Suggestions that perhaps he had reached a plateau. As a former general manager, Tom Grieve knows why there is such a negative spin. As a father, he doesn't like it one bit. But as a baseball person, I'm guilty of the same thing. You get those expectations based on whatever reason and you get disappointed.
Nobody's more impatient than baseball people.
You can fault Ben Grieve for being slow, for not being the most graceful outfielder, for being a reluctant interview. Grieve had a ball and bat in hand as soon as he could walk, and was just past 2 when he put on a baseball uniform for his first father-son game and refused to take it off for days. He was an All-American at Martin High in Arlington, Texas. He was the second overall pick in the 1994 draft, by Oakland. He was American League Rookie of the Year in 1998.