3-0 start, 1-6 since then. Another ugly game against a team that isn't very good. And I think the Ron Washington Doomsday Clock is getting real close to hitting midnight.
Ron Washington is in his third season as a manager, and he still doesn't seem to get it. I have my doubts that he is going to get it -- I'd be shocked if he's here beyond this season, and quite honestly, the more I think about it, the more I'm thinking Wash won't make it to Tuesday's game in Toronto, much less Memorial Day.
Wash is an example of the Peter Principle at work, and hiring him is another black eye for Jon Daniels, although I think when you look at the collection of candidates for the managerial job he put together after the 2006 season, and look at what they are doing right now, I think you can argue that the more damning criticism than hiring Washington was putting together such a mediocre group of candidates for the job.
But the thing that jumps out at me, the thing that is a perfect example of the issue here, is the decision to hit for Michael Young today in the 7th inning. Yeah, you're down 9-0, and it is the 7th inning, but you've got the bases loaded, you've got a home crowd the is desperate for something to cheer about, you've got a chance to at least make things interesting...
And you sit Young -- apparently for no other reason than to give him a rest because you are giving up on the game -- and send up Omar Vizquel to pinch hit for him.
Not Andruw Jones, who is supposedly here to be your big righty power bat. Not even David Murphy, who would have had the platoon advantage, and who Washington put into the game anyway in the top of the 8th, after Vizquel popped out.
No, Washington rolled Vizquel out there. Like so much of what he does, it isn't a move that seems to have any real logical or thought out basis. Evan Grant has said numerous times that Washington is different from Buck and Oates because he manages by his "gut," rather than by the percentages. But I'm starting to wonder if managing by his gut is another way of saying managing without thinking things through.