Wren’s problem: He hasn’t earned benefit of doubt

BTW if the Falcons go 0-2 the odds are pretty lousy from there on out to make the playoffs.

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We have a problem and it all starts with Wren. Give him a fishing show on FSSO.

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the braves are the worst team in the majors. they will lose at least 100 games this year and i bet they will be shut out at least 15 more times and have another no hitter pitched against them. i have seen guys in caskets look more alive than this team. cox, pendleton and mcdowell ought to be ashamed when they go to the pay window. they ought to be tarred and feathered and run out of town on a rail.atlanta fans deserve better than this.don’t any of our guys know how to play this game?

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Ah, JS, but you live in Atlanta – home of some of the worst owners in sports.

ASG, Liberty – they get booed out of the building. Arthur Blank? Nope, we like him.

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When Wren says “we have flexibility with our payroll”

The translation is… The paychecks to our players won’t bounce.

Flexibility? Flexibility? If you have FLEXIBILITY why is JERMAINE FREAKING DYE not on this team? If you have flexibility… why isn’t JOHNNY FREAKING DAMON sucking in Left field instead of Melky Cabrera?

You have no MONEY STOP FREAKING LYING… PUT UP OR SHUT UP!

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Wren is disingenuous. The fact that Andrus and Salty were blocked in Atlanta didn’t mean they couldn’t have been traded for equivalent prospects at other positions (i.e. to fill the gaping holes in the Braves outfield) that would still be here.

Wren is a typical corporate hack who can say anything, no matter how ridiculous, with a straight face.

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At this point, why not call Freeman up and give him a shot at 1B? Oh, nevermind, I forgot, we’re “contenders”!

Is Greg Norton still available?

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Good morning,

Good article. I am not fan of Wren’s moves…give up a first round draft pick and sign Wagoner and Soriano would have signed for the same amount. Glaus has only warning track power since he is not taking his vitamins. It is early in the season and the Braves have great team chemistry. Have you had your coffee with cream this morning?

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Wren’s right about those guys in the Texeira trade. But, Texiera=Half a season, no playoffs, traded for basically Casey Kotchman. Kotchman= traded for Adam Laroche for half a season, no playoffs. Laroche= Off to sunny Arizona as a free agent. Braves after all is said and done in those trades get literally nothing for those players. Just as easily could have traded all those players for a bag of Doritos

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Schultz , your questions about the Texeira trade should have been. Frank, what do have to show from it today?

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Bottom line: If they don’t at least make it into the playoffs as the wild card this year, Wren is gone. I can’t help but think this is the case. What manager worth his salt will come in to replace Cox if he has to work for a lame-duck GM?

(Please forgive my brief moment of insanity). At least the ATL Spirit got it right when they canned their coach after promoting Dudley. They couldn’t even land a high school hockey coach if Waddell were still in that position. (OK, I’m back from the brink now).

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Everybody blames Wren, but don’t you think John Schuerholz is still calling a lot of the shots? He is the team President. I think he saw the writing on the wall as far as the coming payroll reductions and didn’t want his “legacy” to be tarnished, so he quickly changed titles and made Wren his puppet.

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No power, no speed, miniscule stealing attempts, on this team. If you aren’t a big bopping team you must have speed and vice versa for your offense to compete. We have two huge holes, no leadoff hitter and no cleanup hitter. Not looking good so far but still too early to panic and give up.

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Thirty points your math and spelling is way off, you’re not doing UGA a favor by commenting.

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They played poorly vs the Mets but aside from the game last night they were showing signs of playing better — The Cards are a tough ball club and makes me wonder why The Braves can’t exude that same toughness – they’re not much better. I know one thing you’ll probably never hear Pujols tell reports he was “DEMORALIZED “after being down TWO RUNS in the FIRST INNING. Their comebacks over the Braves in games 1 and 2 showed that. Way to lead, Chip. Way to lead.

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Has anybody including Wren noticed that a perfect game has been thrown against this team and how many shutouts so far in this young season. Doesn’t that worry him at night? How many errors committed so far this year? The only thing running behind schedule is Bobby being thrown out of games. This young season is getting real old quick! Time to make a change. When the Nationals are ahead of you in the division, Wren should not be worrying about his allergies. He needs to go to the doctor for major surgery on this endemic team.

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Dont look now but Kelly Johmson is only 4 behind the whole Braves team

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I see another shutout coming today against Wainwright.

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At this point Wren is essentially Kevin Bacon from Animal House….

“All is Well”

Nero plays the violin while Rome is burning.

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Jeff, do you not agree that John Schuerholz still has significant control/input on player personnel moves? Not that Wren doesn’t make decisions on his own, but I still think JS puts his stamp on approval on most moves.

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No mention of the owners and the worst man in baseball… Terry McGuirk? The ATL’s sports writers are giving them a pass, and that in itself is wrong. NO ACCOUNTABILITY given to the this season’s disaster… Terry McGuirk and Liberty Media.

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If Wren’s the GM and Schuerholtz is the prez, what exactly does McGuirk do?

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I believe the payroll is estimated at about $85million this year. (The Braves say it is $90+, but they use a different formula than most). That $85 million puts them I think at 15th in MLB. The highest spending team spends $200million and the lowest spending team spending about $40million. That means the Braves are A LOT closer to the bottom end of the payroll spectrum than they are the top.

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I think Wren makes trades to get rid of people he doesn’t want more so than to bring in people he does want.

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Wren’s correct about Salty not being ahead of McCann, but everyone knew that back then. He was tried at first a bit, and I understand that didn’t seem like a good idea.

Andrus though would definitely be on the team. He’d be the lead-off hitter right now. Either Yunel or Elvis would have slid over to 2nd base and both could be on the team. That doesn’t even factor in having insurance against Chipper missing games.

Wren’s just trying to cover the trade, I understand though and the fact needs to be remembered that he didn’t make this trade. It was the homeboy upstairs. He wanted a last ditch chance for a WS during his last year. I don’t blame him, and he built up the goodwill for it but it hurt the team a lot.

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The Braves problems go much deeper than just the players and gm. This team is lazy. Bobby Cox is a hall of fame manager, but the days of allowing your players to run the asylum are over. He gives them too much leeway in my opinion. I’m not asking him to bad mouth players in the media, but at some point you have to shake things up a bit.

We didn’t really fill any of our needs, and I’m not certain a major trade would improve things. I would much rather watch some of our young guys come up and get thrown into the fire. It’s funny how we always talk about rushing guys, but the Florida Marlins seem to have a pretty decent track record for running things young and cheap.

This team doesn’t do anything well, except pitch. I would clean house after the season with this entire staff, wren has already worn out his welcome. Focus on pitching and sign one great offensive player and put a bunch of young guys around him, instead of spreading it over the whole team if we have a budget.

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Atlanta sports SUCKS right now, I can’t wait til football season Gooooo FALCONS!!!!!!!

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As a 50 year Braves’ fan, I am as frustrated as anyone about this current slump. Unfortunately, I think Wren is right. Take a deep breath fans. The team is 21 games into the season. lost 8 in a row and is still only–get this–4 1/2 games out of first place. It is WAY WAY too early to do what many of you are advocating–PANIC. Veteran players such as McLouth, Escobar and even Cabrera and Glaus are not going to continue to hit 100 points under their career norms forever.

What does concern me is what I perceive to be a lack of leadership and focus on the part of the team. Lately, they look like zombies in the field and at the bat. I think Cox should have retired one year sooner. He gets applauded for being a “player’s manager”, but that only works when you have the right players who will respond to that style and play hard without being pushed. I found Cox’s comment after Escobar’s failure to tag up the other day that if that happened in his day a player who made that mistake would have been shipped out [to the minors]. What does he do? Put him in the lineup the next day. I don’t know if Escobar has any options left, but if he did, sending him to the minors for a couple weeks would have, in my opinion, sent a loud message to both him and the rest of the team. Sometimes when a manager has been around as long as Cox, the players stop listening and take things for granted. Unfortunately, that’s how it looks to me.

I also agree with some of you who feel that it’s time to get a new hitting coach. On balance, I don’t know that TP is doing a bad job. In fact, he proabably is giving the underachievers good advice which they aren’t heeding. It is disturbing, however, that Francoeur asked the then Texas and now Cubs hitting coach to help him in the offseason without letting TP know. You can be saying all of the right things, but if the message isn’t getting through, then maybe you need to find another messenger (i.e. communicator).

This team needs something to get it going and since as the old saying goes, you can’t fire all of the players, and they sure as heck aren’t going to fire Cox in his swan song season, perhaps firing TP would serve as both a wake up call and bring a different voice into the equation. Just my two cents folks.

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The season started with a bunch of “ifs”:if Chipper doesn’t get hurt, if Glaus works out at first, if Melky hits ok, if Lowe returns to form, if Kawakami improves if McClouth plays like we think he can. Now that’s 6 strikes and we’re out. Another month of this and we say so long Bobby, wish you had some talant to work with. Damon looks like a trigger that should have been pulled.

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The Braves have some serious offensive development issues. How many good, fundamental hitters have the Braves developed and produced over the past 10 years? I believe the minor league hitting instruction must be poor, Terry Pendleton is not doing a very good job, and Bobby’s ‘play for the 3 run HR’ passive offensive mentality are all contributing factors. Gant, Justice, Galarragga, & Sheffield are all gone, as is the Launching Pad, yet Bobby has never adjusted. Wren’s biggest challenge will be to improve our offensive instruction and strategy if we’re ever going to contend for the postseason or World Series again, with our very restrictive payroll. He needs to clean house and bring in a fresh face as manager next year, with an aggressive offensive approach and good hitting coaches. The steroid era is over, sound fundamental hitting and utilizing speed is crucial now. It’s up to Wren to recognize this and to get our offensive system turned around, top to bottom.

