Braves collapse, and the shine just came off Fredi Gonzalez
Fredi Gonzalez watched as the Braves blew an 8½-game wild-card lead in 23 days. (Curtis Compton/AJC)
Fredi Gonzalez was quietly handed the Braves’ managerial job before Bobby Cox ever stepped out the door in a wink-wink, nudge-nudge deal, and nobody really had a problem with it.
He had the resume and the personality. Everybody liked and respected him. He knew the players, the organization and the city. The Braves weren’t making over the manager’s office as much as they were changing a light bulb.
Something went wrong.
This is not a “Fire Fredi Gonzalez” column. But we’ve just witnessed one of the worst collapses in sports history, and the Braves can’t just assume that a few roster tweaks are going to fix the problem. When a team goes 10-20 down the stretch — including 0-9 against their two biggest competitors (Philadelphia and St. Louis) — and loses three consecutive series to the division’s flotsam (Mets, Marlins, Nationals), this isn’t about just injuries or a few guys going into a slump.
The vibe was missing this season. That’s on Gonzalez. The team fell apart when it needed to come together, blowing an 8½-game lead in 23 days. That’s on Gonzalez. The Braves seemed tight and meek and borderline frightened, as if waiting, hoping, white-knuckle-praying for a playoff spot to just fall into their lap. They didn’t just take it, and didn’t play like they felt they deserved it.
That’s certainly on Gonzalez. The shine just came off the perfect replacement.
I understand this isn’t football. Managers make in-game decisions, but they aren’t calling plays. They change the lineup and the batting order. Gonzalez did that. He pulled Chipper Jones out of the No. 3 spot. He benched Jason Heyward.
Ultimately, the question is whether a manager is making a team better, making it believe. The Braves clearly weren’t, therefore Gonzalez clearly didn’t.
Even with injuries, this was twice the team that reached the postseason last year and lost three one-run games to the eventual World Series champions in San Francisco.
Gonzalez doesn’t need to go. But he needs to change. Or maybe someone. Gonzalez said Thursday that all of his coaches are coming back. But for all the screams from the cheap seats about former hitting coach Terry Pendleton, his replacement, Larry Parrish, didn’t bring anything to the table.
Maybe Gonzalez just needs to change himself. Maybe he came in and, consciously or subconsciously, didn’t want to disrupt things too much in the first season after Bobby Cox retired. It was such a feel-good season last year, that would be understandable. But if that was the strategy, it backfired.
When asked about the collapse following Wednesday’s final loss, Chipper Jones said, “It’s cruel, because probably nobody in Atlanta sports is probably under as much scrutiny as he is filling in for Bobby Cox. To have it slip away in late September, it’s cruel. It’s really cruel. It’s not indicative of the way this team played, the way he managed, and what we deserved in this situation.”
Not sure about the “deserved” part of that quote. The Braves just played 162 games. That’s enough time.
They blew it. They blew it like no team in Atlanta sports history. That blew it like few teams in all of sports history. The only people who aren’t saying today that they blew it live in Boston — because they have their own problems.
What just happened is mind-numbing. But even before the collapse, the Braves seemed to have chemistry issues. They never quite came together like most anticipated. This was a team that figured to challenge Philadelphia in the National League East and possibly for a World Series.
There aren’t a lot of tangible things we can pin on Gonzalez. He certainly stuck with Derek Lowe too long, and the decision to start him Tuesday over rookie Julio Teheran blew up in the manager’s face. He made the bold decision to go with Jose Constanza over the struggling Heyward in right field for several starts, which seemed to ignite the lineup. But then he switched back to Heyward, who is the better player, but still seemed to be a mess.
But it never should have come down to that decision, or to a few starts by Lowe. When a team goes 10-20 to close the season and gets swept at home in the last three games, the issues are bigger than that.
Implosions like this are on the manager. He didn’t make the team better. The Braves underachieved. And Gonzalez just lost the benefit of the doubt.
