The Braves held a farewell press conference on Wednesday for Bobby Cox and they didn't waste much time in naming his successor. Atlanta named Fredi Gonzalez as their new manager in a press conference earlier today. The former Marlins skipper has been given a contract that runs through 2013 with a club option for 2014.
Gonzalez, a former third base coach for the Braves, managed the Marlins from 2007 until earlier this season. He led the club to a 276-279 record during his time in Florida, and since his firing has been widely considered the logical successor for Cox in Atlanta. Cox publicly criticized Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria following Gonzalez's dismissal, saying that Florida "lost a good one" in Gonzalez.
Ken Rodriguez of FOX 5 Sports first reported that the Braves reached agreement with Gonzalez to become the team's next manager while MLB.com's Mark Bowman was first to learn that he would be formally introduced following Cox's farewell address. Contract details were first reported by Jon Paul Morosi of FOX Sports.
Love it. He’s learned how to manage a clubhouse from Bobby but is still his own man and not a Bobby replica. Welcome to Atlanta, Fredi. You’re inheriting one hell of a team.
good hire if it’s true.
It’s been true for awhile. Every Braves fan knew it, I knew, alot of people knew it.
Perfect fit. He was our only real option. Time for a new era to begin.
Plesantly expected announcement. Gonzalez is gonna be great with them young players and pitchers ATL has. The Braves should sign Cody Ross to START, I don’t really trust NM all that much yet.
Good luck Fredi and Thank you Bobby.
Cool, can we start the new season now?
I still can’t believe The Marlins fired Gonzalez. Stupidity.
Just realized I had initialy wrote “Sanchez”. I think I’m the one who’s suffering from stupidity. I need to get some sleep!
The whole point was to hire Bobby Valentine, which still might happen.
I thought Gonzalez was a good manager. I respect him for benching Hanley after not hustling. I don’t know at this point why Valentine would want to manage them after the way they treated him earlier.
The Marlins are low lifes, from owner to the bottom. The Braves are a top-class, world-class organization. If a punk drags his a** with the Braves, the punk will pack his bags, not Fredi. Its not just stupidity on the part of the Marlins, my extremely salty friend. Its low class and lack of character. Congrats to the Braves and Fredi. It proves that Leo Durocher was wrong; nice guys don’t always finish last.
Great Choice!!
good luck Fredi!! Lead us to Victories…
Love it love it love it!!! I’ve always said Fredi did a great job with what he was given in Florida…mediocre players (for the most part), terrible front office and no fan support whatsoever. Welcome back Fredi, you’ve got a good team waiting for you and one hell of a minor league system. Unlike the most unclassy (is that a word?) team in baseball, the Braves will appreciate you. I hope you can help us make Florida pay for not honoring Bobby…series sweep anyone?
i agree it was really stupid to not honor bobby, but again, Fredi was fired for doing a terrible job and not motivating his team. Bobby made it personal and attacked the team just cause they fired his friend, even though he did a terrible job. i am very displeased with the marlins not manning up and still honoring fredi even though there were some words between the two, but HOW is fredi the right fit? You have no idea watching games every day how many times marlins fans CURSED this man with his blah and down attitude, terrible decisions, and for not fighting for his players. things Bobby Cox does all day. Bobby Cox could take a triple A team and make them winners in the big leagues with his fire and motivation, Fredi cant lead anything. You will all see.
Because Chipper, Mccann and Hudson all voiced that they want fredi, the players and fans in atl love fredi, and fredi is a players manager. Im sorry but its not fredis fault that the 6000 drunk fans at the game didnt like him because he pulled the star player. And now he gets a team that has one of the best farms in the game with young superstars and well respected veterans
the word is classless
oh ok thanks lol
Yay! Fredi Gonzalez is a perfect fit for the Braves.
If Gonzalez wasn’t available, Yost would be the next manager, if Yost wasn’t available, Perez was the next choice, in my opinion.
your choice is bad. Yost would NOT be the next Braves manager. If Fredi couldn’t do it, it would have gone to Pendelton (with a close third being Perez). Yost has burned some bridges in the Braves’ front office.
and the Mets still haven’t hired a GM…
Chances are that it won’t be until the playoffs are over. Like it said above, the MLB doesn’t like during-postseason hirings. That’s why this hiring is suprising.
