While watching the Blue Jays pummel Vazquez, thoughts began to wander since it was such a lopsided game anyway. In between thoughts of why the Yankees would make the same mistake in acquiring Vazquez for the second time, thoughts of Cito Gaston popped up again and again. For those of you unaware, Gaston is retiring as manager after this season and will become a consultant. Of course, Gaston being a paid consultant is similar to U.S. presidents sending Jimmy Carter to Uruguay to talk about crop rotation. It's a cushy landing for a guy who has held the reins and won't be holding them anymore. Part of those thoughts on Gaston centered on what his legacy would be.
Gaston's managerial career certainly started with a bang. His Blue Jay teams of 1989 to 1993 came in first place four of those five years. His teams won two World Series. Much like Joe Torre's Yankees, do you give Gaston full credit for that run or was the groundwork paved by Bobby Cox and Jimmy Williams? Certainly 1996 was as much Buck Showalter's Yankees as they were Torre's. But then again, only 21 managers in history have won two World Series. Thirteen of those are in the Hall of Fame and three others are still managing (Torre, Francona and LaRussa).
For those who ponder such things, Torre's record was tarnished by the fact that he had no success before he came to the Yankees. After his previous stint, nobody would hire him and he was a broadcaster. It was only after coming to the Yankees did Torre's career burn brightly. For his first two years in Los Angeles, that success held up. Gaston is just the opposite. His success was immediate and his problem is what came after it. Since 1992, Gaston's second World Series victory, his teams have a record of 464-521. He is going out nicely this year with a team that was expected to be terrible that ended up being the fourth best team in the American League.. But truly, his record since his Series victories is a problem.
Another problem for Gaston is his tenure. He hasn't managed much more than 1700 (1726 to be exact) games. There are a lot of managers that have more wins than Gaston has games managed. Gaston is 65th all time in managerial wins. That's a healthy number until you note the 64th place guy. His name is Jimmy Williams, who won 20 more games than Gaston and has a better lifetime winning percentage. How's that for a kick in the pants? Gaston's winning percentage is .516, which is 101st all time. He's tied with Buck Showalter and Bob Lemon. That's pretty good company.
One of the things the Fan likes to do to judge managers is to look at the team's Pythagorean won-loss figures.The Pythagorean won-loss record looks at the run differential for the team (the amount of runs given up versus the amount of runs scored). Smarter heads than this one look at the run differential and determine in a perfect world how many games a team should have won.
One of the things that was right about Joe Torre's book was that the Yankees out performed their run differential (and their talent by a wide margin from 2001 through 2007. Their last really great team was 2000. In reality, the Fan doesn't know whether this figure is a fair way to rate managers. But we don't have much else to go by besides actual wins and losses. Gaston's Pythagorean numbers are troubling too and mirror his actual won-loss record. Throwing out the partial years Gaston managed (because it's impossible to assign the statistic when two different guys manage a team, Gaston's teams finished this way: -6, +3, +5, +4, -1, -4, -3, -1, -9 and +2. If you add all those up, you'd find that for his career, Gaston has a -10 total in the Pythagorean ratio. His early teams outplayed their differential and most of his later teams underplayed their differential.
Some have mentioned that Gaston should get into the Hall of Fame because he was the first African-American to win a World Series as manager. And on the surface of things, that makes sense. It was a big milestone at the time. The difficulty though is assigning how much that is worth. Is it a Hall of Fame argument or a trivia question? The Fan thinks it lies somewhere in between. It was important. But not enough to simply buy a pass to the Hall of Fame.
In the end, in this writer's judgement, Gaston falls short of HOF credentials. He should be fondly remembered as a classy and solid manager that took the Blue Jays to nirvana twice. That should be a wonderful memory. In his last year, he should be remembered as the guy who allowed his young pitchers to grow up on the major league mound, which is a legacy that should last quite a few years. The Fan can't quite give him a pass at batting Snider at lead off though. That one was just plain strange. But he's also the guy that penciled Jose Bautista's name in the line up every day when that had never happened before in Bautista's career. That is a wonderful legacy too.
In the end, Cito Gaston was not a Hall of Fame manager. But he was a very good one.
