Fredi Gonzalez 2010: Fredi Got Fired

[CrimsonCane]

Fredi Gonzalez 2010: Get Out of My Seat, Bobby!

If my job is on the line and they are waiting for an opportunity to can me, I am going public so that people can see how I'm handling the situation. Radio silence let's the front office say : "He has lost control / he isn't handling it" and gives them a false justification for handing me a pink slip.

I think he's handling it fine.

[Swifty]

Manager Fredi Gonzalez met with reporters this morning.

“Hanley is not in the lineup. I think he’s fine. Im sure he’s a little banged up but he’s not in the lineup.”

And the reason for that is?
“I think he’s got to take care of some problems. Let me retract that: It’s not a problem but I think he needs to take care of the situation and when he handles that in the right way we’ll be fine. It’s one of those things that could be good.”

What do you want him to do?
“I think he needs to talk to his teammates a little bit. Whatever feelings he has for me are fine and dandy. We don’t have to get along but I think he needs to get along with the 24 other guys on his team and when that happens we’ll run him back in there. If he sets his ego aside, I think it will be good.”

Fredi said he spoke to Hanley at his locker. He was “OK.’’

Did he act as if he was going to heed your advice?
“Not sure, not sure.”

You don’t want a distraction like this, right?
“If it’s handled the right way, I think it could be good. If it’s not, it could be a distraction, it could grow into some ugly stuff. But let’s wait and see what happens. Let’s not make a mountain out of a molehill just yet.’’

“We’ll wait and let this thing kind of work itself out a little bit. I think sometimes when ego gets in the way, when that ego kind of deflates a little bit and you see the forest through the trees, I think it’ll be good.’’

He said some unflattering things about you. He said ‘What does he know. He never played in the majors.’

“He’s right. But I know how to play the game. I played six years in the minor leagues and I know what it takes to play this game and I know the effort it takes to play this game and I know it’s hard to play this game. That’s it.

He also said ‘it’s Fredi’s team he can do whatever the ‘F’ he wants.’
“It’s our team. I’m just the guy that makes the lineup.’’

When Jimmy Rollins was benched, he came out and said Charlie Manuel was right. How disappointed are you in Hanley’s reaction to you?
“I’m not disappointed just yet. But that’s what you want to hear, so this turns around and becomes a positive. That’s all it takes, a little bit of responsibility. And we can take off….

“We’ll see how this develops. My job as the manager – as the ‘F’-ing manager (laughter), I guess – is to make sure that 25 guys play together and the effort is there. I can’t control everybody going 4-for-4 but you can control the effort.’’

Did he talk with you or just listen?
“He just listened and nodded.’’

Fredi said he did consider pulling Hanley off the field immediately after the play.
“To consider taking him out in the middle of an inning, there’s got ot be some kind of history there.’

He did say it has happened before, it’s under the table and he doesn’t feel respected.
“I got no comment about that.’’

How confident are you that he’ll …
“Do the right thing? 95.5 (percent)?”

Your other players said they liked the message you sent by pulling him.
“We taught that from the very beginning. You play for the team and the name on the front, not the name on the back… You wish they were all Derek Jeters and you don’t have to worry about that…. I have not heard a negative..

“We don’t want that in this organization, that kind of stuff – from A ball to the major leagues. We don’t want the game played like that in front of our fans.’’

http://blogs.palmbeachpost.com/marli...t-for-manager/

[Beef]

Yeah, otherwise he gets, that guy is scared of Hanley, I'm sure the team respects him a lot.

[wanks1212]

Excerpts from a Cote piece. The entire article is about what you'd expect from Greg Cote, but the quote from Cody is notable, especially when considered in conjunction with Uggla's sentiments:

``To see Fredi step up is big,'' Cody Ross said. ``It sends a message it's not about one guy it's about 25. If I was dogging it, I'd want someone to put me in my place.''

Said veteran Wes Helms: ``He wanted to show him and the team he wasn't going to stand for that. That makes you respect a manager.''

Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/05/1...#ixzz0oLvb5EES

Whatever happens for the rest of the season, Fredi probably, at the least, helped himself get the Braves job with his handling of this incident.

[Ramp]

Fredi Gonzalez got it exactly right. The Florida Marlins manager got it so positively, absolutely right. What, he's going to fine Hanley Ramirez some sock-drawer money after Ramirez double-dogged it going after a ball he booted during a game? As the famous man once said: For who? For what?

We have reached a stage of critical mass in the area of money when it comes to pro ballplayers. They make too much for a "fine" to have any bite whatsoever, unless it's Tha League calling with a major infraction.

Ask Trey Hillman, the erstwhile K.C. manager who tried exactly such a maneuver on Yuniesky Betancourt two weeks ago when Betancourt casually muffed a popup. Nothing screams "Out of ideas" more than a big league manager trying to jimmy money out of a guy for the kind of infraction that most tight clubs would handle among the players in a kangaroo court.

(Just between us? Most of those guys never miss the money, because they never see it at all. Somebody in an agency office cuts the check out of the player's master account, and off it goes.)

