Your Correia stat gymnastics aren't too interesting without context. How does he compare in this regard to other pitchers? That is, if the average starter's ERA improves by 0.6 if you throw out his worst innings, then Correia isn't that notable or unlucky. Also, if Correia has had this problem throughout his career, it's probably not due to luck either. (In fact, he may have been lucky in 2013 to avoid some big innings) Bill Smith's tenure started with two pretty awful moves (the Santana and Delmon Young deals), but he then did pretty well until the Capps trade and the second Hardy trade (and probably the Butera promotion too). At that point, it was looking pretty clear that he was thinking too much like Gardy or giving too much deference to Gardy in player acquisition matters. At least he was willing to take some risks with money and low-level prospects, though.