Showing posts with label Cito Gaston. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cito Gaston. Show all posts
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Monday, June 07, 2010
Cito Gaston - Come On Now
Many viewed the Blue Jays current stretch of games as a test of how good they were as a team. With six games against the Bay Rays and three against the Yankees, it was thought that the surprise team of the AL East would either wilt or prove their mettle. Six games into that nine game run, the results are mixed. They have won three of the six, which isn't bad considering the caliber of the teams they are playing. But the thing is, they could have won all three of the games they lost. To say that the managing of those three losses was questionable would be an understatement.
The Fan has always thought Gaston was a good manager. Heck, he has those world championships next to his dossier, right? But that thought was eroded somewhat last year when the players revolted and went to the team's executive management to complain about him. How many times has that happened that you can remember? So, that certainly started giving the Fan pause about Gaston as a manager. Then the Fan started to read some of the Blue Jays' finest bloggers and their complaints were similar about the man. So the Fan has been paying closer attention.
The first loss against the Bay Rays was achingly horrid as they had a decent lead going into the ninth and then put in "closer" Gregg. Gregg didn't have it that night and walked five batters. The Fan wrote a dead-on post on how Gaston had three opportunities to bring in lefty, Rommie Lewis, to end that threat and win the game and Gaston never did it. The next night...the very next night...probably stung by his bullpen the previous night, Gaston got a terrific start from one of his great, young starting pitchers. Again, they had a decent lead going into the ninth inning. That starter was sent out to pitch the ninth. The fatigue was evident and things started going poorly. Now the rule of thumb for such things is that you allow the starter to put base runners on base up to the point that if the runners scored, the starter wouldn't be saddled for the loss. The rule is a good one, because if the starter pitched his heart out, then you don't give him an opportunity to lose the game after such a good outing. But Gaston left him out there and for too long and that starter indeed got saddled with the loss after eight brilliant innings of work.
That brings us to Sunday's game against the Yankees. The Blue Jays had a chance to sweep the series and that certainly would have been a feather in their cap. They had a 2-0 lead going into the top of the eighth inning. The two runs scored on the comeback player of the year, Vernon Wells' two run homer, the only hit recorded against Yankee starter, Javier Vazquez, who was otherwise brilliant. Jeter hit a double to make the score 2-1 and it was second and third with no outs. The Jays got a break when Swisher was called out on strikes on a questionable check swing call made by the home plate ump without checking with the third base ump. Teixeira was up next.
The rote move here would be to walk Teixeira with one out to create a double play situation. But rote shouldn't always be what a manager does. For one thing, Teixeira has been bloody awful. The night before he went 0 for 6 with five strikeouts. On Sunday, he was 0-4. With Fraser out there, there was a great chance that he could have struck out Teixeira making it two outs. But Gaston took the rote move and walked Teixeira to bring up A-Rod. Five other managers have pulled that same move this year and A-Rod had five hits to show how stupid that move is, including two grand slams. But Fraser threw a wild pitch to allow a free run to tie the game. Okay, that happens. But at least it's still tied. A-Rod struck out, which, if you had pitched to Teixeira, could have been the third out. Instead, it was the second out allowing the hottest hitter in baseball to come up in Robinson Cano, who promptly lashed a double that allowed the free base runner (Teixeira) and Jeter to score. That made the score 4-2, Yankees.
The Blue Jays would come back in the bottom of the eighth with a run that would have made it a 3-3 game if the free base runner hadn't scored. So, in this Fan's mind, the decision cost the Jays the game. So that's three games out of six that Gaston has eked out a loss on the heels of a victory. If the Blue Jays had won two of those games, they would be right up there with the Yankees and only a couple of games back to the Bay Rays.
The Fan doesn't believe that any series this early in the year is overly critical. At the same time, in a division that is going to take 98 to 100 wins to take it and with the likely wild card coming from the AL East in a four team race, three questionable losses can haunt you for a long, long time.
