Marlins make it official. Out with Girardi, in with Gonzalez

On Tuesday the Florida Marlins made it offical and fired manager Joe Girardi. This decision was made by Marlins' owner Jeff Loria beleived to be because of a disagreement that he had with Girardi about two months ago.

The dicision to let Girardi go makes no sense to me. I mean the guy won 78 games with the AAA Marlins , starting 22 rookies this year and on a $15.0M payroll. Also Girardi is considered to be a very strong candidate for the NL manager of the year. He kept the Marlins in playoff contetntion with the league's youngest team and the league's cheapest team up to the end of September where they promptly fell apart.

Another thing that doesn't really make sense about this whole thing is the Marlins let Girardi go even though he had two years left on his contract that is guaranteed. Loria is an ass-whole, plain and simple. He won't spend money on players but he is willing to throw money away just because of a little tiff he had with a manager. Makes no sense to me.

Girardi said he was fired during a brief meeting that was held in his now former office with team president David Samson, general manager Larry Beinfest and assistant general manger Mike Hill. Of course Loria didn't attend this meeting.

"They came in and said, 'We're going to make a change,"'Girardi said. He said he was given no reason on why he was being replaced.

"To harsh over what happened doesn't make any sense," said Girardi.

The Marlins announced at a press conference Tuesday that Atlanta third-base coach Fredi Gonzalez would become the replacement for Girardi. Gonzalez was also the runner-up for the Marlins' manager job last year when Jack Mckeon resigned.