Braves Finally Move Forward: Bobby Cox Should Have Been Fired Years Ago

Bobby Cox, manager of the Atlanta Braves, recently announced that 2010 would finally be his last season.  After he steps down, he will be paid to consult for another 5 years.  What a nice retirement package for someone who underachieved and mismanaged lineups for decades.

Some speculate the decision was a nice way of Bruce Wren, Braves General Manager, of showing the door to Cox in a respectful manner.  Some reports have said that Cox and Wren have had disagreements over the way the organization handled the departures of Tom Glavine and John Smoltz.  Did Cox think that they deserved a retirement package like he got?  Cox should have been shown the door a long time ago.

Bobby Cox has been with the Braves twice since 1978 (1978-81, 1990-2009) and was once a fiery young manager who led the team with passion and has now evolved into a stubborn, miserable leader at times.

Dating back to the early 1990s, the Braves had one of the best baseball rotations of all time – the trifecta – Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine, and John Smoltz, which produced the 1995 World Series and three hall of fame careers.  All three pitchers stayed healthy and performed at the highest level during the 1990’s decade as the Braves dominated the NL East division.

During Cox’s era, the Braves won the NL East 14 straight times in a weak division with the best pitching rotation in the MLB.  However, Cox’s playoff decisions were nothing less than horrible.  When the Braves won their first World Series in 1995 by defeating the Cleveland Indians, the talk of the baseball world was not if they could repeat, but how many more World Series would this “future dynasty” win.  The Atlanta Braves would make it back to the World Series twice (1996 & 1999), but would never again raise a World Series banner.  Instead of the Braves becoming the marquee franchise of the league, they became the Buffalo Bills of baseball.

Year in and year out, posting great regular season records, but failing to perform in the playoffs defined the Bobby Cox era.  Cox was the main reason for the depressing underachieving playoff breakdowns.  Instead of using his starters effectively in the playoffs, he would always bring average middle relievers in to blow games.  Take 1997 for example, Atlanta star pitcher Denny Neagle went 20-5 in the regular season.  When the playoffs came around, Bobby Cox only started him one time.  The team ended up losing to Florida in the NLCS who went on to win the 1997 World Series.

Cox would often assume his bench players were just as good as his starters, and at times would stack the lineup with right-handed bats if there was a left-handed pitcher.  Many times, he would sit players who had higher averages and performed well all season and use bench players who had averages in the low .200’s.

Cox failed to manufacture runs when he needed to.  The Braves were notorious year in and year out for having outstanding pitchers but not scoring any runs, especially when the game was on the line.  Bobby didn’t help one bit with his bland coaching style and his lack of creativity.  His players would rarely ever steal bases unless it was panic time in an elimination game in the playoffs.  He had base stealers Kenny Lofton and Marquis Grissom in their primes who all saw their attempts decline and steals decline under Cox’s mismanagement.  Grissom stole over 70 bases in a single season twice before he arrived in Atlanta, and at age 28 and age 29 he stole less than 30 bases each season.  Kenny Lofton, who spent one season under Cox, had stole over 50 bases the previous 5 seasons before being traded to the Braves, including two seasons of stealing over 70 bases.  Under Cox’s distasteful mismanagement, Lofton only stole 27 bases all season long.  The next year he would leave the Braves and steal 54 bases.

Cox would have been fired three times over again had he been in charge of the New York Yankees

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