I think the problem comes more from J.P's philsophy over Gibbons. J.P. prefers the big bomb over small ball, and when you bring in guys like Glaus and The Big Hurt, you expect the long ball. Unfortunately, with you live and die with the long ball, its a high variance strategy. I wouldn't necessarily say Gibbons cost the Jays a chance to contend, but definitely changes are necessary. Whether it is with the manager, or the GM, hard to say, but with most of the current players locked up beyond next year, hopefully the ship with right itself and the big hitters will bounce back based on the law of averages.
I'm a stats guy and can't believe that the Jays have not sacrificed with a runner in scoring position and no outs. It kills your chances because the defence does not have to prepare for a bunt in that situation, knowing that the Jays never do that.
It is just like saying I raise 5x with any pp under JJ, and 3x all other times. Therefore if I raise 5x I must have a pp weaker than JJ. It just kills your chances.
I partly blame the GM for that more than Gibby. He is not providing the players for Gibby to lay down that bunt. The only real bunter we have on our team is Reed and a stretch with McDonald and Hill. I don't have stats on me and I'm not sure if I can find it, but their individual success rate is not that high. Yes..you can argue that Gibby can give his players practice to lay down that bunt, etc etc...but if your boss hates the Sac Bunt, do you really want to put your job on the line?
The mangers job is to win games plain and simple. He is not there to protect his job, just put the Jays in best position possible to themselves a chance to win. The only reason they are this close is by accident. If the pitchers didn’t get injured they wouldn’t have promoted Marcum and McGown. A good manager take the players he is given and gets the most out of them. They should be bunting more. They should be teaching it more at all levels of the organization. This team waits for things to happen. And that is a bad philosophy in ball. Sometimes you have to try and make things happen, sometimes you miss but more off you force others into mistakes.
Good points. Again I have to use poker as an analogy. You can't win tourneys based on your cards alone. You definitely have to make things happen, be aggressive. You can't sit back and wait for AA all the time.
In all seriousness, good points by both of you and I like the poker/baseball manager comparison. Absolutely right, you can't always just wait for things to happen and react, sometimes you gotta force the issue, take the lead, live on the edge, etc
Comments
It is just like saying I raise 5x with any pp under JJ, and 3x all other times. Therefore if I raise 5x I must have a pp weaker than JJ. It just kills your chances.
Mix it up Jays!
Prophet :2h :2s
So that's what I've been doing wrong....
In all seriousness, good points by both of you and I like the poker/baseball manager comparison. Absolutely right, you can't always just wait for things to happen and react, sometimes you gotta force the issue, take the lead, live on the edge, etc