By Jeff Schultz
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845 comments Add your comment
count_schemula
September 29th, 2011
1:11 pm
The attendance is bad because the idiots in this town did not connect the stadium to the freaking MARTA train with a light rail or people mover EVEN THOUGH YOU CAN SEE THE STADIUM FROM THE GA STATE STATION!!! The traffic is pure HELL and it’s costs a lot of money to park, eat a hot dog, drink a beer and get a seat. I live intown and ride my bike to the games. If I lived in the burbs, fat chance I’m dealing with the hassle of going to very many games.
birdo
September 29th, 2011
1:11 pm
Congrads to the Phillies, hope you guy’s win it all. You are a team of real Pro’s. It’s great to see the desire, heart and HUSTLE . I believe you guy’s earn every cent you are payed. Your Manager could take our team and an attitude adjustment could be beat any team. Good Luck from a die hard Braves fan.
Seriously
September 29th, 2011
1:12 pm
To try and say that the manager is to blame for this is ridiculous. There is not one manager in the league that has been perfect in the line up, pitching or anything. The players have to perform. J-Hey is swinging for the fences and trying to pull everything. Chipper had nothing left, McCann was in a funk, Uggla was homerun or nothing. The list can go on and on. Fredi sat the superstars, changed lineups anything to try and give the team a spark. The players didn’t play well in September. That is the reason the team is not in the playoffs. Not the manager. Don’t say well he played Diaz over this guy and Constanza should have been in there. This one game is not the reason the Braves didn’t make the playoffs, Fredi’s decisions last night are not the reason they are not in the playoffs.
This team was built for homeruns and when they don’t happen this is what happens. The trade for Bourn was too late. The make up of the team and the homerun mentality was already there not going to change with one player. This team was built like the Cubs in 07-08, homerun or nothing. You can tell by the streakyness through out the year. This was a bad streak because the hitters didn’t hit when they needed too.
So again to blame Fredi for J-Hey hitting awful the whole season, Prado not being himself and Chipper showing his age after all these years is ridiculous. I hope J-Hey looks at film from his rookie season and how he went the opposite way and replicates that next season. The Braves have a great core, a good manager now they need to put it together.
BOB
September 29th, 2011
1:12 pm
Bobby Valentine the Atlanta Braves next manager, Now wouldnt that be funny
Dennis Reynolds
September 29th, 2011
1:12 pm
Just in from DOB:
Braves will bring back entire coaching staff next season.
HereWeGoAgain
September 29th, 2011
1:13 pm
Any 80-year-old granny in the stands could fill out the line up card as well as Gonzalez does. Gonzalez fits the “Someone will hit a home run someday” managerial style, which, of course, doesn’t always work in a short series or a do-or-die game. If Gonzalez was afraid on “stepping on too many toes” by actually managing the team this year, he stomped on about 400,000 toes last night – the toes of those 40,000+ fans that came expecting to see a Braves team play with heart.
59bulldawg
September 29th, 2011
1:14 pm
Have to agree with you birdo! The Phillies are one of the best baseball teams I have ever seen! You folks in Philly have one hell of a team! Good luck to you!
Give Me A Break
September 29th, 2011
1:15 pm
Anyone who doesn’t believe that Freddi Gonzales should be fired NOW is looking at the clouds upside down. The man was incompetent. Flat out, fired up, Joe-he’s-gotta-go incompetent. Go back and read his takes on all the games the Braves lost this past month. Knowing the players, knowing the city……who gives a french-fried chihuahua for that? Knowing how to win is what matters. We need baseball’s version of Vince Lombardi, someone who absolutely hates to lose and lets his players know that losing won’t be tolerated.
Lost Cause
September 29th, 2011
1:15 pm
I have to repost to back up my previous post:
In 2010 the Braves offense had 634 walks and 1140 K’s which led to about a .258 BA scoring 738 Runs
In 2011 the braves offense had 504 walks and 1260 K’s which led to about a .243 BA scoring 641 Runs
As bad as we thought last years offense was … a 97 Run differential? Can it be that much worse? Evidently! IT is all the offense’s problem, not Lowe, not Linebrink, not bullpen over use … well maybe some bullpen over use.
