Life after Cox?

Written by Colin on January 24, 2008 – 12:36 pm

So we need to realize as fans of the Atlanta Braves that the time may come after this season for one of the greatest managers of all time to retire.  Bobby Cox has been managing the Braves since the middle of the 1990 season and has provided a strong backbone of leadership and encouragement through the 1990 dynasty and now well into the 2000s, but he’s not getting any younger (he turns 67 this year), and he’s made no bones about the fact that he wants to do other things after baseball.

Cox has certainly been successful - his overall record as a manager is 2255-1764.  He led the Braves to the post-season for 14 straight seasons and has a reputation across baseball as extracting the best from his players in a positive manner.  Players love to play for Cox.  One of our favorite stats is how often he’s been thrown out - he holds the record for most ejections, if you didn’t know.  His ejection total shows how much he protects his players - he would rather himself be thrown out than his players.

But what comes after the Bobby Cox era?  Who will be at the helm of the Braves’ organization?  I have my thoughts on who I’d like to see take his place - I feel that the new manager needs to come from within the Braves organization and know how things are done around Atlanta.  They need to have been around Cox and know what made playing for him so attractive.   Ideally, they need to have coached with him, even.

This makes Terry Pendleton a leading candidate for the job, in my opinion.  He was around throughout the 90s and has been back with the organization as the hitting coach.  His experience as both a player and a coach would benefit the organization in the managerial position well.

Who we don’t want to see around here is Eddie Perez - nothing against Eddie, but he needs more coaching experience before he turns into a big-league managerial candidate.  I could also see good ol’ Julio Franco as a Braves coach in a few years - start at the minor league level before coming up to the majors, but the man has a wealth of knowledge in him.  I doubt he’ll start coaching til after this year - the man wants to play ball til he’s 50, and he reaches that goal this year.

Whether or not this is Bobby’s last year, we’ll miss him once he retires.  Once he’s out of the picture, I think TP is one of the better options to replace him.  Whatever the case, I hope Bobby decides to stick with us for a few more years.

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