Originally Posted by
Stormy
I agree. There really is no reason to try to discern the rationale behind anything Miley or DanO opt to enact. Miley had a chance to watch Felipe put up 200+ABs of great ball the second half of last year, a phenomenal Spring, a hot start to this season despite erratic playing time/role definition... and still has opted to tab Aurilia as his starting SS amidst horrid all-around play. When DanO and Miley collaborated, they came away with a situation which required Felipe to switch positions and Kearns to ride the pine in order to still get Aurilia his At Bats. Is this really the tandem anyone wants developing the youngsters, creating a vision for the future, and evaluating talent.
It's a mark of incredible incompetence to preside over a historically inept pitching staff which boasts a 5.79ERA and 1.6WHIP. However, when you consider that DanO's offseason "acquisitions" have actually contributed an even worse 6.47ERA and 1.9+WHIP to that total... it becomes apparent that he's even worse than his numbers, his personnel evaluations and his transactions indicate (which is extraordinary). When this year's pitching acquisitions are combined with last year's equivalent of bringing in Lidle types as you jettison the likes of Reitsma, of opting to not move Wilson at a "career best" value juncture and instead extending him, choosing to throw money at ill-advised "veterans" rather than locking up a single piece of the future, of failing to move even 1 obtrusive contract (i.e. you try to move Casey during his one 915OPS season out of every 4, not when he's off to another one of his 700OPS starts etc...)... it becomes clear that DanO is not cut out for the task of either building for the future, nor contending in the present. Misallocation of funds, horrid talent identification/evaluation, and specious draft and development philosophy.
Add in Miley's inscrutably poor personnel usage, lineup design, and handling of the rotation and bullpen, and you have a blueprint for disaster. And, due to Miley's minor league quirks, we often haven't even had the pleasure of watching Kearns, Pena, Lopez (actual cornerstones to this club's long-term future) develop in the process. It would be hard to botch every aspect of the process more than DanO and Miley have, and unlike horrid season's past, it's not the result of a plague of injuries or a shoestring budget.
