Great season for the Braves, everyone in Atlanta will miss Bobby Cox. The next manager will have some giant shoes to fill, this guy was unbelievably liked by the players and it showed.
I can't even imagine seeing another manager in the dugout in April right now. Obviously Bobby has been in there as long as I've been watching baseball. I'll never forget my first live Braves game. It was in 1991. A doubleheader against the Dodgers. We only stayed for the first game. It was a win, the starting pitcher was Steve Avery but he didn't get the decision. The winning run was walked home in the bottom of the ninth by the Dodgers pitcher. I have no idea who it was. I can't seem to remember the final score either, just that we won. I've been to a decent amount of games live, my biggest regret is not being in attendance for a Bobby Cox ejection.
I think Fredi Gonzalez has to be the next manager. I really can't see an unknown to the organization taking over. I also like the direction of this team. We'll have some money this offseason (Thank God D-Lowe pitched his way into being trade worthy) so we can probably add a bat in Left and/or Center. The bullpen is going to be solid. I think this experience was good for Kimbrel, and Venters looks like a mainstay out there.
15 years too late I guess, but I'll take it.....lol I'm guessing I'm the only Braves fan here that's glad to see him gone?
Is Billy Wagner really going to retire? To me, next to who is the manager, that is the second most important question heading into 2011.
He sure sounded like he is. I like Jonny Venters in the closing role moving forward. We need a hard throwing lefty for Philly and he gives us that.
FYI: If you go to baseballreference.com or retrosheet.org you should be able to look up that exact game.
Gaak, I've seen so many inhouse "closers" just suck, from Mark Wohlers to John Rocker, I think it has something to do with how they are developed in the Braves Farm System.
I found it. http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/ATL/ATL199106281.shtml It was a 3-2 Braves win, it was actually a ten inning game. My memory didn't betray me, Steve Avery did start. Pitcher Kent Mercker helped his own cause, drawing the game winning walk and earning the W. Glavine was used as a pinch runner. Man I'm getting old.
Good stuff! I just looked at the box score myself. Some pretty big names and good players you got to see at your first game.
It is hard for me to even start thinking about what the Braves may do this offseason and going forward. I agree that Fredi Gonzalez is the likely choice as manager, but I don't think it is a slam dunk. It's probably close to a slam dunk though, because Billy Wagner mentioned Fredi by name as a possible next manager and stated that Bobby's influence will still be around. As far as on the field, I think we will probably see a move toward youth, particularly in the pitching staff. The bullpen will be built around the likes of Johnny Venters, Craig Kimbrel, and Mike Dunn, and I think we will see young guys like Cory Gearrin and Stephen Marek get a shot at some point. Among the starters, we should see Tommy Hanson, Jair Jurjjens, Mike Minor, and Brandon Beachy at the start of the year along with Tim Hudson, and at some point, Kirs Medlin will be back. Julio Teheran will be knocking on the door. Pencil in Freddie Freeman at first base. Derek Lee will be on the market just like Derek Lowe this offseason. He will have his initial struggles, but he's a great hitter that should come into his own at some point next season. Martin Prado will be back and should be at either second or third, depending upon Chipper's health when he returns. If Chipper is out, then we probably see Martin at third with Omar Infante at second. At short stop, I'm not sure what will happen. I can see Alex Gonzalez being moved at some point. Are they willing to give Brandon Hicks a chance?
Fredi it is. It was more of a slam dunk than I thought. I thought they would give Terry Pendelton at least some cursory interest. This is a great hiring, IMO. Fredi is similar to Bobby in that he is a player's manager that doesn't embarrass his players publicly or throw them under the bus to the media. He's been a part of the Braves Way as well. He always got the best out of his players at Florida. It's the Marlins' loss and the Braves' gain, IMO.
I didn't realize that there were a lot of Marlins fans period. Just kidding. The fact is though, Fredi had a team with the lowest payroll in the league that was also one of the younger teams in the league year after year, and he had a losing season in his first season only. Jeffrey Loria was ready to fire him after the Marlins won 87 games in 2009 and made a strong push for the wild card. I'll give the Marlins credit in that I feel they probably have the best scouting staff in baseball with the way they can bring guys up from the minors and plug them right in, but they have been very bad at keeping good managers. First they let Joe Girardi go, and now Fredi.
