Fredi Gonzalez 2010: Fredi Got Fired

[Mainge]

I don't remember. Like what?

[Namaste]

I always thought Orel Hershiser would make a good manager

[Party]

I don't remember. Like what?

I don't remember, but they were bad.

[Mainge]

Oh.

[Ralph]

Source: Marlins owner 'very unhappy' with team — 3:24 p.m.

In my “Full Count” video Saturday, I said to keep an eye on the Marlins.

Make that a close eye.

Owner Jeffrey Loria is “very unhappy” with the team’s play, according to a source with knowledge of his thinking.

And if Loria is unhappy, manager Fredi Gonzalez could be in jeopardy.

Loria left Gonzalez dangling for two days at the end of last season before deciding to bring him back for 2010.

Then, at the start of spring training, Loria said, “I expect us to make the playoffs. We’ve got all the ammunition we need.”

The Marlins, 13-14, began Thursday only three games out in the NL East. But they had lost two straight to the Giants and seven of 10 overall.

Loria, according to ESPN.com, spoke with former Mets and Rangers manager Bobby Valentine about a job near the end of last season.

Valentine is the type of big name that Loria covets, but rather than meet the salary desires of a high-profile manager, he might prefer to spend on players instead.

The Marlins likely will need bullpen help before the July 31 non-waiver deadline. — Ken Rosenthal

http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/M...rom-May-042710
--------------------

Stoda: The Ice under Marlins Manager Fredi Gonzalez is thinning

MIAMI GARDENS — Fredi Gonzalez is a bad road trip away from trouble.

That would be the very short and very tight leash to which the Marlins manager is tethered, right?

Right.

That would be the reasonable assumption given the news that broke last autumn about how team owner Jeffrey Loria considered firing Gonzalez in favor of Bobby Valentine last season and was disappointed the low-payroll Marlins didn’t qualify for the National League playoffs, right?

Right, again.

Loria subsequently has declared that he thinks the still-frugal Marlins should make the playoffs this time around.

So, conjecture about Gonzalez’s status was bound to bubble to the surface if Florida got off to an ordinary start this season, which 13-15 certainly is. That’s what the Marlins are after San Francisco finished off a three-game sweep of them with a 6-x victory Thursday night in Sun Life Stadium.

The Marlins still strike out too often and still play defense miserably (they entered the game against the Giants with the most errors in the National League and the lowest fielding percentage in the majors). Two of their young players – Chris Coghlan, who was last season’s NL Rookie of the Year, and Cameron Maybin – are struggling mightily.

“We’re playing good basesball,” Gonzalez insisted before a game earlier in the series.

No, the Marlins aren’t.

But blaming the team’s mediocrity on Gonzalez is absurdly unfair. The Marlins won 71, 84 and 87 games in Gonzalez’s three previous seasons as manager. He is the winningest manager and has worked more games on the job than anyone in franchise history with a career record of 255-258.

OK, hardly is it a sensational body of work. But there was no reason for Loria to put Gonzalez in an all-but-impossible position in which to begin the season.

Florida overachieved, not underachieved, each of the past two seasons.

Now, though, it wouldn’t come as a surprise were Loria to fire Gonzalez should the Marlins have a lousy upcoming six-game road trip against the Washington Nationals and Chicago Cubs.

But if he’s concerned with speculation regarding the insecurity of his position, Gonzalez isn’t showing it.

After a couple of his managerial moves in the first game of the series against the Giants – two intentional walks – didn’t work out, Gonzalez said his reaction was no different than usual in such aggravating circumstance.

“Job security is not something you think about,” Gonzalez. “You can’t manage scared. Something that turns out going against you grinds on you when it happens, but you have to let it go. The book (of percentages) got me twice, but the book never sat in the dugout making decisions.”

The Marlins, obviously, have room for improvement in several areas, and nobody is suggesting that Gonzalez should be an untouchable forever. But he should have been treated better than to have been put under the pressure Loria has exerted.

Loria, indeed, seems to be a boss who’s difficult to satisfy. He fired Joe Girardi after a single season – one in which Girardi, by the way, was voted NL Manager of the Year – back in 2006. His preference this time might be for a headline name (see: Valentine) as manager before the Marlins move into their new digs in Little Havana in two years.

The Marlins, for Gonzalez’s sake as much as their own, could use some success against the Nationals and the Cubs.

No matter what happens in those two series, though, Gonzalez doesn’t deserve to be fired.

Not this quickly this season, he doesn’t.

Loria set the standard for evaluation of his manager ridiculously high, and has done precious little himself when it comes to making the investments necessary to build a legitimate contender.

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/sports/...ez-675228.html

[Swifty]

I agree that Fredi doesn't deserve to be fired because we set playoff expectations for a team that has no bullpen and no real promises of improvement.

BUT

I disagree that the team overachieved last year. And I also disagree that anywhere in this "overachievement" period that it was somehow to Fredi's credit. We came in with players that people either immediately dismissed (like Cantu) or people didn't realize there was no ceiling (Hanley, JJ). It's not like Fredi did that. You're saying he can't be punished because pre-season expectations were too high, but he should be credited because in past seasons, preseason expectations were exceptionally low. It can't work like that.

