Comments on: Blue Jays to bring back John Gibbons as manager

By: mazblast

mazblast — Wed, 21 Nov 2012 05:47:22 +0000

IMO Gibbons did about the best that could be done with the team The Great J.P. assembled. I’d look at the lineups the Jays were fielding and say, “That’s not gonna do it”.

This time, he has bigger guns, more ammo, and a general manager who seems to have a clue.

By: mazblast

mazblast — Wed, 21 Nov 2012 05:40:15 +0000

Canadian parents, most likely.

By: jason9696

jason9696 — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 20:48:01 +0000

That was Tim Johnson. He said he was in Vietnam but he never was.

By: proudlycanadian

proudlycanadian — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 19:38:46 +0000

Condolences once again!

By: proudlycanadian

proudlycanadian — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 19:34:32 +0000

Relax! Take 10 deep breaths and let it all hang out. This team does not need a star manager. All it needs is a good traffic cop who wants to be here.

By: proudlycanadian

proudlycanadian — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 19:32:13 +0000

AA is doing exactly what he said he will do. He is letting his gut do the hiring.

By: historiophiliac

historiophiliac — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 19:19:48 +0000

Hmmm, some combination of Spanish and Yiddish…what would that be? Yanish? Spiddish?

By: K. Harker

K. Harker — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 18:43:15 +0000

I should give it a chance, but my initial reaction was, “why are we going back to what didn’t work?” After all the trade talk, I was getting excited about our team, and this has put a bit of a hiccup in my giddy up. He knows ball, which is encouraging, but as a manager, he’s been OK at best. I guess I was just hoping AA had an ace up his sleeve, or at least a more exciting get. Crossing my fingers Gibbons’ record is more indicative of the players and owner than his own faults.

By: Mark

Mark — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 18:03:03 +0000

They also have Sergio Santos as a “fallback” option. They’ve got a couple of guys with experience. Again, the point is that with how many bullpen options the Jays have, there’s no reason to be paying for an “experienced closer”. Look at how well Fransisco Cordero did last year – he was the “experienced closer” and arguably one of the worst pitchers in the league.

You and I both agree that the title closer is stupid, but given the bullpen depth for the Jays and the potential options in Santos/Janssen, there still isn’t a need for an “experienced” closer.

And for the record, no, he hasn’t been doing mop up. He was the set up man in 2011 and 2012 until they realized he was their best option to close.

By: cur68

cur68 — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 18:01:06 +0000

There won’t be a fight. Lawrie listens to Bautista. When he was away due to injury Lawrie was really lost there. Trying way too hard. Now there’s a strong manager and the veteran slugger whom Lawrie respects. You watch. The kid will be focused and in the game. All the little power struggles and over aggressive moves will be at a minimum. It wasn’t just Lawrie either. Anyone who watched the out field saw Rasmus constantly cutting off balls that should have been corner outfielder flyouts without calling the other fielder off. He did it when it was a rookie there. I saw him nearly run over Gose a handful of times. Each time the rook would say “call that thing, man”. Each time Rasmus would ignore him. No way that crap goes on with Gibbons and Bautista. Gibbons is a pretty calm guy but he is definitely in charge. Still wish it was the Rabbi over Gibbons, though. Sure hope he can speak spanish.

By: cur68

cur68 — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 17:50:13 +0000

I agree too, jaysfan. This could be ok. He won’t try and upstage the players and get his mug on TV all the time, he’ll be hungry for the chance to prove himself and this time no JP Riccardi getting in his way.

By: cur68

cur68 — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 17:47:21 +0000

I would have preferred the rabbi over Gibbons. Still, his “stand and take pitches” strategy was more a product of Riccardi than his own idea. Lets see what he’s got now that he’s got elite sluggers and pitchers. The next step could be a pitcher or some updates on Drabek’s & Hutchison’s rehab.

By: cshearing

cshearing — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 17:33:41 +0000

@bklynbaseball: No, you are thinking of Tim Johnson.

By: historiophiliac

historiophiliac — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 17:11:48 +0000

See, they *need* the rabbi. Sigh.