Lately, whenever the Fan thinks about Cito Gaston, that song from Disney's "Beauty and the Beast" comes into the brain:
"Gosh it disturbs me to see you, Gaston
Looking so down in the dumps
Every guy here'd love to be you, Gaston
Even when taking your lumps
There's no man in town as admired as you
You're ev'ryone's favorite guy
Ev'ryone's awed and inspired by you
And it's not very hard to see why
No one's slick as Gaston
No one's quick as Gaston
No one's neck's as incredibly thick as Gaston
For there's no man in town half as manly
Perfect, a pure paragon
You can ask any Tom, Dick or Stanley
And they'll tell you whose team they prefer to be on
No one's been like Gaston
A king pin like Gaston
No one's got a swell cleft in his chin like Gaston
As a specimen, yes, I'm intimidating
My what a guy, that Gaston"
The line that sticks out the most is the one about the incredibly thick neck. For a Toronto legend, it's too thick to cut off the head and his neck is too thick and stubborn when it comes to making cookie cutter baseball moves that blow up in his face.
The Fan has always thought Gaston was a good manager. Heck, he has those world championships next to his dossier, right? But that thought was eroded somewhat last year when the players revolted and went to the team's executive management to complain about him. How many times has that happened that you can remember? So, that certainly started giving the Fan pause about Gaston as a manager. Then the Fan started to read some of the Blue Jays' finest bloggers and their complaints were similar about the man. So the Fan has been paying closer attention.
The first loss against the Bay Rays was achingly horrid as they had a decent lead going into the ninth and then put in "closer" Gregg. Gregg didn't have it that night and walked five batters. The Fan wrote a dead-on post on how Gaston had three opportunities to bring in lefty, Rommie Lewis, to end that threat and win the game and Gaston never did it. The next night...the very next night...probably stung by his bullpen the previous night, Gaston got a terrific start from one of his great, young starting pitchers. Again, they had a decent lead going into the ninth inning. That starter was sent out to pitch the ninth. The fatigue was evident and things started going poorly. Now the rule of thumb for such things is that you allow the starter to put base runners on base up to the point that if the runners scored, the starter wouldn't be saddled for the loss. The rule is a good one, because if the starter pitched his heart out, then you don't give him an opportunity to lose the game after such a good outing. But Gaston left him out there and for too long and that starter indeed got saddled with the loss after eight brilliant innings of work.
That brings us to Sunday's game against the Yankees. The Blue Jays had a chance to sweep the series and that certainly would have been a feather in their cap. They had a 2-0 lead going into the top of the eighth inning. The two runs scored on the comeback player of the year, Vernon Wells' two run homer, the only hit recorded against Yankee starter, Javier Vazquez, who was otherwise brilliant. Jeter hit a double to make the score 2-1 and it was second and third with no outs. The Jays got a break when Swisher was called out on strikes on a questionable check swing call made by the home plate ump without checking with the third base ump. Teixeira was up next.
The rote move here would be to walk Teixeira with one out to create a double play situation. But rote shouldn't always be what a manager does. For one thing, Teixeira has been bloody awful. The night before he went 0 for 6 with five strikeouts. On Sunday, he was 0-4. With Fraser out there, there was a great chance that he could have struck out Teixeira making it two outs. But Gaston took the rote move and walked Teixeira to bring up A-Rod. Five other managers have pulled that same move this year and A-Rod had five hits to show how stupid that move is, including two grand slams. But Fraser threw a wild pitch to allow a free run to tie the game. Okay, that happens. But at least it's still tied. A-Rod struck out, which, if you had pitched to Teixeira, could have been the third out. Instead, it was the second out allowing the hottest hitter in baseball to come up in Robinson Cano, who promptly lashed a double that allowed the free base runner (Teixeira) and Jeter to score. That made the score 4-2, Yankees.
The Blue Jays would come back in the bottom of the eighth with a run that would have made it a 3-3 game if the free base runner hadn't scored. So, in this Fan's mind, the decision cost the Jays the game. So that's three games out of six that Gaston has eked out a loss on the heels of a victory. If the Blue Jays had won two of those games, they would be right up there with the Yankees and only a couple of games back to the Bay Rays.
