FanNation | Sports Thoughts from the Great White North | Jays fire Gibbons, Mediocrity to stay

Well it appears that John Gibbons has finally hit the end of his tenure with the Jays, and not surprisingly after they lost 13 of their last 17 in a June that was supposed to be the Month they made their move. But old habits are hard to break, and the Jays are habitually mediocre.

It's a syndrome that has plagued my Maple Leafs for awhile now, yet the Jays seem to be the best when it comes to being just plain....well plain.

Their winning percentage over the last 15 seasons since they won the WS is a remarkable .487.

That means that if the Jays played 162 games for 15 seasons (they didn't but that doesn't matter) they would be at a mark of 1183-1247.

Since the 1994 season, the Jays finished below the .500 mark 8 times, and finished above the .500 mark 6 times.

That is irritatingly mediocre.

It seems like after the two World Series crowns the Jays have fallen into a comfort zone of being just OK. They have gone through two regimes since then, and neither one lived up to the expectations of the former regime. They are in a brutally tough division yes, but a division that can be dealt with if you can win 90+ games, something they haven't done in 15 years.

The drafting has been relatively solid, yet the free agent singings have generally been not. The core is still in place for this team to succeed and while they've tried their best, it just seems that Ash and Ricciardi missed the mark with all of the pieces they've brought in to surround them with. You would probably need two hands to count the number of 3B's and Catchers the Jays have cycled through over the years. Not to mention the ever-changing Shortstop carousel that never seems to end.

There's still hope, as there seems to be some good young arms that the Jays can build around. Travis Snider is supposed to be their next big slugger in the pipeline, so maybe he joins the club and lights it up, giving the Jays another young batter to build around as well.

But I think the organization has realized it's no longer about the players, or the injuries or the lack of payroll. They realize that it's about the people running the show, and that may mean that J.P is the next to go. Gibby was the first, along with his staff, and now leaves Cito Gaston in the enviable position of having to revive a club that's heading down a slippery slope.

He might just do that too, who knows? He could light a spark under the bats and get them going again, and maybe he could finally get Burnett to pitch consistently.

My guess? I bet they finish 79-83. I just have this feeling.

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June 20, 2008 05:55 PM ET

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Great points Bentley - seems like every year you hear about how the Jays are going to contend with NY and Bos - and then around this time of year and thru the end of the year they are sitting around .500