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The Braves have always had great scouts and information on opposing players. This years team tells me they are not listening to them or not following their suggestions. Couple that with a mid-range budget and what you see is what you get in 2010. Patience will not fix poor hitters!

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Like someone else said, pretty soon Turner Field will look like the Marlins stadium, nothing but empty seats. Maybe that’s the best way to send a message.

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Clay – I think you have to spend and show that you are serious about winning before you will see attendance increase. Bring in some big name free agents and the people will come. Nobody wants to come to Turner Field to see Troy Glaus!

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Not Frank’s fault now but if we keep Terry around much longer it will be. First of all I don’t believe TP should be the hitting coach ,I have never seen improvement with any player has been turned over to him.

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Why save our “flexibility” in the payroll for AFTER we stink it up. Then when you make a move and it doesn’t lead to a turnaround Wren looks dumb again??? No Frank, the truth is you tried to make this team competitive on the cheap because you are a businessman at heart and the powers that be won’t let us spend to win. If we have flexibility as he claims we would have used it to build the best roster for 162 games. This is a resounding problem with the Hawks, Braves, and Thrashers. The Falcons are the exception, Blank CARES about winning, takes losing personally, and is willing to put his a$$ (that’s his rear end and dollars) on the line to make it happen. There’s a reason that we see Blank on the sidelines but can’t even name the owner’s of the Atlanta [lack of] Spirit Group.

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Crappy Braves fans should jump on Tampa Bay’s, oops I mean St. Pete’s bandwagon and pretend to be Rays fans.

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Is Greg Norton available? Even he would be an improvement at this point

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GM, nobody’s complaining about Wagner, I actually think he was a good addition..he’s a veteran lefty throwing 95 and has looked good…if he had any games to save we’d be singing his praises.

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Thanks Schultz,
That was my thinking also. A lot of people on here blame Wren for everything. Although I agree he is a clown, I think it was a group decision and Cox was in on it.

This is where I believe the next manager can help. He can perhaps give the opposing point of view and help guide Wren to some better alternatives.

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Kelly Johnson: .286, 8 HR; Adam LaRoche: .270, 2 HR; Jeff Francoeur, .278, 3 HR.

Maybe we need a hitting coach and a GM.

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The Future, that is disheartning, but if Wren hadn’t extended Chipper’s contract, he woulda been strung up in ATL, especially with Chipper batting about .400 at the time.

One other thing about Glaus. I don’t think Wren tells Bobby to keep putting him in the 5 spot every game (or Chipper in the 3) while we’re all waiting for them to start hitting. Or even to start him everyday. These are Bobby’s lineups.

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The analogy to Bagdhad Bob–the former Iraqi press secretary for Saddam–is very close to the truth. Had me laughing at a sad situation….Thanks!

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Jeff…I’m trying to decide which closer sucked more…Wickman or Dan Kolb…remember those experiments at the end of the pen? Yeah, both John S. moves btw…makes you think.

ashvilledawg said it best…Braves season doing well dependent on a bunch of “IF’s” happening…none of which are…when you add struggling McCann, Chipper trying to be hero playing less than 100% which actually hurts the team…other than his “mighty presence” and walks what else can he do that Infante can’t at 3B?

This Braves team is FLAWED big time, and getting exposed.

Lets hope Chipper retires after this season like he said he would (if he had another statistically down year, which all indicators point to the repeat of last), maybe that will save some payroll…and maybe Wren can do a salary dump on Lowe to the Yankees or Boston…

Either way, those 2 contracts are like a boat anchor around the Braves with their payroll restrictions. Don’t let Wren spin it…there are PAYROLL restrictions. Which is why our big OF acquisition was MELKY and why our big 1B bat is Troy Glaus.

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I still have flashbacks from the game at Coors field when the Braves came back and got the lead in top of the 9th. Kolb blew the game and the water cooler went adios. Loved seeing the coolers go flying.

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This is the 1st time I have ever criticized Bobby Cox, but you have to manufacture runs when you can’t hit home runs. We’ve have made no attempts to do so except for the standard bunt by the pitcher.
It may have worked when Chipper was in his prime, and we had other power hitters like Andruw, Gallaraga, Javy, Sheffield etc but obviously it isn’t working in recent years.

I watch 150 games a year, but it is nearly impossible for me not to change the channel once we are down by 2 or more runs. I thought 08 was bad when we had no starting pitching, but this is even worse b/c we SHOULD be winning games.

Oh, and Wren sucks too BTW….

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I know everyone will disagree with me but I STILL think Braves are going to turn it around! I SURELY hope they win their last game against Cards and come home and beat the Astros! Still time. Just be patient! These are still good players, they just need to WAKE UP!

Don’t get me wrong, I’m still bitter about our losing streak. They act like they’ve never swung at a baseball before! BUT I don’t believe they will be in last place in NL East for long. Just gotta hit hit hit! COME ON BRAVES!

Any other optimistic Braves fans out there?

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Wren is a fool. he has tried to fill position players on the cheap (Glaus, Cabrera, McLousy, etc.) while overpaying for pitchers (Low, Kamikaze) of course he thinks he is doing a great job. just ask him. the standings speak for themselves. yes, you can go from the bottom to the top quickly, but you can also go from the top to the bottom quicker (8-5, 8-12)

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Chipper said he would retire if he wasn’t able to help the team. I would hope there is a clause that he doesn’t get paid if he retires.
Do not make any trades that effect us long term. I thought Wren did a great job last year putting together a competitivet team. This year it just is not working out but that’s what happens when you expect old injured stars to be you power production. They took a risk and now it is biting them. I’d rather have a season tank than to trade away the future trying to put together a possible playoff run that probably won’t pan out in the end anyway. As for Schurholz, aside from the assembly of the 91 team he has done more to damage this team. The Justice for a one year rental of what’s his name was one of the worst and then Wainright for Drew and of course Texierra were just awfull, awfull deals.

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With the talent on this team and arguably the best 1-12 pitching staff in the NL there is no reason for this team to be in last place let alone have an 8 game hitting streak. This falls on management and coaching. Look at the year Kelly Johnson is having. 8 homeruns… are you kidding me? I understand with the emergence of Prado, 2B was filled but why couldn’t Kelly move back to his corner outfield spot where he ismore comfortable anyway? Even the free-swinging Francouer has shown more patience this year under his new hitting coach. It seems that every time a hitter gets away from Pendleton they get much, much better. I’m also getting a little sick and tired of Bobby’s loyalty to his vets. Hinske and Infante need to be given shots at an everyday job. They can’t possibly be worse and who knows they might end up takign a job away like Prado did last year. I am a huge Chipper Jones fan. He and Griffey, Jr. are my two favorite players of all-time (I’m only 26). But I think he is done. The power is gone and his strikeouts look awful. I’ve never seen Chipper look this lost at the plate before. His bat looks really slow and it doesn’t seem like he is enjoying the game anymore. The only problem is we have no heir-apparent at 3B. Again, I am young so I’ve been a bit spoiled in my lifetime when it comes to the Braves but this has been the worst stretch of games I have ever witnessed. The worst part of it is Wren’s lack of urgency. He’s right it is early. Early enough to make a move or two and climb back into the standings. If he waits until June with this current team we will be so far out of it we will end up being sellers not buyers. His lack of desire to win really pisses me off. If I was an owner and read the comments he made above he would be in my office first thing this morning and he would probably be packing up his desk. This shows lack of respect for the people who sign the checks, the players who want to win, the fans who want to win, and especially for Bobby.

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Easy to say that, but Salty could be playing first by now instead of Glaus, like they experimented with before dealing him, Andrus could be at SS, with Yunel at 3rd… Chipper and the remaining money owed to him could be gone to an AL team that he belongs DH’ing on, and Feliz would either be your money closer or a hell of a fourth or fifth starter. Easy to make a statement like that Frank, but it’s not true… Oh and Wainwright sure would be a nice ace right now.

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EW…you are 100% right, my only point is trades can hurt your team in many diferent ways for years and years…i want braves to develope players, not trade. look at the marlins, rays, padres, giants, rockies.
if they suck 2 or 3 years in a row is ok, but they bounce back, we should be playing one more rookie this year.
if we suck is ok, but i want to keep all the farm system and have freeman next year, 1 more rookie pitcher next year to go along tommy and JJ, and we need 3rd baseman baddddd.

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I said 3 days ago that this streak will hit 10 games and I got called a traitor for not being loyal……….. I just saw this coming. And I wish I was wrong but this team is GARBAGE!!!!! Glaus has as much talent as I do. Melky Cabrera is just pathetic. McClouth has lost what he had. Chipper has turned into ROGER DORN. And Lowe should go to the Bull-Pen. KK is too inconsistant. And all this suckatude has been influencing Jason Heyward. and Escobar has regressed. But other than that we can make a run and be just like the 27 Yankees…………. and by that I mean be a bunch of dead rotting corpses.

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Escobar needs to be our 3rd base player.

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RAHHHHH!!!!!!

BEN BE GM FOR BRAVES!!!!

BEN DO JOB GOOD!!!

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WHO DIS IS?!?

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84 comments and 99.9 are against Wren and management….WOW ! Do you think they give a damn?

By the way Milky has 9 hits in last 23 ab.NOT BAD?
Fire TP and retire early Cox and Wren get of your A@@ and do something….Fans should stay home till he does.

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Rough Estimate, you need to use the median not the mean to see where the Braves stack up on salaries.

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Its now time to sign a petition from the Braves fans to replace Frank Wren, if everyone agrees start by signing into this blog with a demand to replace him. HERE GOES- REPLACE FRANK WREN.

