When I went to sleep last night the Florida Marlins were 35-35. Not great, but not that terrible either. When I awoke this morning it was to the kind of surprising news that they had fired Manager Fredi Gonzales. I don’t know why I found it surprising, as many reports have indicated that they have wanted to fire him for some time now, on top of that Owner Jeff Loria has had a long history of sacking the club’s manager. For now it seems Gonzales earned a reprieve during that whole Hanley Ramirez mess. Thanks heavens that Loria has finally learned that you cannot fire a manger right after he gets tough on one of the players.
However, I got to say that this move makes little sense to me. I don’t think the main problem with this team is the manger. It is the size of the payroll. Sure they may have increased the payroll spending by 52% but that puts the 2010 figure at just short of 56 million dollars. That means in years past this team ahs spent under 30 million dollars on its players and they expect what? To Compete. Please.
The only reason the payroll spending went up, was because the MLB players union was set to make a big stink on the lack of payroll spending. Loria can take his World Series ring and stop pretending he is baseball man. He sacked the Montreal Expos and pulled a sweat heart deal with Bud Selig to rid himself of that team and buy the Florida Marlins. That act got him a RICO case, which he eventually was able to duck. Loria himself is the problem with this team, and the last guy he fired as manger, Joe Girardi, has a World Series ring to his credit now.
Related Links:
• Florida Marlins news and notes • The Business of Major League Baseball •MTR Baseball.com
