[gailtate]

Bernard's teflon mastery of administrative survival should be studied by all would-be apparatchiks. He's a survivor for all seasons.

Completely agree. I grudgingly admire the capacity of mediocre talents who have finagled their way into senior roles and thrive. Bernard, for sure. Farhan Zaidi is another. Objectively speaking, the SF Giants' first round draft picks over the last 10 years have the worst WAR of all 30 big league teams. And yet...Farhan not only keeps his job, but he gets a two-year extension. And he proves his rank incompetence by hiring Jerod Haase, excuse me, I mean Bob Melvin, a career underperformer. I've seen it in my own business many times. Grim.

Spot-on. Farhan's a fraud and Greg Johnson operates in the shadow of his own question mark. As a former A's fan since the white-shoes '70s, however, I'll give Bo-Mel a temporary wait-and-see pass. The situation in San Diego seemed fraught with clubhouse intrigue. A better measure of his field chops was having nimbly navigated Wolfe/FisherLand -- until it was untenable. Still, the NL West is Dodger territory in the foreseeable future and I had higher expectations of Melvin in San Diego. We'll know more by late September.

[gailtate]

Bernard's teflon mastery of administrative survival should be studied by all would-be apparatchiks. He's a survivor for all seasons.

Completely agree. I grudgingly admire the capacity of mediocre talents who have finagled their way into senior roles and thrive. Bernard, for sure. Farhan Zaidi is another. Objectively speaking, the SF Giants' first round draft picks over the last 10 years have the worst WAR of all 30 big league teams. And yet...Farhan not only keeps his job, but he gets a two-year extension. And he proves his rank incompetence by hiring Jerod Haase, excuse me, I mean Bob Melvin, a career underperformer. I've seen it in my own business many times. Grim.

Spot-on. Farhan's a fraud and Greg Johnson operates in the shadow of his own question mark. As a former A's fan since the white-shoes '70s, however, I'll give Bo-Mel a temporary wait-and-see pass. The situation in San Diego seemed fraught with clubhouse intrigue. A better measure of his field chops was having nimbly navigated Wolfe/FisherLand -- until it was untenable. Still, the NL West is Dodger territory in the foreseeable future and I had higher expectations of Melvin in San Diego. We'll know more by late September.