Fredi or Valentin

by brickell on Oct 5, 2009 10:43 AM EDT

Well the season only ended yesterday, but the rumors are swirling. Doesn't sound like much of anything, but I wouldn't put anything past Samson and Loria.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/sports/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-bbn-marlins-gonzalez,0,5068695.story

...manager Fredi Gonzalez will be evaluated at the end of the season, leaving the winningest manager in team history with no guarantee he'll return for 2010.

Gonzalez signed a two-year extension in spring training, putting him under contract through 2011. He also led the thrifty Marlins to an 87-75 record with the lowest payroll in baseball ($37 million) and passed Jack McKeon for most wins by a manager in team history with his 242nd on Saturday.

"As we looked at the performance at things that happened, games that went one way, games that went another way, there is no question we felt we should have been a playoff team," Samson said during Sunday's Marlins-Phillies game.

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news;_ylt=AmYsv0Iw6GRUL2ywtSPQWXQRvLYF?slug=ge-marlinsmanager100409&prov=yhoo&type=lgns

Samson appeared in the press box during Sunday’s regular-season finale between the Marlins and Phillies to address reports that former big league manager Bobby Valentine had spoken with Loria about managing the club.

“Not that I’m aware of,” Samson replied when asked if Valentine had been in contact with the club, but later said he wouldn’t “rule out” the possibility that Loria may have spoken with Valentine, who has managed in Japan for the last six seasons and recently rejoined ESPN as an analyst.

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One thing in his favor

Not that I have any complaints about the job that Freddi has done, but Valentine does have experience leading teams to WS, and the previous two Championships that the Marlins won were under established managers (Leyland and McKeon).

by Jigokusabre on Oct 5, 2009 11:03 AM EDT reply actions

Fredi isnt a bad manager...

but he’s too laid back. we need someone whos gonna push these guys to the next level. Also, i dont like the fact that Fredi sticks with struggling players for too long (i.e. Lindstrom and Bonifacio). As much as i dont wanna really see this, i think Fredi would be much more better off coaching the braves (fyi, i hate them with a passion).

by xquiles21x on Oct 5, 2009 12:15 PM EDT reply actions

There is no reason to fire Fredi.

I seem to recall Valentine being a laughingstock for his last year or two with the Mets. Plus the only specific thing I remember from his tenure with that team is that time he was ejected from a game, and then tried to sneak back onto the bench wearing Groucho Marx glasses. Maybe it’s fair to dismiss him, maybe it’s unfair, but he’s not infallible or anything.

I don’t agree with all the decisions Fredi has made, but this team has done as well as one can expect with the level of talent we have. Have you ever seen an 87-75 team with a pitching rotation in this much disarray? Yeah, he was a little too insistent about making Bonifacio work, and like all managers, he’s dogmatic about “closers”. But, you know, whatever. Every manager does something wrong, based simply on the fact that something’s going to turn out wrong no matter what you do. There is nothing here that is such a problem that we need to disrupt the team’s stability for it.

What we need is a really good pitching coach. I’m pretty sure Nolasco got back on track late in the season, but we still have so many young guys who are one or two tweaks away from being really good pitchers — Volstad, West, Vandenhurk, Sanchez, Miller. And that’s just the starters. I’m willing to give Kranitz another season — he did a pretty damn good job of putting together a bullpen out of spare parts and whatnot. But we’re going to have to do a lot of that work again next year, and some of these starters had better start coming together.

He's currently two-thirds man, one-third amazing. Which, let's face it, is still a pretty good ratio.

by 3.3seconds on Oct 5, 2009 5:07 PM EDT reply actions

agreed

He drove me nuts sometimes. Coming down the stretch I don’t think this team had the fire to compete. I put a lot of that blame on Fredi, but I don’t think he’s the problem with the team. At this point I’d like to think that continuity and stability are more important.

Even if none of this is true, Samson needs to learn to shut his mouth. It’s embarrassing.

by brickell on Oct 5, 2009 5:40 PM EDT reply actions

Meh, I could care less

Fredi doesn’t set the best lineup every night, can’t recognize his good pen performers from his bad ones, and in general isn’t great. But who’s to say Bobby Valentine would be better? It might be a wash, but if Valentine can figure out that Bonifacio can’t play, maybe he’s worth a win more than Fredi. I don’t know, it might as well be me, really. A lot of us on this thread could figure out how to write a lineup for the Marlins,

Whoever ends up coaching us next year should read The Book, and they should then be solid.

Marlin Maniac, a Florida Marlins blog
Check me out at Beyond the Box Score as well.

by SFiercex4 on Oct 5, 2009 9:13 PM EDT reply actions