But the scary part in all this … maybe Terry Pendleton wasn’t the offensive problem after all?
kdawg1017
September 29th, 2011
1:16 pm
trade 3 of your 8 starting picthers and whatever else the dodgers want for matt kemp offense solved
willie g hates liberty media
September 29th, 2011
1:18 pm
THE BRAVES NEED AN OWNER THAT CAN BUY PLAYERS THAT CAN HIT PERIOD UGGLA IS THE ONLY ONE , THAT CAN HIT THE REST ARE CLUELESS ON HOW TO GET A BASE HIT WHEN PLAYERS ARE IN SCORING POSITION , PERIOD FREDDIE NEEDS TO RESIGN , THE WHOLE STAFF NEEDS TO RESIGN GET NED YOST FROM KC, OR HIRE THE MANAGER AT AAA, BUT FREDDIE IS NOT A MAJOR LEAGUE MANANGER., HELL JIM FREGOSI WAS WINNING AT WASHINGTON ,
JCB30338
September 29th, 2011
1:19 pm
The Braves will be back in the post-season next year…and I will be at the Ted to watch them do it. Great year, guys. Fredi, see you 4/13/12.
count_schemula
September 29th, 2011
1:19 pm
No Pence was not the problem. We got Bourn and was pretty good. He was working hard last night.
Dennis Reynolds
September 29th, 2011
1:19 pm
I was never a huge fan of Bobby Cox based on the odd strategic decisions he made, but Id take him over Fredi in a heartbeat solely because he KNEW how to get what he wanted out of his players and they respected him.
chris watson
September 29th, 2011
1:19 pm
Wow – my sentiments exactly. I hate to be the “arm chair quarterbakc” who lays blame on everyone when things don’t go right but Shultz hit several points right on the head. Stayed loyal to Lowe too long for sure. There were other things he didn’t mention that contributed to the collapse as well. He wore down his young bullpen arms – just too many appearances for kids just coming out of the minors. They aren’t prepared for that kind of workload. Also, there is no fire in Fredi. I understand the days of screaming and kicking dirt on the umpire are becoming a thing of the past but last night he needed to lay into the ump who blew the Bourn call at third base – #1 because he deserved it (same ump who blew multiple calls at 2nd base a couple of weeks ago & #2 because he desperately needed to light a fire and get the guys going last night. He spoke to him as if he was chatting with a friend….he might as well have stayed in the dugout.
Dennis Reynolds
September 29th, 2011
1:20 pm
We better win next year if the Mayans were right.
Piedmont Blues
September 29th, 2011
1:20 pm
Right on, Jeff.
If you believe that a manager doesn’t play a big role in whether a team wins or loses over the course of a season, then Fredi may be the exception who proves the rule. I think some of his fans thought his low-key style would make him the perfect successor to Cox, but Bobby seemed to know how to light a fire under guys — mostly in private. For whatever reason, FG just looked stoic as everything collapsed.
FG was way too active with the back end of the bullpen, marking two straight years of heavy use of Venters and Kimbrel (who had 69 appearances overall last year along with his 64 this year) and three straight with O’Flaherty. You have to wonder if it’ll take a toll on their health in future seasons — see Moylan, P.
Is it too much to expect a starter to go more than five or six innings?
Whoever’s idea it was to hire Parrish as the batting coach should be fired. Heyward and Prado regressed this year. Bourn’s OBP as a Brave was .321 (15 BB, 50K). I think Chipper and Freeman and perhaps Heap just stopped listening to him midseason. To put someone who’d never been a batting coach at any level of professional baseball in charge was nuts.
I’d like to hold out hope for next year, but we may see much of the same. A club with pitching that’s good enough to keep the score low but with a putrid offense and too many guys hacking at first pitches and not wearing down the other team’s staff. 85 wins with a team that could win 10 more. I’d love to be proven wrong.
warren
September 29th, 2011
1:23 pm
alot of mistakes were made during the season and towards the end. kimbrel and venters were overused. you can see that as plain as day. if we had more than 3 reliable arms in the bullpen during the season, we wouldnt have used them so much. if they were fresh we dont lose that game last night and a few others during the month of september. they were depleted and were called upon too many times. alot of guys on this team didnt hit! prado is not as good as everyone thought he was. teams made adjustments to him, and they found his weakness. heyward had a horrible year, and again other teams made adjustments on him also. mccann was not the same after the injury. chipper was pretty solid, and uggla had a great second half. derek lowe lost 16 games. that is not what you expect out of a 15 million dollar starter. i say trade derek lowe for anything you can get and maybe some salary. trade prado and get a “real” left fielder that can produce, and round out the rotation with huddy, beachy, jurrjins, minor and delgado. i dont think hanson is ever gonna be the same. not with that windup and violent delivery. put him in the bullpen and let him work as a long reliever. i hope next year they make changes that benefit the club. go bravos!!!!
