Fredi Gonzalez says Braves’ autopsy over — he’s moving on
It took a while for Fredi Gonzalez to let go of last season's collapse. (Curtis Compton/AJC)
Four months after the last game, the last loss, the 20th loss in 30 games, it still doesn’t make sense. Players get hurt. Players slump. But does one get one’s mind around the worst collapse in franchise history and one of the worst ever in sports?
“You go over it in your mind a million times. You ask yourself, ‘Is there something I could have done better?’” Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez said. “After a while, it drives you crazy. This is really the first time I’ve talked about this, although I’m sure I’ll be asked 200 times at spring training. But we tried things. We had meetings. We had meetings for everything. We had meetings to decide about meetings. After a while it’s like, ‘How many times can I perform an autopsy?’”
Four months after the last game, the last loss, the spiral that crushed a team and its fan base, Gonzalez is going to struggle to convince anybody that he’s really over it. But he knows the calendar gives him no choice. The Braves open their annual prespring pitching camp Monday at Turner Field. They head to Florida in a few weeks. Before the first full-squad workout, players can expect to hear a positive message from Gonzalez — not about how they let a playoff berth slip away, but rather how they dealt with the aftermath.
For at least one month after the season, Gonzalez tried to avoid all media references to the Braves’ late-season drain-circling. But he was curious what was being said by his players, so he asked one of the team’s public-relations people to sort through articles. He was looking for player quotes that conveyed some sort of fractured clubhouse. There weren’t any.
“One thing I’m proud of is that nobody on this team did any finger-pointing,” he said. “There were no quotes about it being this guy’s fault, that guy’s fault. We all took ownership of what happened. That tells you a lot about these guys. You don’t see that in sports all the time. Look at what happened to the Jets. Oh my goodness — they lost two or three games, they didn’t make the playoffs and then they went after each other.”
When Bobby Cox passed the baton (or ball) to his former coach, Gonzalez seemed like the obvious choice. (AP photo)
OK. So the Braves can lose and still hold hands and sing Kumbaya. That’s not a bad thing.
But Gonzalez also knows the reality of 2011: What happened is unacceptable.
Good teams – and most would consider the Braves just that – can’t lose consecutive series to East Division clown acts like the Nationals, Mets and Marlins in a playoff race. Good teams don’t blow 8½-game wild-card leads in 23 days.
Players were injured. Players slumped. But Gonzalez, being the manager, was assigned blame. It was his first season after taking over for Bobby Cox. He was handed a playoff team, a potential World Series team. The Braves failed, so he failed.
“Our goal is to win a championship, and we didn’t do that,” he said.
It’s that simple.
What would he do differently than a year ago? He’s not sure. But something. Because if the Braves go into a similar funk in 2012, he said he will try anything. “Maybe I tell them to come to the park late or we skip batting practice,” he said. “I can’t really say right now.”
The Cox-to-Gonzalez transition was expected to be a smooth one. Gonzalez had coached here. He knew many of the players. There was a new vibe in spring training. Players were doing more running, working more on fundamentals. But it seemed the Braves never fully hit their stride, whether it was Dan Uggla flopping out of the gate, or Jason Heyward’s sophomore slump, or Martin Prado getting shelved by a staph infection. Jair Jurrjens and Tommy Hanson were dented by injuries, and by the final month of the season the rest of the pitching staff – starters and bullpen – was toast. Something always was off.
After the season, Gonzalez went kind of numb. He didn’t watch a playoff game until Game 6 of the World Series, and he turned that off after five innings.
“It was one of the worst games I’ve ever seen, so I went to sleep. I TiVo’d the rest.”
The next morning, he learned that St. Louis rallied to win in 11 innings over Texas and the Cardinals. The Cardinals, who reached the postseason largely because of the Braves’ fizzle, went on to win the Series.
Gonzalez went to Sea Island for a few days with his wife. He spoke to friends, in and out of baseball. He had several conversations with his long-time buddy, Orlando Magic coach Stan Van Gundy, as well as Bill Parcells and others.
Van Gundy and Parcells didn’t provide any wonderful insight, unless you count this: “They all said if you’re at this long enough, things like this will happen to you.”
Gonzalez knows this: It can’t happen again, but he’s fine with that pressure. He says he’s looking forward to the first day of spring, the first game of the 2012 season, because that’s the easiest way to move on.
“After something like last year happens, the first thing you want to do is get back on the saddle,” he said.
He said he’s happy that management “didn’t blow up the team,” adding, “We have a good ballclub, but I’m not going to blow smoke either. We have some guys who need to do better than they did last year.”
