Jump to content
The Official Site of the Vancouver Canucks
Enter Search Term. Use arrows to navigate between autocomplete results. If no results appear, use Enter to do a full site search.
Forum Closure ×
Canucks Community
Forum Closure

Official Toronto Blue Jays '13 Season Thread

Gross-Misconduct

By Gross-Misconduct
in Off-Topic General

Recommended Posts

Relfk Abbotsford Regular

Relfk

Posted
Posted

Should Redmond get sent down? He failed in his first outing last night. I'm not sure if he deserves this loss, though. I mean, almost a 50 pitch count. Come on.

All on Gibbons but I wouldn't be mad if he had a few more chances. I like Wagner and Perez over him though.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
J529 Canucks Regular

J529

Posted
Posted

Article from May the Jays wouldn't have to fire Gibbons. Just re-assign him within the organization.

Gibbons thinks he's applying for another position on coaching staff only to return as Manager again. What is AA thinking here. He hires him back as Manager on the principle that they can work close together. Makes no sense to base it solely on that. If it didn't work before, why would it now? In 2006 the Jays signed AJ Burnett, BJ Ryan, Benjie Molina and acquired via trade Troy Glaus and Lyle Overbay. That team went 87-75, 2nd in East, 1 game ahead of Boston and first time they had not finished 3rd since 1993.

Make a change now and see if that can turn things around. Realistically, I see Gibbons finishing the year and then re-assigning him elsewhere after the season and hiring someone else whether internally or outside the organization.

http://www.thestar.c...out_firing.html

If Blue Jays GM Alex Anthopoulos ever wanted to make a change at manager, right now, for the good of the struggling franchise, he would not even need to fire John Gibbons.

Recall that when the 50-year-old Gibbons had flown to Toronto in November at the request of Anthopoulos, he believed it was to discuss a different job than manager — either bench coach or for a pro scouting position.

Instead, the young GM who had been burned by the less-than-cooperative attitude of the former skipper John Farrell, a man that we found out later had already told him he would rather be in Boston, Anthopoulos chose Gibbons, a man with whom he knew he could work closely.

It’s important that Gibbons never applied to be manager. Anthopoulos said he knew from Gibbons’ first time around as skipper under GM J.P. Ricciardi that he always believed he wanted the San Antonio native back with the Jays in some capacity. He had liked his ability to evaluate talent correctly and he trusted his baseball instinct and judgment.

That being said, Anthopoulos could reset and admit a mistake, going with the original plan for his friend. Don’t fire Gibbons, instead respect his contract, but re-assign him as a pro scout, an evaluator and righthand man in the Jays’ front office.

The mistake that Anthopoulos made in the off-season was following his belief that his revamped Jays roster had so much talent that all he needed was a caretaker manager. The belief that these guys were all somehow self-driven and would merely have to take the field and that talent would take over. It’s why he chose Gibbons, a man that after being fired by the Jays in 2008, has never had another sniff at managing in the majors. He was a bench coach with the Royals and then managed at Double-A.

Gibbons is not the current problem, but neither is he the solution. He seems at a loss for any way out of this Jays’ spiral that has seen the club win just one series all season.

Jose Reyes, the leadoff man and catalyst, was injured after 10 games. Cy Young winner R.A. Dickey has had upper back and neck issues that have caused his knuckleball to be up in the strike-zone, with too many of them driven out of the park. Mark Buehrle has pitched old.

Ricky Romero was left behind at spring training to work on a new delivery (before getting called up again Friday). Jose Bautista was battered and bruised and is off to another slow start. Second base is a defensive nightmare. Josh Johnson was shaky then hurt. Colby Rasmus is a hitter providing all or nothing. Emilio Bonifacio has yet to find a position or his groove as a base-stealer. J.P. Arencibia’s defence is again in question.

None of that is Gibbons’ fault as the decider, but reflects a miss in the judgment of Anthopoulos in what it would take to be Jays manager, to make this roster a winner.

When the GM walked into Paul Beeston’s office in November and suggested John Gibbons as manager, Beeston admitted that Anthopoulos had mentioned that the president himself had success a long time ago in championing the unlikely choice of batting coach Cito Gaston as replacement for Jimy Williams.