Jimmy Crack
September 29th, 2011
1:26 pm
– “I’m sure the city of Atlanta will be devastated by the Braves’ collapse for another five or six minutes.”
– Dan Wolken, Memphis Commercial Appeal
Jeff, this is not as epic as most of your ilk, Dan being the realistic exception, seem to think. Screw all of you hyperbole boyz.
wins-by-a-link
September 29th, 2011
1:26 pm
Everybody is getting the blame for the crash and burning of the Braves, Except the Owners, Liberty Media. Bought the Braves for a tax write off, Known fact, They don’t give a rip if the Braves win or lose, As long as they own the Braves they will not come close to winning the WS, FW is operating on about half the money that Phils, Yanks and Boston have to buy, trade and get the players they need to win, Don’t blame FG or FW blame Liberty Media.
count_schemula
September 29th, 2011
1:28 pm
The Ted – Where seasons go to end.
Heisenberg
September 29th, 2011
1:29 pm
At least now we do not have to suffer watching Derek Lowe pitch game 2 of NLDS.
Charles
September 29th, 2011
1:30 pm
Good column. Fredi either motivates this team to perform, which it clearly was not motivated, or he can take a hike. The Braves were flatter than a pancake most of the season and when it counted, they choked. That’s a far cry from last year’s heroics where a injury-ridden team lost several close ones after getting the wild card.
Dennis Reynolds
September 29th, 2011
1:30 pm
Anybody have Madden 2012 on PS3? I have to get my mind off of this for a while.
John A.
September 29th, 2011
1:30 pm
Don….I agree with you!!! It’s time to LICK ASS AND TAKE NAMES!!!! This awe shucks routine just doen’t get it. This BS about the pen being tired is old hat. Does anyone remember Billy Wags saying he was tired?
Frank Wren is still the same guy that helped Mike Flanagan screw up Baltimore. Frank comes to Atlanta, and Flanagan commits Harry Carey. What the front office doesn’t realize is they have chased away fans that they will never get back, and it’s all because they put a BOY in to do a MAN’S JOB. As someone said “Frank put the pieces of the puzzle” out there, and it was Fredi’s responsibility to put it together. Folks there was a major problem…..Fredi was playing a game with himself, because he had never worked a puzzle before.
Management should have known there were problems on the horizon when they hired Fredi. Wasn’t he fired as a manager before the season ended (his 1st) with the Marlins? IMO he got the job because he was the cheapest……you pay cheap you get cheap!!!!! If Frank thought so much of Uggla, why didn’t he ask Uggla his opinion of Fredi before hiring him? Afterall he was playing with the Marlins when the hatchett fell.
DD
September 29th, 2011
1:31 pm
The Braves did very good getting this far with a decimated pitching corps. The only thing I have wrong with Fredi is that, given a nine game cushion, I would have rested my main relief corps for five games. Now, if the Braves could get some owners who care about them, they could win it all.
MJ
September 29th, 2011
1:31 pm
I think the Phillies have something the Braves could really use, Ryne Sandberg. I am just hoping that the Phillies hold on to him to replace Manuel when he retires.
FL dawg
September 29th, 2011
1:34 pm
Theres no way the Braves get Stanton or even Reyes. If they get one of them our chances would improve dramaticaly.
DawgDad
September 29th, 2011
1:34 pm
“Jeff, why do you think the team was actually better than they showed? Maybe they’re a mediocre team that Gonzalez managed to get to play over their heads for a couple of months.”
They did win a few games more than the pythagorean predicted wins would indicate.
Seth Bagwell
September 29th, 2011
1:35 pm
I really don’t think we can blame this all on one guy. sure fredi made the calls but he wasn’t the one playing out there. These guys didn’t give it their all. Its like they didn’t even care. They had the talent to go along way in the playoffs but they didn’t want to use it. Yes some blame needs to be on the manger but we can’t blame EVERYTHING on him. The players are just ass much at fault as fredi is.
