I know you I knew you
I think I can remember your name
Hello I'm sorry I lost myself
I think I thought you were someone else
- Beat goes on. Pirates 1, Jays 0, and the good guys fall five games under .500 for the first time since May 1.
Doug Mientkiewicz was the first star of the evening. Not that anyone gives a rat's about the game itself, or that anyone should, but if anyone wants to give someone the $*@^#%( treatment, Doug $*@^#%( Mientkiewicz is your man. He ended up 3-4 with a walk, the run scored and a couple of stellar defensive plays at third (neither of which required any kind of throwing prowess, unsurprisingly). In the top of the third, with two out and Rios on second, he turned a Wells double into an infield single, and both runners ended up stranded. In the sixth, he denied Rolen a sure double with an instinctive diving catch. Those two plays combined were worth about 18 points of WPA. And in the 12th, he managed to whack a two-strike Jesse Carlson breaking ball for a leadoff double, which is totally unfair to a manager in his first day on the job. He should've just walkoffed Carlson himself so the game could go into the history books as the Doug Mientkiewicz Game and not the much less catchy Cito Comes Back and Roy Takes a Liner Off the Head Possibly Signifying Disapproval From the Baseball Gods Game.
The good news: Doc is officially day-to-day. The ball only hit him above the right temple and he's expected to make his next start on Thursday against the Reds.
- Here's what all the moral arbiters and baseball astrologers have to say. Yeah, I think this bit is lame too, but given the surreal circumstances...
Dave Perkins brings the punditry: What Gaston is exceptional at is exactly what this team needs: someone to get talented players to play to their capabilities. ... Clearly this organization had been humiliated in the past 48 hours and needed to change the talking points. Ricciardi embarrassed himself with his radio screed about Adam Dunn – who among us hasn't said or done things we wish we hadn't? – and got ripped coast to coast across the U.S., where he cares what people think.
Rich Griffin brings the predictability: When asked at spring training this year about ever coming back, he said, "Teams know where to find me. If they want to give me a long-term contract, I can still manage." Hmm. Now Gaston accepts this "interim" managerial job with the Jays. It makes one wonder if maybe he has been promised something beyond this season by someone higher than the shaky GM.
Steve Simmons brings the predictability: Truth is, Ricciardi would have preferred to have kept Gibbons in place. He is stubborn that way. It wasn't that the two were friends, it was Gibbons provided something of a security blanket for Ricciardi's reign of mediocrity. ... Ricciardi had decided to replace Gibbons prior to the Milwaukee series.
Bob Elliott brings a touching farewell to Gibby: Regrets? "Funny, but I was thinking about that about half an hour ago and I wouldn't have changed a thing," Gibbons said. "I learned along the way."
Bruce Arthur brings a peppy, youthful take on all the Griffin classics: "... I share the blame, along with Gibby." - Ricciardi, June 20. Of course, today Gibby is the only one out of a job. When asked by one reporter Friday why he recently said Gibbons would stay through the end of the season, Ricciardi said, "If I turned around and told you that Gibby was probably in trouble at that point, it wouldn't be real responsible from my end." As we have learned, it's not a lie if J.P. knows the truth.
The voice of reason is silent for now, but he does bring quotes that bring the headscratching: "We didn't bring Cito in here to put a Band-Aid on [the season]," Ricciardi said. "We'll get through the end of the year and sit down and talk about it at that point."
Best for last, Stephen Brunt brings the scorn: The appeal of nostalgia is in comfort, in remembering simpler times, younger times, times when, in hindsight, it all made sense, when it seemed somebody had all the answers. But here and now, it's just kind of sad. ... This is an act of pure, cover-your-butt cynicism. ... [Finding a more plausible long-term solution] is what Rogers and company have to do, right after they finish playing baseball fans for suckers — again.
Brunt's take on why the Jays brought in Gaston as opposed to anyone else is reasonable. They hired him primarily because of the PR points. Fair enough. But Brunt implies a few times that it's contemptible for some reason, like the front office thinks it's pulling wool over people's eyes, which I don't quite get.
Sure, the front office is keenly aware of the nostalgia kick people will get out of this, and you can even call it cynical if you want. But does it really matter who the interim manager is? Do you really think anyone thinks this makes the front office immune to criticism? Honestly, my ideal short-term solution would be a complete outsider who's a hitting specialist by trade. I think the merits of firing Gibbons are debatable, but replacing him with Gaston for the rest of the season makes sense on a number of levels. Including the cynical one. Sure, the move will defuse the Dunn controversy and take some heat off JP, and maybe even sell a couple more tickets, and the front office certainly knows it, but I think it's a bit of a stretch to act insulted by that. What are they supposed to do instead? Maybe I'm missing the point.
Much more insulting is the team's continued burial of Adam Lind in Syracuse, where he's put up a .353/.420/.594 line against RH pitchers. That indicates an unwillingness to field their best 25-man roster, which is really bad. According to Baseball Prospectus, Lind's cumulative line - in which about 30% of his PA are against lefty pitchers - is equivalent to a .295/.358/.479 at the major-league level.
Hey, wait - BulletJayFan has good news. Lind promoted! It's a start. And hey, maybe Cito will push for a six-man bullpen. That would be a nice touch. It's Paul Maholm tonight, a lefty, so don't bank on Lind starting. But it'll be nice to see him around, at least.
Game 2 is tonight. Litsch and Maholm at 7:05.
https://www.battersbox.ca/article.php?story=20080621074351481