So what do we think about Cito staying and Arnsberg going? Our friends at Tao of Stieb and The Drunks very clearly hate it. And they are right. We all have been working under the theory that Cito and Brad couldn't work together another year. One of them had to go.

Since Brad Arnsberg came to the team we have been one of the best pitching teams in baseball. This past season he had a pitching staff that's been held together with chewing gum. We had 7 starting pitchers injured. He did an amazing job with all the young guys we had in the rotation. I thought for the job he did turning Ricky Romero into a major league pitcher from the punchline to a JP can't draft joke was enough that he should have been given a contract for life. He turned Scott Downs pitching career around along with several others.

Cito......well Cito batted Kevin Millar in the cleanup spot several times this year. Doesn't that say enough. If it doesn't, then maybe the players complaining about about the lack of communication coming from him should have been enough to fire him. We have always been told how Cito is a 'player's manager'. If the selling point of a guy is that he is a player's manager and the players hate him, what have you really got? A guy who's idea of in game management is to pinch run Johnny Mac every couple of games. 

So, basically, we have traded the best pitching coach in baseball for one year of Cito. One year. A year that should be a building year. So if Cito is leaving after this building year, wouldn't you rather build with the manager that's going to be there after the year. If say Buck Showalter (or whoever) was going to be the guy, wouldn't you want him here now so he evaluate the team?

There is one excuse that Anthopoulos could give us that I would accept. It is possible that Arnsberg decided to go to Houston first. Maybe the sequence of events wasn't Cito's staying so Arnsberg is going. Maybe it was that Arnsberg decided he wanted to work closer to home. Or he wanted a new challenge. Or Houston just made too good an offer. But man, if I'm in Anthopoulos' spot I do whatever I have to to keep Brad.

I'll admit. I was drinking the koolaid as much or more than anyone else. I was very happy when Alex got the GM job. All the stories about renewed enthusiasm with in the organization sounded great. Then the announcement that Paul Beeston was staying. And the team would have more money for players. And I liked all the moves to reorganize the front office. Yep, I was sold. Things were turning, life was good. 

And then this. 

And well, I'm not drinking the koolaid anymore. I was sold on Alex, he didn't quite have me at hello, but he had me soon after. Now they have to sell me all over again. 

It is going to be a much harder sell this time. 

What do you think?