I probably am more sympathetic to Gobble than most here on this board; what you posted probably needs to be said.

Obviously he sucked for the most part last year, but historically he’s been tough on lefties. Unfortunately, Hillman threw him out there against everybody.

Hillman had a perfectly good lefty reliever, Ron Mahay, all warmed up in the bullpen.

"Mahay is not a lefty specialist," Hillman explained in his postgame comments. And it is true Mahay is only slightly better against lefties than he is against righties. The Royals, you might recall, did have a true lefty specialist, Jimmy Gobble, who had given up only one hit to Thome in seven at-bats. They released Gobble in large part because Hillman does not like lefty specialists.