Sully Baseball already lay down the ground work for the Braves

So Bobby Cox is going to step down after the 2010 season and a manager needs to step into his impressive shoes.

Avid readers of this blog will remember I addressed this issue almost exactly a year ago.

I said Cox should manage through 2010 and his former coach Ned Yost should step in.

Yost has ties to the Braves glory days as a coach from 1991 to 2002. And he has managerial experience with helping turn the Brewers around.

And yes he was strangely fired last September... and his managerial methods have no shortage of critics.

But it is usually a smart move to bring in a manager with some experience and who made his rookie mistakes with other organizations.

Terry Francona cut his managerial teeth with the Phillies before coming to the Red Sox.

Charlie Manuel got the feel of managing with the Indians before leading the Phillies to the title.

Joe Girardi made his managerial debut with the Marlins before the Yankees brought him over to replace Torre.

And of course Torre managed the Mets, Braves and Cardinals before taking over the Yankees and Dodgers.

Maybe Yost can come to a friendly organization and bring to the Braves what he did right in Milwaukee, learn from what he did wrong and give the organization some continuity from their glory days.

It makes perfect sense to me.

So naturally the Atlanta Journal Constitution doesn't even list Yost as one of the top 5 candidates.

So what do I know?