The guy can ride at the front. He is having some management issues now whether they be personal, technical or both he has a chance to sort them out before seasons end. Even if he doesn't get it done until the last few races.
What does seem to be the case is that a riders 'luck', good or bad, is inversely proportional to their popularity.
For example: Ben Spies is a great rider, having a run of bad luck, even though he has been beaten at every race by his team-mate and at all but one race, by the satellite Yamahas.
Bradley Smith however, is ...., apparently. Because he is always in the top ten and consistently beats his team-mate, who is not even in the top twenty. This despite riding the least-developed bike in the paddock.
Bautista is .... too - only good for a tow. No talent at all.
Barbera, another tow trucker. Why does he even have a ride?
Rossi - best to leave that one alone.
Hayden? All those years and only a single world championship to show for it - ......
For some reason all of those have perfect race-winning bikes but are crap riders, whereas Spies is a race-winning rider with a faulty bike.
Or the reality - they are all capable of circulating within a few tenths of each other, given equal machinery, and the difference between most of the GP riders is more to do with which bike they ride and which team they ride for.
That being said, Spies is on a top bike with a top team and is riding like a bunny. This weekend was perfect - good weather, new tyres, top bike, no dramas, no injuries - but he blew it.
Sorry, regardless of the state of his head, his crew, his Mum, he isn't doing the job and doesn't deserve a factory ride. It would be interesting to see how he handles a CRT bike.