The Florida Marlins are 34-36, good for fourth place in the competitive NL East; they are 7 1/2 games back. Certainly they have underperformed this year a little bit, but I would hardly say they are horrible. So what does the Marlins ownership do? They fire him and replace him with AAA coach Edwin Rodriguez. I gained a lot of respect for Gonzalez when he had the courage to bench star shortstop Hanley Ramirez for not hustling for a ball that he booted in the field. I also like how he benched him for a second game. No player should be immune from being benched for being lazy, and Fredi's move showed something to me, as well as to his players I think.
And it's not as if the Marlins have been terrible recently, either. Yeah they are only .500 in their last 10 games, but they took two of three games from the Rays, and they had just beaten the Orioles (yeah I know, big accomplishment) when the news broke. I have to wonder if this move was solely to appease Hanley. He wasn't pleased, to make an understatement, about being benched. Jeffery Loria, the owner of the Marlins, is very close with Ramirez (he even made him a nifty necklace last year to celebrate his batting title). No party is going to admit this, but I am willing to bet this firing is because Mr. Ramirez doesn't care for Gonzalez. And that is just a sad statement, indeed. At what point do players become accountable to their performance on and off the field (I'm looking at you, Orioles).
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