By: bklynbaseball

bklynbaseball — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 17:01:54 +0000

Wasn’t this the guy who claimed to be in the Special Forces or something?

By: churchoftheperpetuallyoutraged

churchoftheperpetuallyoutraged — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 16:36:11 +0000

So why exactly do they need to acquire an experienced closer?

Probably because y’all are looking at the word closer, and not the word experienced. Not saying it’s right, but in the last three years Janssen has 24 saves in 188IP over 173 appearances*. Janssen could probably thrive in the role, but “teh fear!” and “pressure” of the 9th inning leads some to believe you need someone who has been there before.

*interesting thing to note. Janssen has “finished” 74 of the 173 appearances, but only has 24 saves. Guess he’s done a lot of mop-up duty.

By: jaysjunkie

jaysjunkie — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 16:02:17 +0000

I’ve had a couple of hours to digest this news now and after watching the press conference with Gibbons and AA, I’m actually more on board with it. It’s certainly a ballsy move on AA’s part.

By: 1943mrmojorisin1971

1943mrmojorisin1971 — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 15:14:55 +0000

Weak. I couldn’t stand this guy the first time around.

By: indaburg

indaburg — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 15:05:53 +0000

Ha.. yeah, there goes your most excellent Jays rabbi bobble-head suggestion, ‘philiac.

Just saw Gibbons’ press conference on MLB. He’s saying all the right stuff, “Get the most of these guys and get out of their way” and so on. We’ll see.

By: indaburg

indaburg — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 14:59:09 +0000

You read my mind. It won’t be a dull summer in Toronto.

By: paint771

paint771 — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 14:48:10 +0000

Oh, and can we start taking over/unders on a John Gibbons / Brett Lawrie fistfight?

By: paint771

paint771 — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 14:32:47 +0000

Oh and one thing to remember in Gibby’s favor, Matt: he was the guy at the helm the last time the Jays infused a bunch of high profile acquisitions into the club (in 2006, Burnett, Overbay, Ryan, Glaus, etc.) and went 87-75 that year, finishing second (best finishing since 1993). So he’s done that rodeo before.

Oh, and to answer my own question above, he was KC’s bench coach for three years (which I now vaguely remember) and last year was the AA manager for the Padres organization (which I did not know).

By: paint771

paint771 — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 14:26:13 +0000

Huh.

As I said a few days ago, I had a feeling that any manager pick would be underwhelming because, well…it’s a manager pick.

I hadn’t thought of bringing Gibby back, honestly. One thing that was always said of him is that he ran a tight ship, which, with this club, will be imminently valuable. You don’t run the risk of the unknowns of bringing in some new guy trying to get a handle on a totally new environment, and nor do you run the risk of an internal hire who may be TO used to that environment and not inject anything new. Seems a solid choice to me, although I’m not doing cartwheels or anything because, again, it’s a manager pick.

Although now I have to go look up what Gibby’s been up to the last six years.

By: proudlycanadian

proudlycanadian — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 14:12:12 +0000

The Jays refused to trade Farrell for Valentine. I wonder why? Never mind!

By: proudlycanadian

proudlycanadian — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 14:10:22 +0000

The Rabbi was funny as were Valentine, Guillen, Tracy, Riggleman and Acta. He provided a great laugh.

By: proudlycanadian

proudlycanadian — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 14:06:58 +0000

Mark has been right on in the comments I have seen from him. To be fair to Matthew, he tries to follow 30 teams plus their farm systems. It is not possible for him to know each team in depth.

By: jaysjunkie

jaysjunkie — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 14:06:11 +0000

BTW, I was referring to the “wow…just wow…” post, not the other one.

By: jaysjunkie

jaysjunkie — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 14:03:29 +0000

That is exactly what I was going to post. Man, AA is nothing if not unpredictable. I must admit, this news does throw a bit of a damper on the enthusiasm I’ve felt for the last week.

By: richwizl

richwizl — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 13:44:18 +0000

Hey, even Steinberger took Billy Martin back a couple times; this might work.

By: heyblueyoustink

heyblueyoustink — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 13:15:44 +0000

I know! All these Canadians posting on the same article, i’m in shock! Where did they all come from!?!?!