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Enter your comments here

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chipperlovechild…
andrus would be playing becasue he can hit and is under control for 4 or 5 more years, escobar will get expensive in 1 year he will be eligible for arbitration….if we had feliz still would save money 7 mil

now go and trade our top 2 or 4 prospects and get a proven 1 player (gonzales) and the padres will have in freeman 1st base for the next 6 years, give them vizcaino, and 2 more they they will beat our team for the next 5 years.
we would be in the hole with no money, keep prospects and lowe, chipper, KK, nate, wagner salaries willbe off the books in 2.5 years. plus with younger players we would be an athletic team, we look old, skinny, short, light, compared to rockies, marlins…lokk at their players, they work out, they look strong, we don’t.

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Speaking of Dan Kolb and Bob Wickman….I bet they would both be licking their fat chops at a chance to pitch against this lineup

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Hankie Aron: YOu add the Francoeur trade, and you have traded those usable players for NOTHING. Wren knows he can’t sign the hot free agent, like TExeira, and he could never sign Adrian Gonzalez – so he should have said, I’d love Adrian, but we know we can’t sign him. Wren is possibly the stupidest GM in baseball. He should have been watching the Braves in St Louis, not wherever he was. What a turd. Did Wren trade Wainwright?

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TP will not be mgr…he’s not one of Wren’s men. He is a Cox man. Wren will pick his own man.
Hope all are fired.

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Also, somebody said Glaus is collecting 12 mil – is this true?

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At the end of last year the Braves were one of the better teams in baseball. The overhaul during the winter has obviously created one of the worst hitting and fielding teams in Atlanta history. It is looking like their only salvation is their pitching staff, although it is not good enough to make up for the abysmal play of many of the other Braves. This looks to be a very long year at this time and even a trade for a real first baseman would not be enough to get them back on track.

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sure the braves have been awful so far this season, but i like frank wren. i like using the farm instead of trading it away. i think that’s wren’s basic plan. this year is a bridge to the budding talent we have coming up.

also, what did you think wren would say about the tex trade? his current boss made the deal. it was a bad trade, but he can’t say it.

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I’d like to thank the Braves for forcing me to devote more attention and time to my fantasy team. Switching the channel has suddenly become easier.

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I predicted five games under 500 at the first of this month.I would like to adjust that to 15 under 500,hopefully last adjustment.

This team has more problems than the Mutts do in football.

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GLAUS MAKING 1.25 OR 1.5

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MMMMMMMMMMMMMMM

I like dem french fried potaters…..

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TO MUCH PRESSURE IN OUR PITCHING STAFF, THEY DON’T ENJOY PITCHING, THEY KNOW IF THEY GET A COUPLES RUNS SUPPORT IN THE FIRST 3 INNIGS, OFFENSE IS DONE FOR THE REST OF THE GAME.

BY THE WAY…I AM SURE EVERYONE IS READY, UNDERSTANDS OR KNOW THAT WAINWRIGHT IS GOING TO PITCH:
8 innings, 4 hits, 2 walks, 95 pitches and score will be 4-0

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or even Carlos Delgado

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Jeff,
what do you think the odds would be he would sign someone in may like Jermaine Dye or Carlos Delgado? If they sign for less than Glaus what is the risk? Surely they can hit .201 as well. Wasn’t there talks of making dye a first baseman anyway? Look at what Sheffield did in NY last year Dye or delgado are capable of that and sitting there just waiting for a call. What was the reasoning that Glaus would be better than Delgado?

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Why is it that players leave this team and go on to hit better on other teams? Why is it that perenially good hitters come to this team and can barely make contact? Answer: Terry Pendleton. J. Heyward is facing the same problem Shafer had starting out last year. Great start, then ML pitchers find thier weakness and exploit it. The Braves have rushed both these kids. AAA baseball has value in the learning curve to becoming a ML player. Lots of pitchers with ML experience at the AAA level. Both kids basically skipped AAA. I think that we should focus on 1st base and left field in the trade market over the next 2 months. Escobar and Mclouth will hopefully come around. Put Kawakami in the pen and bring Medlin to the rotation. He reminds me of a young Maddog.

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Come on Jason, stop taking so many pitches ! Swing at the first pitch !Hasn’t Terry taught you anything ? DUH

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“stocking the farm system”??? seriously?

Certainly you aren’t referring to the can’t hit Gwinnett Braves?
They have one guy hitting above .300
Everyone else is in the mid to low .200’s

Heyward is up.
Jury is still out on Freddie Freeman.
Who else ya got?
Where are the young arms?

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Everyone on this blog wanted to get rid of Kelly Johnson, didn’t you?

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I live in Tampa and have started watching the Rays lately because the Braves aren’t on down here. They play really hard, and they look like the real deal. When the Braves come on down here on ESPN it is embarrassing. The Braves don’t play nearly as hard, and they look awful fielding, running, and hitting. Maybe that’s why we are 8-13 and the Rays are in 1st in the toughest division in baseball.

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So the AAA team was no-hit yesterday. That farm system is really being stockpiled. Let’s see if all levels of the Braves organization can be no-hit this year.

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Real UT – I see the same thing when I watch my fave AL team the Twins. And not just this year but going back a ways. This team needs a serious housecleaning/heart transplant. Ain’t gonna happen this year for obvious reasons.

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Chief Knock-A-Homa….do you think Pendleton not talking to the young hitters about making adjustments as opposing pitchers see more at-bats and learn how pitch to them?

Or do you think young hitters don’t understand just how nasty big league stuff is, and don’t feel the need to adjust right away.

Jeff Francoeur seemed to not buy into just how nasty big league stuff was and it appeared he felt he could get by on his ability and not adjusting his game.
Maybe that’s why McCann (a guy who is baseball smart and makes adjustments) is a 3-time all-star and French goes to the mid-summer classic as his guest.

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The Tex deal belongs to JS. Without K.C. to pillage the “Homeboy upstairs” was .505 AT BEST in trades. He was good in free agency with Ted’s scratch. Wren doesn’t have JS tact or Ted’s wallet.

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Gary Sheffield and Jermaine Dye both likely would need 6 weeks to get ready to play.

Don’t sell the farm because 1 good player will just make us suck a little less.

Our only hope, however small, at this point is if all the players turn their season around in big way.

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Bob Wickman. I miss him.

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What about the McGriff trade? Vince Moore, Donnie Elliot, and Mel Nieves? To say that JS only got the better end of 50% of his moves is wrong.

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Real UT- Big difference in talent between Torre’s WS losers and Bobby’s. Torre also had the greatest closer ever during his run.

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I think we have a leadership vaccuum within the team. Chipper’s is the veteran we all know, but he’s in his sunset years; Heyward can probably be a leader, but he’s just a rookie getting hazed right now; there’s no leadership in the middle. McCann and Prado need to step it up and start leading!!!

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Has anyone here ever seen Bob Wickman and Dan Kolb at the same time….And did Melky and Glaus get their joint venture workout video last offseason.

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can some one please answer what they have to lose in signing Dye, Sheffield, or Delgado to a minimal contract? or does it really defy logic as much as i think it does that they havent yet. Also by what measuring stick was Glaus less of a risk than Delgado to begin with. He missed similar time as Glaus last year, Troy is 33 and Carlos is 37 but Chipper is 38, so that shouldnt have scared them off. Also Carlos didn’t show nearly the statistical nose dive Glaus did after steroids testing. Carlos hit 38 HR in 2008.

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We’ve sold ANOTHER “Bill of Goods” that has completely FAILED at living up to the expectations set by the Braves.

CLASS ACTION LAWSUIT!!!!

Let’s all SUE for False Advertising.

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hell he played as many games last year as the Braves have played so far this year and he would by far be our best offensive player if he put up similar numbers. 4 HRs, 23 RBIs, .298 avg, through 26 games last year.

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Actually, Bob Wickman was good after the trade in 2006. It was 2007 where he became the “Cox hating pig” Remember?

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change-of-scenery theory is, sometimes, all it takes. In the Braves case the change-of-scenery is a new hitting coach. But alas you’d have to be proactive for that to happen.

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BTW, the team that no-no’d Gwinett… Norfolk Tides, AAA affiliate of…. the Baltimore Orioles!

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JEFF…do you no todays lineup

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I predicted this from Melky, I could be a serviceable outfielder if i was the weak link in a lineup with Texiera, Jeter, ARod, Damon, Matsui. Do you realize how many pitches to hit Melky saw last year? Probably more than any other player in baseball.

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The Yankees gave us trash they didn’t want and we gave them there 4th starter…The Cardinals gave us an old stiff man with the longest swing in baseball. I wish Heyward got the fastballs Glaus gets on a nightly basis

McLouth is not getting the pitches he got down multiple runs on a 60 win club. Escobar is pressing, his ego is hurt

I hope they prove me wrong

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BuckheadBrave- nice man. That one made me laugh. When your in a lineup with that many All-Stars and your not one of them, then yeah, your probably gonna see some pitches to hit. Now he has no one hitting around him, and I think his true talent level is starting to show.

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reatut- you made the comparison. I simply said they weren’t comparable

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I understand why they didn’t go after Dye to begin with. Matt was coming off a season in which he hit somewhere around .330 if im not mistaken and Melky was solid for the yanks last year. My point is with Diaz slumping and Melky showing that hitting behind Yunel Escobar and in front of the pitcher and the revolving door of Braves lead off hitter is not the same as being in the Yankee line up, what do they really have to lose by giving Dye a one year one mil or so contract?

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[...] Posted on 04/29/2010 by atlmalcontent “The Teixeira [trade] hasn’t impacted us at all,” he said. “If you look at the players we gave up in the Teixeira deal, I’m not sure it’s had any [...]

