04/18/24
July 02, 2004
DBacks ax Brenly: after an 11 game losing streak. You know the season is in full swing when the manager firings start. Who else is on the hot seat?
posted by jerseygirl to baseball at 03:07 PM - 8 comments
I've been listening to radio host Bob Kemp in Arizona lately. Brenly had no chance once Colangelo let him enter the final year of his contract without an extension. That told his team everything they needed to know.
posted by rcade at 04:03 PM on July 02, 2004
Amusing how three of the four Google ads I see on this page right now are for DBacks merch. I know they've picked up a little lately, but how about Bobby Cox, has he about worn out the rug?
posted by billsaysthis at 04:20 PM on July 02, 2004
Who else is on the hot seat? If Tony Francona isn't on it now, he soon will be. Unless he learns to walk on water, toot sweet.
posted by lil_brown_bat at 06:07 PM on July 02, 2004
I know it's business as usual in the baseball world, but it seems unfair to pin responsibility for this god-awful season on Brenly when it was the management's dumb-ass deals for Richie Sexson (out for the season with a shoulder injury) that decimated both the offense and the defense of this Arizona ballclub. The team press release reveals that the D'Backs also fired pitching couch Chuck Kniffin (won't miss him), while bench couch (and regular Brenly fill-in) Robin Yount resigned (a true loss for the team). Colangelo says that "Al [Pedrique]'s familiarity with the young players on our club that have come up through the organization best served our needs as a manager at this time," but I don't think any amount of familiarity can erase the gap between minor-league and major-league ballplayers, and the fault for Arizona's fielding an entire team of minor-leaguers falls with nobody but Colangelo.
posted by kjh at 06:50 PM on July 02, 2004
and the fault for Arizona's fielding an entire team of minor-leaguers falls with nobody but Colangelo. I would add Joe Jr. as well, but yes, this is largely a front office derived mess. While Brenly had little to do with the team he fielded, his in-game management was pretty unspectacular. I actually heard some speculation (from Bob Kemp) that part of the reason for the move may have been so the D-Backs could get some free agent pitchers down the road. Brenly was fast approaching Dusty-like levels on the young arm killing reputation. Koplove, less than a year removed from surgery, leads the relilevers in IP and has appeared in 43 games. This includes going 3 nights in a row and 4 of the last 5. Villareal, Valverde, all of them just too young and overused. Kniffin HAD to go and Brenly going is no big loss. Yount loss is unfortunate, but understandable. I hear both stories on that, that he was offered the manger's job and didn't want it (who would as a rookie manager) and that he was passed over. Would like to find the real skinny on that.
posted by pivo at 07:09 PM on July 02, 2004
You mean Terry Francona right? It's ok. Well, he'll never be a John Torre.
posted by jerseygirl at 11:24 PM on July 02, 2004
Wow. Let Theo know he needs to cut the guy loose. Because there's nothing around here about Terry getting the ax for having a team in second place in spite of injuries to a few All Stars.
posted by yerfatma at 11:46 AM on July 04, 2004
Conventional Wisdom says that Jimy Williams is going to take the fall for the underachieving Astros, but after the All-Star game to save Houston the embarassment of having their fired manager as one of the coaches.