On Josh Byrnes’ response to questions about Melvin’s status:
“I don’t think Josh did anything wrong. He answered it with all honesty. There is no doubt we are all frustrated with the way the team has played. He and his staff, as well as us, we’ve all been analyzing what the answer will be and what we need to do. If he were to say that the manager is going to be gone, that would be premature because that decision was not made and if you say the manager has a job for life, you know what happens then. Everybody goes, ‘Uh-oh, he’s gone.’ You can’t win in that situation.
“The bottom line is we’ve only played 28 games. We’re four games under .500. But it’s unacceptable, we believe, with this team. You really can’t see where or point the finger of who to place blame on. It’s collective. But there’s something missing and it hasn’t just been for 28 games this season. We had this collective offensive funk in spring training and we had it for the last five months of 2008 so something’s got to give.”
Can’t you say the offensive struggles go back to 2007?
“You can, but you can also compare the two seasons. There was something magical about the 2007 season because our players had a game plan. They were running on the base paths. They were executing. They were making the plays defensively. There was a lot of athleticism. They were getting timely hits. We’re not seeing any of that. There’s occasions where we do. Let’s face it, if Upton hadn’t been as hot as he is and if last night he doesn’t hit two home runs we’re still playing in San Diego right now as we speak. It’s problematic.
“I still question the focus last night when you commit four errors and there weren’t those timely hits. You’ve got easy double play balls… Poor Garland. He pitched his fanny off – and as a result got the win – but, boy, I’m still questioning the focus out there. These guys are much better than that.”
Are yesterday’s changes (Whitesell in, Tracy out, Young to the bench) signs of more to come?
“You got to put your best nine on the field and you’ve got to go with who’s hot. You’ve got to get creative as a manager and as a general manager and a farm director, and you look down in the system and see who’s doing well. Whitesell has done very well. We have some pitchers who are doing well. Parra is hitting the ball well. Do they have the opportunity to come up and give somebody a rest and give them time to even rest their mind and figure out what’s wrong with their game mentally? Someone like Chris Young, Conor Jackson, Eric Byrnes – their averages should not be where they’re at. Sometimes when you give the guy a couple of days off, it can bounce them right back. If you give them time to review tapes and look at swings a little more and look how pitchers have been pitching him for more than just 28 games.
“There’s also occasion where even if a guy has been in the big leagues for a couple of years you may have to send him down to Triple-A to get his game back and get his swing back. They can’t take offense to that. They realize have to it’s all part of the maturation and it’s a part of this team effort of where we’re trying to take it. We believe we’re a playoff caliber team and it’s going to take everybody. I mean, look how much we miss Stephen Drew right now. With accolades to Augie Ojeda, he’s a gritty guy and we love having him in the lineup, whether it’s second, third or short, but you need Stephen Drew. But that just goes to show you need more guys in the lineup. You can’t just rely on one guy or two guys. This team gets streaky over the last couple of years and when they win, they win big. When they don’t, they’re all cold. As a championship team, you can’t do that. You may have one guy going through a tough drought, but you need other guys to pick him up. That’s what we’re trying to find with all the pieces.”
Have you considered the possibility that these players aren’t any better than what they’ve shown?
“That’s certainly part of the thought process. Are they overrated? I tend to think no because we’ve seen every one of them individually contribute so well. Like with Eric Byrnes, he had 50 stolen bases and the power that he showed in ’07. He had a tough season in ’08 with injury. Should he bounce back? We think so. He’s proven that he can be a tough and contributing player. Chris Young, that’s one guy who’s not going to take his bat out to the outfield. He’s an awesome defensive center fielder. Should he be a .200 batter? No, he should probably be at .250 at least. But he’s going to have to get there and make adjustments. I mean, there were people that were calling for Justin Upton’s head at the beginning of the season saying, ‘He was rushed too quickly. Send him back down.’ We have to be careful with that because let’s look back a couple of years ago with all of our fans and even people in our system saying, ‘Carlos Quentin can’t play. Get him out of here. Move him.’ You get that so often and it’s, ‘Wait a minute. They can play.’ Maybe something’s missing here in our system. Let’s figure it out.
“Every team can do that. They can look back and say, ‘Boy, if we kept him, him and him, we’d be much better.’ Every team can. But you can also look at moves and say ‘Boy, that didn’t pan out for the other team.’ Let’s not be so quick to say these guys aren’t major league players and can’t be a part of a championship team so get rid of them.”
Can you walk through the decision-making process?
“I’ve been through these before. It takes the collective efforts of the entire front office. It’s a baseball operations decision. You leave it up to the general manager and his staff and if you agree with it as ownership or upper management, you support it. It just depends on what that move is. But I will say this: Whether Josh ultimately comes to us and recommends and asks for our support that a couple of players should be moved or if comes to us and says a coach should be moved or says that a manager should be moved, whatever the case may be, whether we’ve won six in a row or we’ve lost six in a row, you still make that decision and you move on. I know there was a comment about, ‘OK, they’ve won, it may have saved someone’s job, or saved someone on the roster.’ All of that may seem true, but if you think a decision needs to be made, regardless of the winning streak or the loss streak or where you’re at in the standings, you’ve got to make the move.”
Is it fair to blame the manager?
“Bob’s got a good relationship with his players, for sure, and so do his coaches. We can think back to ’07 when Bob was Manager of the Year and even the start of last year where everybody praised Bob. It’s so easy to be critical of a manager. That’s the first focal point when a team is struggling. But you have to analyze whether there’s merit to it. How is the team responding to the leadership in the dugout or the clubhouse? Or is there a lack of leadership amongst the players? Again, it’s not necessarily just the manager. And it’s not necessarily a coach. It could be a combination. It could be the players. That’s a decision we have to make. As I said at the beginning, we know something has to be done because we’ve been grossly underperforming for five-plus months and it’s not fair to the fans, it’s not fair to the organization, it’s not fair to the young players performing below this team at Triple-A and Double-A that are ready for their opportunity. A lot goes into consideration. Is it fair to put the blame on one man? No. Does it happen all the time in major sports? Yes. And sometimes teams do respond, players respond. I can tell you that the definitive decision is not there yet and there’s so many different avenues that we can take.”
