Poll Time: Do you approve of the job John Gibbons is doing?

We haven’t done one of these in a long time and I have nothing else I really want to talk about. Everyone is writing about how Teoscar Hernandez is ‘forcing his way on to the roster’ or some version of that. I don’t have anything new to say about that, he keeps hitting like this, he’ll stay on the team.

So let’s talk about Gibby.

All is going pretty well at the moment.

I wasn’t thrilled with how they handled Josh Donaldson’s injury, but I’m not sure how much of that is on Gibby and how much of that was Josh.

And I wish we had a ‘long man’ in the bullpen. I keep thinking if a starter had to come out of a game early we’d be in trouble, but then I’m not sure who I’d take out of the present bullpen to make room.

Beyond that, I like that he’s giving days off to guys like Devon Travis and Russell Martin. And I don’t care that they are on the same track. Of course it helps that Luke Maile is hitting. If he was hitting like he did last year, I might not be so happy he plays every third game.

I do like the laid back style of doing interviews. I like that he doesn’t take the interviews too seriously or himself too seriously. You don’t get the Buck Showalter ‘I’m a genius’ vibe from him. He does seem to understand that the players win and lose the games and he’s there to put them in a place where they can win. He seems to be happy with his place in the world.

I am curious about how he’s going to handle things when Kendrys Morales comes back. And Josh Donaldson, for that matter. Yangervis Solarte has been so good, he needs a spot in the lineup.

He seems to be using pinch hitters more than in the past. I guess, in part, it is due to having Gift Ngoepe in the lineup. If you had slept through the first 3 weeks of the season and woke up just in time to watch Luke Maile come in to pinch-hit, you’d think there was something seriously wrong, but it worked.

We’ve always complained about his use of the bullpen, but that seems to have gone away, maybe because most of the guys in the pen are pitching well. Right now he seems to be using Roberto Osuna as closer and whoever is rested the rest of the time.

Lineup construction is one of those things we can always argue about. I was surprised to see Steve Pearce at the top of the order, but it worked. I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t have put Teoscar in the 2 spot, but it is working. I’d kind of like Solarte in that spot, but don’t change what works.