The Fan doesn't believe that any series this early in the year is overly critical. At the same time, in a division that is going to take 98 to 100 wins to take it and with the likely wild card coming from the AL East in a four team race, three questionable losses can haunt you for a long, long time.
Lately, whenever the Fan thinks about Cito Gaston, that song from Disney's "Beauty and the Beast" comes into the brain:
"Gosh it disturbs me to see you, Gaston
Looking so down in the dumps
Every guy here'd love to be you, Gaston
Even when taking your lumps
There's no man in town as admired as you
You're ev'ryone's favorite guy
Ev'ryone's awed and inspired by you
And it's not very hard to see why
No one's slick as Gaston
No one's quick as Gaston
No one's neck's as incredibly thick as Gaston
For there's no man in town half as manly
Perfect, a pure paragon
You can ask any Tom, Dick or Stanley
And they'll tell you whose team they prefer to be on
No one's been like Gaston
A king pin like Gaston
No one's got a swell cleft in his chin like Gaston
As a specimen, yes, I'm intimidating
My what a guy, that Gaston"
The line that sticks out the most is the one about the incredibly thick neck. For a Toronto legend, it's too thick to cut off the head and his neck is too thick and stubborn when it comes to making cookie cutter baseball moves that blow up in his face.
Wednesday, June 02, 2010
Closer Poser
Okay, this Fan is a little peeved. Well, make that a lot peeved. The target of this ill humor? Managers. There seems to be this golden rule that a manager will sink or swim with his closer no matter what is happening in the ninth inning. This rule was no better exemplified then in Tuesday night's game between the Blue Jays and the Bay Rays. The Blue Jays are scratching and clawing, raking and dishing to keep themselves relevant in the AL East. It's been tremendously fun watching this team of underdogs crush the ball and pitch like crazy. In a stretch of games where they face the Bay Rays six times and the Yankees three times, they took the Bay Rays in the first game of the series. On Tuesday night, they were in control and took a 5-3 lead into the ninth. Enter Kevin Gregg.
Gregg has done a decent job for the Blue Jays after a difficult experience in Chicago. But there are times when a closer just doesn't have what it takes to finish a game. That happens even to Mariano Rivera once or twice a year. It happens. A couple of weeks ago, Rivera didn't have it and Girardi invoked the golden rule and left Rivera out there to get pounded until the Yankees lost. Tonight was Gregg's turn and again, the manager fell prey to this stupid rule. Here's what happened.
Gregg came into the game and started things off with a strikeout. One down. Upton walked. No problem. His run was meaningless. Upton stole second and then Gregg inexplicably threw a ball away which allowed Upton to third. No problem. Again, that run is meaningless. Carl Crawford walked. That's a cardinal crime, walking the tying run on base. Now there is a problem. Gregg then struck out Longoria. Two outs. The next sequence is where Cito Gaston lost the game by sticking with the golden rule. Carlos Pena was up next. Pena, of course, is a left-handed batter. It was the perfect situation to bring in Rommie Lewis. Lewis throws from the left-hand side. He has a 4/1 K/BB ratio. He has a WHIP of 1.00. It was perfect. But Gaston stuck with Gregg.
Gregg walked Pena. The bases were then loaded, Gregg had already walked three guys to that point. The Bay Rays sent up John Jaso to pinch hit. Jaso also bats left-handed. Okay, Cito, you could have used Lewis to get Pena out but didn't. After three walks, at least bring in Lewis to pitch to Jaso? No. That violates the golden rule. Gregg walked Jaso to make the score 5-4. Gregg had reached four walks in the inning. The next batter was Zobrist, a switch hitter who has a .915 OPS against right-handed pitching and a .606 OPS against left-handed pitching. Yes, his splits are that dramatic (and a little known secret). C'mon Cito, get the guy out of there! Lewis had a better chance against Zobrist than Gregg who was obviously laboring. NO!? Oh yeah, golden rule: Live by the closer, die by the closer. Screw that stupid rule already.
Zobrist, of course hit a double that cleared the bases. Ball game. Gaston STILL didn't go get his closer. Gregg then walked his fifth batter and only then did Gaston go get him. Finally, Rommie Lewis came in to pitch...three batters too late. Of course, Lewis struck out his guy to end the inning.
