Bobby Cox's Successor?

haha, yeah thats what i meant. what the hell was i thinking. A little out of it i guess

I like Ned Yost; I’m surprised he hasn’t caught on somewhere else. I do agree with Sparhawk, Wellman’d be fun to watch.

I kinda like the Ozzie Guillen idea. I hadn’t thought about that. Maybe he’s the kinda guy that could light a fire under these guys a**. Though there has always been alot of drama around him, and that would not be tolerated in ATL.

He is currently the hitting coach for the Dodgers. He served as Joe Torre’s Hitting coach as well as his hitting coach for the Yankee’s in the past few years. I know he’s not from the Braves orginization but was a big part of the Yankee’s for many years.

I think he would be a perfect fit for the Braves. He has done a lot with a little in Florida and he has ties to the organization.

Out of the names i’ve seen my favorites are mattingly, gonzalez, and chino. Rocket wheeler sounds like he could be an intriguing candidate as well.

with Maddux as his Pitching Coach and Chipper as his Hitting Coach.

Eddie Perez or Ned Yost

I, in many ways, will be sad to see Bobby retire (hopefully that is what will happen). The choice of his successor and the coaching staff must be looked at carefully. There are several good choices out there as well as many bad ones.

Dale Murphy – not a bad choice, I agree with many that he would not be an “in your face” manager. There is nothing wrong with that. The Murph, to my knowledge, has no managerial experience.

Chino Cadahia, Brian Snitker, Eddie Perez… - I worry about the current coaching staff not having anyone of managerial quality. The current staff has no one on it who could replace Bobby, and I believe it is intentionally structured that way. Previous coaching staff contained people such as Jimy Williams, Ned Yost, Pat Corrales, Fredi Gonzales, etc., strong baseball leaders who could be the new manager if Schuerholz had enough provocation to fire Bobby. Bobby, possibly with Frank Wren’s aid, has made the staff full of followers, not successors, a good tactic for Bobby considering his current managerial SNAFUs.

Jimy Williams, Ned Yost, Fredi Gonzales… - I like any of those men as manager. They learned good lessons from Bobby, yet augmented that with their own successes and managerial style. Yost is still young enough to have a certain competative fire that the older Williams might lack. Gonzales probably will not leave the Marlins; he has marked that as his team in many ways and is likely loathe to walk away from his creation (however poor it might be). Gonzales probably will not leave the Marlins until the new ballpark is finished, his payoff for managing in the Dolphin/Landshark h***hole.

Ozzie Guillen, Dusty Baker – These two are wrong for so many reasons. However, one thought should be considered; you think you complain too much about Bobby Cox, what do you think the message boards would look like with one of these two at the helm.

Bobby Valentine – No, No, No. First, why would he come to Atlanta. Although recently canned, he is beloved above all in Japan. Second, why would he want to manage in front of Atlanta’s fans. I am not disparaging anyone on Talking Chop, you care or you would not make the effort to post opinions. Watching most Braves home games shows a crowd that, if judged by their facial expressions, could be watching a golf match. There is no baseball passion in Turner Field. Many Atlanta Braves fans became spoiled by winning division titles every year (I was one). If you look at attendence during the run, it became lower every year until the Baby Braves rejuvenated it. Then the Braves started losing, fans became scarce and uninterested in the team on the field. Bobby Valentine, after managing in front of the two most passionate groups of baseball fans in the world, in Japan and New York, will likely not come to Atlanta. I also hated his antics in New York and do not want him anywhere near the home dugout.

Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine, John Smoltz – All three are candidates for pitching coach (I thought I would throw this in as McDowell need to be shown the door more than Bobby). Maddux would be a good choice. One must remember that strongly competative athletic greats do not always make good coaches. Ted Williams was a terrible manager. Bob Gibson (Maddux’s pitching idol) was not coaching material. Greg Maddux’s nickname was Mad Dog; it’s not because he was a nice guy. The man would have beaten Chipper Jones up on the field in 1995 for making an error if Fred McGriff had not come between them. The other fact is that Maddux retired so he would not have to travel away from home during the baseball season. Unlike Glavine and Smoltz, home for Maddux is Las Vegas, not Atlanta.
Glavine would likely not become pitching coach for Atlanta, not because of the events of this year (which do play a role), but because of his foray into coaching last year. Remember, Glavine was brought on board to mentor Atlanta’s promising young starting pitching as well as play. Glavine, as well as Bobby Cox and the Braves organization, grew increasingly frustrated with the pitchers that needed Glavine’s guidance: Chuck James and Jo Jo Reyes. I believe this has left a sour taste in Glavine’s mouth about being a pitching coach.
Smoltz will probably not take a position as pitching coach due to the debacle of the offseason that saw his departure from Altlanta. Whether justified from a competative standpoint or not, Smoltz sees it as a personal slight.

Leo Mazzone – The Man. He could take a pile of pitching s*** and turn it into gold. We all watched him do it. While some will point out the pitchers that he gave up on and the fact that he was able to develop few starting pitchers during the division run, I challenge that he was given little talent to do that with. Odalis Perez and Jason Marquis were never going to be great pitchers, when they did not listen to Mazzone, they simply shot themselves in the foot and ruined a chance to have a better-than-their-stuff type of career. I guarantee that this 2009 Braves starting pitching staff would have more than one complete game victory under Leo Mazzone’s guidance.

I do not have the true answer to who should be Bobby Cox’s successor. My personal choice is Ned Yost with Leo Mazzone as his pitching coach. I would like to end with one statement made by the esteemed owner Robert Edward Turner III to a member of the press in 1981 on his search for a new manager. “It would be Bobby Cox if I hadn’t just fired him. We need someone like him around here.”

Do whatever it takes, spend as much as it takes, hire Mike Scioscia.