He led the lowest payroll in baseball to its third-most winning season in franchise history last season, but when all was said and done the ax hovered above Marlins manager Fredi Gonzalez' head anyway.
He survived, if only thanks to righteous indignation from fans and media, but if owner Jeffrey Loria's pre-season playoffs prediction is as much a veiled threat as it sounded the ax is about to hover again.
The Marlins have lost 8 of the last 11 games, and three straight. The offense is nowhere to be found. Think Loria wouldn't fire a manager in May? Just ask Jeff Torborg, who'll celebrate the 7th anniversary of his mid-season firing in four days.
And that was a World Series-winning team.
Fox Sports reports Loria is "very unhappy" with the team's play, "according to a source with knowledge of this thinking." Er, join the club. But the thing is, if we're to assign blame, nearly all of it would go to Loria and the teams' front office. Fredi Gonzalez may not be much of a solution for this team, but what manager would be?
"We've got all the ammunition we need," Loria said this spring, though it wasn't even close to being true.
The Marlins had clear needs at the end of last season, and didn't address a single one. They didn't add a single player capable of making a difference, and while they did increase the payroll it was largely to extend the time served of players already on the roster.
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How can expectations be so skewed? Arrogance on the part of ownership is the only thing that seems clear. When you don't fill a roster's holes, expecting another ring is a bit like expecting the proverbial monkeys to type up some Shakespeare. And firing decent employees when it doesn't happen, instead of shoring up a roster, is the only comic tragedy Loria seems capable of writing.
