thoughts of hillman so far?

I'll give him a B as well.  If the Royals were over .500 I'd give him an A because I think he's done well enough as a manager to get an A, but I can't give a manager an A if we're below .500.  I've watched or listened to nearly every game this season and I like how he's handled the pitching staff.  He's had a good knack of when to leave a starter out there and when to pull the plug.  And I think he's put the right relievers in at the right times.  The team defense has shown significant improvement and that may reflect on the manager more than pitching or hitting does.  I guess where he's falling short would be on the offense, but thats just as much execution by the hitters as it has to do with the manager.  There's work to do with getting our hitters to work the opposing pitcher into deeper counts and to go with the pitch.  Far too many times I've seen Guillen and Pena swinging from their heels at pitches out of the strike zone. 

As far as Pena it is getting near that time where we HAVE to get some offense out of him.  I'd say lets give him the 4 game series with the Orioles.  At that point if Pena is still not cutting it, then we should either bench him and try Callaspo at short or send Pena to Omaha for Berroa, as much as I hate to say it.  But if Angel is hitting .300 and not embarrassing himself at shortstop, he should be afforded another chance. 

I think I am a little more critical but I'd give him a C, maybe C+.    I've never been a fan of the lineup shuffle that got so out of hand under Bob Boone and Hillman seems to have a similiar theory.    To me players need to become comfortable in a certain spot in the lineup to be the type of hitter they need to be.    

Hillman has also made some odd decisions with the pitching staff.  The other day he brought in Gobble, replacing Ramirez (who had jsut got Vlady) to face Kotchman with a man on third and only one out.  Now Gobble is our lefty specialist and has shown he is very good at it but why not walk the lefty who just happens to be one of the hottest hitters in the Anaheim lineup and set up a double play?   Instead they go after Kotchman and he delivers a run scoring base hit.     Another is the way he handled the game about a week ago vs Texas when Tomko got lit up.  He left him out there to get pummeled because he wanted innings from Tomko and he thought the game was getting out of reach anyway.   Well, we our bats came alive and we scored 9 but had dug ourselves too big of a hole.

On a positive note I think he has much higher expectations of the players and that is exactly what these guys need.   Too many times our organization uses the small market excuse as a safety net and Hillman seems intent on holding himself, the staff and the players accountable.  It's a refreshing attitude.