Bobby Cox

Bobby Cox's final regular season game is today. It is a sad day as a Braves fan because he has been the coach for so long, and he has been incredibly successful. Right now he is the longest tenured manager, and the 4th winning-est manager of all time. He holds the all-time record for most ejections and has been a major league manager for 29 season plus 5 years as a general manager. He's been the manager of the Braves since I was 6 years old, and it will be very weird to see someone else in the Braves dugout next year.

Cox first took over as the manager of the Braves in 1978, but Ted Turner fired him in 1981. Joe Torre took Bobby's team to the playoffs the next year, 1982, and Cox went on to coach the Blue Jays. He took Toronto to the playoffs in 1985, then resigned to become the general manager of the Braves in 1986. From '86-'90 he assembled tons of talent for Atlanta, but since they weren't winning he fired Russ Nixon and appointed himself manager in June of 1990...John Schuerholz took over as GM in 1991. From 1991-2005 Bobby led the Braves to 14 consecutive division titles including winning the 1995 World Series. Undoubtedly he will go into the Braves Hall of Fame, have his number retired, go into the Baseball Hall of Fame, and be remember forever as one of the greatest managers of all-time.

Cox's took over as manager in June 1990. Since his first full year as the manager, 1991, here are the major players who have passed through.

RF
David Justice, '91-'96
Michael Tucker, '97-'98
Brian Jordan, '99-'01
Gary Sheffield, '02-'03
J.D. Drew, '04
Jeff Francouer, '05-'09
Jason Heyward, '10

CF
Otis Nixon, '91-'93
Deion Sanders, '94
Marquis Grisson, '95-'96
Kenny Lofton, '97
Andruw Jones, '98-'07
Mark Kotsay, '08
Nate McClouth, '09
(Platoon), '10

LF
Ron Gant, '91-'93
Ryan Klesko, '94-'98
(Platoon), '99
Reggie Sanders, '00
B.J. Surhoff, '01
(Platoon), '02
Chipper Jones, '03-'04
(Platoon), '05-'08
Garrett Anderson, '09
(Platoon), '10

1B
Sid Bream, '91-'92
Fred McGriff, '93-'97
Andres Galaraga, '98, '00
Ryan Klesko, '99
(Platoon), '00-'02
Robert Fick, '03
Adam LaRoche, '04-'06
Mark Texiera, '07
Casey Kotchman, '08
Adam LaRoche, '09
Troy Glaus, '10

2B
Mark Lempke, '91-'96
(Platoon), '97-'98
Bret Boone, '99
(Platoon), '00
Marcus Giles, '01-'06
Kelly Johnson, '07-'08
Martin Prado, '09-'10

SS
Jeff Blouser, '91-'97
Walt Weiss, '98-'99
Rafael Furcal, '00-'05
Edgar Rentaria, '06-'07
Yunel Escobar, '08-'09
Alex Gonzalez, '10

3B
Terry Pendleton, '91-'94
Chipper Jones, '95-'02
Vinny Castilla, '03-'04
Chipper Jones, '05-'10

C
Greg Olson, '91-'93
Javy Lopez, '94-'03
Johnny Estrada, '04
Brian McCann, '05-'10

Starting Pitchers
Tom Glavine, '91-'02
John Smoltz, '91-'99, '05-'08
Greg Maddux, '93-'03
Tim Hudson, '05-'10
Kevin Millwood
Denny Neagle
Mike Hampton
Derek Lowe

....and I don't know all of the other pitchers and I don't feel like finding it all out so that is where I stop. Bobby Cox has gone through all of that turnover year after year and still produced winning ball clubs. He is without a doubt the best regular season manager of all time for his ability to produce winning teams on a budget year after years with tons of turnover.

I think he should get his 5th manager of the year award for 2010 because the Braves have battled injuries and poor play all year. Jason Heyward and Brian McCann are the only two players who were starters at the beginning of the year and are still starting now. Troy Glaus lost his job to bad play, Martin Prado was injured in August and this past week went down for the remainder of the season. Yunel Escobar was playing poorly so he was traded for Alex Gonzalez. Chipper Jones tore his ACL and is out for the year. Nate McClouth has hit under .200 all year and lost his job in center field. And the Braves have rotated about 5 left fielders in and out trying to find someone who can hit. The Braves have only 2 players with 20+ home runs (Alex Gonzalez with 23 and Brian McCann with 21) and Gonzalez hit 17 of them with the Blue Jays! They got Derrek Lee in a trade in August but he's hitting nearly 30 points below his career average. Chipper Jones, Troy Glaus, Derrek Lee, Matt Diaz, Rick Ankiel, and Nate McClouth are all having down years....and those are all major contributors. Jair Jurrjiens is one of the Braves best pitchers and he's been hurt for half the year. Kenshin Kawakami has been awful and so he doesn't pitch anymore. The Braves most effective starter during the summer was Kris Medlen and he went down in August needing Tommy John's surgury, Mike Minor stepped in for him but started fading the last few weeks because he's never pitched this much in a season and is too tired. So in the heat of a pennet race Brandon Beachy, a rookie with no big league experience has made 3 starts in September! The Braves have had setback after setback on a team that really doesn't have any star players, just a bunch of C+ and B- guys who grit it out to win. If that doesn't say what Bobby Cox means to this mold this team into playoff caliber then I don't know what being manager of the year is about.

Bobby will be sorely missed by Atlanta Braves fans. I'm glad the Braves were able to have a winning season this year, and I hope they can pull out a win to day and end up in the playoffs for Bobby!

JB