If I had my preferences, he'd have been gone last year. I think bringing him back this year after the way we botched the offseason only to fire him now is bad form, but I think it's worse that, if we're going to fire him, he's allowed to keep hanging around. I do not think he's a good manager, I do not think he is capable of managing a team without an alpha dog in the 'pen (call it Joe Torre syndrome) and I do not think we will ever regret the decision to let him go. BUT the process has turned so sour that we continually set the bar lower and lower for ourselves. That's disappointing.

[FishFanInPA]

I won't feel bad for Fredi. They already have his seat ready in Atlanta for 2011 to replace Bobby Cox.

[Namaste]

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/sports/f...,3849239.story

MIAMI GARDENS
At their current pace, the Marlins Get your Marlins Tickets now! would set a franchise record for fewest double plays turned in a season. Manager Fredi Gonzalez said that's not necessarily a negative.

Entering Thursday's game, the Marlins had a major league-low 15 double plays, one less than the Giants. That puts them on pace for 90, 32 less than their lowest full-season total ever (2008).

"For me, our pitching has been pretty good," Gonzalez said. "The better your pitching staff means there are less baserunners and that equates to less double plays."

Gonzalez's theory holds true to an extent.

The Cardinals with the league's top ERA turned an NL-best 34 double plays through Wednesday. The Giants and Padres — the second- and third-best pitching teams, respectively — had a combined 38. The Mets with the fourth-best team ERA had one double play below league average (24).

Last year, the Dodgers and the Giants were the top two pitching teams in the NL and they ranked 12th and 11th, respectively, in double plays turned. The Braves and Cardinals were next on the ERA rankings, but they were among the top five teams in total double plays.

Conversely, the Pirates led the NL with 171 double plays and had the circuit's third-worst club ERA. The Brewers (149) and Nationals (155) as the bottom two pitching teams both totaled more double plays than the average NL team (147).

"I'm thinking maybe one or two [this season] that you say maybe we should have turned that one," Gonzalez said.

[FishFF]

Fredi must not be watching the games, I can think of 2 double plays botched in the Giants series alone.

[Party]

according to a source with knowledge of his thinking.

I LOL'd.
--------------------

He is the winningest manager and has worked more games on the job than anyone in franchise history with a career record of 255-258.

So sad.

[Swifty]

WASHINGTON — Hugging Fredi Gonzalez on the field Friday at Nationals Stadium, Jeffrey Loria didn't look like a baseball team owner who's unhappy with his manager.

"Oh, please. Stop with that," Loria said when asked about speculation that Gonzalez could be in trouble because of the Marlins' 13-15 start. "Fredi and I are just fine. Fredi and the Marlins are just fine. Enough already."

Less than three months ago at spring training, Loria said he expected the Marlins to be a playoff team. On Friday, Loria said that statement shouldn't be misconstrued as an ultimatum.

"Don't you want to have goals? Don't you want to be enthusiastic about where your team is and where they are going? We won 87 games last year," he said before offering up a facetious alternative statement.

"I'm going to walk in front of my players and say to them at the beginning of the year, 'You know guys, you're really not good enough to make the playoffs but let's have some fun. Let's travel around the country. Let's have some good meals. Play baseball and forget about winning?'

"Of course we want to win. We're all very competitive. These guys are as competitive as I am. I want them to have goals. That's how we got to where we got in '03 and that's how we've had winning seasons ever since."

In 2003, the Marlins won the World Series after Loria fired manager Jeff Torborg on May 10 and replaced him with Jack McKeon. The Marlins were 16-22 when Torborg was canned.

Through their first 28 games of this season, the Marlins haven't exactly looked like a playoff team. They lead the majors with 28 errors. They went into Friday having lost eight of their last 11 games, prompting Gonzalez to hold a closed-door meeting before practice.

"I told him he should do it up at the Lincoln Memorial. Maybe they would be overwhelmed," Loria joked.

"Who could be thrilled with being two games under? The team is better than that: They know they're not playing up to their ability and I have no worries whatsoever."

Still, Loria said there's "a lot of room to move forward. We came out of spring training, I thought, a little flat and we're working our way out of that now.

"I just want the intensity level to be a little higher and I want to have goals. The thing I'm trying to say to you is, there's nothing wrong with having goals and high standards. If that's a bad thing, then so be it."

Loria addressed one other hot Marlins topic: the team's plans with Class AA outfield prospect Mike Stanton, who's hitting .340 with 14 home runs and 31 RBI for Jacksonville.

Loria guessed the Marlins would call Stanton up by June or July, but he said the organization won't rush him.

"When the baseball people tell me he's ready, we'll do it. I gather the baseball people do not want him to come and fail. If he's going to come here, he's going to come here to stay," he said. "But he's got to continue to keep developing. Don't forget that's a lot of pressure to put on a 20-year-old man. We want to give him the most comfortable platform to succeed."

http://www.palmbeachpost.com/sports/marlins/676721.html

[Party]

Joey Cap is getting lazy. It's Nationals Park, not Stadium.

[Omar]

The dreaded vote of confidence.

Fredi's days are very numbered.

[Namaste]

Apparently Uggla doesn't like Fredi.

Why else would he try and make it to 3B on a ground ball that was way out in front of him?

[Beef]

Because Fredi didn't teach him the fundamentals