Managerial candidate number 3 is John Gibbons, former manager of the Toronto Blue Jays. I’m not sure why, but I’m considerably less-thrilled about Gibbons than I am about the other candidates that the Bucs have interviewed. I’m sure it has something to do with Gibbons’ reputation as a bit of a hot-head in the Blue Jays’ dugout (he feuded with Dave Bush, Shea Hillenbrand, Ted Lilly, and Frank Thomas, according to his Wikipedia page).
In any case, Gibbons finished over .500 twice with the Blue Jays in 2006 and 2007, but that was mostly with an older roster with a considerable payroll ($70+ million in 2006 and $80+ million in 2007). I guess I just don’t see exactly what the Pirates’ front office sees in him, unless I want to be cynical and say that he worked for JP Ricciardi, whose front office was known to be incredibly hands-on and had a penchant for obfuscating the truth whenever they saw fit.
