Heh Pirates, Seriously? John Gibbons?

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The Pittsburgh Pirates interviewed Kansas City Royals bench coach John Gibbons today for their managerial job.  We trust that it’s a smokescreen.  If the Pirates would put Gibbons in the same clubhouse as their young talent, we can only imagine why?

Is their a discipline problem on the Bucs?  Are they bringing in the toughest guy from fifth grade recess to lead the team into the future?  If the kids don’t produce Gibbons is going to take them to the woodshed.  We weren’t able to dig up anything that shows Gibbons has pulled some of the same nonsense he did when he was a manager of the Toronto Blue Jays.

Maybe he has been transformed in KC.  Healed.  A new man?

He managed the Toronto Blue Jays to a 305-305 record from 2004-2008.   He had a bunch of rookies on the field playing regularly in 2004.  Ahh, that sounds good.

He had a few really solid players added a few years later and magically, the Jays were contenders.  Now, that sounds really exciting.

But you knew it was coming….all good things must come to an end, and it did in June of 2008.  The Jays were off to a slow start, the fans were pissed, and the Jays  front office expected more.  How couldn’t the Jays produce with this pitching staff:

Toronto had a rotation of Roy Halladay (8-6. 2.90 ERA, 5 CGs, 114 IP), Sean Marcum (5-4, 2.65 ERA, 98.3 IP), Jesse Litsch (7-3, 3.70 ERA, 82.3 IP), Dustin McGowan (5-5, 4.15 ERA, 89 IP), and AJ Burnett (6-7. 5.42 ERA), and the Jays struggled to a 35-39 mark because the offense was struggling (.257 BA at the time he was fired, but just .231 for the month.)

So, if Gibbons had pitching like that in Toronto and couldn’t win, what is expected of him in Pittsburgh?  It was said by a few of my friends that are die hard Jays fans,  it  seemed that Gibbons was overmatched mentally as a manager.  Hence, the Jays canned Gibby and hired Cito Gaston.

Gaston was described as  “old school.”  Gee, ya think?

Gibbons was a first round draft pick.  The 24th player taken overall back in 1980.  The Mets took him to be their catcher of the future.

Yeh, I know what you’re thinking.  Seriously, another catcher?   Take a deep breath Pittsburgh Pirates fans.  I know, Gibbons sounds  a lot like a guy that just left town.

Gibbons was a bust as a player.   Gibbons  made  just 50 at-bats in the bigs.  Nice. 

Perhaps, Gibbons has more in common with John Russell than we thought, when Drunk Jays Fans talked about Gibbons  lack of passion back in 2008.   Gibbons is described by Jays fans as being listless, much like his players performed two years ago.  He has been called passive.  His demeanor is not what we believe would motivate the young Pirates players in 2011.

We have to believe that Gibbons is the guy that GM Neal Huntington referred to as taking them out of “their comfort zone.”  Just look at Gibbons history, we can hear the press release matching up to the Pirates current situation.

Here is some of our concern with Gibby.  It has to do with Gibbons and some of the well publicized run ins with players:

Gibbons had a feud with Shea Hillenbrand and allegedly challenged him to blows after Hillenbrad wrote “the ship is sinking” on a clubhouse message board.  A few days later he was traded to San Francisco.

Gibbons got into it with Ted Lilly which you probably remember because Lilly refused to give Gibbons the ball after giving up seven runs against the A’s.  Then Gibbons and Lilly reportedly got into a shoving match in the tunnel.

Gibbons also benched Frank Thomas after a slow start.  A few days later Thomas was gone.    The Jays released him.

OK, OK, we’ve  read enough.  Wow.    Maybe Gibbons will   take the job in Seattle instead.   Perhaps the Mariners will buy the “he took a young Jays team in 2004 to being contenders.”  Or the ever important time factor….”It only took him a couple years in a tough division line.” 

We prefer that guys that resort to tactics of a fifth grade brawler to remain in fifth grade, Kansas City, or wherever the hell Seattle is.  If the Pirates truly want a manager that is going to lead this team, why would they be spending money flying guys in from small stream Kansas City?  Unless the guy is the Royals best scout, we’re not interested.

Now take the rod out of the creek and cast it into the ocean for one of the big fish.