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This is a “wait til next year” year. The only trade I’d like to see is for Carl Crawford but only if we can sign him to a long term contract.

For only half a year or less no thanks.

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I think Chipper’s look is dejected. He knows this team is going no where.

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I agree we are closer to the level of the Nationals and Pirates than we are to the Phillies or Yankees. The Rockies and Rays are America’s new MLB sweethearts, the Braves are old, old, news.

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Jeff, Dye wants more money than people are willing to pay currently.

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Today’s lineup:
Cabrera LF
Escobar SS
Prado 2B
McCann C
Hinske 1B
Infante 3B
Heyward RF
McLouth CF
Jurrjens P
and I will be available throughout the game.

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Hey Jeff, Thoughtful article.Reading local current events helps us get through news about the slumping Braves and their down hill slide and how no one will step up and players who have temporarily forgotten how to hit and the sorry state of coaching -etc., etc. So lets mix in a little talk about pollen. Okay, I’ll bite. Do you think this weekends forecast of rain will assist Wren and enhance his performance? Boy, I sure hope so. Also consider a little humor in the articles to help us feel better such as: “What do you call fans who boo Wren? Boo Birds!” Do whatever you need to but get us die hard Braves fans through this dry spell with it’s pollen problem. I do truly wish to believe the pollen is causing me to tear up and not the Braves.

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tell me which bat in that lineup scares you?

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Hot Phone you should have spelled those names like May West would have said them.

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BuckheadBrave because Bobby Cox is guessing.

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If you are so sick of it, why not root for another team?

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This team, the management and the coaching is a reflection of the ownership. Remember when you would see Ted in his box at the games? How many sightings of John Malone (Liberty boss) have there been at the games? Any?

How successful can a team be when they were bought to be a tax shelter? How much interest can this ownership have for this team beyond a positive bottom line? If you consider that a trip to the playoffs – as remote as that seems – would actually cost ownership MORE money, you can imagine their interest in achieving that goal. Think of Rachel Phelps and her promised membership at the Palm Beach Polo and Raquet club.

The status quo shall remain intact as long as the team generates a profit, Liberty just doesn’t have any reason to change it. Wren, Cox, Glaus, Chipper, etc., etc – line items on a spreadsheet on a computer in Denver.

The desire and the will to win and succeed starts at the top. There is no such desire with the Braves and Liberty Media. Unless the teams starts losing money or they are sold, the status quo shall endure.

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The results the Braves have gotten lately are spot on with their overall lackadasical(spelling?)approach to the game. Going through the motions and not executing common high school level fundamentals yields these types of results. My personal frustration with this team has reached a breaking point. If you are going to hit .100 and make silly errors at least get pi$$ed and show some emotion. This team lacks fire. Maybe they truly don’t give a rats a$$. I don’t know where this comes from but it needs to end now. sorry for the long post. i hate when people post novels but needed to get this out.

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Erik I think your right to a degree but its not so much as the money drying up as it is the market out pacing the Braves.

Still alot of teams are competing at a high level with less payroll the the Braves.

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In order to manufacture runs, you must have a runner on base. You can’t steal first. What are Braves leadoff hitters batting this season?

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Other than the worst records in baseball, what do the Braves and Orioles have in common?

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Gayle,

excellent point, thats been the case of many corporately owned teams, if they make enough on attendance (which i don;t see how the Braves do) ownership actually makes more money not having to operate the stadium for additional days in the playoffs. This was the case for years with the Tribune Company and the Cubs. They made so much money from Wrigley Field being a tourist destination, there was no reason of incentive for them to put a winning team on the field. That being said i don’t see how the Braves are making money with their attendance even with their anemic payroll.

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Milky 8 for 23 last 9 games…Dye is another old re-run we don’t need, thats the problem now!

250 comments and 246 unhappy Fans= 4 old farts

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With regard to Jermaine Dye, I read recently that he was/is somehow expecting to get something close to the $11 million he made last year. He was terrible the last 2-3 months of last season at the plate (OPS under .600) and can’t play the outfield. He turned down $3 million during the offseason. No chance the Braves are going to give Dye the kind of money they’re looking for, nor should they. They don’t need to get older, slower and worse defensively.

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i’m calling for a 4-1 win by STL today. Braves with 5 hits and 1 error. RBI by who else, Prado or Heyward. Rest of team continues to slide into dead-ends

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Ted M – Chipper’s contract?

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DP – who was it that made the 3 mil offer to Dye?

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5. No speed- manager should have retired…

Exactly how fast should Bobby be?

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No speed, no power, horrendous batting average, poor defense, inexcusable baserunning, overpaid aging vets. What exactly do we expect?

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If the Braves are going to play this bad, then maybe it is time to bring the AAA team up here. Lose with kids like KC, Pitts, etc are doing. Heck, even the sorry Nationals are better than the Braves. It is time to get rid of Glaus, MilkDUD, McHitless in CF, Loweless, and a few others. Just thell Chipper thanks it has been nice, now go to the ranch in Texas and enjoy the rest of your life on all those millions you have made. Time for Pendleton to hit the road also. If Frenchy and Johnson are hitting for other teams, maybe it was not the players, but the hitting coach. He certainly has at least FOUR players hitting below .200 and he cannot get them to hit. Time for him too go. Maybe Bobby should just call it a career now also.

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I think we have a future politician in Wren because dude is really good at talking around the issues.

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Wren taking spin lessons from Obama…………

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We not he

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It’s time for Braves fans just to get over the fact that the Braves despite their “14 championship” years are not that good of a baseball organization. A picture tells a 1000 stories, the one with “1995 World Champions” sign in the locker room. That’s going on 15 years ago and even with the 1995 banner the Braves still have one less title then the Phillies, Mets & Marlins.

Get over it the Braves a returning to their roots, mediocrity.

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This just in…the injury occurred as Bobby Cox was suckling said nipple for lineup inspiration.

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No Source- I got a chuckle out of that.
Ted M- One step too far.

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I’ve known and said this for about a year and a half now… The Frenchy trade as well as the prospects we gave up for Tex and how well they’re doing now said it all early on.

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No. Worried he will be overmatched and stunt his development.

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I’ve said Wren was worthless since Day One. NOW, someone hears me?

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yep probably

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My biggest problem with Wren has been a)getting nothing better than Melky for Vaz. I would have rather gotten minor leaguers only in return and spent the 3M for Melky elsewhere. and b) promising a big bat and doing no better than Glaus. there is a c) overpaying for Derek Lowe. It would have been much better making medlen the 5th starter and bumping every pitcher up one spot. We could have spent Lowe’s money on offense.

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This season has been a real kick in the goody sack, although it shouldn’t be. I feel stupid for buying into Wren’s propaganda. This was not a good baseball team coming out spring. When your 3-4-5 hitters are an injury-prone 38 year old with declining power, a catcher who isn’t even in the lineup every day, and a guy coming off major shoulder surgery and making a position change, then there are major issues.

I think a lot of us, including a lot of the media who picked us to contend for the NL East title, were blinded by the Heyward hype. And until this recent slump he’s been mired in, he’s been as good as advertised. But he can’t do it all, and he is still just a baby and is going to have growing pains.

What’s really scary to think about is that the Braves last two wins were improbable, come-from-behind victories after trailing in the 9th inning. If not for Heyward working his magic in those two games, we’d be in an eleven-game losing streak and sitting at 6-15.

The Braves aren’t this horrible, but even if guys start hitting closer to their career norms this team still isn’t going to be very good. There’s still a gaping hole in the power department, and we’re not good defensively.

One move I would make right away – and admittedly this wouldn’t solve our biggest problems – is to replace Kawakami in the rotation with Medlen. KK was solid down the stretch last year, but he just doesn’t inspire confidence.

As for the offense, I’m out of answers. I just don’t think there’s enough there to make it work, and Wren’s head needs to roll for that.

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Good job Schultzie! i’ve been saying this for a while. what has wren ever done? he was a bust in baltimore, and a bust here. He needs to be fired and we need a competent GM. Frank is better suited
to play the role he did under JS. JS needs to get involved here and force something. This team is getting worse…it’s prob in their heads now…We also need a new hitting coach too..

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it’s not liberty’s fault, wren should have never given Lowe such a big contact. Look at the Tampa Bay Rays, the best team in the bigs with young cheaper talent..they look like the 90s braves

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The problem is Bobby Cox.

Frank Wren put together a team last year that by mid-September could have gone all the way to the World Series but our Hall of Fame manager screwed us over with his horrible managing.

Honestly, the best possible thing that could happen would be for the Braves to finish in last place this year. Whoever is chosen to succeed Bobby, even if he’s a complete idiot, he has the last four years to look at as a lesson on what not to do.

But seriously, Frank Wren is not the problem. By the end of 2008 he saw that if we were going to have any chance of making it back to the playoffs he would have to put his focus on the starting rotation and what happened? Last year’s starting staff turned out to be one of the best the Braves have ever had. All Bobby had to do was get his team to score runs for them and, you know, maybe not take Tommy Hanson out of a 1-0 game against the hopeless Houston Astros in favor of an over-worked Soriano.

Bobby’s not getting the job done. Either fire his @$$ and get a competent manager or hold onto the prospects and wait till next year.

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“Whoever is chosen to succeed Bobby, even if he’s a complete idiot, he has the last four years to look at as a lesson on what not to do.”

Could be TP you know. More of the same would follow.

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Mitchell, you can’t be serious in saying tat last year’s roster was World Series caliber. Little League World Series? Remind me again of our outfield situation last year.

