Why first half of 2016 season has been John Gibbons’ best

TORONTO — Someone has to say it: these have been the best 91 games of John Gibbons’ managerial career.

He’s blooded Aaron Sanchez as a starter in the American League East and seen him go to the All-Star Game; kept a lid on the hysterical over-reaction to Marcus Stroman’s mechanical issues that owed more, it seemed, to a bizarre wish on the part of some to see the haughty little right-hander get his come-uppance; managed a bullpen that on some nights had just one reliable arm — his 21-year-old closer or maybe the goofy Rule 5 dude — because the guy his team traded for to help close couldn’t find the plate and his most valuable reliever of last season was hurt. Plus, he has to watch R.A. Dickey once every five days, and Josh Thole catch.

And that’s just the pitching, the handling of which has always, in my mind, separated good managers from bad. Injuries to Troy Tulowitzki and now Jose Bautista … let’s leave those aside. Until you start maybe using pinch-hitters late in the game, there’s not much a manager can do offensively once the first pitch is thrown — and when you’re the Blue Jays, most of your regulars are going to face both righties and lefties.

The Blue Jays hit the all-star break with 51 wins, the first time they’ve had 50-plus wins at the break since 1992. They’re a much better team than they were last season at the break, especially defensively, as Josh Donaldson correctly noted without mentioning that the replacement of Jose Reyes by Tulowitzki explains 90 per cent of it. That means that it might not take any David Price or Tulowitzki-calibre acquisitions at the trade deadline to get this team over the hump, although executives with two organizations believe the Blue Jays will want to be part of talks in any trades involving the likes of Drew Pomeranz (drafted by Mark Shapiro when he was with the Cleveland Indians), Jake Odorizzi and perhaps even Sonny Gray.

Look, managers never get enough credit when the team wins and get too much blame when a team loses — and this is a city with dimwits who still believe Cito Gaston was a hood ornament on back-to-back World Series teams.

But without overstating things, let me suggest that it says a great deal that Gibbons has created an environment in which a free agent who is seeing money float away in front of him because of injury and lack of performance — Bautista — feels obligated to offer a move into the lead-off spot to help the lineup. This is a player, remember, who was publicly criticized by the skipper in his first season back as manager for the way he treated umpires, and it will be interesting to see what happens if the Blue Jays add another outfielder with control instead of a pitcher and ask Bautista to DH for the rest of the season.

LOOK AT ME, A CULPA!
Here was how I saw things when Sportsnet.ca’s baseball editor Ben Nicholson-Smith summoned us to take part in a pre-season roundtable, and how I’d do it if we could go it all over again:

AL MVP: Josh Donaldson, Toronto Blue Jays.
Revised pick: None. I’ll let it rain …

AL Cy Young: Chris Archer, Tampa Bay Rays.
Revised pick: Danny Salazar, Cleveland Indians. What the hell was I thinking?

AL Rookie of the Year: Joey Gallo, Texas Rangers
Revised pick: Michael Fulmer, Detroit Tigers. Nomar Mazara of the Rangers is a candidate, so can I get half-points for that?

NL MVP: Bryce Harper, Washington Nationals
Revised pick: Kris Bryant, Chicago Cubs

NL Cy Young: Madison Bumgarner, San Francisco Giants
Revised pick: Clayton Kershaw, Los Angeles Dodgers. I never should have doubted you.

NL Rookie of the Year: Corey Seager, Dodgers
Revised pick: None needed. That Addison Russell was voted to the National League all-star team ahead of Seager was the only egregious mistake of fan balloting.

PLAYOFFS
AL East: Toronto Blue Jays
Revised pick: None

AL Central: Kansas City Royals
Revised pick: Cleveland Indians

AL West: Texas Rangers
Revised pick: None

Wildcard 1: Houston Astros; Wildcard 2: Boston Red Sox
Revised picks: Baltimore Orioles, Astros

NL East: Washington Nationals
Revised pick: None

NL Central: Chicago Cubs
Revised pick: None

NL West: Los Angeles Dodgers
Revised pick: San Francisco Giants

Wildcard 1: New York Mets; Wildcard 2: San Francisco Giants
Revised picks: Miami Marlins, St. Louis Cardinals

World Series: Cubs over Rangers. Stays the same.

QUIBBLES AND BITS

If there is an area of quiet concern for the Blue Jays it’s behind the plate, where catcher Russell Martin’s offence has become less of a concern than his defence. Leaving aside the criticism of his pitch calling — both real and imagined — Martin has thrown out just 14 per cent of opposing base-runners, an alarming figure considering last season’s figure of 44 per cent, and in raw terms the 37 successful steals when he’s behind the plate are three off the total he allowed in all of 2015.

We all know the issue: three catchers is a luxury with Thole capable of doing nothing more than catching Dickey and no option off the bench as a pinch-hitter. But the Blue Jays brain trust and Gibbons are keeping close to Martin. I think an addition is a distinct possibility.

The biggest disappointments of the first half, in no particular order: video reviews; the deterioration of the Mets’ golden-armed starting rotation, which must surely raise the specter of another Generation K (Bill Pulsipher, Jason Isringhausen and Paul Wilson); video reviews; the implosion of David Price, who is pitching so poorly you’d think somebody told him it’s the playoffs; video reviews; the apparent kidnappings of the outfielder formerly known as Andrew McCutchen and the pitcher formerly known as Chris Archer … not to mention video reviews.

Dusty Baker of the Washington Nationals should be front-runner for the National League manager of the year. The Nationals’ 54 wins at the break tie the 1994 Montreal Expos for the most in franchise history (No, I won’t remind you what happened in 1994). Meanwhile, Stephen Strasburg, at 12-0, has won 15 consecutive games doing back to Sept. 15, trailing only Firpo Marberry (17 straight between 1930-31) for the longest streak by a pitcher in D.C. history. The franchise record for consecutive wins to start a season was eight, set in 1997 by eventual NL Cy Young Award winner Pedro Martinez of the Expos.

THE ENDGAME
Rob Bradford, who does a terrific job covering the Boston Red Sox for WEEI in Boston, had a question the other day: when he was pitching coach with the Red Sox, how would John Farrell have reacted if he found out halfway through the season that Brian Bannister, the Red Sox’s director of pitching analysis and development, was going to be in uniform to help out? Answer: not well.

Yet, that is precisely the situation that Carl Willis, the Red Sox’s current pitching coach, finds himself in and that has ratcheted up speculation that Farrell’s days as Red Sox manager are numbered. Only one manager was fired in the first half — Fredi Gonzalez of the Atlanta Braves, who found out when he received an e-mail notifying him of a flight — but Farrell, Brad Ausmus of the Detroit Tigers and Robin Ventura of the Chicago White Sox are in the firing line.