Now, Gaston isn't alone in this stupidity. It happens every week in baseball. What fries the Fan is that it isn't rocket science to think out of the box here and understand that closers are fallible and as such, there is no reason why the only outcomes possible are a save or a loss. This Fan can't imagine Tony LaRussa being that tied to such a stupid rule of thinking. The match ups were right there in front of Gaston. You can't even give Gaston a break because it was a Papelbon or a Rivera. It was Kevin freakin Gregg, AKA: Average closer that can be fallible on occasion.
Rob Neyer has often said that managers don't often manage to win, but often manage to not lose. There is a big difference. Tony LaRussa manages to win every game he's in the dugout. Gaston, like too many other managers, just paints by the numbers.
Gregg has done a decent job for the Blue Jays after a difficult experience in Chicago. But there are times when a closer just doesn't have what it takes to finish a game. That happens even to Mariano Rivera once or twice a year. It happens. A couple of weeks ago, Rivera didn't have it and Girardi invoked the golden rule and left Rivera out there to get pounded until the Yankees lost. Tonight was Gregg's turn and again, the manager fell prey to this stupid rule. Here's what happened.
Gregg came into the game and started things off with a strikeout. One down. Upton walked. No problem. His run was meaningless. Upton stole second and then Gregg inexplicably threw a ball away which allowed Upton to third. No problem. Again, that run is meaningless. Carl Crawford walked. That's a cardinal crime, walking the tying run on base. Now there is a problem. Gregg then struck out Longoria. Two outs. The next sequence is where Cito Gaston lost the game by sticking with the golden rule. Carlos Pena was up next. Pena, of course, is a left-handed batter. It was the perfect situation to bring in Rommie Lewis. Lewis throws from the left-hand side. He has a 4/1 K/BB ratio. He has a WHIP of 1.00. It was perfect. But Gaston stuck with Gregg.
Gregg walked Pena. The bases were then loaded, Gregg had already walked three guys to that point. The Bay Rays sent up John Jaso to pinch hit. Jaso also bats left-handed. Okay, Cito, you could have used Lewis to get Pena out but didn't. After three walks, at least bring in Lewis to pitch to Jaso? No. That violates the golden rule. Gregg walked Jaso to make the score 5-4. Gregg had reached four walks in the inning. The next batter was Zobrist, a switch hitter who has a .915 OPS against right-handed pitching and a .606 OPS against left-handed pitching. Yes, his splits are that dramatic (and a little known secret). C'mon Cito, get the guy out of there! Lewis had a better chance against Zobrist than Gregg who was obviously laboring. NO!? Oh yeah, golden rule: Live by the closer, die by the closer. Screw that stupid rule already.
Zobrist, of course hit a double that cleared the bases. Ball game. Gaston STILL didn't go get his closer. Gregg then walked his fifth batter and only then did Gaston go get him. Finally, Rommie Lewis came in to pitch...three batters too late. Of course, Lewis struck out his guy to end the inning.
Now, Gaston isn't alone in this stupidity. It happens every week in baseball. What fries the Fan is that it isn't rocket science to think out of the box here and understand that closers are fallible and as such, there is no reason why the only outcomes possible are a save or a loss. This Fan can't imagine Tony LaRussa being that tied to such a stupid rule of thinking. The match ups were right there in front of Gaston. You can't even give Gaston a break because it was a Papelbon or a Rivera. It was Kevin freakin Gregg, AKA: Average closer that can be fallible on occasion.
Rob Neyer has often said that managers don't often manage to win, but often manage to not lose. There is a big difference. Tony LaRussa manages to win every game he's in the dugout. Gaston, like too many other managers, just paints by the numbers.
Wednesday, June 03, 2009
The Great Roy Halladay
Writing a post about how good Roy Halladay is as a pitcher is a lot like stating that bears live in the woods. Well, duh! Of course the guy is good. But last night, on a night he gave up four earned runs, showed a different level of good. It showed throwback good. While we'll have to see how he bounces back next start after throwing 133 pitches, last night's performance was breathtaking.