Coach (sic) Marcht Richt
September 29th, 2011
1:37 pm
@Heisenberg
ROFLMAO! Sad but true…just say no to D-Lowe!
shmoe
September 29th, 2011
1:42 pm
F You Frank Wren, for not firing Fredi.
F You Fredi, for not firing Parrish.
Not making changes at the top is exactly what we need for a repeat performance next season. I just became a lot less interested in the Braves, and I am a life-long fan.
wreckbuzz
September 29th, 2011
1:45 pm
I NEVER wanted Fredi Gonzalez. Hated the move. I wanted Terry Pendleton. But instead TP gets replaced after the Braves leading the league in OBP by a guy who had never been a big league hitting coach and delivers a near last place finish in OBP.
What had Fredi ever won? Sure the Marlins were competitive, but when did they win a Wild Card or an NL East division crown? Never is when.
Pendleton is a smart baseball guy and a fiery competitor. Look around the league. Kirk Gibson is similar and he delivered an NL West division in his second season. I think Fredi is just ho-hum. This hire is going to be regretful.
kurt
September 29th, 2011
1:45 pm
there is enough blame to go around to the entire team, to lay it all on the manager is wrong. Were was Chipper last night? 0-5? How bout all the success the team had after starting out slow? if the chemistry was bad why blame the manager? dont the players who make millions have any roll in how they perform? baseball is an individual sport like no other, they entire team could hate each other but if they all do their job then the team will win. How does Heywood lose a ball in the lights at his home park? the phillies were much more patient at the plate and did a better job laying of the bad pitches, the braves swung at a lot of non strikes. is that poor hitting or good pitching?
Robert S.
September 29th, 2011
1:46 pm
I have been a Braves fan since the summer of 1969, when I was 8 years old, but this fiasco has pushed me beyond endurance. I am officially declaring free agency and looking for a new team to support. The guys on the current team played like it didn’t matter and the manager kept making stupid excuses like, “Look at the back of their bubble gum cards, they’re going to hit.” Well, they didn’t hit and the much-heralded rookie closer choked when the chips were down. If these guys had been the staff at a KFC restaurant, they would have been serving up stale turkey sandwiches instead of hot fried chicken. If the guys on the Braves roster don’t want to play like it matters, let them try finding work somewhere else at minimum wage.
pghfans
September 29th, 2011
1:47 pm
Sorry, no pitty from Pittsburgh – how does it feel? No Mr. Beals to assist?
keith
September 29th, 2011
1:47 pm
I like Fredi, but no doubt this is on him. People say he can’t hit for the players, he can’t pitch for the players, and the injuries aren’t his fault. 100% agree on that. It’s decision-making. It’s clubhouse cohesion. It’s confidence. Did anybody on the team, did any fan, did anyone at all have the least bit of confidence in winning last night when the Phillies tied it at 3? I for one did not, and I am a huge Braves fan. Call me a horrible fan, but even Chipper looked deflated when he struck out in his last at-bat.
Can rookies not go more than 5.1 innings? Heaven forbid they throw more than 100 pitches. Surely they pitched 7-8 innings in the minors! It’s Fredi’s fault that the bullpen was gassed at the end of the year. He went to them way too many times. Can he not take a hint that Derek Lowe is awful? That’s Fredi’s fault. It’s Fredi’s fault that he tinkered with the lineup too many times.
When football teams have problems, what do people say? They say It all starts from the top – the coaching staff. The coaches didn’t get the players ready to play. Same thing here – say all you want about the hitters just choking, but Fredi did not get these guys ready to play.
I’m not saying to fire him yet, that’s too early. But let’s not forget that he was fired by the lowly Marlins.
Rafael
September 29th, 2011
1:48 pm
Chipper did what he suppose to do two weeks ago last night. He was the leader of this team. He took this tyeam on his shoulder even hurt. But playing him hurt also exploded on our faces several times with a play he could not make or could not get a hit or made a double play caus ehe can not run. But its time for Chipper and the Braves to move on, we need to move Prado to third and gave him his groove back. he didn’t have the same mentality at the plate for some reason. Get rid of Lowe even you have to pay other team 10 millions but you save 5 million plus whatever you pay Chipper and you have 15-20 millions to make some changes. Get a good hitting outfield and we have to give Heyward a second chance cuase he was a little hurt for most part of the season and I dont want hime become a superstart in other team.