Cox was unanimously loved by his players. I can’t really think of a better “player’s manager.” But I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t at least a little curious about a fresh and different strategic approach for managing. Base stealing and bunts, to name a few.
Wow, i agree Fredi is a classy guy, but he is a TERRIBLE manager. He does not have the fire or motivation that Bobby Cox has and he will NEVER fill his shoes. Everything Bobby Cox did to field winning teams Fredi does the opposite. he is the worst motivator and terrible decision maker. This is actually a bad move for the braves, Fredi is NOT a player manager, he does not shake things up, he doesnt have much knowledge of his players or his minor league players, he doesnt stand up for his players, and his philosophy for players that are doing just awful is “We’ll just keep running him out there.” He was fired from florida for just flat out sucking. the only RIGHT move he ever made was when he benched Hanley for not hustling, i give him credit for that situation. But all those times Pinto was blowing games for us he just kept saying “We’ll keep running him out there” all you atlanta fans like him just cause Bobby said he liked him and he coached for your team before. You were all blessed with Bobby Cox, i have tremendous respect for him, but Fredi IS NO BOBBY COX. He is just such a blah manager and he really needs a fire lit under his butt to do anything successful with the Braves. If he magically gets motivation, fire, and knowledge (he never uses his gut or sabermetrics, just plays lefty/lefty type matchups) then youll be fine. but you all need to look deeper into this, just cause he worked from atlanta before doesnt mean hes the right choice, because he just flat out sucks
you keep saying hes not bobby cox, but nobody is bobby cox, and fredi knows the braves system almost as much as anybody. And its funny you talk about him only doing match ups like lefty lefty, just look at the series against the giants and you see bobby did the exact same thing, and twice in the reg season he did suicide squeezes on the braves plus i remember a few hit and runs that worked well. the braves top stealer was 11 steals.. so obviously bobby was always risky in sending his runners!
knowing the braves system doesnt make you a good manager. he IS NOT a player manager, those kinds of managers stand up for their players and motivate them and argue calls for them, Fredi just sits there and his matra is to remain calm and just play the game. marlins fans dont dislike him for sitting hanley, if you read my post i even mention it was the one thing he did right. it was too little too late to seem like he cared. again, because some players say they want him cause they like him as a person, what does that mean about managing a team? nothing. he makes very bad moves or doesnt make moves at all. he has no passion, no fire. he is the exact opposite of Cox. Im not trying to say he deserved to be fired the way he was, i say they should have let him finish the year and then get rid of him, but again, no one liked him cause he did not stand up for his players, defend them, or motivate them. he really seemed like he didnt care. All of you braves fans are so excited for a guy just cause he worked for you before and he’s a nice guy, but none of you know how he is as a manager. all you heard is Bobby is mad he was fired and that Chipper wants him as a manager and all of the sudden he’s the greatest manager ever and the braves will win it all with him. but as someone who had faith in him for three years let me tell you, he is awful. if he totally changes his ways maybe things will be different, but if he manages the way he did the marlins, you are all in trouble. And good job making a lame marlins attendance joke. real classy. And also, just cause Fredi was your third base coach for a couple years doesnt mean he knows ANYTHING about your players on the farm, he’s four years removed.
Have you ever thought that he did all of that so the Marlins would fire him? He already knew that he was the next manager, but he didn’t do anything so he could get out of the Marlins contract.
So Fredi decided to work for the marlins organization for years and years, leave for Atlanta for 4 years, then come to manage the marlins and be a terrible manager for 3 years just to get the braves job later? thats real logical. look up Fredi’s career, he has to more to do with the marlins than the braves.
im not saying fredi is the next best thing, but he is the best option, he will be cheap, the players like him, and he actually does know the system regardless of what you say. I could honestly care less if he stands up for his players and gets ejected early, all that matters is he writes the lineup and the players want to play for him, the braves ballplayers have enough passion and fire in which they don’t need the manager to be the one to motivate them. And funny you make a classy joke about me saying that about the marlins, i really hope they get better attendance and stuff when they build that stadium, but they are the only team that did nothing for bobby or even acknowledged him… real classy there.