Now, Beeston could return the logical favour and point out to Anthopoulos that the Gaston hire was made early in a failing season — 12-24 in 1989 on May 15 — and the team went on to post 89 wins and advance to the post-season. Rogers ownerhip has too much invested in this season.

So, who should be the man to replace Gibbons as he is re-assigned to a scouting role? Even though bench coach DeMarlo Hale was originally considered as manager, it should not be someone already in the clubhouse. Hale is part of the current crisis. No, it needs to be someone that is familiar with the organization, with the players and could become either a short-term or long-term solution.

The best solution as manager among current Blue Jays personnel would be Sal Fasano, presently a roving minor-league catching instructor.

The 41-year-old Fasano had an 11-year career as a major-league backup catcher from 1996 to 2008, including a year with the Jays in 2007. He played for nine different major-league teams and in the five years since he retired, has managed for three years in the Jays’ farm system, including a Double-A Eastern League title at New Hampshire in 2011.

I spoke to Fasano at spring training about the perception that taking a roving instructor role might seem like a step backwards from the perceived fast-track to major-league manager.

“I don’t think so at all,” Fasano said. “A lot of the coaches that you have in the major leagues have at one time been a coordinator. I think it’s a positive step, because I’m learning another aspect of the game. I mean I did everything you could as a manager. I was .500 (at A-Lansing), I won a championship and I was in last place. I feel like I learned more when I was in last place than I did when I was in first place. Now as a coordinator, I’m understanding the organization, understanding and creating organizational policies, how to enforce those policies and really mastering my craft.”

The Jays are not dead yet. They clearly have a lot of proven talent and Melky Cabrera on the weekend showed signs of his dormant bat rounding into form. Brett Lawrie has solidified the defence. Brandon Morrow has taken a step towards becoming a top-of-the-rotation starter.

The Jays do not need to fire John Gibbons, but they could remove him from the line of fire, a position he never asked for in the first place. It would be a course correction by Anthopoulos. Gibbons is in the first season of a two-year contract and would be paid out and could remain in the organization.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
TheRussianRocket. Canucks All-Star

TheRussianRocket.

Posted
Posted

Jays season has be horrible, but Muny has been one of the only positives so far. Guy is something irreplaceable; I know the Jays are a deep hole 11 games back basically, but you never know. With Reyes close to return, things can change as hard as it may seem to believe.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-VqBI1D980

...this guy is amazing!

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Relfk Abbotsford Regular

Relfk

Posted
Posted

With the 10th pick in the MLB draft, the Blue Jays select Phillip Bickford.

As the spring progressed, this California high school right-hander was turning heads with his size and stuff. He has the ideal pitching frame and great arm action. He's been up to as high as 96 with his fastball and it has some good sink to it. He throws both a slider and a changeup, though they aren't as consistent as his fastball. The breaking ball is the better of the two, but both have the chance to be at least Major League average pitches in the future. He's composed on the mound and is generally around the strike zone, though improved command will be needed at the next level. With his size, stuff and projectability, teams will surely be interested in allowing him to work on that in their organization.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Wilbur Canucks First-Line

Wilbur

Posted
Posted

With the 10th pick in the MLB draft, the Blue Jays select Phillip Bickford.

As the spring progressed, this California high school right-hander was turning heads with his size and stuff. He has the ideal pitching frame and great arm action. He's been up to as high as 96 with his fastball and it has some good sink to it. He throws both a slider and a changeup, though they aren't as consistent as his fastball. The breaking ball is the better of the two, but both have the chance to be at least Major League average pitches in the future. He's composed on the mound and is generally around the strike zone, though improved command will be needed at the next level. With his size, stuff and projectability, teams will surely be interested in allowing him to work on that in their organization.

Interesting.

Although I wouldn't put too much stock into what it says about the slider. Chances are a high schooler hasn't been throwing them for that long. Sounds like he has a nasty fastball for someone of that age.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Relfk Abbotsford Regular

Relfk

Posted
Posted

Interesting.

Although I wouldn't put too much stock into what it says about the slider. Chances are a high schooler hasn't been throwing them for that long. Sounds like he has a nasty fastball for someone of that age.

Yeah a 96 mph fastball at that age is outstanding. I could see him easily getting it to 100+ as he gets stronger. The breaking balls will come with time. When I was a pitcher, I didn't have a very good breaking ball but around 19-20 I picked up a higher variety of pitches.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

Go to topic listing

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...