Ozzie Perfect Replacement for McKeon

[DBAHO]

Interesting article here;

 

Nobody in Marlinsland is saying Jack McKeon won't come back to manage the team next season, but nobody is saying he will, either.

 

That might be because McKeon himself isn't sure he wants to keep the job or it might be because Marlins owner Jeffrey Loria isn't sure he wants him to keep it.

 

McKeon, who will celebrate a 75th birthday come November, always will have the World Series championship to which he led the Marlins two autumns ago. That title was earned after McKeon rescued the Marlins from Jeff Torborg's command in the middle of the season. Loria fired Torborg, who was his friend, and hired McKeon out of grandfatherly retirement in North Carolina in what turned out to be a move of sheer genius.

 

Now, though, not so much.

 

The Marlins have underachieved to the tune of 163-153 since frolicking in Yankee Stadium as baseball's kings one glorious October night. What they've done since then is turn into, oh, the Chicago Cubs without the romance or the San Francisco Giants without Barry Bonds.

 

McKeon's curmudgeonly style of supervision was precisely what the Marlins needed after Torborg's coddling, but something is rotten in the mix these days. The Marlins' whole for too long has been considerably less than what the sum of its parts suggest it should be. The team more and more often looks as though it's playing not to make mistakes, which

 

is odd considering an aggressive fearlessness is what made the Marlins champions in the first place.

 

But who'd be a good choice to manage the Marlins if McKeon opts for — or is pushed into — a cushy assignment somewhere in Loria's empire instead of returning to the

 

dugout? Florida, after all, will remain a reasonably attractive team if wholesale changes don't take place and the new boss doesn't mind doing baseball work in a football stadium for, well, nobody knows how long.

 

So, here are five names for Loria's consideration should McKeon resign or be fired:

 

1. Lou Piniella — He and the Tampa Bay Devil Rays are going to have lost almost 300 games by the time they're finished with each other after this third season together. Big deal. He's also won more than 1,500 games at various stops with a World Series title in Cincinnati along the line. The volatile Piniella might be exactly what the Marlins need to shake them from their malaise, and he's one of the few managers who's an attraction on his own.

 

2. Ozzie Guillen — The former Marlins coach is in his second season as a manager, and he's trying to keep the faltering Chicago White Sox from an horrendous collapse. The White Sox were 83-79 last year (same as the Marlins, by the way) under his rookie stewardship and might maintain the American League lead in victories this time around if they somehow straighten themselves out. Guillen, though, is hinting about leaving

 

Chicago after this season regardless of what the White Sox do or don't accomplish.

 

3. Jim Leyland — The man who took the Marlins to their first World Series triumph in 1997, stuck around through one season after the dismantling of that team, re-surfaced in Colorado and quit there. Now, he says he wants to give managing another shot "in the right situation." That means somewhere he'd have a decent chance of winning another World Series crown. Hmmm.

 

4. Joe Girardi — The Marlins would do well to beat a bunch of teams to this punch. Girardi is the New York Yankees' bench coach at the moment, but he's going to run his own shop soon enough.

 

5. Larry Bowa — Florida wanted him as a bench coach this season, which would have made Bowa a successor-in-waiting for McKeon's chair. His hyperintense personality wore out everything and everyone in Philadelphia, but the kind of spark Bowa unfailingly provides (in the short term, at least) would serve to keep the Marlins from falling into lapses of lethargy.

 

There is, of course, the not so small matter of bottom-line budget considerations. Loria isn't going to pay big money for a manager, and that's what it likely would take to land Piniella, Leyland or Bowa.

 

Girardi would be a hunch play, and the remote chance of the Marlins hitting on two of those in succession might lead Loria and General Manager Larry Beinfest to...

 

... Guillen, whose Chicago posturing could be interpreted as groundwork for a return to Florida if the smoke from McKeon's cigars really does clear out of the clubhouse office.

[Ozzie Montana]

Ozzie may not be the best manager and does make a lot of controversial moves and says a lot of things people don't like but it would suck if Ozzie left this organization after only 2 years.(of course in the non player role)

Edited September 25, 2005 by Ozzie Montana

[santo=dorf]

"Guillen, though, is hinting about leaving

 

Chicago after this season regardless of what the White Sox do or don't accomplish."

 

So why the f*** did he sign an extension?

 

I thought he clearly said he thought about leaving the Sox if the won the World Series because he would accomplish everything in his baseball career. So why would he manage another team?

 

This writer doesn't have a clue. :headshake

[Balta1701]

Ozzie seriously might be a very good NL manager...just because his biggest problem lately has been leaving his starters in too long. If you have to pinch hit for your starting pitcher in the bottom of the 6th, you can't send him out for the 7th with 105 pitches and Hafner coming up.

[nitetrain8601]

Ozzie seriously might be a very good NL manager...just because his biggest problem lately has been leaving his starters in too long.  If you have to pinch hit for your starting pitcher in the bottom of the 6th, you can't send him out for the 7th with 105 pitches and Hafner coming up.

 

I agree. Get him out of here.

 

[Texsox]

"Guillen, though, is hinting about leaving

 

Chicago after this season regardless of what the White Sox do or don't accomplish."

 

So why the f*** did he sign an extension?

 

I thought he clearly said he thought about leaving the Sox if the won the World Series because he would accomplish everything in his baseball career.  So why would he manage another team?

 

This writer doesn't have a clue.  :headshake

 

Did you forget the first part of Ozzie's rant? The part about Sox fan's booing him? The WS win just made leaving easier.

[DBAHO]

And after Burnett ripped McKeon, well the possibility is certainly there;

 

"We play scared. We manage scared. We coach scared and I'm sick of it. It's depressing around here," said Burnett, whose record fell to 12-12. "It's like they expect us to mess up, and when we do they chew us out. There's no positive nothing around here for anybody."

 

"There's no positives on this staff whatsoever. None," Burnett said, his voice steady but firm. "It's a 3-3 game. I give up a home run, and it's a funeral. I give up one run, they expect me to give up more. I'm over it. I got one more start here and that's all that matters."

 

"It's a waste. A positive pat on the back is better than anything, and I haven't seen a positive pat on the back since April. Guys are out here busting their a--. ... We ain't trying to lose. We ain't trying to give up runs or strike out. Guys are out there busting their a--, yet you still hear negativity. I'm not saying no names, just too much negativity."

 

Sounds like the team wants a positive manager. Someone like Ozzie Guillen.

[Frankensteiner]

Ozzie seriously might be a very good NL manager...just because his biggest problem lately has been leaving his starters in too long.  If you have to pinch hit for your starting pitcher in the bottom of the 6th, you can't send him out for the 7th with 105 pitches and Hafner coming up.

 

I still remember that Buehrle-pitched game in San Diego that Ozzie handled oh so well. Didn't pinch hit for Mark with a run in scoring position only to have Buehrle face 2 more batters in the bottom of that inning. Even Hawk pointed that out as a mistake.

[bighurt2719]

if we lose ozzie it would be a GIANT mistake.

[Texsox]

Which seems closer to the truth

 

Ozzie = Doug Collins

Ozzie = Phil Jackson