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I quit listening to 680 the fan. Kincaide is nothing but a Wren apologist, it’s disgusting.

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Nice article Jeff Schultz……After doing a little research on Frank Wren, I can’t even fathom why he was hired by the Braves as the GM. He was part of the Marlins but not the GM win they won the WS with the expensive veterans they purchased for that 1 and done season.

He then went to Baltimore as GM, which turned into a disaster and he was fired after the 1st year of his 3 year contract. Next HE was hired by Schuerholz, and worked with him until he became the Braves GM in 07.

Wren is probably a pretty good baseball guy in some capacity, but he’s definitely not a guy you’d want as your GM.

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Can’t win with bargain basement players!

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Braves players will improve!

McLouth will be a 20/20 man again,
Cabrera will threaten with a .300 batting average,
Kawakami will pitch well in some clutch ball games,

Just not with the Braves. They will be off-loaded at midseason and join the ranks of Kelly Johnson and others who have left the Braces and regained their form. I hope not as I really like Nate McLouth, but that’s the way it has gone in recent years.

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Can’t win with bargain basement players! May have a cheaper payroll but the empty seats will do the Braves in!

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what does terry pendlelton do? seriously. i haven’t heard a thing about him as a hitter coach from the braves players or management. we know the top two hitters in this club don’t rely on him. frenchy turned to some guy in texas. even going as far back as Andruw – didn’t Bobby fix his swing for that 50hr year?

i don’t want to criticize TP because there are limitations to what a coach can do (i don’t think anyone on the planet can help my swing) but isn’t there someone better? I’ve been asking about Don Baylor – he was a pretty good hitting coach back in 99.

Can we get Don Baylor back in this town?

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So….is he saying that the Teixiera trade really doesn’t have an impact who we have now? Harrison could be a starter easily an equal to Lowe while Feliz could be closing in the future. With that in mind, would we have signed Lowe as a free agent? Andrus could be the SS with Escobar the future at 3rd…or vice versa…or possibly trade bait to San Diego’s bat. Salt…(you fill in the rest) could be at firstbase and doing backup catching duties like he is in Texas. Without signing Lowe, going after Adrian Gonzalez and signing him long term could have been a possibility as well…or even keeping LaRoche. Anyway, that trade is why he is gun shy.
For some reason I still believe in Glaus. He has hit some real stingers…unfortunately they were either right at someone or foul. That being said….They are getting him out with fastballs…92-93 mph fastballs. He can’t catch up to them still. Hopefully by the end of May he is catching up with them.

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Today is the day that the bats wake up, today is the day that the Braves start winning…..copy and paste to save for tomorrow…

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Does anyone know what kind of relationship Wren & Cox have? I’ve read, but don’t if it’s true that Bobby & Frank don’t get along….It’s pretty easy to gang up on this team when they’re losing, but my goodness, this Braves team totally lacks everything, except for maybe a decent pitching staff.

no power
terrible defense
terrible hitting
poor team speed
veterans on the major decline who are hurting the team
a stubborn manager who manages poorly and has lost control of his team

Wow, the Braves are really bad !!!

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Wren needs to feel some major heat. He put this bucket of dung together. He’s making millions to do this job and he is horrible.

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Short memories guys….it was about this time last yr. we were playing horribly….everyone giving up on the Braves…gruadually we got better and better and with a week to go in the season we were only a game out of the wild card and were only eliminated when Diaz made a bonehead baserunning mistake off of third…Remember? Yes, we have to do something at 1st but the other hitters will come around…Our pitching is too solid to be this bad….Have faith its still April!!!

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dr henry/ augusta,

Totally different vibe on this years team as compared to last years.

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The Braves aren’t a contender and it shows. They’re rebuilding, even though they don’t admit it publically. That would hurt the gate.

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……….8 …….is ENOUGH !

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Good job Jeff!! Keep telling it like it is. YOU ARE the voice of reason!! Sensible comments.

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I am shocked by his response..Yes, it is early but really as a regular fan, there are too many issues on this team. Weloome to the world of denial Mr. Wren…

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Manager : Phil Garner , Pitching Coach : Jim Hickey/Leo Mazzone

Proposed Braves Lineup for 2011

1) Brian Roberts (Trade for him from Orioles) 2B
2) Martin Prado 3B
3) Carl Crawford LF
4) Jason Heyward RF
5) McCann C
6) Freddie Freeman 1B
7)Yunel Escobar SS
McLouth CF

Pitchers
Hudson
Jurgens
Hanson
Kawakami
Medlen

Venters, Moylan, O’Flahretty, Kimbrel (Closer)

That team should do what the 1991 Braves did and even better.

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Wren has done a decent job at building a pitching staff but practically nothing in regards to the position players. Maybe the Braves need to make Wren the GM of Pitching and hire someone to be the GM of Position Players.

.

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…good thing Johnny Damon wasn’t signed… he is only hitting .321. I mean, who needs a leadoff man anyway? Hurray for “The Melkman”.

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the real culprit is us. we americans are responsible for allowing coporatism to define our lives here in the states. back when baseball was the national pastime, it had a personality. it was skip and pete. even if the braves sucked, we could at least spend three hours listening to those two. and even joe and don more recently. no disrespect to the current rotation of analysts/commentators/announcers/color guys/whatever corporate word is being used to describe the position these days, but i don’t connect with them (even joe anymore). and maybe the reason for that is the company that signs their checks specifically directs and controls their on-air conversations (which shouldn’t surprise anyone).

now when we’re losing, it’s not even funny because skip isn’t dropping one-liners and effortlessly making another self-deprecating joke. now we’re way too far into analysis of why we suck. you know why we suck? IT DOESN’T MATTER WHY WE SUCK – WE JUST SUCK. and skip. and pete. and joe and don. and ernie. can’t make it any better for us. they’re not corportate enough. well…except for maybe joe.

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Yes it was good we didn’t sign Damon…… YES Lead off guys are not important !

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Does ‘fire in anyone’s belly” help you hit the ball? catch the ball? know when to tag up? throw strikes and miss bats? NO. This is not a brute sport like football, boxing, wrestling, etc. Baseball is a game of concentration. “Fire in the belly” is an overused phrase that doesn’t belong in baseball. Fire in the Belly is just a Mark Bradley trip to Taco Bell.

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Momma! Go crash your car. I wanna check something out…

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Why not have a weekly (no pun) try out in the Atlanta area for baseball players wanting to wear a Braves uniform for a week. They might not hit, pitch or field, but would be considerably cheaper than the current payroll, and with all the empty seats at the “Ted” , they would not affect the bottom line.

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Speaking of Bradley,
It’s about time for his annual Bobby Cox Greatest Manager of all Time blog. Jesse Stone is waiting for that one.

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Phil- seriously, yesterday you lied and said Gaston won 2 world series with Bobby’s players. at least tell the truth when you’re criticizing.

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Jimy Williams followed Cox in Toronto.

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Sorry, Phil. Maybe you weren’y lying and just don’t know baseball that well.

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DesiBrave, you might as well go ahead and measure Carl Crawford for his pinstripes. Its pretty much a done deal. Sabbathia’s one of his best friends and has said publicly he’s been recruiting Crawford for more than a year. Might as well measure Cliff Lee out for his while your at it.

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or….the Blue Jays got better when they got different players (Alomar, Joe Carter, Jack Morris, etc).

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Hire Nick Saban as GM.

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To all of the people saying not to panic, I would not panic if we were playing well and losing. The way we are losing games is horrific. I do not think I have watched a worse stretch of baseball from a team. This losing streak has been ridiculous, as we have competed in one game (Hudson’s start against the Cardinals). The Glaus signing seemed like a disaster at the time, and I cannot believe it is actually worse than I thought it would be. I usually am a very optimistic fan, but right now I don’t see them turning it around too quickly. I hope I am wrong.

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But Wren has a track record… It’s in Baltimore. He destroyed that team in one year and tried to run off Cal Ripken, Jr. At least he’s taken longer to destroy the Braves, but the effects may last longer (Baltimore still hasn’t gotten over the Frank Wren Year yet).

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game over

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At least the 755 Club got a face lift this year…

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Well it’s 3-0 in the first. I think it’s time to panic.

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I want everyone to notice in today’s game the difference in the way the Stl Cardinals players approach the game vs. the way the Braves players approach the game. Each at bat, while they are in the field, while on the bench…

You see focus and intensity on the cards players, while you see blah and no emotion on the braves faces.

It’s very telling.

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That last 1/2 the Braves were at bat took like 2 minutes. The Braves are gonna do their best to make Adam Wainwright look like the next Greg Maddux.

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El hombre isn’t even playing for the Cards, but they still score runs. That’s what good teams do.

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to all MLB pitchers:

if you want to trim your ERA please face the braves. You have a 25% chance of shutting them out. That’s pretty good odds. Just ask the mets pitchers. We made the mets pitching staff look amazing while our bats flat out suck! The braves suck! Who would have thunk it?

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Medlen’s pitching now. I am officially worried that JJ isn’t just off his game this year.

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The braves are douche-fags just like their owners and their GM!

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Jimbo, ownership determines what payroll a GM has to work with. Seriously?

And, no, Wren was NOT okay 8 games ago. He was incompetent then. He’s incompetent now.

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Our most feared bat is a 20 year old rookie….that isn’t fair to Heyward or the fans. Wren is getting paid to GM this team, yet any fan with any sort of knowledge knew that we did ZERO to improve the worst part of this team over the off season, the offense.

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The Nats have a winning record! We don’t! That’s messed up!

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FIRE TP! FIRE WREN! Get players who aren’t sissies and runts that complain! Chipper: Ahhh my hamstring hurts! Just shut up and play chipper!