You don’t need to remind me about the recent history of the baseball team I follow. Loria is a delusional idiot. We know this. But Fredi did not get the Marlins to overachive as you seem to imply here. He actually didn’t do a whole lot for player development, as the team kept making the same correctable mistakes while he was here. He was pretty passive even for a baseball manager. There were legitimate reasons to fire Fredi, and legitimate reasons to keep him on board. He’s an average manager.
I really hope Fredi can convince Frank Wren to give Renyel Pinto a ST invite. Cuz I know he'll try to get him on board...
Nice PC with Bobby and Fredi. A couple things: Pendleton is out as Hitting Coach but will stay on as first base coach, which means Hubby and his fabulous forearms are out. Carlos Tosca - was fired along with Fredi in Florida - will replace Chino Cadahia as the bench coach. Snitker will stay on as third base coach, RogMac will stay on as pitching coach, and Eddie Perez will remain bullpen coach. I'm really surprised that A) Pendelton was retained and B) That he accepted what is in essence a demotion. Also surprised they let Hubbard go. He's been here for a long time. Ultimately, I think Fredi is the right guy for the job. The players will love him (they did when he was here) and he will have a relatively young ball club. If Wren does as good a job this offseason as he did last, we should be able to make the playoffs again provided we survive the inevitable injuries that are bound to happen to this team.
I like the Carlos Tosca addition. Tosca was the AAA manager in Richmond the year before Fredi took over the job, and he did an excellent job. He got the Blue Jays managerial job after that and flopped, but he's a baseball nut and a very good coach, IMO. I wonder if Fredi is targeting Jim Presley to be his hitting coach? A lot of Braves fans have a very favorable opinion of Presley. Personaly, I would love to promote Jamie Dismuke to be the hitting coach.
This. And I hope he stomps the **** out the team I used to root for that he got fired from unexpectedly and without explanation.
Presley seems to be the popular choice ATM. I wonder if Presley is still under contract with Florida? I think the Marlins have to grant the request for him to interviewed, although I'm not sure how that works exactly.
If there's a manager/coach/front office guy still under contract with a team they have to give permission for the guy to be interviewed for a job with another team. Most teams will grant permission, I know the Yankees have recently made a policy to refuse permission for their guys to interview for jobs. I guess it all depends on the teams and situations. EDIT: Of course the team that coach/FO guy is leaving could ask for money and/or a player in return. When Lou Pinella went from Seattle to Tampa Bay, Tampa sent Seattle Randy Winn. If Billy Beane ended up going to the Red Sox to be their GM in 2003, Oakland would have gotten Kevin Youkilis.
Presley was known as "hound dog" during his playing days. Eh, tbh I'm more concerned with the pitching coach, if Lowe is dealt that leaves Huddy and a very young staff to develop.
Tosca wasn't fired. He stayed on a few days after Fredi was fired to help the new coaching staff with the transition. He quit once he felt they were good to go. Good hiring, in my opinion. However, you can have Presley if you want. He's not popular down here.
I honestly though Melky was going to be traded before last season, think I said so here and was wrong. Wren said they only planned on him being here one season due to arbitration, so methinks Bobby wanted him more than Wren. Hopefully this means we'll add a LF this winter. Also, some bad news, Freddie Freeman hurt his thumb in an AFL game. Hopefully it's not serious as he is supposed to be our opening day 1B next season.
Not sure why. Florida's offense has been pretty decent over the last few years. The only thing I've noticed is that their Man on 3rd w/less than 2 outs has been subpar, but that can be attributed to having young players with high K rates. We'll take him in a heartbeat.
Eh, sort of miss the days when TBS carried the Braves and could spend the bucks to sign guys like Melky, as to me he is a much better player than McLouth is. I suspect the Braves are about to go with very young players wherever they can.
Mainly due to the team almost never making adjustments throughout the years, etc. In fact, after Jamie Moyer had owned us for the umpteenth time, a reporter had asked Presley what adjustments he had tried making with the team and he said something about him not believing in trying to adjust to each pitcher. He's not the worst hitting coach in the world but most Marlins fans grew tired of that act.
According to espn the Braves have hired Larry Parrish as their new hitting coach. The article says he was previously working for Detroit's AAA team in Toledo.