A gentle jab. That can’t hurt. Something has to change for the ending to change, even if you can’t quite figure out what went wrong last time.
By Jeff Schultz
Follow me on Twitter (@JeffSchultzAJC). Friend me on Facebook (Facebook.com/JeffSchultzAJC).
Tell us what you think about the site
Customer Care »
Vacation stops, manage subscriptions and more
AJC Services
Sections
Other Editions
Visitor Agreement | Privacy Statement
© 2013 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
224 comments Add your comment
SimpleDawg
January 27th, 2012
9:43 pm
To Fredi:
Be like a dog…….
…….when you drop a turd, kick dirt and grass over it, and then move on.
Uggla
January 27th, 2012
9:46 pm
Did one of you guys mention porn stars? Where?
GT Alum
January 27th, 2012
9:59 pm
The disappointing thing is it doesn’t sound like he’s hit upon anything they could’ve done better/differently, other than guys just need to produce better. Of course, this is the same guy who announced his novice hitting coach would return, apparently without discussing it with his superiors.
Winnie the Peg
January 27th, 2012
10:06 pm
The Atlanta Thrashers Season Ticket Holders were a collective, innocent 8-year-old boy.
The Atlanta Spirit Group members are collectivelya retired Penn State defensive coordinator.
Oh, wait…
This blog is about the Atlanta BRAVES.
My bad.
Rickie Pitino
January 27th, 2012
10:07 pm
Yeah Fredi baby! I’m talking ’bout some good old Kentucky fried fornication.
Dan
January 27th, 2012
10:09 pm
Fredi tells us he has high expectations for next season. He showed mighty poor managerial ability last season and still has the same team, park, and boss. Did he get better at managing during the off season? I certainly hope so.
Busch Leaguer
January 27th, 2012
10:12 pm
Just saw on the MLB network crawl that Kenshin Kawakami signed a contract to play in Japan. His MLB contract has to go down as the worst not only in Braves history but in MLB history.23million dollars for 8 wins and 1 save to go with 22 losses. How does a general manager survive such a gaffe as paying this player millions of dollars for such poor results?
David
January 27th, 2012
10:15 pm
This team, from top management (Terry McGuirk) on down to Fredi Gonzalez shares one trait: Ron Burgundy-itis. A hugely exagerrated self-opinion. This is a team that has made the playoffs once in the last six years, yet they walk around with the bravado and self-satisfaction of the Braves teams of the 90’s. They’re much better in their own minds than in reality. And now the Nationals and Marlins are starting to run circles around them. Jack Wilson? I’m sure legions were inspired to pony up for season tickets on the heels of that move.
Busch Leaguer
January 27th, 2012
10:41 pm
You mean Jinx Wilson ,I still recall last season when he joined the team.The game when Kimbrell blew the save and the game on a Friday night in St.Louis. The Braves announcer brought up the fact that Jinx Wilson had played the most games in the Majors without appearing in a playoff game. The Braves were one out from taking a 8 a half game lead on the Cards and wound up leaving St.Louis on Sunday with a 4 and a half game lead. Should not have tempted the baseball gods and let Jinx stay on waivers.
heartofdarkness
January 27th, 2012
11:23 pm
Short memories work wonders in sports. And Fredi is correct, the Braves are a high character outfit. Play ball.
ATLcracker
January 27th, 2012
11:26 pm
Freddie I found a quote that conveys some finger pointing & fractured club house.
” We have some guys who need to do better than THEY did last year” Freddie Gonzalez
Would have been nice to see an “I” in that sentence.
Who Me?
January 28th, 2012
12:00 am
just the kind of response I expected from FG. Let’s not forget he did not go gently into the night in FL either, so right now his rep could use a little shine.
This is a lame a** organization right now. Happy at the expense management going on, willing to ride it out with the staff on hand and make no real substantive changes to a punchless lineup that’s now missing one-half of the most solid middle infields in the majors last year, and i’m no fan of AG but the guy had a wicked glove.
Let’s see how things roll late in spring training but right now, Liberty Media and the Atlanta Spirit Group are looking a whole lot like twin sons of a different mother – spending just enough to be competitive but not enough to win. Just enough to sell a few tickets, but not committed to spending the bucks to pack ‘em in.
BravesBobblehead24
January 28th, 2012
12:07 am
We need new owners with a commitment to getting the best quality players when the need arises. The current owners have no commitment to winning like say a Ted Turner or Arthur Blank. It use to be players wanted to come to the Braves because of their desire to win, win, win and be the best in the league.
