Bob Geren

Bob Geren is better off in the Minor Leagues where he belongs. Now that he's in the major leagues he's been less than stellar. I must admit though I'm pretty surprised the A's have the record they do now especially the injuries they've had this year. Maybe I'm being a little harsh on him since it is his second year in the major leauges. So, let's take a look at some things that need to be fixed so Geren can even further excel in the major leagues. Otherwise he's just going to be another one of the same A's mold of managers who don't get the job done.

1. Fix the way he uses the bullpen usually by putting Embree in against a left handed bat. Embree is better off geting right handers out. Embree did a great job last year while Street was injured, but this year he's been subpar. Right handers hit Embree at a .250 clip and lefties hit at a .277 clip. Another example is bringing Keith Foulke into the game in the 6th inning against the Angels first of all Keith Foulke doesn't have a dominating fastball and he relies on hitting spots, when he misses the ball gets crushed. Now keeping him in to face Juan Rivera was not a good idea seeing how Foulke doesn't get righties out. His batting average against for righties is .265 while lefties hit .191 off of him.

2. When our pitchers struggle with commanding the strike zone he takes too long to do anything to help the pitcher out. Whether it's sending Suzuki out to the mound or Curt Young to come out of the dugout to settle down the pitcher. Most teams are not like the A's and will take a 3-0 pitch that's right down the middle most will be aggressive and hit it. So, most of the time a lot of damage is done because our pitchers over compensating for the lack of command and just groove it down the middle of the plate and get it hard. So, it's time for Geren to start having Suzuki come out more or Curt Young to come out and make sure they settle down the pitcher whether it's a veteran in Embree who tends to give up a lot of hits or a youngster like Eveland, Smith, Harden, or Blanton.

3. For Geren he needs to go up to Billy Beane and say to him Ty Van Burkleo needs to be fired. He is ruining our young hitters to the point where they need to be sent down to the minors to get their swing back instead the A's should go ahead and promote Brian McArn from Sacramento to become the hitting coach. Maybe even though his method is pretty much the same as the A's philosophy to work the counts he can teach the young A's hitters that its ok to be aggressive especially if they feel like the pitcher is just trying to get a pitch over for a strike. Basically what Wes Bankston did for his first homerun in the majors and that is be aggressive. We need more aggressive hitters. That's the difference between Barton and Bankston that Bankston is looking for a certain pitch and he hits it whether it's the first pitch or the fifth pitch. Barton takes too many pitches and therefore he falls behind in the count a lot more and ends up watching a fastball paint the outside corner. From what I heard about him is that he was a gap to gap hitter who would mature to hit a few homeruns, right now he doesn't look like either one of those hitters. I think that he feels too much pressure to produce because of all the injuries on the team and that is causing him to become pull happy and its not working for him he needs to go back to the approach he had when he first came up last year and that is taking the pitch to left field.