For the explanation and rationale (part one) for this article, please read this.

We now go to the second part of my two-part Cito Gaston series; or as I like to call it, "A big waste of time".

In the first part we discussed Cito's role in the Toronto Blue Jays offence, so now we go to his job handling pitching and the defence.

It's going to be a CALLED STRIKE! I mean, ball.

To the untrained eye, Cito has done a bang-up job handling Toronto's starting rotation. But to the eye that lives alone and is self-educated, it's...well, pretty much the same.

Coming into the season, the starting rotation went: Halladay, Uh-oh, Dear God, The Pitching Machine, and Jesse Litsch. To be blunt, things were looking bleaker than Russia according to George Costanza.

Overall, Toronto's pitchers are sporting a 4.19 ERA. That's pretty much par for the course, or eleventh among MLB clubs.

Yet, the Jays have crafted a surprisingly good rotation.

They've had 62 quality starts (fifth in MLB) from 12 different starting pitchers. Cito has taken potential disaster and turned it into something slightly less disastrous. The Jays are still in fourth place, but with Gaston nurturing the pitching staff, things still look promising for the future.

Cito has managed to preserve his pitchers when necessary. Only Roy Halladay has thrown more than 120 pitches in a start. 

Halladay and Ricky Romero are the only starters to even average more than 100 pitches per outing. There's been a clear attempt to avoid the Dustin McGowan-Shaun Marcum-Jesse Litsch injury fiasco.

Cito may look like he's watching paint dry in the dugout sometimes, but he's doing so with a vested interest in the well being of that paint.

Though when it comes to the bullpen, it looks like Gaston has been beating the paint with a sack of doorknobs; then telling the paint to lie to its teachers about where the bruises came from.

This very good article by Joseph DelGrippo provides an excellent example of one of Cito's miscues.

There's been a noticeable drop in the quality of the bullpen this season.

For starters, the Jays have a 56 percent save percentage, 27th in the majors. Coming from a team that doesn't get enough save opportunities this is waaaay too many saves going unconverted.

Scott Downs has been nursing a sore toe since Philadelphia and BJ Ryan is earning $15 million to sneer at his television.

The closer spot has been in constant flux. Jason Frasor has become the stopgap solution, but he's a roll of duct tape over the Grand Canyon-size hole of the bullpen.

Jeremy Accardo, a 30-save man from two seasons ago, has been juked back and forth from the minors. This is a baffling turn of events for a ball club screaming for a closer. Although his return to the spot would be anti-climactic now, Cito definitely misused this asset.

Personally, I don't feel like delving too far into the mystery of the bullpen. I think it would end up with my face being melted off like at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark. All I know is that the Jays have lost 23 games in relief and that there's no Nazi scientist crazy enough to look further.

But I digress...

Defensively, the Jays have the best fielding percentage in the league at .989 and have only 47 errors, which is the lowest in the league. For a team that has few Golden Gloves, they definitely deserve a few more Golden Gloves.

Cito has clearly helped to create a great defensive chemistry that has survived, despite the departure of Scott Rolen and Alex Rios. Marco Scutaro and Aaron Hill are turning double plays with frightening familiarity and there's no glaring weakness.

Gaston has just given players the opportunities to play and they've delivered while in the field.

So why is this team 55-61, and how much of it is Cito's fault?

Figure it out for yourself, you lazy jerks. I just gave you the evidence, draw your own conclusions.

Now if I had to ask myself, and I am, I'd say that Cito has done everything short of turn the Jays' Gatorade into wine. The deck was so stacked against Toronto coming into the season that the Rogers Centre is on a slant.

Sure, sometimes Cito can appear to be distant and non-committal about the team, but that's how the man operates. He's so loose that he can watch Murder, She Wrote in the dugout while phoning the bullpen; AND not even miss who the killer is.

By keeping some emotional distance between himself and the team, it makes hard decisions a little easier.

It also promotes a sense of calm control in the clubhouse that some players have taken to, and others have struggled with. Cito would rather have a player hang in there too long then remove them prematurely. Sometimes, this means seeing a pitcher get knocked around, but even that is a learning experience for the knocked-around.

One of the big differences between the Jays and playoff bound teams is the personnel. When Kevin Millar is hitting clean-up and your set-up man is TBD, hopefully you've exercised all other options first; and Cito has.

Of course, I've already proclaimed my fondness for Cito on several occasions, so I don't qualify as an impartial observer.

Now Cito, I know hanging out with your grandchildren is a priority, but give them ball boy jobs or something. You've already got a bunch of kids in Toronto that refuse to do the dishes or hit a two-out single. Biological ties are overrated anyways.

We've reached the end of your regularly scheduled rant. If you need me I'll be going through the season pitch-by-pitch and finding the moment where it all went wrong.

It's a tough job, but someone has to do it.

(Don't forget to vote, the ballot is on the right of the page. This is what democracy was created for, people.)