over a hundred games left in the season. At this point in the season, I don't think you can judge a skipper one way or the other in this regard (unless it's extreme one way or the other). The only reason you don't see every Blue Jay chugging it down the line is either because they're injured (which is half the team) or because their name is Edwin Encarnacion or Justin Smoak and doing that on a ground ball to shortstop just means you're ten feet closer to first base before you're officially out. This isn't a point for or against Gibbons.
Lineups
This has confused me a little bit, to be honest. Just a few small things. First of all, Kevin Pillar should never, ever, bat fifth in a big league lineup. I'd rather see him bat leadoff than hit there. I like Pillar a lot, but his bat has some weaknesses. I mean, the dude is slugging .342 right now. That's awful close to Kawasaki level, and who in their right mind would put Kawasaki in the top five of their... ah nevermind. Gibbons also seems strangely tentative to use pinch hitters this year, even though the options on the bench have been mostly fruitful this season. For one thing, I'm not exactly sure Gibbons is aware Justin Smoak is actually a switch hitter (Smoak has only 3 ABs batting RH all year, he's 2-3). Danny Valencia, who was pretty much born to make lefty pitchers curse the day they were born, has only six pinch hit at-bats all season (he's 0-6). Meanwhile he seems perfectly content to allow Ryan Goins, Josh Thole or Ezquiel Carrera to face tough pitchers (often left-handed) late in ballgames. To which I say, um... why? Having the best defense out there on the field isn't quite as useful when at the moment you're losing the game. Seeing if Danny Valencia can play shortstop in an emergency is a better (and obviously much more hilarious) problem than constantly squandering opportunities to score late in ballgames. By the way, I like Valencia's chances of playing a somewhat passable shortstop (two minor league innings there!) over Goins' chances of suddenly figuring out left-handed pitching.
Conclusion
It's not the mayor's fault that the stadium collapsed!
GIBBONS: IF YOU WERE RUNNING A BASEBALL TEAM, HE'D VOTE FOR YOU
Things are being overblown quite a bit. The record isn't as bad as some make it seem (though it sure looked better on Thursday), and all this talk of apathy towards the team is frankly rather annoying. This is baseball. It is inherently a game of failure. And it's freaking May! If this bad baseball nonsense continues into July then yeah, I'll be right with you, or alone in the corner hoping the Reds can steal a wildcard spot. Lets slow down, take this thing one game at a time and maybe stop trying to drill the big picture into the wall for just a moment. It's frustrating (oh goodness yes) but I'm saving my best, sharpest pitchfork for when it's truly time for that sort of thing.
As for Gibbons, well... I feel like managers are like umpires a lot of the time. When they're doing a good job, you hardly notice them. We've been noticing Gibby a lot lately.
