Bob Geren

From the start of Bob Geren's tenure as manager of the Oakland A's, he was doomed to fail.

The reason being is the style of managing he employs and it has nothing to do with the trades that Billy Beane has made during the time he's been manager.

The excuse of injuries as well isn't an easily bought excuse either because every team in baseball has to deal with injuries at some point during a season.

The difference is a good-to-great manager knows how to motivate and get the most from his players.

Let's call a spade a spade. It isn't ineptitude that A's manager Bob Geren displays—it is a total lack of competence. Geren should have been fired long ago, and general manager Billy Beane is allowing the most incompetent manager in baseball to still have a job.

If Geren was a rookie manager then maybe some of the mistakes being made could be considered as a rookie mistake and in time he'd learn from them. Yet, not only has Geren made mistakes, he keeps making the same mistake.

There's a saying that goes, "Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me."

With the Oakland A's mired in last place in the AL West, I've begun to wonder: Is manager Bob Geren on the hot seat or not?

Only general manager Billy Beane knows for sure, but if Geren is not close to being replaced, he should be.

Here are five pieces of irrefutable evidence I'll offer in support of this conclusion:

1. Geren Has Ruined the Team's Greatest Strength: Its Bullpen

Ruined might be a bit severe, but blatant overuse from the first week of the season has made a mess of the bullpen.

Carlos Zambrano has always been known as a player who wears his emotion on his sleeve, and today it cost him.

He was called on an extremely close play at the plate, where Nyjer Morgan slid in just before Zambrano was able to get the tag down, but Morgan barely got his hand in before Zambrano could tag him out.

Mark Carlson, the umpire on the call, actually made a tremendous call, because from first angle it looked like Morgan was blocked by Zambrano and he was out. But upon further review of the play, it shows that he slid his hand in before the tag could be made.

The Oakland A's are coming off a game which should have gave them some momentum to at least get the A's in a tie for third place with the Seattle Mariners, but again their effort was again not where it should be especially for a professional baseball team.

The only offense the A's could muster against Erik Bedard was a solo homerun by Bobby Crosby.

Brian Knight has some explaining to do—most of it to Bob Watson.

His horrific call in the bottom of the first really got manager Bob Geren heated, except he didn't get thrown out of the game. In fact, it was A's hitting coach Jim Skaalen who was ejected.

Adam Kennedy was on first base via a walk. Kurt Suzuki was up and worked to a full count. The next pitch was inside and Kennedy was running on the play, but Suzuki tried checking his swing.

Billy Beane used too make great decisions and make trades that benefited the Oakland A's, but lately, Beane's genius has backfired on him, and it hasn't been pretty for the Oakland A's.

No one could make the argument that the hiring of Ken Macha was the beginning of the end for the A's run, but at least Macha had teams that made the playoffs and had a winning record.

Bob Geren is a great manager to build your confidence with. I mean what other manager will let a starting pitcher give walks to the first two batters of an inning before sending out the pitching coach, Curt Young.

Then only to have young catcher Kurt Suzuki call for a fastball down the middle of the plate and before you know it the pitcher is staring at a 3-0 deficit with no outs. Thanks, Bob appreciate the support.

I don't know of any other general manager other than Billy Beane to allow for their team to play with no sense of direction or purpose.

It doesn't matter that the pitching is their for the Oakland A's.What matters is the lack of runs and hitting the A's have shown the past two-plus seasons under the leadership of manager Bob Geren. A's fans get the same exact excuse over and over again: The season is still early and the team will start hitting.

Billy Beane needs to take responsibility for his putrid hiring of Bob Geren he should say "I made a mistake, I take full responsibility for the hire and now I'm going to fix the problem."

What this really means is that Beane should be firing manager Geren as soon as the A's return home on Monday. Geren could go down as the worst manager in Oakland history.