You clearly dont know baseball then if all you want from a manager is to write the lineup and the players think he is a nice guy. It is different during a season, and without Bobby Cox managing this year the braves dont make the playoffs at all. And why would Fredi know the system so well? He worked in the marlins system for over 10 years and STILL didnt know anything. How do you have proof he knows the system? How do all you people have proof he learned from Cox and will manage like him? There is proof he doesnt work like him at all. Just cause for two months he toured the system doesnt make him a savior. What ive been trying to say is there is a heap of evidence of him being a terrible manager but because everyone likes him as a person suddenly he’s the second coming. When he starts to lose games for your team, have fun cursing his name. And while i agreed it was stupid to not honor Cox, he said some really nasty things about the organization after Fredi was fired, just because theyre friends..and that was Loria’s decision to not honor someone who bashed him. Stupid, but so it goes.
LOL I don’t want him to only write the lineup and have the players like him, i was being hypothetical, what i was saying is the braves clubhouse has so much fire behind them that that is all the manager would really have to do, (obviously pitching matchups//pitchcounts//plays//resting players etc will be taken into account). You have what 2 or 3 and a half years of proof that fredi is a bad manager? why so cynical? you had a winning team the majority of the time he was there. you keep saying we are saying fredi is this perfect great manager for every club but obviously thats not true, obviously it didnt work out with the marlins. What im saying is he has the relaxed playstyle that the braves players love, and he doesnt have to have the crazy fire that cox had to be a good manager for the braves. Plus the fact that the relationship between fredi and the braves FO compared to Fredi and the marlins FO is remarkable. And i know he knows the system because he has kept a close relationship with the entire braves coaching staff//FO. Not concrete evidence but what concrete evidence do you have that he sucks//doesnt know the system.. for crying out loud the red sox know the braves system.. nobody knows the marlins system because all thier prospects are in the majors.
also fredi used to be a minor league manager for the braves
You write way more than anyone is going to read. Edit man! Edit!
NOBODY is gonna “fill Bobby’s shoes”
Now if the Braves only had a decent hitting coach.
Terry Pendelton was good as a hitting coach after a string of non hitting in the early 90s, but some players just aren’t responding to him anymore. Once the apparent heir to manage the braves, its time for TP to move on. And possible a couple of the other coaches as well. I mean too many injuries late in the season. What’s up with that?
Pendelton, it was just announced, will be the 1st base coach. He’s no longer going to be the hitting coach.
The first of many good offseason moves, I hope. Now cut Melky, and sign/trade for a right-handed outfielder.
The first of many good offseason moves, I hope. Now cut Melky, and sign/trade for a right-handed outfielder.
According to Baseball tonight, Frank Wren wants a veteran outfielder and a veteran reliever to take the pressure off of Kimbrel, Venters and Dunn. The free agent market is repulsive this offseason so I would bet any big splash is going to be a trade. It would be nice to see Jayson Werth or Carl Crawford in the outfield wouldn’t it?
Oh my god, Carl Crawford in Atlanta would have to make the Braves my second favorite team. I would love that!
no. going. to. happen.the Braves are cash strapped as it is (with Lowe and KK’s salary). Here’s what I think happens:KK + M. Jones + 2 million dollars to the RedSox for EllsburyBraves sign Josh Willingham to be a 1B/LF (and he’s a RH bat)Braves trade Melky + JJ Hoover to KC for David DeJesusBraves get in talks with Twins about Brian Fuentes.
The Braves will then go all in for Beltre. I know Chipper wants to come back, but I don’t think his body will respond the same way. The Braves will DFA McLouth.
1B – Freeman/Willingham
2B – Prado
SS – AGon (picking up his option)
3B – Beltre
LF – Willingham/DeJesus
CF – Ellsbury/DeJesus
RF – Heyward/DeJesus
Infante being super-sub (his best role, IMHO)
rotation:
Hanson
Hudson
Lowe
Minor
Beachy (until Teheran, Delgado and Vizcaino are ready and Medlen gets healthy in 2012)
Venters, Kimbrel and Fuentes at the back of the bullpen
Nice rosterbation there, but i think the braves will probably nontender melky and dejesus is left handed so they probably wont go after him *even though they did before he got injured, a more realistic option is probably cody ross.
