Bob Geren: Bad Manager or Bad Team?

This is in response to the article “Bob Geren: The Worst Manager in Baseball."

I am wondering if there is a simple answer to this or not.  The fact is the Oakland Athletics are losing and it’s not pretty.  My main question is, who is at fault?  Let us walk this through, shall we?

First of all, the Athletics have a young, inexperienced pitching staff.  Is this Bob Geren’s fault?  I don’t think so.

This lies squarely of the shoulders of General Manager Billy Beane and even he admits he made a mistake.  Like I said in my previous article, the young starting pitchers are learning how to pitch in the Majors on the fly.  They haven’t had time to refine their game, yet.

Secondly, the highly toted offense is non-existent.  Again, I pose the question, is this Geren’s fault?  My answer is no.

There are two culprits at work. Beane and the players.  Matt Holliday, a highly successful hitter in the National League, has struggled to figure out the style of American League pitchers.

Then you have the injuries to Eric Chavez and Mark Ellis.  Two returning players that would have added a punch to this line up.  Add the often injured Nomar Garciaparra, and, well, the team collapses.

Jason Giambi, though an skilled hitter, has been beyond pathetic.  I am assuming that it‘s a combination of being hurt and pressing to hard at the plate to make things happen.

So to answer my question, in my eyes, Bob Geren is not entirely at fault.  Has he made some bad decisions?  Most likely yes, but what manager hasn’t?

It’s partly Billy Beane’s fault.  He gathers the talent for Geren to manage.  He has stepped up and taken responsibility for the lack of Minor League talent.  Not only that, he went out to acquire help for an injured lineup, like Adam Kennedy.

That is more than I can say for Brian Sabean, but that’s another story for another day.