Guess you can say he was a pleasant surprise :) I don't know about that. He still has had problems allowing rookies to adjust to the bigs... Pie had almost no chance at all, and Fukudome getting benched with the lead we have in the division was just plain stupid. And there's no doubting that he's made plenty of stupid in-game moves... and they seem to come more often in games he deems critical, which makes me nervous about seeing Soto trying to bunt again during the playoffs. He's been better than I expected, but he hasn't been fantastic. Hard to fault him benching Fukudome. He flat out sucked in the 2nd half, He needed a breather. Lou has surprised me, and we should give props to Gerald Perry also.