Mitchell
January 28th, 2012
12:50 am
Four months after the last game, the last loss, the 20th loss in 30 games, it still doesn’t make sense.
The cluelessness never ceases.
They choked! They’re soft. They’re pissed their pants. They’re a bunch of pushovers.
They’re not cut from the same cloth as the real contenders in the National League.
They’re an excuse factory.
“It still doesn’t make sense.”
That’s the best you can do? After all this time?
“It still doesn’t make sens.” Wow.
It doesn’t have to make sense. They just sucked and will continue to suck until they prove otherwise.
To be in such pathetic denail is just… pathetic. So much for the media speaking truth to power.
Folks, nothing’s going to change if all we hear from the Terry McQuirk’s of the world is about the promising young talent and continued excuse making from from the AJC.
Whatever happened to winning?
Mitchell
January 28th, 2012
12:58 am
But it seemed the Braves never fully hit their stride, whether it was Dan Uggla flopping out of the gate, or Jason Heyward’s sophomore slump, or Martin Prado getting shelved by a staph infection. Jair Jurrjens and Tommy Hanson were dented by injuries, and by the final month of the season the rest of the pitching staff – starters and bullpen – was toast. Something always was off.
Oh, was it Mr. The-Braves-Can-Still-Win-the-Division-Despite-Being-Seven-Games-Back-in-August?
Kevin chop
January 28th, 2012
2:20 am
Only 65 comments says what we think of the Braves now.
reason
January 28th, 2012
2:45 am
Fredi doesn’t make 10 million a year, but you know WHAT runs down hill when some of the top players don’t give their best….
Baseball Gods
January 28th, 2012
7:34 am
Busch Leaguer has got it right about Jinx Wilson.
Baseball Gods
January 28th, 2012
7:39 am
Even we think the Braves are a bunch of chokers; but Frenk Wran signing Jinx Wilson didn’t help their cause. Now if Frenk had made the proper chicken sacrifices to Jabu, things might have turned out better.
Larry
January 28th, 2012
8:17 am
“After the season, Gonzalez went kind of numb. He didn’t watch a playoff game until Game 6 of the World Series, and he turned that off after five innings.
“It was one of the worst games I’ve ever seen, so I went to sleep. I TiVo’d the rest.”
The next morning, he learned that St. Louis rallied to win in 11 innings over Texas and the Cardinals. The Cardinals, who reached the postseason largely because of the Braves’ fizzle, went on to win the Series.”
Maybe he should have watched that entire game to see how a manager safely, courageously, and intelligently pilots his team to greatness.
I can’t believe what I just read…
D man
January 28th, 2012
8:28 am
Let’s look at our team;
First base-solid bat and fielding plus home run power
Second- solid bat and fielding plus home run power
Short – unknown yet but has potential to do what gonzo did last season
Third – solid bat and fielding
Left- solid bat and ok fielding
Center – um not sure
Right – solid bat potential and fielding plus power sometimes
Good hitting lineup overall and solid defense. Pitching looks good too. I still like this team…
JackDennis
January 28th, 2012
8:46 am
They STILL need the big right handed stick.
Jake
January 28th, 2012
9:07 am
Congratulations, Jeff, you have aroused the slumbering Sonny Clusters, and Sonny is still stewing over last year!
kelley
January 28th, 2012
9:17 am
Atlanta is a loserville city. Braves 6 world series l win Hawks no good Falcons tease people thinking they are a good team> Playoff time what do they do CHOKE That my friend is why I don’t spend my
money to go see a losing team.
Yunel Asscobar
January 28th, 2012
9:19 am
“What would he do differently than a year ago? He’s not sure.”
That sentence says it all. Fredi is clueless at this level and until he’s gone, we can expect continued mediocrity, poor in-game decisions, and mismanagement across the board.
Jeff, the real question is this: If LaRussa or Kirk Gibson had been managing the Braves last season with an 8 1/2 game lead, would the team have made the playoffs?
There will be no championships for the Braves, not even the silly “division champ” flags until they get a championship caliber manager. Speed of the leaders, speed of the team. If he thinks the best thing he could have done to change the course of the CHOKE is to have them arrive at the park a bit later, he’s only confirming what most of us suspect. He is WAY over his head and has absolutely no business managing at this level.
Mike#1
January 28th, 2012
9:19 am
I must say…I’m over it. Let’s do it in 2012!
the truth...
January 28th, 2012
9:56 am
@Steve
Who is and who cares what “Larry Dobrow on cbs.sportsline.com” has to say…………
DetroitBraves
January 28th, 2012
10:02 am
@Octoman, amen brother. I’ll be more than happy to personally drive him to Clemmonsville.
