Nice pickup by The Tao of Stieb: Apparently, Jeff Blair of globesports.com told the FAN 590 today that Jays manager John Gibbons will be "fired by May 14" if the team doesn't get off to a head start.
The Jays are no threat to match the 1984 Tigers' 35-5 start. Seventeen of the first 40 games are against either the Yankees, Red Sox or the two best teams in the AL Central, Cleveland and Detroit. That's actually not too bad considering almost a quarter of the schedule is against the Evil Empires, but it's enough to put Gibby on the hot seat.
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According to Olney yesterday on his blog.
The Red Sox and Yanks have a more difficult schedule up to May 8 than the Jays.
Games up to May 8 / vs.teams + .500 in 07
Red Sox 37 / 23
Yanks 36 / 21
Jays 37 / 13
"The Jays get a whole lot of early games against the likes of Oakland and Kansas City, games they need to take advantage of right out of the gate."
Point taken, but if all three teams are like 21-19 on May 10, Gibbons might still be under pressure.
That's the thing... the Jays never seem to take advantage... if they could tread water in their 38 games vs. the Evil Empires and play .600 ball against the rest of the world, they'd win 95 games.
2 things.
1. This speaks to how difficult it is to play in the AL East. You're point, 17 of 40 vs. really tough competition is valid. In relative ( Jays ) terms though, it ain't supposedly that bad. It's not fair to be a Jays fan.
2. Gibbons is under the gun from the first pitch opening day. This team is built to win now and if it doesn't somebody ( I'm guessing not Ricciardi ) will blow it up.
It's totally a "you fire him or you're fired" for JP ... the law of diminishing returns has probably already kicked in for Gibby after three full seasons.
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