Halladay was cruising along after six innings with a six run (6-0) lead. Knowing Halladay, the Fan thought: "Game over." But then came the seventh inning. He loaded the bases with no outs and then a couple of runs scored. The Fan kept expecting Cito Gaston to pop out of the dugout, but nope. And nobody was even warming up. "Gulp," thought the Fan. And that's because the Fan has watched a million games of modern day baseball, when starting pitchers die routinely after six or seven innings (sometimes five). And managers of modern baseball never let a starting pitcher go very far when the other team seems to catch up to their pitchers.
But Halladay is a different cat. He's not the average modern pitcher and he hung in there and despite giving up a four-spot and allowing the game to get close, he found another gear and struck out five out of six outs in the eighth and ninth to finish off the game. No blown saves, no disappointing loss for his team. Just a gutty throwback, spectacularly impressive game.
Having a guy like that on your team goes a long way in preventing slides. It keeps hope alive in his teammates and for their fans. To get an idea, read this piece from a really good writer and a self-proclaimed homer. Even though the writer is a die-hard Blue Jays fan, his blog always tells it like it is, good, bad or ugly. His take of Halladay's performance shows what the pitcher means to his team and his fans.
Rob Neyer wrote in his blog of his concern for the pitch count, and that is a valid concern (99.9% of Neyer's concerns are valid). But it doesn't appear to be a case of a manager abusing a pitcher. Rather, it appears more to be a manager who knows when to let a warrior do his thing. Again, we'll see how he bounces back from this performance.
Halladay was cruising along after six innings with a six run (6-0) lead. Knowing Halladay, the Fan thought: "Game over." But then came the seventh inning. He loaded the bases with no outs and then a couple of runs scored. The Fan kept expecting Cito Gaston to pop out of the dugout, but nope. And nobody was even warming up. "Gulp," thought the Fan. And that's because the Fan has watched a million games of modern day baseball, when starting pitchers die routinely after six or seven innings (sometimes five). And managers of modern baseball never let a starting pitcher go very far when the other team seems to catch up to their pitchers.
But Halladay is a different cat. He's not the average modern pitcher and he hung in there and despite giving up a four-spot and allowing the game to get close, he found another gear and struck out five out of six outs in the eighth and ninth to finish off the game. No blown saves, no disappointing loss for his team. Just a gutty throwback, spectacularly impressive game.
Having a guy like that on your team goes a long way in preventing slides. It keeps hope alive in his teammates and for their fans. To get an idea, read this piece from a really good writer and a self-proclaimed homer. Even though the writer is a die-hard Blue Jays fan, his blog always tells it like it is, good, bad or ugly. His take of Halladay's performance shows what the pitcher means to his team and his fans.
Rob Neyer wrote in his blog of his concern for the pitch count, and that is a valid concern (99.9% of Neyer's concerns are valid). But it doesn't appear to be a case of a manager abusing a pitcher. Rather, it appears more to be a manager who knows when to let a warrior do his thing. Again, we'll see how he bounces back from this performance.
Tuesday, May 05, 2009
Cito Gaston is the Man
Cito Gaston is once again proving he is one of the game's premier managers no matter what happens the rest of the season. And the question begs to be asked: What the heck were all those teams thinking when they passed him up for eleven years? The Blue Jays are in first place in a division where their names weren't mentioned in any forecasts before the season. We heard it over and over, there are three top teams in the American League East. Well, there are four. And only one of them has Cito Gaston.
There was a time when the Fan did not appreciate Gaston. Living in New Hampshire at the time, the only games we got on television were CBC (Canadian Broadcast Channel) games, mostly Toronto, but sometimes the Expos. There was a gigantic obstacle in ever warming up to that team in the 90s: Tommy Hutton. Hutton, now one of the Marlins' color analysts, was the smarmiest, homiest announcers in the history of the game. He gushed so much about the Blue Jays during telecasts that it was impossible not to root against them.
