MVN - Most Valuable Network

Cito Gaston Era 2.0

Just yesterday, JP Ricciardi did exactly what everyone has been clamoring for them to do for months: they fired John Gibbons. Instead of remorse, confusion or frustration, my initial response was: “Did they get rid of Ernie Whitt too?” The answer is yes, but that is how much I cared about Gibbons staying in town.

The John Gibbons era was one marred with underachiement. As the Jays signed one big name vet after another, Gibbons failed to make them perform anywhere near their potential. Offensively, the Jays have been a mess since Gibbons took over as they have cycled through one hitting coach to the next and never shown any results.

Perhaps the one enduring memory of Gibby the Manager will be how often he had rough, angry and often physical confrontations with players. Dave Bush, Shea Hillenbrand and Ted Lilly (possibly Frank Thomas as well) have clashed outrageously with Gibbons. Usually, fighting your players is a sign that its time to cut ties with the manager.

JP Ricciardi missed that cue by 2 years.

Now the Jays have moved on (back?) to the mustachioed Cito Gaston, one of the defining faces of the glory years, and I could not be happier.

Cito inherets a last place team that looks as dismal as their home jerseys do. They can’t hit to save their lives and everyone knows the stats to back it up and the Jays hope Gaston and can buck that trend. He brings along with him hitting coach Gene Tenace who led the Jays to a solid offense from 1990-97.

Their new coaching staff has experience and more importantly, championships. They will command respect from their players, something Gibbons struggled mightily to do in his three years. I find it hard to imagine that a pitcher will argue with Cito Gaston when the big man comes out to pull him from a game.

Cito has been monitoring this team in Spring Training every year and has a relationships with every member of the team. This is not the usual case of a manager stepping in midseason. This team is poised to turn things around and Gaston is the right man to do it.

While the Jays offense was stagnant last night once again. A new flavor to the team can be sensed. In addition to the shaken up lineup that Gaston unveiled last night, the team seems to be more aggressive at the plate, ending their frustrating habit of watching 3-1 strikes fly by, only to watch strike three seconds later (I’m looking at you, Lyle Overbay.)

Another extreme positive witnessed last night is that Alex Rios has finally woken up from his 3-month coma, hitting two doubles within the first three pitches he saw. Not to mention a great sliding catch and a frozen rope from right to home that beat Doug Mientkiewicz by about a week and a half.

Hopefully Rios’ effort and performance in last night’s game is an indication of the effect Cito will have on the Jays young star. If it is, then this season could be salvaged and this could be a wild card team after all.

This entry was posted on Saturday, June 21st, 2008 at 5:06 pm and is filed under Dave Bush, JP Ricciardi, John Gibbons, Cito Gaston, Alex Rios, Vernon Wells, Ted Lilly, Lyle Overbay, Shea Hillenbrand, Frank Thomas, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.