as far as the kk+ m.jones deal thats interesting since the sox need a ss they might actually take that but i doubt they want kk
and idk what they would trade to the nats for willingham
chipper will be back, hes already swinging off the tee, but we cant rely on him for more than 100 games so i think getting a guy like inge would be helpful for a def sub and to spell chipper on occasion
and they will not dfa Mclouth, he showed serious signs of life at the end of the season
if anything i see the braves trying to trade for a guy like raburn, but then again FW is looking for a veteran OF, so maybe willingham is spot on, im just not sure what we would trade. i would love to see the braves go resign vazques at a much cheaper prize, it would have been like getting vizcaino and dunn for nothing and i think he would excell back in the nl and with atl
As a Marlins fan, I honestly was never a fan of Fredi as our manager, BUT I do have alot of respect for Fredi as a person, and I wish him all the best in Atlanta. Hopefully he gets some respect with the Braves organization.. I love my team, but that feeling is a double-edged sword when your front office is full of scumbags.. can’t wait until we get a new owner/GM/President (but I know that won’t be happening for quite sometime) :/
I know there were talks about moving them to North Carolina, which I wish they would.
NO WAY man.. as bad as the management is thats still MY team and I wanna be able to attend/watch the games
not with the new stadium, but if that experiment fails something will have to be done.
The team cant move anywhere for 30 years. Even if it fails they are stuck in Miami.
i wanna keep the stadium and stay in Miami, but under some new management lol
I think the Marlins should hold on in Miami, I think the popularity of a baseball team is generational, so it takes decades to build the kind of brand loyalty the Yankees, Cubs and RedSox share. Miami is the fourth largest market in the country, in the future they could be as popular as anyone else.
Good luck with him, Atlanta. Not a big surprise. Happy to see him out of Florida. Four seasons with zero improvement. Nice guy, horrible manager. See you next season!
Thing is its hard to improve when you have to constantly trade or let go of your best players, its really a surprise that he was able to keep them from a strict decline.
While he was managing how many star players got traded? Matt Lindstrom? Kevin Gregg ? While they didnt ADD anything great through FA, they didnt get rid of anyone from the core. So that excuse is null and void.
for the record, Matt Lindstrom and Kevin Gregg are barely decent players, let alone stars
i think he was being sarcastic lol. and luda i dont have to use that excuse for some reason i thought he was around with M. Cabrera was traded.. why should i need an excuse? he took a 40 million dollar payroll and had the team being a winning team the majority of the time he was there
lmao i know, i was just adding to his point that they should barely even be considered decent
I think that was the point.. lol
Anyone who says this really doesn’t know anything about the Marlins organization. Fredi had virtually the same exact team all 4 seasons. And anyone who is going to fire back with them being an a bunch of no names and they don’t get paid and all this other whiney b.s. can just stop now. Say what you will about Loria, but you can’t deny that the Marlins have been one of the most well scouted, and talented (yet young) teams over the last few years. They had the same talented core of players and he could do nothing with them. You can pretty much lay the blame on the bullpen this season, had to be one of worst, if not THE worst, in baseball.. but there’s no excuse for the previous seasons, especially 2009.
well then you just back my previous point, granted my talking about trading away players was a little old, that would probably be better suited to the teams from earlier in the decade, but Luda is talking about how fredi failed because he went to pinto over and over again, but it didnt matter because no matter who he went to in that bullpen they failed. I just don’t see how succeeding with a team whos payroll is just a nudge larger than Alex Rodriquez’s annual salary would be considered a bad manager.
The bullpen failed this season as a whole, but not in seasons past. Fredi didn’t succeed as a Manager at all, that’s my point (and Luda’s, I assume). It doesn’t matter how much payroll you’re holding, look at the ’03 Marlins, ’08 Rays, ’07 Rockies.. the list goes on and on. Why does everyone act like Yankees, Red Sox, Cubs, Angels and all the other teams with $90 million+ win every season? And why do people act like everyone that’s a Yankee is rollin in tens of millions? Realize that it’s the superstars that inflate the overall payroll. Take out ARod and I’m sure the Yankees average salary is less than $5 million.
