Five Reasons A's Manager Bob Geren Should Be Sacked

(Photo by Jed Jacobsohn/Getty Images)

With the Oakland A's mired in last place in the AL West, I've begun to wonder: Is manager Bob Geren on the hot seat or not?

Only general manager Billy Beane knows for sure, but if Geren is not close to being replaced, he should be.

Here are five pieces of irrefutable evidence I'll offer in support of this conclusion:

1. Geren Has Ruined the Team's Greatest Strength: Its Bullpen

Ruined might be a bit severe, but blatant overuse from the first week of the season has made a mess of the bullpen.

Andrew Bailey, the rookie closer—who Geren won't name him as the closer despite all evidence to the contrary—is on pace to throw more than 90 innings.

Throughout his Minor League career, almost all of which was as a starter, Bailey through between 110 and 125 innings a year.

As a reliever, this is completely uncharted territory. Many veteran relievers struggle badly the year after throwing more than 90 innings.

Geren's misuse of his bullpen was evidenced in Wednesday night's win over the Chicago White Sox. With a two-run lead, Geren went to Bailey in the eighth and then asked him to come back and close in the ninth.

He was successful, but with so many other clubs carefully protecting their young talent, Bailey seems to be on a collision course for elbow surgery sometime soon.

It's one thing to be a young closer. It's another to consistently have to earn two-inning saves.

2. Geren's Lack of Clarity is Hurting the Performance of His Pitchers

Baseball fans will recall Boston's famously failed "closer by committee" experiment in 2002, shortly after GM Theo Epstein took over.

Straight out of the Bill James playbook, which said closers were overvalued, Epstein believed he could use a cast of characters at various times in the game. It looked great on paper and in fantasy leagues, but with real humans, it was fatally flawed.

Relievers need clear roles. Closers have a switch in their brain that many other capable pitchers just don't have.

Geren refuses to name a closer.

Huston Street, a capable closer before Geren took over, crashed and burned under new management.

Brad Ziegler came on as a record-breaking rookie, posting 11 saves last season, but somehow ended up in Geren's doghouse when all evidence of his on-field performance suggested he had done nothing to deserve it.

It's no surprise that Ziegler hasn't pitched well since returning from an illness, only to find he'd been replaced as closer but never told. Geren's style doesn't work.

Likewise, the regression of starters Dana Eveland, Gio Gonzalez, and Sean Gallagher, which could be attributed to the revolving-door rotation employed by Geren, is at least in part a reflection of his leadership.

3. Geren is Responsible for Oakland's Shoddy Offense

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