I am just making a point that I have made several times before. :frusty:
It is not a question of numbers or stats. It is the fact that some managers can bring the best out of the players and organize and motivate them into a team... and some can't. I am sure Gibbons is a very nice guy, but he has shown time and again that he is not one of those that can.
The problem with the BJ's is not lack of talent. Not now and not for the past several years. It is lack of leadership. In baseball, the manager is like the conductor of an orchestra. He can make a big difference in ways that have nothing to do with statistics.
To me, at least, it seems clear that the players are not all that enthusiastic about playing for Gibbons. I know they say that when interviewed by the press [what would you expect them to say... and memories of past events?] but their body language, their lack of intensity, their inability to consistently perform to their own levels of competence, says something else.
If you keep sending a reliever out to the mound that consistently fails, you replace him. AA keeps on throwing Gibbons into the game and he consistently fails. So what does he do? He keeps throwing him out there.
If AA were a horse owner, I wonder if he would keep sending out the same jockey that consistently fails to get the best race possible from his best horse?
Perry