Hargrove doing a good job?

Dave at U.S.S. Mariner says he sees little evidence Hargrove is doing a bad job managing- link

Yet at the same time, he says playing Willie in CF is stupid.

Which we all agree is REALLY stupid, and he's already done it before.

So what issues have we seen with Hargrove so far:

• Poor Bench construction- It is hard to know how much the FO plays a role here, but we have to assume Hargrove has a major say in his bench. The fact he has no speed, no defensive specialist or anyone with power is a reason to criticize in my book. The combo of Spiez, Willie and Dobbs is a reason to have an issue with Hargrove, especially when you mismanage it by playing Willie in center. There is clearly reason to question the manager when it comes to his bench and how he uses it.
  
• Pitching roster- carrying 12 pitchers is silly. We all agree you don't give your pitchers enough work, and you limit yourself by not having an additional utility player.
  
• Use of pitching- I criticized the use of Thornton coming in to close games. I also think he needs to use long relief more effectively.
  
• Sacrificing the runner- every manager is guilty of this, so not much more can be said...

Okay, so we have some gripes with Hargrove. It's not like last year, where I was already calling for Melvin's head. Hargrove is a good manager, but there a few faults that we can't help but notice. Is he an upgrade over Melvin? Definitely.

All in all I'm happy, but you know there will be balls hit tonight where we will all be saying "Reed would have gotten that..."