The Marlins fired manager Ozzie Guillen and bench coach Joey Cora earlier today. This comes as a minor surprise to me, since the Marlins dumped Bell, and waited 3 weeks before making the announcement. Besides, it does not make sense for pay $7.5 million dollar to a man while you pay someone else to manage the team (especially when manager's decisions have little impact on the games themselves).

What was I thinking? Trying to apply logic to Marlins ownership?

The refrain of "Ozzie is not to blame" and "firing Ozzie doesn't help" has been repeated so often by the writers here that I'm shocked the words are not stuck to the wallpaper of the new site design.

I don't particularly care for Ozzie, one way or the other. He's not progressive in his managerial decisions, his career winning percentage is tepid, he doesn't have the anachronistic charm of Jack McKeon... but as a fan, it is frustrating to think that the Marlins will spend more money on a fired manager than they will on free agents this off-season.

Oh well, that's what it is to be a Marlins fan.

So, we then look at the future. First, who will replace Ozzie? It has been suggested that either Mike Redmond or the Dodgers' Tim Wallach could be the newest candidates for the worst managerial job in baseball. Mike Lowell has publicly stated that he's not ready nor has been approached about the position. Who would you want to see hired?

Someone with experience but no particular connection to the origination (say, Sandy Alomar or Dave Martinez)? A fan favorite with no real managerial experience (like Preston Wilson or Jeff Conine)? Perhaps a current coach or minor league manager should be promoted to the task (you know... Randy St. Claire, Gary Thruman or Ron Hassey)?