Joe Girardi - The new Skip of the Blue Jays 

It has been rumoured that Joe Girardi may be replacing fellow former catcher John Gibbons at the helm of the Jays.  Gibbons has been the Jays man for the last two and a half years.  Girardi was fired soon after his rookie season in Miami in which he won NL manager of the year.

 

Gibbons has been accused, perhaps rightfully, of not handling certain players, namely Ted Lilly and Shea Hillenbrand correctly and escalating clubhouse situations.  While he has not let the Jays underachieve and has done the best in what was given to him his tactics are very questionable.  He tends to micromanage his pitching staff.  His attention to details during games does has not carried over into the team’s play.  The Jays, in my humble opinon, played terrible fundamental baseball last year.  The defense was very bad, the inability to turn double plays, catch runners stealing and fielding bunt plays hurt the team and cost them games.  Gibbons probably should have worked on this instead of threatening to feed his players knuckle sandwiches. 

Girardi was fired for mouthing off to owner Jeff Loria for heckling/arguing with an umpire from behind the Marlins’ dugout.  While Girardi got more out of the Marlins than anyone thought possible, this was a team with no pressure and a bunch of kids who were happy to be in the big leagues and hadn’t had years of losing crushing their moral.  I am not sure of Girardi’s stlye but I am sure it what he did with the Marlins would not work as well on a veteran team.  

Girardi may not be a good fit in Toronto and may clash with JP Riccardi who has a very dominant personality, much like Loria.  Girardi should get another shot at managing but I don’t think it will be for this Blue Jay team.