Once and for all

OK, I'm going to do this (hopefully) once and for all. Sometimes when I write my angry posts I'm so worked up that what I really mean doesn't come all the way through. So here goes, once and for all, clear, concise, and to the point, my thoughts about Lloyd McClendon

1. He isn't to blame for every loss. Sometimes it seems like he is, sometimes it seems like I think he is. He most definitely is not, and I do know this.
2. Lloyd is a much better manager than he was in April of 2001 (or whatever day was his first as manager).
3. Lloyd is definitely one of the good guys in baseball. Despite 4+ years of abject losing, there has never been any sign of quit in him. He will not go Tony Pena on us. He will die before he quits, and he expects the same from his players (and the umpires). This is Lloyd's best quality, by far.
4. I really think the players (for the most part) like him. This is also a good thing for a manager to have
   
5. I don't buy the crap that a good or bad manager only wins or loses 5-10 games a year. A manager sets the tone for the team. Maybe his in-game decisions only directly affect 5-10 games, but other choices slant the table either towards or away from his team.
   
6. Despite the fact that he is much better than he was in 2001, he is (as far as I'm concerned) not up to par with the learning curve. He's too quick to do somethings (well, we didn't walk Derek Lee last night and we lost, so if we walk Corey Patterson tonight, we'll win) and not quick enough with others (Tike Redman is still playing center field on a fairly regular basis last time I checked). The point here is that most of the choices he makes slant the table away from us. They don't lose the game for us, they make it tougher to win. Jack Wilson is still batting second. That doesn't lose us any games, but having a guy that is struggling and hitting .170 batting in the two slot makes it hard to win. Jose Mesa is struggling, putting him in the game doesn't lose the game for us, but it makes it harder to win. This is why the hot streak was so impressive to me, because we did it with at least one Tike Redman or Ty Wigginton in the lineup every day, with Jack Wilson batting second. The table was tilted away from the players, and they still found a way to win.
   
7. He still has no feel after 4+ years of how to handle a pitching staff. He can't tell who's hot and who's cold, who has it, and who doesn't when it comes to pitchers.

The last thing I'll say is that I really do think Lloyd is a good guy, and I root for him. I don't root for the Pirates to lose to see Lloyd fired. I'm going to say that this is a division champion with Casey Stengel managing, no one can really know that. I just feel that being into his 5th year, there's a lot of things that if he hasn't learned by now, he's never going to learn them. As I mentioned in someone's comments section (either mine or Rory's), for Lloyd being in his 5th year, there are still too many nights (not every night mind you) that I feel like we've won a game in spite of him or we've lost a game because of him. And I feel like the good things that he brings to the table (his fire for the job, his likeability, his honesty) are outweighed by his failings as a manager.