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Not sure what to say about Wren because I don’t have a strong criticism of this roster, in fact overall I think it’s pretty good. But I sure have hopped on the No-No Pendleton bandwagon. Our blogs don’t mean much other than to throw out amateur lob shots for fun, but these guys are all all proven major league hitters, including enough power across the board to score plenty of runs. But they suck at the plate and have for a few years under TP. If I were Wren that’s the move I’d make. Get rid of Pendleton before the season is lost altogether and hire a hitting coach who can help these guys thrive again. You can’t help but notice Kelly’s NL leading HRs as a blatant recent example of this obvious truth.

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Melky is a below average player who benifited from new yankee stadium. Glaus is old and only played ten games or so.
Chipper is washed up injured cant hit or field looks like he lost his love of the game. JHEY is only 20 folks. KK should of been gone in the offseason. Lowe has maybe a 2-3 years left. yunel is a premadona and has horriable hair. so its the Atlanta Prado’s. get help bye glaus, bye melky, bye kk, bye wren, tp is just that. time to rebuild around our future stars mccain, unil,hanson, prado, Jhey,and freddie . get older players worth a damn like Dunn or Die there cheap not glaus. i should run all atlanta sports teams even the chokeanta Hawks.

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McCann needs to go? I don’t know what you’re smoking? Big-mac? Really?

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as much as i demise the braves big-mac is too special to be let go. He’s a once in a decade talent!

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It’s very easy to play arm chair GM, but if they hadn’t made the Texiera deal and had low salaries all around the team with Salty, Andrus, Escobar, Prado, Heyward, etc.. they might have had the money to sign a guy like Matt Holliday for the OF.

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Lots a Wren-bashing going on here, but except for the Glaus decision, he hasn’t really screwed up too badly considering 2 things: he is still cleaning up many of the messes Schuerholz left him, AND Liberty Media has TIGHT reins on the spending (it was noted earlier the Braves are near the bottom on national league payrolls).

But, let’s get past the bashing and seriously look at what the Braves are now, and what should be done. They need to finally acknowledge what should have been stated 3-4 years ago: they are rebuilding.

To all of you who are screaming for trades (A Gonzo, J Dye, Sheffield…), get a grip. Do any of you seriously think anyone one of these overpriced/impossible to resign/past their prime players are gonna carry the Braves to the playoffs??? We can NOT repeat the Texeira mistake. Their farm system has some very good players, and we need to accept what 2010 is: a losing season.

They are 8-13 and sinking. To make the playoffs, they’ll have to win ~ 90 games, which means they’d have to go 82-59 the rest of the way….does anyone see ANY evidence they have what it takes to pull that off? NO!

The other thing regarding a trade: nobody is going to trade a valuable player until the trade deadline in over 2 months from now. By that time, IF the Braves have clawed their way into the playoff discussion, they very likely will be good enough to make it without trading away their future, and it would be unwise to trade signifcant talent on the CHANCE that it might get them over the hump (again, see the Tex trade).

Right now, considering that JJ, Heyward, Prado and McCann are untouchable, the only tradeable assets the Braves have are Hudson and Escobar. Regarding Yunel, he is a world class talent with a 10 cent head. He appears to have NO friends on this team, and will only talk to Chino Cadahia (bench coach). When Bobby retires at season’s end, Chino will be out the door as well, and Esco will have nobody here to help him focus. The Braves can’t wait until Esco reaches arbitration and will command larger money to play with no focus….they need to trade him by the trade deadline. They should get real value in return.

Finally, time for Chipper to retire. Hire him as hitting coach (great eye, talent, knows our players, and knows the opposing pitchers, etc.) to work out the remainder of his contract. If the new manager doesn’t keep Roger McDowell (who should remain), then hire Smoltz as pitching coach.

J Schafer should be ready to go by the end of the year, bring him and Freeman up. Melky, Nate, Glaus – bye bye.

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It will be interesting to see how long Cox stays with Medlen here.

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Ahhh, and so it begins. When they broke camp after Spring Training, there was a general consensus that they had a solid team, albeit with some question marks. Even many of last year’s Wren-haters were quiet for a time, but nothing like a losing streak to bring out the haters (”I knew all along it was a bad team, I just didn’t want to say it, so phooey!”). I agree that they look bad right now, but to see some of the, more creative shall we say, opinions of armchair GMs, the Braves must have an unlimited supply of money and prospects to simply blow up the current lineup and go get A-Gone from SD, or from . Sorry, but even if he were looking to make a deal right now, he’s not going to have any trade partners this early.

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In fairness to Frank Wren, did he not sign JJ, Vazquez, McLouth and Ross, and did he not draft, Heyward, Hanson, Medlin. JS had made some questionable trades prior to Wren taking over, as a result the farm was bare, and wren is replenishing the farm with good talent. The Tex, Kotchman, Laroche deal was bad, and the fact that none of those guys would make the Big League club does not matter. Those same players traded could be used to explore a more advantageous trade to the Braves.

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7-1 cards. I consider this game over now! Oh yeah, the cards don’t even have albert pujols in their lineup! The braves sicken me!

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8-1! Pitching sucks, offense sucks, EVERYTHING about this team sucks! Braves are CRAP!

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@Peter…I know who is NOT going to pay to see this mess…….ME

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I’m afraid that this organization will not be turned around until changes are made at the top starting with Wren. He has had chances and does not seem to have made the right choices/he is way over his head in this job. Everybody knew that the leadoff position was a problem last year and going into this year. So what does Wren do about the problem? Enough said – end of story.

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Sometimes I hate to be right, but as I just told my brother, I was dead on here. Glaus was one of the worst signings not only in Braves history but history period. McLouth is doing his best Andruw Jones/Jeff Francoeur impression and shows no signs of getting off stage. Cabrera was a product of the stars around him in New York. Why is Eric Hinske not the everyday first baseman, or at least in the lineup against righties? I’m confident McCann, Escobar, and Diaz will eventually come around, but I fear it will be much too late. As for Chipper, I never thought I would say this, but his spirit looks broken. Let’s see if he sticks to the retirement statement after this year. On a sad note, it’s ashame to see such good starting pitching go to waste, especially with regards to Hanson and Hudson. God bless Dale Murphy!

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time to bring back the powder blue uniforms. Or maybe the red pinstriped ones! Ostrich races. I bet Willie Montanez can still play first better than what is currently available! Who needs Teixeira or Gonzalez! LONG TERM!
Thanks Liberty media. We don’t need another $50 million…LOL…Thanks McGuirk for covering for the people who pay you bonuses for taking the fall for these cheap bast…d’s

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okay…watching the game right now…i find this to be very telling: 2 of the 3 runs were scored by prado, who by FAR has proven to be the best hitter on the team. and all three of the runs were driven in by infante and hinske.

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wren is nuts. tex deal was the second worst (barker worst).

this season is lost despite wren’s public statements. and, trade will not do it….you can not trade an entire lineup.

time for chipper to leave third and become the most expensive bench player or go to the AL and become a DH. move mcann to third (as torre did years ago). bring up freeman in one month. release glaus and trade melkey or mclouth.

leave escobar alone. he can not be the scape goat for the losing streak. sure he is a bonehead from time to time. however he is a great rbi guy who makes contact with the ball.

tp must go and if this means that cox leaves early as well then so be it.

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Time to get my butt off the couch and do something else. I am done with all pro sports.

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kev–i somewhat agree with you. there are things that are good about the organization. the scouting for instance. maybe wren isn’t as bad as you think and he shows. the team needs an ownership that isn’t a corporate tax commodity. if you go back and check on the terms of the team sale, the team was a toss in on a much larger transaction. too bad we don’t have a passionate owner who loves baseball. this team is nothing but a bottom line to a company that holds many other commodities that actually dwarf this team. the braves are here to not lose money. and that is all. it makes me sad.

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Chipper Jones would be a good DH for Boston, with good prospect in return. Can’t wait till 2011, go braves.

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A Nod is as Good as a Wink to a Blind Horse’ name of great Rod Stewart album of early 1970’s….

Succinct enough to apply to Cox and Wren?

Cox = delusional, denial, senile, just a stupid ol’ man. This is not Little League. Save your foolish happy talk for kids with happy meals.
Man up. Show some damn size. You put together this fetid roster. And unless the Make-A-Wish-Foundation helps out, this current lineup is dead. Now. And May and June. Dead is dead, no matter who you were in the past, rocket scientist, PhD, wino, hobo.

And Wren, as in Wreck. Broke-down ‘roid ranger Troy Glaus?
Needed to save money

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I just read the article on Wren. I always considered Wren was a moron. After reading his take on the Teixeira trade, I know that I was wrong. He must be somewhere between an imbecile and and a rutabaga.

By the way, Wainwright cleaned the Braves again today. Too bad Bob didn’t have a chance to see him pitch before trading him to the Cardinals in the obscene Drew trade. It is probably a good idea to observe your very top prospects before giving them to other teams for rentals.

And you guys wonder why the Braves are so pitiful. It isn’t too hard to figure out. The management is a bunch of liberals. They give everything away and, in return, receive manure.

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who is going to take the fall for things if the season don’t turn around? Will they fire Terry Pendleton for the sickening disply of no offense? McDowell for the pitching? How bout Hubbard because they’re not fielding. THe coachs and manager can only do so much and the issue with Wren not putting the right team on the field is the key. HE put this lousy lineup on the field, let him take the fall for it. Get someone in here with some guts to go after real ballplayers not aging Geritol commercial dudes. Is Julio still out there where?????????????????????

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It is extremely difficult to compete with “bargain” retreads and someone over the hill (guess who)!! And can someone explain to me why the Braves gave Franceour away!

