Blue Jays third baseman Brett Lawrie is tagged out trying to steal home plate by Phillies catcher Brian Schneider at the Rogers Centre in Toronto, Ont., June 16, 2012. (MIKE CASSESE/Reuters)
"There’s no betting in baseball, but my guess for an over/under is Aug. 1, the two are on a collision course," predicted one man at the 111th annual winter meetings at the Opryland Hotel on Tuesday.
Under manager John Farrell, Lawrie was a runaway wild stallion on the bases, running into outs. The mistakes weren’t corrected.
Gibbons didn’t tolerate first-time mistakes in his first tenure in the Blue Jays dugout.
"After John Farrell they probably needed to hire someone tougher, but is this not extreme hire?" he asked. "How will Lawrie react to a stern hand?"
Jays general manager Alex Anthopoulos was asked if he believed players "could change?"
"Can you stop a guy from swinging at pitches out of the strike zone? I don’t think so, but a young player can become less adventurous on the bases," he said. "Brett is going to get better. He has so much hype being Canadian, he’s a high-energy player."
