(Repeat from the bottom of a USSM thread, but let me know what y'all think)

McLaren has a real simple probem - he is too busy being a friend to the players.

Early on, McLaren stated that telling Ellison he was DFA was "the harderst thing" he'd (McLaren) had ever had to do - he was practically in tears about releasing a 25th-man 4th OF.

He's riding the veterans, letting the players decide who plays (of course Guillen wanted to play, no matter how bad his hand hurts, but it's not good for the team), and just looks afraid to upset anything.

Bear with me for a moment here, but I'm a new manager at work, and I'm having a hard time "managing" coworkers who were friends first. It's much easier with the new guys I've hired, for whom I've been the boss since day 1.

Heck, I've got one guy who just isn't getting the job done, and I don't know what to do - I've been giving him easier, and less important tasks, but it's still not working.

Just the other day, I gave him a softball of a task - I figured I'd give him an easy chance for success. Kind of like sending a struggling righty up to bat against a tiring HoRam. Unfortunately, it took 3x as long as it should have, he got it wrong, and it blew up in my face (db jobs failed, customer impact, etc.).

Ok, so now what do I do? Clearly, I need to sit him down, but he's a friend... See how that sucks?

Fortunately for me, I'm not managing Richie, Raul, Guillen (against righties), Vidro, etc. How do you tell a friend (Richie, or Raul) that he just doesn't have it any more? Easier to put off the new kid (Jones), rather than have the hard conversation with a buddy.

As a bench coach, McLaren could be the players' buddy - he was their pal, even a confidante other than Hargrove. He was free to make strategy suggestions without worrying about egos, hurt feelings, etc. Now he's the man, and he needs to toughen up. The buddy act is clouding his judgement, and hurting the team. He needs to grow some balls and stand up. Because, until he does, he will continue to cripple the team