Let's Be Honest
January 28th, 2012
10:06 am
Look at last year’s Cards/Rangers rosters. Now look at the Braves. Now look at the Cards/Rangers. Now look at the Braves….
That was NOT a World Series roster.
monty
January 28th, 2012
10:10 am
Phillies were handed a WS team with better potential than the Braves and they lost. Bigger flop than the Braves. Most Braves fans knew we were hanging on by a thread and realistcly even if we had survived to make the playoffs we weren’t going far. Phillies on the other hand didn’t perform as expected. In the end neither the Braves nor the Phillies won a WS. Phillies fans have to be wondering “how many more good players will it take”?
Sonny Clusters
January 28th, 2012
10:15 am
Fredi has brought all he can bring. Coming to the park at a different time shows he has no grasp of how to exert his influence to win baseball games. His hit and miss lineups and giving away outs no matter where he was in the order if he saw a bunt opportunity . . . and his clueless lineup changes when the team was clicking (how did that Heyward move at the end work out for him?) prove that he was overmatched. But the unforgiveable move was pitching Lowe again and again when he had demonstrated he could or would no longer compete. That was some UGLY baseball and one of the last and most important games was in front of an almost full house at the Ted. That one game lost Fredi a lot of good will. We was watching people file out in the 4th inning. That game gave us a bad taste for Fredi and dare we call it FrediBall? BobbyBall to FrediBall. And all those SILLY little flags in the outfield need to come down. They are intended to make us think the Brave won something. They really serve to point out how miserably they have failed in post season. No more hype. Give us winning baseball now. Winning is post season success. Not little fake flags. We hope everyone has a nice day.
Let's Be Honest
January 28th, 2012
10:28 am
-Move Chipper and Heyward to 2nd and 3rd in the order, respectively.
-Move Prado down to the bottom of the order.
-Announce Hanson the Opening Day starter. Time for him to step up and show he’s an ace.
-Quit using Kimbrel and Venters so much before they wind up on the DL.
BluesDaddy
January 28th, 2012
10:34 am
Yeah, it appears that Fredi is clueless, as is the GM of this club. While sports writers and other “talent” do their best to convince us there is something “magical” in managing and coaching a sports team, this is NOT rocket science and baseball least of all. Just about every guy 45 or older played baseball in some form or fashion. While a hard game to master playing, it is essentially a fairly simple game and when you’ve followed it for 40 or 50 years, it really isn’t hard to figure out. The point is, most managers (along with sports writers) just aren’t that smart, as evidenced by Fredi, nor able to engage in much worthwhile introspection or analysis. One would think the Braves couldn’t have done worse last September if Fredi had TRIED to sink them, but every move mentioned here was about as obviously dumb as it could be with some very legitimate alternatives. The lesson is, couple the desire by the management not to LOSE money more than anything else, and the general low level of intelligence and competence displayed by those involved in coaching/gming sports in general, and the Braves in particular, and you have a recipe for mediocrity. Such is life in Atlanta sports.
Russ555
January 28th, 2012
11:02 am
If he was all that incompetent how did they get so far ahead in the quest for the playoff spot in the first place. In order to fold you have to have done something right.
If they do worse this year bring in another manager, but we have to ask what are our expectations and requirments for a manage. Does he have to make the playoffs every year to keep his job. That’s a pretty high bar. Don’t know any that have done that. Not many like Bobby Cox out there.
Russ555
January 28th, 2012
11:05 am
You also have to look at the Braves payroll. 97 milion is not in the top tier. Hard to compete with clubs paying that much for players saleries.
Let's Be Honest
January 28th, 2012
11:23 am
“how did they get so far ahead in the quest for the playoff spot in the first place”
The rotation, EOF, JV, and Kimbrel.
jek
January 28th, 2012
11:40 am
The Braves lost last year because ther was no accountability.Lowe was allowed to continue to pitch when he should have been released. Ugla should have been benched when his lack of hitting killed the offense.Hudson should have been pulled when he gave up 4 runs in the second inning…etc etc… This is a management problem. Freddie did not insist on performance; this is either that he is not a leader or that his hands were tied by Wren, Mcquirk or Liberty who wanted to” get their money’s worth” or to try to vindcate bad player or financial choices–probably both–. Looks like more of the same this year.
BirdDroppings
January 28th, 2012
11:40 am
Let’s not completely forget, let’s learn from it. One thing is the players need to be in better shape.
