Now I still believe that it’s too early to panic if you’re favorite Major League Baseball team has gotten of to a slow start, but you do have to wonder how safe the managers of these teams are. A lot of these guys have won World Series titles, but that doesn’t make them immune to being fired. Let’s take a look and see which manager might be the first to go.
Right out of the gate I think the manager who might be in the hottest seat is Joe Maddon of the Chicago Cubs. Just a couple of seasons ago the Cubs won their first World Series championship in 100 plus years with Maddon as their manager. Last season was the first time a Maddon managed Cubs team hasn’t been in the playoffs, but this season they’re off to a 1-6 start.
Last night the Cubs out up 10 runs against one of their top NL Central rivals the Milwaukee Brewers, but that still wasn’t good enough to win as Cubs pitchers gave up 13 runs. This is the third time this season the Cubs offense has scored 10 or more runs, but on the other side the Cubs pitchers have given up 8 or more runs in five of the teams seven games.
The Cubs only win was on opening day in Texas and they have played all of their games on the road; so maybe heading home for the first time this season after this series with the Brewers will help, but will Maddon be the manager when the Cubs play that home opener against the Pittsburgh Pirates on Monday.
Since we started with Maddon let’s go down his coaching tree a little bit. Could the Washington Nationals make a change at manager and remove Dave Martinez?
When the Nationals brought Martinez in he was looked at as someone who could relate to the younger players and hopefully help get Bryce Harper to stay in Washington. Obviously Harper got a better contract offer from the Philadelphia Phillies; which is really out of Martinez’s control.
The Nationals finished 82-80 in Martinez’s first season as manager and finished in 2nd place 8 games behind the Atlanta Braves in the NL East. With trades and free agent signings the NL East looked to be the most improved and possibly the toughest division in baseball. Washington is off to a 3-3 start, but they’re behind three other teams in the NL East already.
Martinez is in the second year of a three year deal; so right now I think that Martinez’s job is safe, but this is something that could be re-visited around the All-Star break if the Nationals aren’t in the division race.
After winning game 163 last season and getting into the playoffs is it possible that a 3-5 spot has Bud Black of the Colorado Rockies on the hot seat?
Before Colorado named Black as their manager he spent nine seasons with the San Diego Padres and never once made it to the post season. In his first season with the Rockies they where a wild card team. Last season which was Black’s second with the team the Rockies won the NL West. While the team has made it to the post season both season under Black they have yet to advance out of a round.
Now you’d have to think that Black has some job security after signing a three year contract extension this off season, but it seems like you just never know in today’s game.
Now it’s humorous to have these two managers on this list, but to be fair there teams haven’t gotten off to the start everyone expected them to and you know there are people out there blaming them for that. Is it possible that we could actually see Alex Cora of the Boston red Sox or A.J. Hinch of the Houston Astros replaced?
Of course Cora just led the Red Sox to the World Series title last season in his first season as their manager. As Astros manager Hinch led that team to the World Series title in 2017. I doubt that either of these guys are anywhere close to being on the hot seat since they’re recent World Series champions, but you never know.
The Red Sox are off to a 2-7 start while the Astros are off to a 3-5 start.
Of course the Red Sox started the season off with an 11 game road trip; so they haven’t played a home game this season. Boston’s first home game is this coming Tuesday when they host the Toronto Blue Jays.
The Astros just opened their first home series of the season with a 3-2 win over the Oakland A’s. Houston’s offense has been a little slow out of the gate, but maybe the first series at home will help that.
Just like it’s too early to panic about a teams record it’s probably too early to make a managerial change, but it’s possible that one of these managers could be the first to go this season.
Is there a manager out there that I didn’t list? Let me know if you think I should’ve included someone else.
The NCAA Final Four teams play for the chance to go to the title game on Monday. The first game tonight has the Auburn Tigers vs. the Virginia Cavaliers. This game should start around 5:00 p.m. the second game has the Texas Tech Red Raiders vs. the Michigan State Spartans.
It seems like there hasn’t been a lot of talk about this four teams and I’m not sure why that is. For some reason everyone still seems to be focused on Zion Williamson even though Duke was eliminated by Michigan State. While Williamson looks like he’ll be heading into NBA stardom wouldn’t it be nice if someone tried to draw a little interest in the NCAA championship? Now as you know I’m not a college basketball fan and with the way the reporting has went on they haven’t given me a reason to have any interest in these two Final Four games or the championship game.
While we’re on the NCAA tournament how did your bracket play out? I did two brackets as one of my friends challenged me. I have one team left in each of those brackets. I had Virginia getting to the final game in one; losing to Duke. In the other bracket I have Michigan State winning it all.
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