DannyG
September 29th, 2011
1:48 pm
How about it is the players fault! They are the ones with the millions of dollars contract. They are the ones that should work to play 162 games. At the MLB level, you can’t blame anyone else but the players.
NickGranite
September 29th, 2011
1:52 pm
Keith, Joe Simpson talked about that very issue a couple of weeks ago. These rookies pitch the same way in the minors so they are neither physically or mentally ready to pitch beyond a certain point in the majors either. Also, when they get to us late in the season they already have minor league innings on their arms. Here’s hoping some of those nice young arms start with the ball club out of spring training next season and Lowe is in the bullpen.
@John A.
September 29th, 2011
1:53 pm
We hardly know each other…
Heisenberg
September 29th, 2011
1:54 pm
John A.
September 29th, 2011
1:30 pm
The A must be for AZZHOLE which is what you are for the reference to Mike Flanagan. But if you like to Lick AZZ start with mine.
shmoe
September 29th, 2011
1:54 pm
All you Parrish and Fredi apologists…oh the players, the players….I feel sorry for you. It was a group effort collapse, but when you are the guy at the top, you have to go for having a historic meltdown on your watch. His strategic skills were putrid at best the entire season. And, it is clear he is not a leader. So if a manager can’t do the two things that are required, WHY THE HECK IS HE STILL THE MANAGER?
If the hitting coach took essentially the same lineup and turned them into HACKERS, WHY IS HE STILL THE HITTING COACH?
No accountability. Keep drinking the Koolaid folks.
Sparky
September 29th, 2011
1:56 pm
Jeff, good column.. there is lots of blame to go around. Freddie did a sucky job managing his resources. Too much thinking that some players will rebound and not enough sitting their butts down. Hard to evaluate a hitting coach at this level. Do the players listen to him? He’s not up there swinging at crappy pitches or swinging at the first pitch, or NOT laying down a bunt. Hey Frank Wren get us a bopper who can play rf or lf. Hey braves learn fundamentals and actually use them.
Bill
September 29th, 2011
2:04 pm
I’m a huge Braves fan and always have been. I felt the pain the last two weeks but I’m not going to turn my back on the Braves. I will be pulling for them in April 2012. Some bad decisions have been made from the GM to the Head Coach to the Players themselves. Having to sit and watch Chipper play 100 games again next year and made his $14 million or watch Derek Lowe pitch every five days for his $15 million is what is going to hurt. Imagine having their $30 million to go with the McLouth, Kawakami and Gonzalez money that is off the books. It could be a great off-season but because Chipper refuses to retire and Lowe can’t realize that he sucks, we may be stuck with the same group again next year.
Frank Shab PA
September 29th, 2011
2:04 pm
I was correct, I said on unday they wouldn’t win another game after Saturday. Terrible clutch hitting. The team has decent players when it doesn’t matter,but come crunch time, what happens. No skills under pressure to hit.
Just take a look at Melky Cabrera. He did crap here last year with pressure. Now with no pressure in Kansas City he hits 20 homers batting .300 and 22 steals.
As Booby Cox says its not how many hits you get but when you get them. Simply face it Braves Nation/everyone the Braves as composed currently cannot get clutch hits.
Mikey
September 29th, 2011
2:06 pm
It doesn’t matter without Jurgens and Hanson the Braves were going nowhere.
Hy Ronatt
September 29th, 2011
2:08 pm
Old and tired, from the top all the way down to Chumper.
Lefty
September 29th, 2011
2:11 pm
Milkey
R u for real?Detroit free press said at allstar break jj would suckin second half,and with hanson retard delivery he wont come back either.trade both in offseason.Seriously if u was reyes or pujhols,fielder,whoever,would you really want to play for atlanta in 2012?
Bob Davis
September 29th, 2011
2:12 pm
Schultz, I’d like for you to explain to us just how all this is Freddie’s fault? Sure, you can question a few decisions he made here or there, but we all know that hindsight is 20/20. Overall, I think Freddie did the best he could with what he had to work with. How on earth do you blame him that the team went into a collective hitting funk? How is that Freddie’s fault? Clearly, our problems this year stemmed from our inablility to score runs and advance runners. I do think GM Wren will probably try to address our offensive concerns in the off season. But please, Schultz, lay off of Freddie, okay??