Betancourt, who was mostly guilty of hideous, long-ingrained pop-fly-catching technique, signed a $13.5 million deal a few seasons back. Hanley Ramirez, a very talented, very immature player, signed a $70 million contract extension in 2008. Sorry, fellas, but we're not going to get the point across by lightening these guys' wallets to the tune of a couple thou.

So what Fredi Gonzalez got exactly right this week was the part about getting to a player's heart. The way to that heart is still innings, pure and simple. Playing time is the last hammer that most coaches and managers in sports have. Nothing is more precious to someone who loves (and gets paid) to play a game than the ability to, well, play the game. And nothing sticks harder than denying the player that ability.

Assuming the backing of ownership -- and only a fool would so assume, but there you go, wishing on a star -- playing time remains the ultimate trump. It's bigger than cash. Who knew?

For proof of this theory, consider Ramirez's reaction to being removed by Gonzalez midgame on Monday. Hanley sulked. Hanley pouted. Hanley went after his teammates (sideswipe style) and after Gonzalez in public comments aimed at belittling the manager's lack of a major league playing career -- all because he was furious at being benched.

Ramirez was so far off the edge, in fact, that he received a stand-down talking-to by Marlins assistants Andre Dawson and Tony Perez. The two Hall of Famers, in a meeting described by Palm Beach Post writer Joe Capozzi as "an intervention," essentially told Ramirez he was acting like a spoiled brat and that, as Dawson put it, "You're not bigger than the game."

By Wednesday night, the storm had settled. Ramirez, benched not only for the remainder of Monday's game but for all of Tuesday's as well, apologized to his teammates one at a time, told reporters his reaction was wrong (though he maintained that an injury he suffered earlier in the game was what kept him from going all out for that ball), and found himself back in the lineup at the same power position the big-hitting shortstop normally occupies.

Gonzalez, who never wavered in his decision to bench Ramirez, simply waited out the player through all the histrionics. In so doing, he won a clubhouse full of Florida players who admire Ramirez's talent but grow weary of his act. Several Marlins publicly supported Gonzalez. But, in the end, the manager didn't even need that. He held the cards. After all, he writes out the lineup.

It's remarkable how durable the playing-time trump has proven over the years. It's no secret that managers have used playing time as either a carrot or a stick, depending upon the need; but certain managers also have wielded the power of the bench simply to make a point.

Way back in 1998, Atlanta's Bobby Cox yanked a young Andruw Jones off the field in the middle of an inning when he determined that Jones had half-arsed it while jogging toward a ball that fell in front of him for a single. Ten years later, Philadelphia's Charlie Manuel benched reigning NL MVP Jimmy Rollins for barely running up the first-base line after popping up a ball that subsequently got dropped. (To his lasting credit, Rollins accepted full blame for the incident.) In 2008, Indians manager Eric Wedge benched Ryan Garko for not running out a grounder.

And you don't even have to go that far when it comes to playing time. Just Wednesday, the Mets' David Wright was despondent and clearly miffed about being given a night off by Mets manager Jerry Manuel -- and Wright wasn't being punished at all. He's just in a terrible slump. Even so, Wright had to choose his words carefully as he spoke with reporters about missing his first game all season. Being on the field means that much to him.

One of the beautiful tensions of pro sports is that there's always someone ready to take over any job. This creates an insecurity that can afflict even an established player, even a star. The worst thing for a star is suddenly not to matter, not to contribute -- not to lead. It's a powerful, powerful draw. And almost all of that power ultimately rests in the coach's or manager's hands.

Fredi Gonzalez, who never played the game at the big league level, had that part figured out long before Hanley Ramirez went casually after the ball he'd misplayed across the field Monday night. Sure, he could have taken a small draw from Ramirez's bank account. Gonzalez instead went after the stuff he knows Ramirez guards more zealously. Veteran move.

ESPN

[Swifty]

Have to figure this Tampa series is basically it for him, right?

Lose 2/3 or get swept and come on down Tony Perez (interim)!

[MiamiHomer]

Mike Lamb would be the interim manager.

[Swifty]

And Wes Helms.

[MiamiHomer]

He'll take over hitting coach.

[Swifty]

Probably needs to be a bigger deal made that twice in two years he's had players part of an incorrect lineup change (guys out of order or in the game after being lifted). That's inexcusable.

[Beef]

I blame the vuvuzelas.

It was an excusable mistake when Joe Maddon dun it

[MiamiHomer]

Joe Maddon's team ain't a piece of shit.

[Beef]

That is the answer I figured I would get.

So then it is excusable in some situations then, right?

Like, if the front office didnt give Fredi a shitty fucking team with a shitty fucking bullpen, it would be an excusable mistake.

[Swifty]

Joe Maddon wrote 3B twice instead of DH before a game. Fredi twice now has had a player go into the wrong spot as part of a double switch. That's atrocious. Last night was batting out of order, last year it was the removed player going back to CF.
--------------------
Also beef, the bullpen doesn't make him dumb, being dumb makes him dumb. That isn't a correctable problem with Fredi.

[MiamiHomer]

That is the answer I figured I would get.

So then it is excusable in some situations then, right?

Like, if the front office didnt give Fredi a shitty fucking team with a shitty fucking bullpen, it would be an excusable mistake.

I knew this, that's why I said it.