#21 Snit and The Braves Next Manager

[00:00:01] I hope you're having a wonderful off season so far. Let's jump right in. Obviously, the big news with Snit stepping down, gonna stay with the team, as we know, in an advisory role. So he'll get at least 50 years in the organization. [00:00:15] There has been so many great things written and said about Brian Snicker. He's certainly going to be missed every day in that managerial chair. I'll miss seeing him every day. My experiences with him were just fantastic. I was thinking about kind of what I would miss the most, and quite honestly, there's a lot. But the thing that kind of sticks out to me is that, of course, you know, we travel with the team and late night travel and all that kind of stuff. Well, the broadcasters are on the same bus as the staff and so we'd get in, say, I don't know, two o' clock in the morning into St. Louis, whatever it may be. You get off the plane, you walk on the bus, and the broadcasters always get on the bus last. And it would be right there in the front seat. [00:00:54] I would always have something friendly to say. We chat for a little bit in that spot. But it was always just such a pleasant exchange, regardless what was going on with the team. [00:01:05] There's a lot of great things, again, about Ryan Sticker, but that's just one of those kind of little things for me that not always the case for, especially when you're not having a great year. It's easy to wear your emotions on your sleeve or be cranky when things aren't going well. But Snit was so consistently pleasant with us on the media side, which we were all very grateful for. So that's, for me, just one of those little things that sticks out. Snit is now the fourth manager that I've covered as a local broadcaster. Three with the Texas Rangers and Jeff Bannister, Chris Woodward and Bruce Bochi and now Brian Snicker. And there'll be a new one going forward, but he is going to be missed on an everyday basis. But what a career. You really trace it. I know. Again, everybody's done a really nice job covering it. So just congrats to Snit on all his accomplishments, obviously the biggest being that World Series a few years ago. But what a career and just an inspiration, really, at what you can do in this game. You never know where your path is going to take you. [00:01:58] That means, of course, now the Braves need a manager. I posted something this morning of the team six, as it stands right now officially, that need managers that could go up to eight based on the two interims in Colorado and Washington. [00:02:11] No decisions have been made yet on those two interim managers. I would feel pretty comfortable that DC Is going to be looking for a new manager just because they have a new executive running things. And quite honestly, same thing in Colorado. So we'll see. I don't want to push anybody out the door, but that's where it stands right now. We'll see whether or not any of the postseason teams end up making changes when their runs end. I don't think so. I know there's a lot of smoke kind of surrounding Aaron Boone. I would take him in a heartbeat if he became available. [00:02:39] He's. We can dig in him later if that ends up being the case, but I don't think the Yankees will do it. He's done a really nice job with them and I don't think it happens. But either way, the focus now for the Atlanta Braves. I've already had a handful of people kind of ask me, where do I think the Braves are going to go. [00:02:55] Not exactly sure. There's a lot of different ways that you can look at this. I think for Alex, go back and trace kind of his history with the Toronto Blue Jays, just like he did here with the Braves. He inherited Cedo Gaston when he took over and was leading things, and he did that kept Cedo for a couple of years before they moved on to John Farrell. So I believe John Farrell was his first hire. John Farrell was there for a couple of years before he moved on. And then Alex hired John Gibbons, and John Gibbons stayed there for a while, stayed there longer than Alex did before he left for the Los Angeles Dodgers and then of course, eventually landed with us with the Braves. [00:03:33] John Gibbons is kind of an interesting name. I don't know what their relationship is and what the history is, but he's hired him once before. Gibby was very successful with the Toronto Blue Jays. He's now been on the bench with the New York Mets. It may be a name. He's still only 63 years old, so he's kind of right in the pocket as far as age goes. And the relationship between him and Alex Anthopoulos, again, I don't know what it is, but that could be a name potentially of the list that I sent out. And there are a lot of guys there that I like a lot that I've either worked with, played with, covered, interviewed multiple times. There's just a lot of different ways that you can go. [00:04:09] I know that fans have a tendency to Jump on names for players that they like. The reality is you don't know, we don't know. I don't know necessarily who's going to make a good manager, who is best going to fit. But there are a couple of guys on there that I like a lot. I really like Derek Shelton a lot. I've gotten to know him pretty well over the last couple of years. He is a solid, solid baseball man. Knows the game extremely well. He has served in a lot of roles. [00:04:32] He would be a guy to have all the confidence in the world leading a championship caliber roster. That's the other part of this, right, Is that this should be a championship caliber