Sure enough there was the news that Gibbons had been fired, but what’s this they replace him w/Cito Gaston. I did not see that one coming. I never understand why fans always want to bring back former managers and players as if there aren’t equally as qualified replacements out there, but in this case they actually did bring back a former manager and my initial reaction was why Cito. More on the coaching changes below.
Once my room was ready I got checked in and headed downtown. There was some sort of Arts festival going on so I just sort of wandered around before heading to the ballpark. I’ll leave the ballpark talk until tomorrow’s post so I can get on w/the coaching changes.
Although I have one thing about tonight’s game before moving on. For all those of you who have frequented the 500 level of the Rogers Centre you’d know this person, but I got quite a surprise when during the game I heard someone yell “When I say Alex, you say hit …” There were 3 Jays fans sitting in front of me and when we heard it we all looked at each other and thought it couldn’t be. Yes, that’s right Maureen along w/a group of other Rogers Centre Employees made the trip to PIT for the series and were a couple of sections over. Interestingly enough she only did the chant for about 3 hitters and then I never heard it again the rest of the night.
I am glad they fired Gibbons as I believe him to be on the minus side of my +/- 5 games won or lost (net) by a manager. I’ve wanted him fired for about 2 yrs now. I gave him a full year to learn (2005) but come 2006 I wasn’t seeing enough out of him to warrant him staying on. And yes they won 87 games in 2006 and finished 2nd, but I’m never one to use records to determine how good a manager is. I will say this though, I have seen improvements from him. Of course the one thing I as a fan can never tell is how much goes on inside the clubhouse between manager and players and therefore have no way of evaluating that part.
As for his replacement, I have nothing against Cito, I’ve always thought he should get another shot at managing, I just didn’t think it should come w/the Jays. However, when you sit back and look at the reasons it starts to make some sense. First, there are no internal options on the current coaching staff so they have to look elsewhere. Second, they had to go w/someone proven. No more Buck Martinez, Carlos Tosca, John Gibbons (all 1st time managing at the ML level). Third, if they are serious about still trying to win this yr you’d like someone familiar w/the team. Now I don’t know how much Cito actually saw of the team in his day-to-day as assistant to Godfrey but at least he has been showing up a few days every yr at spring training. It may not be much but it is more than someone from outside the organization would have.
As far as the other coaching moves well it basically has to do w/Cito wanting his own guys in Tenace and Leyva. They replace Denbo and Peavy. It is hard to believe all the hitting woes are due to Denbo, given these are major league hitters who generally are pretty set in their ways and are not going to change much everytime they get a new hitting coach. As for Peavy well if you’ve been reading you know my feelings on him (good riddance). Although I should point out I don’t have a problem w/Peavy as an OF coach, just not the 3B coach. If you stick him at 1B like last year I’m ok with it.
Since the pitching has been great there is no way you can get rid of Arnsberg or Walton, so they stay.
Butterfield is a great coach so I’m glad they kept him. I would have loved to see them move Butterfield back to 3B but that might be viewed as a demotion and it may have been Cito’s preference to have Leyva there, someone who is familiar w/his managerial style. Plus Buttefield is the most familiar w/the players so it may help Cito w/the in-game decisions having someone knowledgeable about the current roster, at least until Cito gets more familiar himself.
That leaves Whitt at 1B. You could guess by Whitt’s demotion from bench coach to 1B, the Jays did not really want him here. I’m not sure why they didn’t just let him go in the offseason instead of hoping he would reject the demotion. The reason he was let go now was b/c they needed to bring in someone to coach the OF’s. With Peavy gone and his replacement, Leyva at 3B, not an OF coach they had to bring someone else to coach the OF and the only coaching spot left is 1B. So in comes Dwayne Murphy, out goes Whitt.
Postgame fireworks: Conveniently on the day of Gibbons firing.
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