Fair warning to the "heck of a job, Bowden," crowd...

If Brad Ausmus does anything offensively at all tonight, the pitchforks will be out.

Why Ausmus and why judge anything on one night?

1. Brad Ausmus is terrible. Maybe the nicest thing I can say about JimBo is that he hasn't acquired Brad Ausmus. When you put up a .230-.308-.285 line and are STILL a starter in MLB, then the only explanation is that you have hidden compromising pictures of the owner or something.

2. I'm not judging by one night. I'm judging by the cumulative overall performance of the Nationals since 2005 in general and this season in particular. And I'm judging JimBo on 14 years of failure as a GM.

But allowing Brad Ausmus, who is TERRIBLE, to hurt us with the bat would be adding insult to a triage unit worth of injuries.

@Steven etc

Ah the ligt dawns! A disgruntled Reds fan. Uh,maybe having a crazy lady as a owner had more to do with the teams makeup and failures than Jimbo. By most accouts he did okay given the situation. By the way, it is tough to be a baseball fan and have no patience.

joebluex, I wanted to respond to your comment in the last thread about FRobby haters, since that was me with the Ryan Church comment.

I respect Frank Robinson enormously. I think did a hell of a job with this club when the team got to DC, and with a roster full of no-names and the like, he provided both a local connection for these Cadanian-outcasts and a highly identifiable name. I met him that day RFK had its "Grand Re-opening," (before I was exiled to Central Europe!) and I won't lie, that was a thrilling experience I had. He had personality and grit and by golly, he was not afraid to get in an ump's face--or a fellow manager. Those are all things I like about him

But I still think he horribly mis-handled Ryan Church. (The conspirast in me wonders if this was in part because Robinson had Guillen's back all the way, and Guillen was NOT a fan of Church. . . but I digress.) If he thinks the way to get to a player is to publicly berate him, well, whatever, but Church took those public beatings in an area where athletes aren't usually subjugated to such things, especially not in number nor in sheer vitriol.

Say what you want about Church; I don't even think it has that much to do with him personally, but Frank was brutal and I think all it did was work to unhinge a player mentally which (in my arm-chair managing opinion) doesn't work that well. Church was a pace to stage a rookie of the year challenge before he hit that wall in Pittsburg, and as soon as it appeared he was injured, he started getting all kinds of crap about it from the manager.

So, I apologize for the long-windedness of this post, but I wanted to make it clear that while I meant no disrespect to Mr. Robinson, his behavior in the case of Mr. Church was, to my mind, beyond the pale. I still miss Frank. I hope he comes back to town to have his Frank Robinson day and everything.

That would be "light dawns."

Sec 204 Row K Seat 11,

I have been down this road with SoCH before regarding Jimbo's time in Margeland.

Good Luck. He's not a real open-minded individual.

I have no loyalty to the Reds at all, although I'm starting to feel like a Reds fan being forced to root for a team of Reds castoffs.

It's amazing to me how easily the "heck of a job, JimBo" crowd on this blog blame Marge Schott, who won a freaking WS before Bowden got there, who handed JimBo a 90-win team and with one of the highest payrolls in baseball, and was barred from direct involvement with the team shortly after Bowden got there. How do you conclude that it's all her fault for Bowden's failures there? Sure she caused controversy and made it a harder situation for her GMs, but it's pretty amazing how Bob Quinn and Bill Bergesch managed to win with Marge Schott as an owner--check it out:

Quinn: http://www.thebaseballcube.com/general-managers/bob-sr-quinn.shtml

Bergesch:
http://www.thebaseballcube.com/general-managers/bill-bergesch.shtml

I'm not saying I'd want to have Schott over for dinner, but her team only became a perennial loser when Bowden came in.

He's not a real open-minded individual.
___________________

When you're unable to present an argument based on facts, you can always resort to the ad hominem attacks. The "heck of a job, Jimbo" crowd is as predictable as the next Reds cast-off Bowden will acquire.

Budapest, nothing personal about my post; just a comment about how certain topics seem guaranteed to bring out certain posters. And you were a little over the top with saying that FR told Church he was "worthless".

I see your point about how FR interacted with Church; but I don't think it was in Frank's nature to coddle players with delicate egos. And that's one of the things I liked best about him. So, Alfonso, you don't want to play left field? Have some pine. I think baseball (and other sports) could benefit from some old school, liberally applied without apology.

New post.

why are Willy Mo & Lastings still in the line up after yesterday's lousy defense????

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