roster. And so because of that, what kind of manager does Alex want? Does he want a guy that's kind of been there and done that? A guy that has that longer track record, has been around winning teams, has led winning teams as postseason experience? Does that matter? Do they want a guy who was younger, who's a little bit more analytical? Somebody maybe where you're working with the front office and how you set your lineup and certain decisions that are made? That is a trend in the game. There's no getting away from it. I don't know if our front office wants that kind of control. I've never gotten that impression from Alex with Snit, but I think, you know, Snit's been around the game for a long time and it worked out the way that they did it. But is there any change coming as far as how you want your front office and your manager to work together and what kind of influence you get from your front office relationally? How important is it that you have a clubhouse, that you keep guys happy? That is a new trend in the game that's been going on, you know, for a decade or so now, where players have more control over a clubhouse and who leads that clubhouse than ever? You know, I broke in. I had Davey Johnson, who just recently passed as my first manager in that same year I was traded and had Sparky Anderson. They were great managers. They didn't care how I felt, though. They weren't worried about the relationship part of it. And I had others as well along the way. But that's different. It's different for the game now. How much does that matter that you have to keep players happy? You're never going to make all 26 on your roster happy or the season like this. Obviously significantly more than the Braves just had. It's can you get everybody to play hard for you is the most important part. Can you keep everybody respecting you in that clubhouse is the most important part and the decisions that are made. [00:06:13] But what about accountability? Right? There's the balance there of keeping guys happy but also keeping guys accountable. It's a tough job these days. That's why the turnover is so high. [00:06:23] The longest tenured manager in baseball right now is Kevin Cash. He's done it for 11 years with the Tampa Bay Rays, more than I can't remember. The average was under four recently. As far as the turnover and the average tenure for a big league manager, it just changes a lot. And so it's very difficult to keep teams and to keep players happy. But there are a lot of good names on that list. I had Jeff Banister in Texas. I like him a lot. I'm very interested in Ray Montgomery. You got a little bit of a taste with the Angels. You know, the other part too, that matters is, and it's not a big of a deal for us in Atlanta, but know kind of how you handle things publicly, it matters in those bigger markets, right? If you're going to manage in New York, you have to be able to handle the press. It's extremely important. [00:07:04] We have a kind of a very good, easy media situation here in Atlanta. So it isn't as big of a deal because guys aren't digging as hard. They're not exaggerating. They're not going to a player then coming back to a manager and saying, hey, the player said this or the manager said this and trying to stir it up. It's those men. Those markets are so competitive that that's what they kind of have to do. We don't have that here. So you just need a good guy who will handle the media pretty easily, but it really won't be a lot of stress. So that doesn't matter as much. [00:07:34] And the other thing that's so interesting to me about this whole process is that you interview. Obviously there'll be a lot of interviews. There'll be second and third interviews. They're very, very lengthy as you try to get to know a potential managerial candidate. But how you do in an interview does not always tell us how you would do as a manager. I used the example of Davey Martinez for the longest time, was getting interviews, but could never get a job. And it kind of surprised me. And I said, well, maybe she's not good at interviews. [00:08:00] But he was really good as a manager and he won a world championship with the Washington National. So it's a weird kind of dynamic where you have to impress the front office. You have to get them to feel comfortable with you, to like you, to be genuine and feel like it's going to work. But does that always play in the clubhouse? I think it's a tough process to really figure it out, but it's an important one right now for the Atlanta Braves because of this roster that they have and kind of where they're going to go. We know what the expectations were this past year. It didn't happen. Those expectations are going to be there again next year, and so you need to make sure you have all the confidence in the world and the hire that you're going to make. It'll be fun to watch. I like tracking it. We'll continue to talk about it. I got a bunch of other ideas and things that are spinning through my head right now regarding this team, the market, available players. [00:08:47] I'll try not to just give it to you all at once. And we'll let it be a slow trickle because it's a long off season. But again, congratulations to Snit, and I'm excited to see where the Braves are going to go with their next manager. It's. There's a lot of great candidates out there, including our very own Walt Weiss. I mean, I think Walt, obviously is also going to be a guy that'll be a consideration, but we will see where the Braves go. We'll talk to you all soon. Have a great day.