Joey
January 28th, 2012
11:41 am
Maybe Fredi should check in with Mark Richt to learn how to study cutting edge sports.
alex
January 28th, 2012
12:15 pm
it’s not about Fredi, it’s about attendance that provide more finance to organization likewise lucrative TV contracts. we are in no good situation, free agent not looking any more to Atlanta. expect tough fight for next to last place in our division between mets and braves, and don’t blame Fredi, take you ass from couch and go to the games.
William Smith
January 28th, 2012
12:54 pm
Check out his mentor. Bobby Cox could win 100 games during the regular season, and then lose to the Tiawan little league champs in the playoffs. At least we didn’t have to buy playoff tickets to look like a Class A minor league team. Don’t worry Chipper and his buddies will carry us to the World Series if it is in May this year. That is when he usually has an injury and slows down.
Heathcliff Slocum
January 28th, 2012
1:31 pm
My, such positive comments. There is however a black cloud on the horizon – our starting rotation. Our three top people are all coming off some sort of injury and still no credible lefty to throw at the Phils and others. If Huddy, Hanson and JJ snap back, we’re in good shape – maybe even if one doesn’t but two of the three, then the absurdity of fighting for fourth place could become a reality.
61 year Braves Fan
January 28th, 2012
1:39 pm
Good to read Sonny Clusters again. I thought Fredi did a very bad job in managing this team last year.
I would have wanted Bobby Valentine but Boston has him now. We need a solid r.h. bat in the outfield.
I hope I am wrong but unless he corrects that long loopy swing, Heyward will be in the minors by
Memorial Day.
P B Orr
January 28th, 2012
2:53 pm
What would he do differently than a year ago? He’s not sure. That says it all. He wasn’t sure last year, and it was obvious. My buddies were going to lynch me mid-season because I was bitching about him constantly – it was already clear in July he didn’t have the leadership skills to make it through a grinding season. He’s in a way the opposite of Bobby, who was too stubborn. Gonzales was so pliable and indecisive that it spilled over into the entire team’s attitude, who went from knowing how to win to trying not to lose. It was painful.
tulsabravo
January 28th, 2012
3:44 pm
Sorry Fredi, but like I said in a song I wrote, “altruism died with the village idiot.”
Ben
January 28th, 2012
4:25 pm
Autopsy Report: Massive Choke attack
Fredi has to say these things but fans will always remember. You always remember those. Even more than the Championships.
Falcons and Braves. Worst collapses in the same year. BLECH.
DawgDad
January 28th, 2012
4:57 pm
“Good teams – and most would consider the Braves just that – can’t lose consecutive series to East Division clown acts like the Nationals, Mets and Marlins in a playoff race. Good teams don’t blow 8½-game wild-card leads in 23 days.”
How can you write this stuff? Leave out the garbage between the “-”’s and it makes perfect sense.
The Braves are NOT a “good team”; they will have to earn back that respect on the field, proving to the fan base they are not the bunch of hapless pushovers they were in September. Right now I would pick them fourth in the East (no better than third), and I’m not at all convinced they can outperform the Mets. Wait and see where the “expert” prognosticators around MLB pick them to finish.
GTT
January 28th, 2012
5:05 pm
I don’t get the flag thing. If you win your division, you finished first and made the playoffs. Something wrong with celebrating that? I was a fan back when they had less than no shot to finish first and most often were last, or close to it. Weird thing to be obsessed about if you ask me.
DawgDad
January 28th, 2012
5:16 pm
Let’s Be Honest: You hit the nail right on the head. The Cardinals, in September, were a FAR better team than the Braves, as their records bear witness. Pujols, Berkman, Holliday, Craig — top shelf hitters all, while the middle of the Braves order was in the collective tank (even Freeman tailed off at the end). In the end I was glad the Cardinals made the playoffs – they were very entertaining, their fan base deserves it for the support they provide, and the Braves likely would have been a painful embarrassment.
The Braves are hamstrung by the contracts of Chipper, Uggla, and Lowe, and this management team is not being held accountable for last year’s collapse.
MitchC
January 28th, 2012
6:16 pm
Jeff, I like your choice of words. “Autopsy” is just about perfect. The Braves 2011 playoff hopes disinterigrated, like a person with a terminal illness.
When you mentioned that “It cant happen again”. To be honest, I dont think we will be in position for it to happen again. Florida improved this offseason, and the Braves stood pat after we choked away such a big lead in a short period of time.
I think that the Braves will finish no better than third in the East, with about 85 or so wins, and that Florida will pass us for the wild card.
I’m disappointed that we didnt improve ourselves over the winter. I hold no high expectations for the 2012 Braves, sorry.