But you know what? Those teams were fantastic. You can give Gaston credit, but the front office built the team and they had it all--good pitching, great relievers, speed, power, high on-base percentage. It was an awesome team. Henke and then Duane Ward were dominant closers. The starters were warriors (Hentgen, Stottlemyer, Steib, Morris, Key and throw in a little David Cone, Al Leiter, David Wells). Plus they had Joe Carter, Jon Olerud and Robbie Alomar, all in their primes. Dave Winfield was the DH for the first championship and Paul Molitor the second. Two Hall of Famers.
The year after the second championship, the strike shut baseball down and the Blue Jays never recaptured the magic. Three years later, Gaston was fired. What!? The man won two championships! Surely someone else would have hired him after that, right? Please don't call me Shirley. But no one did. Why?
There were dozens of vacancies in the eleven years since Gaston last managed the Blue Jays. What happened to prevent him from getting jobs? Was he a victim of what Joe Torre went through where he was never given credit for winning with great teams? Was it because of his skin color? What was the deal? He wasn't a better manager than Lee Elia, who had two disastrous chances? He wasn't better than Bruce Kimm or Clint Hurdle or any brother named Lachemann?
It was a grave injustice, whatever the reason was. Somebody should have given him the reins and nobody did. Finally, when the fake war hero, Jon Gibbons lost the team, the Blue Jays undid a lot of wrongs and hired Gaston back. And look what he's done. He took over the Blue Jays last year and finished the season, 51-37 and now he has the Blue Jays flying with an 18-9 record. And that record is with three fifths of his starting rotation on the shelf with injuries.
It still seems hard to imagine that the Blue Jays can keep up this pace. Marco Scutaro isn't going to finish with a .400 OBP like he has now. Aaron Hill isn't going to finish with a 150 OPS+ like he has now. Sooner or later, the starting pitching will show cracks of inexperience. But it doesn't matter. Cito Gaston has shown that he can manage with the best of them.
There was a time when the Fan did not appreciate Gaston. Living in New Hampshire at the time, the only games we got on television were CBC (Canadian Broadcast Channel) games, mostly Toronto, but sometimes the Expos. There was a gigantic obstacle in ever warming up to that team in the 90s: Tommy Hutton. Hutton, now one of the Marlins' color analysts, was the smarmiest, homiest announcers in the history of the game. He gushed so much about the Blue Jays during telecasts that it was impossible not to root against them.
But you know what? Those teams were fantastic. You can give Gaston credit, but the front office built the team and they had it all--good pitching, great relievers, speed, power, high on-base percentage. It was an awesome team. Henke and then Duane Ward were dominant closers. The starters were warriors (Hentgen, Stottlemyer, Steib, Morris, Key and throw in a little David Cone, Al Leiter, David Wells). Plus they had Joe Carter, Jon Olerud and Robbie Alomar, all in their primes. Dave Winfield was the DH for the first championship and Paul Molitor the second. Two Hall of Famers.
The year after the second championship, the strike shut baseball down and the Blue Jays never recaptured the magic. Three years later, Gaston was fired. What!? The man won two championships! Surely someone else would have hired him after that, right? Please don't call me Shirley. But no one did. Why?
There were dozens of vacancies in the eleven years since Gaston last managed the Blue Jays. What happened to prevent him from getting jobs? Was he a victim of what Joe Torre went through where he was never given credit for winning with great teams? Was it because of his skin color? What was the deal? He wasn't a better manager than Lee Elia, who had two disastrous chances? He wasn't better than Bruce Kimm or Clint Hurdle or any brother named Lachemann?
It was a grave injustice, whatever the reason was. Somebody should have given him the reins and nobody did. Finally, when the fake war hero, Jon Gibbons lost the team, the Blue Jays undid a lot of wrongs and hired Gaston back. And look what he's done. He took over the Blue Jays last year and finished the season, 51-37 and now he has the Blue Jays flying with an 18-9 record. And that record is with three fifths of his starting rotation on the shelf with injuries.
It still seems hard to imagine that the Blue Jays can keep up this pace. Marco Scutaro isn't going to finish with a .400 OBP like he has now. Aaron Hill isn't going to finish with a 150 OPS+ like he has now. Sooner or later, the starting pitching will show cracks of inexperience. But it doesn't matter. Cito Gaston has shown that he can manage with the best of them.
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