Braves fan here... Thoughts on Fredi Gonzalez?
Hey guys, as a Braves fan, I thought I'd ask you guys who would probably know more about your former manager Fredi Gonzalez. I'm trying to do some research on possible future replacements for Cox and the consensus replacement coach seems to be Fredi.
Now I'm curious as to what he is as a manager. Is he a players' coach? Disciplinarian? Tactician?
How does he handle his players?
How does he handle the rotation? The lineup? The bullpen?
Does he favor AVG over OBP? Power over speed? What?
I'm just trying to find out every thing I can about Fredi. So if you guys can provide any information, that'd be great.
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My opinion on Fredi is that he's a pretty good manager
The players all seemed to like him well enough, with the only notable public spat being the Hanley Ramirez lolly-gagging incident earlier this year (at least that I can recall). He keeps things from getting too ridiculous in the clubhouse, but does seem to enjoy his job.
He uses defensive replacements in late-game situations more than your average manager, and tends to run a rather traditional lineup. As for personnel preferences, well, he allowed Emilio Bonifacio to continue playing despite his utter lack of any discernable talent. And he batted him in the lead-off hole for well over half a season, meaning he allowed a guy with a sub-.300 OBP to be the linch-pin of the offense.
As for pitching, he seemed to overuse certain bullpen arms (Kiko Calero and Clay Hensley this year were analogous to Peter Moylan, if not quite so extreme), but never seemed to utterly mismanage it. The starters seemed to do relatively well under Fredi, he kept them on rather nice pitch counts (about 110-120 warranted removal) while usually removing them when they began to tire.
My only huge complaints about Fredi are the Bonifacio issue (although, how much of that is the front office is hard to tell) and his reluctance to change the lineup when a player begins to struggle. Other than that, he’s a very capable manager.
Chris Coghlan is NLRoY 2009 (that's a +1 for me!)
by ocelotfox on Jul 17, 2010 12:16 AM EDT reply actions 1 recs
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Last year he ran out Emilio Bonifacio and his .303 OBP as an everyday player, almost always in either the 1 or 2 hole, simply because he was fast. Other than that he seemed fine. I’m not a big believer in managers having huge impacts anyway.
Don't forget that he keeps running Wes Helms out there 2nd when he starts
because the #2 hitter apparently has to be terrible.
Marlin Maniac, a Florida Marlins blog
Writer, Beyond the Box Score
Writer, Baseball Propsectus Fantasy Beat
Writer, Heater Magazine
Well, he's giving Sanchez a day off
Obviously, he needs to bat in the same position as Gaby, duh. If he should bat 8th, he needs to learn how to catch. Those are the rules!
Count me in with the "Bonifacio starting was a front office mandate" thing
I’d say bullpen management was a bit iffy. Will play lefty/righty matchups regardless of pitcher’s track record (e.g., Pinto, a lefty, is better against RHB) or quality of batter (e.g., in a Phillies game, IBBing a bench player to get to Werth, lol). But I guess that’s a given for most managers.
The platoon thing isn't necessarily true
You still have to regress to the mean for platoon splits. Just because Pinto was better against righties for his career (as a reliever, so not a long career) doesn’t mean that he “is” better against righties going forward.
I will also agree with the pen management problem. Among the most egregious errors:
- Allowing Taylor Tankersley to face right handers in high leverage situations
- Allowing Renyel Pinto to face (so many) high leverage situations
- Not pitching your best pitcher at the most important time (though all managers do this to some degree)
Marlin Maniac, a Florida Marlins blog
Writer, Beyond the Box Score
Writer, Baseball Propsectus Fantasy Beat
Writer, Heater Magazine
Thoughts
Pros:
Good handling starting pitchers, good at not getting mad at players and not treating them well (basically the opposite of what Jerry Manuel does)
Cons:
Not good handling slumping players, poor bullpen management
Some other things but I can’t think now.

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