Gonzalez out, Snitker in

After 40 years of working with the Braves organization, Brian Snitker gets his chance to manage a major league ball club...at the expense of his friend, Freddie Gonzalez.

The Braves announced earlier today that they were making the switch and fired Fredi G. Snitker was the manager of the AAA Gwinnett Braves before today. I remember him fondly as the arm swinging third base coach for the Braves. When a move such as this is made and the new manager is from within the organization it has to make it a little tougher. I know it was a bittersweet moment tonight for Brian, but he's glad to be up with the team.

I watched the beginning of the game from a restaurant and saw the team immediately fall behind to the Pirates 9-0. Ouch. Several old guys sitting at the near by bar were just laughing and making fun of the team...and you know it was hard for me not to chime in. This version of the Braves are pretty horrible. It's not from a lack of trying however. These guys keep on playing day in and day out...they just don't have the Ws to show for it.

While I wasn't Fredi G's biggest fan, I get while the club made the move. However I'm not sure Snitker will have much better success. There are some good players on the team and there are a lot of young promising players currently tearing up the minors. However until they arrive it's hard watching this team on TV. There have been some early bright spots (Mallex Smith), but overall this team doesn't look like a major league team.

I know baseball is a business, but when I heard that FredieGonzalez found out about his firing my receiving his airline ticket back home in his e-mail before the team every approached him...well I think the organization could have handled this better. However what is done is done and I'll be interesting to see if Snitker can get something out of this team that Gonzalez wasn't able to.