As I catch up this week, I feel like there will be a theme. For this installation, let’s start with Joe Girardi. Familiar name around these parts, but the reason we’ll talk about him today is because he was the first MLB manager to be fired this season. One man down…
Not going to lie; I wanted Joe Girardi as the Cubs manager when they said goodbye to Maddon… we’ll get back to him soon enough. But yeah, definitely thought Joe Girardi would be a good fit in for the Cubs; certainly better than the guy we brought in. The news of his firing doesn’t change my mind; still think he’d be better than Rossy. He does have a ring as a manager. He was a catcher as a player, which is something many managers share in common… many good managers; one reason I want to see how Ross pans out. He was an ex-Cub. I want to say it was him and Berryhill that platooned at the catcher position for the Cubs back in that day. Too lazy to check my memory…
I thought Joe G would have success in Philly. They had built a pretty impressive roster, at least on the offensive side of things. Bryce, JT Realmuto, Schwarber, Castellanos, Segura, Hoskins, Bohm… Definitely an offense that should be producing, yet on the other side of things, pitching for one, Nola and Wheeler… that’s about it from my point of view. The Phillies are in the top 3rd in batting average but the lower half in ERA; stats tells some of the story. I don’t follow the Phillies that closely, other than any fantasy baseball implications, so I can’t go into detail, at least not intelligently, but I do know they have a relatively new GM, a familiar name in Dombrowski. With the team he assembled underperforming thus far in 2022, he thought a new voice was needed; fire the manager, that should do the trick. Yet, the same roster remains… that HE built… funny how things work. I happened to be listening to Cubs radio when they were talking about this move, and Coomer pretty much said the same. We know Joe Girardi will be fine, whether back in the booth or some analyst position, or back in the dugout at some point.
These type of early managerial changes will provide a spark, at least that’s what typically happens when I dig in my memory bank. When the Blackhawks made their coaching change earlier this year, the Hawks went on a great streak, but… it didn’t last. I imagine the same for most of these moves, although the switch to Coach Q, since we’re on the Blackhawks, worked out OK in the long term. We’ll see how Rob Thomson turns out for the Phils. With the Braves and Mets already out ahead, he’ll have his work cut out for him.
Who’s next? Well, we already know who was next; another guy that we know around these parts. Let’s talk about Joe Maddon next.
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