Atlanta Braves News: Managerial search, Silver Sluggers, more

Well the managerial carousel is beginning to churn, as the Angels and Giants have each found their next manager, each coming in a bit of a strange arrangement, though in different ways. The Angels hired former Brave Kurt Suzuki on a one year deal tied to former Atlanta executive Perry Minasian, in what seems unlikely to go beyond that one year for a franchise in a rough spot. Really a strange choice to intentionally hire a manager to only a one year deal in a situation that is unlikely to be a winning one, especially for a first time manager. The Giants, meanwhile, are hiring the University of Tennessee head baseball coach as their new manager, which seems very risky to me, given that they are very different jobs and managing college players’ egos is different than wealthy professionals.

Meanwhile, the Braves have potentially narrowed their search to two former Braves players working as bench coaches under respected managers in Ryan Flaherty (Craig Counsell) and George Lombard (AJ Hinch) and a former colleague of Alex Anthopoulos in Danny Lehmann, the Dodgers’ bench coach. All of these candidates have some connection to presumably sound tactical decision-making and analytical proficiency, based on their current roles and backgrounds. I still think Lombard may be the best fit, given his resume, his reputation, and his roots in the area, but I could be convinced fairly easily on Lehmann, as I trust Anthopoulos a lot and he should have a really strong feel for Lehmann. Flaherty might be a harder sell for me, just based on his shorter track record on the coaching side of things and perhaps less robust analytical and tactical background. An argument could be made that the longer no announcement is made, the more likely Lehmann is to be the choice, as he is the only of the three candidates who cannot be hired today, due to his participation in the World Series. The timeline may only be coincidental, however, and another hire could be announced prior to the conclusion of the World Series.