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Wren panicked with his Glavine and Smoltz pr blunder by overpaying for Lowe. He would have been better not signing him and going with who he had. I dont fault the McLough deal but giving away the barn for Milkey? Trading popular and better first baseman for Troy? Not doing something with Escabar? I understand budgets but what is one or two million to keep LaRoach for two years? But Frank wants me to drive downtown with the kids, pay 10 to park, pay 100 for 4 tickets and 8 for a beer and 6 for a coke with this? I dont think so.

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What has Pendelton done for us since he became hitting coach? Absolutely nothing, well actually he hurt us in the past and is continuing his fine tradition. He ruined Andrew He ruined Jeff Francuer….. if I was in the batting cage and he walked up I’d run the the little league T-ball stadium.

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[...] ♦ Wren’s problem: He hasn’t earned benefit of the doubt [...]

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Enough of this!!!!! ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

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Enter your comments here

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His name is Frank Lren. How do we make a deal for that first baseman playing for the Diamondbacks?

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sh…..!

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I remember taking in a game or two back in the late 70s while in school. Maybe 1500 people actually showed up in Atl Fulton County Stadium. You could have a conversation with the people sitting behind the dugout on the other side of the field. And simulating a wave, trying to time the pulse through all the virtual fans was a real crowd pleaser. The concession lines were short and the prices almost reasonable. Folks, we might enjoy this more than you know.

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Frank Wren aka “The Maestro” has completely destroyed this version of our beloved Braves. I have stated before, that Wren made moves this off season for the sake of making moves. There was ZERO logic behind the Glaus signing as they already had Laroche and knew what he would give them. To make things more confusing, Wren blows up a very good bull pen of young arms for the aging wonders of Wagner & Saito (who may only pitch one more year).

The Vazquez trade is not one that I am completely sold on. I know his current stats with the Yanks are not good, but he is made to pitch in the National League. Instead, Wren traded another proven commodity for a fourth outfielder and unproven minor league player. I may be wrong, but his philosophy is lacking sound logic, but leave it to “The Maestro” to orchestrate this mess.

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would everyone stop being politically correct and state the obvious!! terry pendleton is the worst hitting coach ever..he has killed good hitters..they come here and die..fire him..

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[...] offers this analogy to Jeff Schultz of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution : The Braves have only completed one-eighth of the season. He contends that if this were football, [...]

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Frank hasn’t received the benefit of the doubt??? In what situation, Furcal(?), Griffey(?), Smoltz(?) Johnson(?), La Roche(?), Melky(?), Glavine(?) – shall we go on??? What has he done right?

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Mattingly as manager? why? Has he even managed a little league team before?

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Roy- He got us Jesse Chavez for Soriano. Remember, he claimed we wouldn’t have a problem trading Soriano because there was a ‘good market fo closers”. and the best he could do was …Jesse Chavez.

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Jeff, thank you! If I could come up to you, and shake your hand for writing the truth, I would!

This lineup the Braves are fielding is pathetic! Our starting pitching has to be feeling “If we give up one or two runs, we lose”. I would not want to be a starting pitcher on the Braves right now.

What you said about 8-14 turning into 16-28 is so true. This is exactly what I’ve been saying throughout this whole horrible week and a half. Right now, as we know, the hated Metropolitans are hot, but all it got them was a tie for first place. We are very, very lucky that Philly has been having problems. If they had played the way they are capable of, all season, Philly would be long gone.

If Wren claims he has “payroll flexibility”, then how the heck doesn’t he do something with this team playing as poorly as it is? With the schedule being as it is, and as poorly as this team is playing,I dont see us going on a six or seven game winning streak, unless Wren does something drastic.

Frank needs to do something, very, very soon. If he doesn’t, and the Braves season continues to spirial downward, I really feel that he should be held responsible for that with the loss of his job as Braves GM.

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Jeff, what doesn’t make sense to me is this: Everyone is upset about the Hawks blowing the lead last night, and surely, it was deflating. Yet, here’s the bottom line: While it would be very, very disappointing for the Hawks to lose to the Bucks, you have fans and writers on the Hawks blog blasting the Hawks, and calling for Woodson to be canned, when, in reality, the team’s record has improved in the regular season, every year that Woodson has been coach. We all know that the playoffs in any sport is a roll of the dice. Why is everyone, calling for Woodson’s head, while people seem to be all La-de Da about Frank Wren sitting clueless, as the Braves are headed for oblivion? My feeling is, every writer on the AJC, those covering Hawks and Braves both, should write scathing columns calling for Wren to do something immediately, or be fired. While I realize it’s only April, that excuse wont cut it, if the Braves fall 25 games out, and Wren does something, when its too late.

I propose that all AJC sportswriters write columns criticizing Wren as soon as possible, and for every Braves fan who sees the columns to post for him to do something. If he fails to, he should either resign and turn the reigns over to someone else, or be fired, immediately!

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Wren’s brought us some good players, some bad ones. Schuerholz is to blame for some of the mess we find ourselves in, too. Traded too much for Drew, too much for Texiera, and now we find ourselves without a decent hitting outfielder, Heyward notwithstanding. What’s happened to Diaz? It’s still early, yes, but it won’t be for long.

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Bobby should have left last year andtaken TP with him.It appears that former braves hit better when TP is not their batting guru,ex: kelly,laroche,frandouer.The team needs a mgr. that shows and expects enthusiasm.This team needs to change their name to the Atlanta Indifference.

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Kelly Johnson – is playing extremely well for the diamondbacks
Adam LaRoche – a fan favorite is playing extremely well for the D’Backs and provides the great defense at 1st that fat boy Troy Glaus cannot
Melky Cabrera – the dumbest trade in the history of baseball. We gave up our pitcher who finished 3rd in the cy young voting last year
Mark Teixeira – we traded away all of our prospects for him then trade him away for a guy nobody knew in Casey Kotchman who isnt here anymore. Even dumber the braves didnt send him to boston when the red sox were willing to give up Kevin Youkolis for Teixeira and Kotsay who we eventually gave away.
Troy Glaus – cant hit a ball off of a tee and yet he is still here
Frank Wren is terrible! He hasnt made one good deal because keep in mind we still have no back up plan for Chipper especially since he is hurt every other week now. The braves havent had a lead off hitter since Rafael Furcal yet Frank Wren likes a guy who hit in the middle of the order for Pittsburgh (McLouth) to bat lead off for us. Then his back up was odd ball Melky Cabrera who was the fish outta water with the Yankees

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Have tickets for Friday night game, I cant even give them away. Fire TP!!!!!

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When does the axe start swinging toward Terry Pendleton? It’s almost as if some of these guys hit despite the coaching. Did you notice the 180 Francoeur did in New York? It took a week before he turned back into a solid .280ish guy who can hit a few homers. He’s doing the same this year. I’m not saying Heyward shouldn’t be playing, but this team is better with Francoeur and Heyward in the outfield instead of Heyward and the two offensively challenged stooges thrown out with him. As far as first, bring up Barbaro if you don’t want to “ruin” Freddie. Barbaro is only hitting .240, but that’s All-Star material for this lineup.

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If we signed Johnny Damon, it would have solved only 25% of the problems with this team. Defense is horrible to watch. Who is goin to fix that?

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To celebrate the 20th anniversary of worst to first, the Braves must first get back to worst.

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This is an exciting streak. The 1977 number is way up there, but I think we’ve got a shot. What are the records for fewest runs scored and most times shut out? Anything else we can look forward too? How about fewest homeruns? Fewest saves? Have we ever had a team where nobody hit 20 HRs? This could be a record breaking season in Braves Country. Hopefully buy July the beer at the Ted will be free, and if you show up early enough they’ll let you bat leadoff.

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I said it from the start the reason the braves are struggling is fact they went into this season with athird baseman who you knew would miss 60games or more,a first baseman who is coming off major surgery ididnt see st louis trying to get him back ,now you know why a left fielder that ibelieve the reason he is so bad he doesnt know national league pitchers at all he will get better or will be released to a trade in july hayward is a bright spot thats for sure mclouth was not that good period in pittsburg the talent pool in the minors has been lacking for several reasons to many to write about so when a third of yr team is no good yr not goona win case point a 9game losing streak and this will be a bad season for the braves 5out now wait till they come off that 2week road trip they will be out of the nleast race so the wild card ithink not .

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From watching this team (who can’t hit for average or power, has no speed, can’t create runs, nor field) and the Hawks blow a home playoff game to the Bucks this week, I feel like I’ve been put in the hot tub time machine and sent back to 1989. I’m looking for an afro-pick to get my high-top fade together as we speak.

Anyway, EW is 100% right, bullseye on the target. Everyone on this forum knew that the team needed at least one more big bat going into the season. Everyone knew about the surplus of starting pitchers the team had going into the offseason. We all expected that surplus to be flipped into a 35/110 player they so desperately needed but what did we get instead? Our best pitcher from last year being given away for a 5th outfielder, a couple of minor leaguers, and a case of Stroh’s. Instead of at least tending an offer to the guy who carried the offense on his back the second half of last season, Wren decided in his infinite wisdom that signing a 34-year old coming off season-ending shoulder surgery (any shock that he only has warning-track power now?), and putting him at a position he probably hasn’t played since high school was a better idea because it would be a few million dollars cheaper. How’s that working for you so far?

You see, stuff like that is why folks long ago decided to stay away from Turner Field (along with the fact that Cox and Co. blew what should’ve been the run for the ages by only winning one world title). After all, why pay for the movie when you already read the script off Wikipedia’s website weeks ago? You can’t tell us that you have free reign to make moves in order to fire up your fanbase under a false pretense that REAL players were on the way, bring in garbage guys and reclamation projects that other teams didn’t try to outbid you for instead, then whine and cry about financial restrictions when they don’t pan out while telling us to stay patient; you can’t have it both ways.