heres thier top 12 players in payroll in 2010
1 Alex Rodriguez 33,000,000
2 CC Sabathia 24,285,714
3 Derek Jeter 22,600,000
4 Mark Teixeira 20,625,000
5 A.J. Burnett 16,500,000
6 Mariano Rivera 15,000,000
7 Lance Berkman 14,500,000
8 Jorge Posada 13,100,000
9 Andy Pettitte 11,750,000
10 Javier Vazquez 11,500,000
11 Kerry Wood 10,500,000
12 Robinson Cano 9,000,000
heres marlins
1 Dan Uggla 7,800,000
2 Hanley Ramirez 7,000,000
3 Josh Johnson 3,750,000
4 Leo Nunez 2,000,000
5 Will Ohman 1,350,000
6 Anibal Sanchez 1,250,000
7 Wes Helms 950,000
8 Chad Tracy 900,000
9 Jose Veras 550,000
10 Clay Hensley 425,000
11 Emilio Bonifacio 420,000
Chris Volstad 420,000
dont tell me that doesnt make a huge difference.. the yankees have 11 players over 10 mill.. thats just ridiculous
It doesn’t make a difference. Explain to me why teams with smaller payrolls are more often successful? It doesn’t matter how much your payroll is, it matters what you do with it. I don’t see the Cubs/Angels/Mets/Tigers and their $100+ payroll walking home with rings on a constant basis.Yankees have the highest average salary at $5.5 million. Rangers and Reds average less than a million. Phillies are at $2.7. Salaries explode because of overpaid players. Berkman making $14 is a joke. Rangers are one of the lowest payroll teams this season and one of the most successful.It doesn’t take money to win:2003 Marlins $ 48,750,000 total payroll2003 Yankees $ 152,749,814 total payroll
And just for the hell of it:
Jeter and his $22 million: .270/10 HR/67 RBI/.340 OBP
Uggla and his $7.8 million: .287/33 HR/105 RBI/.369 OBP
Yeah, it’s all about the money…
ludafish, you sure do care an aweful lot about this thread. You sure you hate Freddi? I sense a tinge of jealousy in your posts. Maybe Fred was sick of the Marlins philosophy. You know… Let’s field a team of rookies every year and pocket any potential profits, then trade them away for peanuts when they become eligible to earn millions. Maybe he didn’t feel the motivation to work and cultivate a dynasty when he knew that next year (if the kid played well) he would just be traded away for some more minor league prospects.
Tell me the last time they vacated salary by trading players, ready go!
Oh yeah, that was like… after the 1997 season when Huizenga owned the team. It happened once. ONCE. What’s wrong with trading players? Isn’t that what teams do? Beinfest and Hill are geniuses when it comes to trades, don’t confuse them with Loria.
Some of you guys need to get a grip. The Marlins DO NOT trade away top talent for minor league prospects. They trade for what most people consider to be the top prospects in baseball. Seriously, look at their trades. Traded Beckett/Lowell for Ramirez/Sanchez. Uh, yeah good trade. Traded Pierre for Mirte/Nolasco/Pinto. Nolasco is a stud, Mirte had a solid season and Pinto was a joke. Good trade, what’s JP doing now? Nothing. Resop for Gregg. Decent trade. Gregg had one great season closing then was traded for Josa Ceda. Cabrera/Willis for Maybin/Badenhop/Miller. TBD, Badenhop is fairly solid in the ‘pen, Miller and Maybin have flashes of brilliance and then flashes of complete failure. They got Cody Ross for literally ten dollars from the Reds.
Miguel Cabrera and Dontrelle Willis always struck me as more of a salary dump then acquiring top players.
You sir are smoking crack. The OBVIOUS motivation was to move players who were already or about to make a lot of money. Of course they did and should receive top talent in return. None of the players traded were EVER making what would be considered a lot of money by industry standards. In fact, I would be shocked if they ever retained a player who was making more than $7 or $8 mil. The fact that they got top prospects in return doesn’t negate the fact that the trade was done to avoid paying their players market value.
TRADING players and dumping salaries are two completely different things. Dumping salary is what they did in 1997 when they traded nearly the entire team and got virtually nothing in return. Trading a player that is due for a raise (that you may or may not be able to afford, given the info leaked as of late) and getting top prospects in return is not dumping salary, that’s smart business.
And since they’ve been building their own stadium they’ve locked down players. Hanley will make $11 mil next season, Johnson will make nearly $8 mil… if Uggla stays with the team (I suspect he will) he’s likely pulling around $10 mil.
hi