Retired. Lived in the television, radio and movie industry as a sound engineer. Simultaneously wrote and often directed many (local and national) commercials for television and radio. Now I spend all my time writing about this, that, and the other thing, largely humorous and satirical, except for when I am firmly mounted on my high horse, as in the American election. Gibbons replaced Carlos Tosca, who replaced Buck Martinez. All three managers toiled under neophyte general manager J.J. Ricciardi, a disciple of Oakland's Billy Beane.
The essential difference between Beane and Ricciardi is that Ricciardi, who in emulating Beane's style, has proved over and over again that he does not understand Beane's style. Thus the 67-95 record.
An important aspect of Beane's style, according to author Mike Lewis (Moneyball) is Beane's handling of the A's. He never let Art Howe, the manager, make any decisions that mattered. Beane would even call down the bench with instructions on what reliever to put in and how long to keep him there, and Howe would do it. Beane was largely right in his on-field decisions.
When Howe, whose real ability was an unknown as a manager, was hired as Mets' manager he was a disaster, which seemed to demonstrate that his abilities extended only as far as his being able to do as he was told.
Ricciardi copied this aspect as GM of Toronto, but clearly he did not understand what it was that Beane was able to do. Another of Beane?s disciples was Paul De Podesta, now GM of Los Angeles Dodgers, who also apparently thought he understood what Beane does, but can not pull it off.
Now Ricciardi has John Gibbons who says he'll run the team his way. This is as much a certainty as pigs in flight. This quiet, personality-challenged former first-base coach does not want to be thought of as a puppet to the GM.
However, you need only look to the shenanigans in Spring training to learn differently. The pitching situation is about as muddled as it can be, with JJ. stamp all over it. Justin Speier is named as closer and lasts three weeks without closing one game, and Juan Batista is as closer in his place. Then Gustavo Chacin becomes a starter, and goes out and pitches a multi-run game against the New York Yankees, making Ricciardi's choices of last year's pitchers look very familiar. I think he had a crew of plumbers or paperboys in the bullpen last year, for they sure weren't pitchers.
Bottom line: I think the reason the Jays are looking so bad, with little hope for the coming season is due to Ricciardi. There seems to be no question that here is a man who has no real concept for the job he is in, but is like the young man who wins a contest to be manager-for-a-day, and goes out to prove how good he is with his ability. Remember, the latest mark of his success is 67-95.
In case you want to say that his hands were tied with the twenty-dollar budget he had, remember, the outstanding thing about Beane is that he operates each year with the same money.
I would love to be proved wrong as the season goes on, but Ricciardi will be running the team on the field as well as off. He'll abuse the likes of Roy Halladay and Ted Lilly as well as other players by mishandling their abilities. He'll not allow Gibbons and new pitching coach Brad Arnsberg to do what they are supremely better at, so I suggest the Jays will not win more than 80 games this season.
As the Jays' number one fan (always have been), I think Jays would be better if Ricciardi returned to Oakland to further study and try to understand what Beane does.