The only way this franchise will ever reclaim the fandom from the first half of their run is to recommit themselves to putting a contender back on the field. Telling us that old Troy Glaus, broken down Chipper, a 20-year old rookie, and Melky Cabrera is the answer is a flat out insult to every Braves fan who saw David Justice, Fred McGriff, Gary Sheffield, Javier Lopez, and Andres Galarragga hit moonshots to Piedmont Park. They know it’s a lie and WE know it’s a lie so quit trying to insult our intelligence. We’ve heard enough about the low attendance from Terry McGuirk but not nearly enough about why this team can’t hit themselves out of a wet paper bag dipped in battery acid. When they get do away with trying to catch lightning in a bottle and counting what was made in the Chophouse and back to the business of trying to win a world title like the Yankees and Red Sox (and the Rays, Cardinals, and Phillies for that matter), then we’ll come back in droves. Otherwise, we’ll stay home and wait on football season to start. Your call, Frank…

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Problem with Tex deal was that he wasn’t signed. Teams that make deals for FAs to be should either sign them before making the deal or not make the trade. Should the Braves opt for Gonzo extend him or don’t make the deal. You can’t trade for a superstar for one or two years not with the Yankees outbidding everyone for the superstars. For the integrity of baseball let’s hope the Yanks don’t sign Pujols afterall they just spent 425 million last year on three players (indluding Tex). Last year Yanks got Vas and we got Melky and draft pick.

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Welcome to our world!

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Amen, Dejay!

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My two big questions of the decade. We basically rent Teixeira for a couple of months and then won’t sign him for what he wants….and gets in a new contract. So we didn’t know going in approx what he would be asking for????? Or was he just another of our “one year wonders” needed to get us to the playoffs? We let Kelly Johnson go and he’s leading the league in homers with the DBacks….something crazy like 9 in 21 games. Just a change in scenery do that????? Is someone lacking vision.

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The problem is Bobby Cox. The Braves should have forced him to retire years ago!

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Maybe we need a new hitting coach..Or let TP hit leadoff

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Texiera was a last ditch desperation move by John Scherholtz to make one last deep run into the playoffs. It didn’t work out and there is no money to fix it.

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the problem starts with tp. the longer he stays, the worse the braves play.

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If this was the Kentucky Derby our entry would be a Mule!

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We all know that Glaus and Melky were not a good deal, but they are not the only problems. Chipper is off to his worst start (physically and mentally) since: “EVER”, and the entire team has forgot how to hit, with the exception of Infante, and he is on the bench most of the time. I do not see any hope for anything to change, as long as Bobby and Wren are at the controls. Just imagine an entire stadium at home with empty seats, and then imagine a new GM and Mgr. Please, lets not say “it is early” and pray for some changes!

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I will say the Wainwright-JD Drew trade did actually work out for us for that year but set us back for the future. They knew what Wainy was but Drew had a terrific season – and I hate that guy. What we did to get Teixeira was a lot more than what Wren will make it out to be. We could have Andrus at 2nd base (not to take away from Prado), Yunel at SS, and Prado at 3rd base while Chipper mends. Heck, we could have put Chipper at first and had a solid INF (I think we can still do that if Wren doesn’t wanna make a move). Freddie Freeman is NOT the future at 1st base. No way. Guy is not the power hitting prospect we must have. As a fan, I am tired of just filling out the position. To compete, we must have a big presence at the corner infield. We need to make a move and it starts with the farm system and at 1st base. These farm systems are to service our major league level. What is the good if we always have a great farm system while always fielding a mediocre MLB team?

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BOYCOTT THE BRAVES .No one ATTENDS TO THE STADIUM , we are going TO THIS GM WREN THAT FAN OF THE ATL BRAVES deserve respect .

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Frankly, I am tired of what this regime has not accomplished. Glad to know that 2010 is Cox’s last year, and I look forward Wren going away. Some other food for thought.. A few years ago, there was chatter about letting our best player go, Senor Jones, that is. Perhaps this was the point where the current regime went wrong??? After-all, we are in the business to win and make a profit, right? It turns my stomach to see the NATs ahead of the Braves in the rankings… as I continue to get more depressed.

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The only trade I can remember (life long Braves fan) working out in our favor was Doyle Alexander for John Smoltz.

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Throughout Major League Baseball, feel-good stories abound, from the surprising Padres leading the NL West to the Rays playing solid baseball and leading the AL East. The Mets are equally suprising as are the Nats who have even managed to work their way up to the .500 level.

Insofar as individual performances to date are concerned, we’ve all noted the resurgence of Kelly Johnson, the surprisingly good start by Adam LaRoche, the dominance of Ubaldo Jiminez and Tim Lincecum and even Barry Zito. Yes, plenty of players and teams stepping up and proving themselves as the 2010 season unfolds.

And then there are the Braves…..the converse of the above, the underachieving, the morose and downtrodden, the incapable and the pathetic, the no-hit, no-power, no-speed, no-defense Braves. Benefit of the doubt? Of course Wren hasn’t earned the benefit of the doubt, why should he? He has overseen a wandering, aimless, barren organization for the last several years, stocking his roster with has-beens, never-weres and never-will-be’s.

In concert with Cox, the blue-print for a roster spot seems to be a player who fits the profile of so many former Braves of ignominious credentials, the Brooks Conrads, the Pete Orrs, the Chris Woodwards, the Scott Thormans, the Ryan Langerhans, the Mike Hessmans, the Corky Millers and so on and so on and so on. Players who cannot play, who could never play and yet were given jobs by this organization. And now here we go again, starting journeyman after journeyman. When you look up and see the flailing Nate McLouth, the flailing Matt Diaz, the flailing Melky Cabrera, who shake your head in frustration. You know, YOU KNOW, they will not get the man over from 2nd to 3rd with less thant 2 out, you know they won’t score the runner from second base with 2 outs, you know they won’t get the sac fly, turn the DP get the key strikeout WE ALL KNOW IT!!

And yet there they are, for all of us to see. And Cox will keep running them out there, again, and again, and again. I’ve never been a Cox hater but enough is enough. Same for Wren. This is beyond pathetic and yet it continues, another year down the tubes and sorry, I don’t see this turning it around and even if they do, then what, they won’t even sniff the playoffs with this roster, just as its been in the last few years.

Who scouted and drafted all those busts? Who considered them to be top notch major league talent? How can this team still field a largely minor league outfield, despite the presence of Heyward? Wren did nothing to address the power shortage in the off-season, has not provide the team with a lead-off hitter since the departure of Furcal, has zero-speed in the line-up and, ahh, I could go on and on.

This team is so seriously flawed it will take many, many moves to get it back to a competitive level and who even cares to watch it while it is going through this period and at major league prices. No, sorry Frank Wren but not only are you undeserving of the benefit of the doubt, you no doubt will go down as one of the worst General Managers those of us who have followed baseball for a while have ever seen.

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It’s a miracle the Braves haven’t been losing 100 games a year like the late 80’s. Only 3 major league teams havev corporate ownership. You can be sure they aren’t Braves fans! Corporate ownership of sports teams is like having a tarantula crawling on you.

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It’s not that trades made or not made but the Troy Glaus signing. Wren could have signed a healthy productive hitter with power and plays a great first base (Adam LaRoche),but he signed a broken down old man that couldn’t hit a beach ball if it was pitched to him.

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Maybe we should start with our batting coach. We always have issues with our hitting and i believe it was the great Mets right fielder who had enough confidence in him to go to another batting coach in the off season. Look at him now. We dont need him in right but im sure there would be a spot for him in the outfield and we could use the bat that has come alive since he left.

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“The Teixeira trade hasn’t impacted us at all,” [Wren]said.

I’m not buying what Wren claims, from a fan’s perspective. Chipper’s not a long termer, despite the ridiculous contract that Wren gave him. Escobar has demonstrated the ability to play third. Escobar and Andrus on the left side of the infield would have been nice. Andrus would have brought speed to the lineup. Escobar’s power numbers may well improve as he matures.

Perez most certainly would have been in the Braves bullpen, which has had to struggle in recent years due to a lack of talent. Wagner just announced he’s not coming back in 2011. A team can’t have enough good young arms around.

Salty is definitely inferior to McCann. But his market value was much higher when Wren peddled him to Texas. Wren might have gotten better in return than the Super Tex rental for Salty, et al.

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[...] Has he earned anything yet? Some do not think he’s done his job well. [...]

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“Jeff Schultz: “It’s at this point that I mention the name: Mark Teixeira. In 2007, the Braves dealt a boatload of prospects to Texas for Teixeira. They hoped he would turn them into a World Series team. He didn’t.”

You do realize that that trade was made by John “when the team hit a bump, it was easy to remain calm” Schuerholz, and not by Frank “hasn’t earned the benefit of the doubt” Wren.

And get your facts straight — Wren has been GM for only two years, so he cannot be “0 for 3 since taking over” unless you have already written this season off (like Bradley).

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Any chance we can trade Wren, Glaus, Melky, and Escobar to Milwaukee for 3 cans of Milwaukee’s Best and a half eaten hotdog? (hold the relish).

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How many times do we have to watch Glaus come to the plate with 2 outs and runners on and pops up for the 3rd out of the inning? And then Heyward leads of the next inning with a solo homer…If the braves are unwilling to make cut bait on Glaus..can we at least change the lineup?

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GM comments are “high-larious” – the 2007 trade didn’t impact the ball club. What?

Elvis Andrus alone makes this trade a disaster from the Braves’ standpoint. Feliz and the others are just added insult.

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