Grading our GMs: Dimitroff’s at the top, but where’s Wren?

Mark,I always enjoy reading your columns on the Hawks. You guys at the AJC do a pretty good job on trying to keep Basketball relevant in this town. I do my best to support them when I can get down there and always follow them on TV. Maybe a strong playoff push this year will stir up some excitement.

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[...] AJC’s Mark Bradley Rates Thomas Dimitroff Highly [...]

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[...] AJC’s Mark Bradley Rates Thomas Dimitroff Highly [...]

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Who cares about the Thrashers?

^ Top reason why Waddell gets an F. Hockey is a tough enough sell in Atlanta without a terrible GM running the ship into the ground.

As far as Wren, you’ve given him too high a grade as well. The best thing you can say about him is that he brought in Javy Vazquez, but he screwed that up by trading him away for Melky Cabrera. And then there was that little thing about not doing his due diligence with Soriano, and signing an aging Billy Wagner when Soriano wanted to stay. As a Braves fan I fear that we’re already well on our way to the pre-1989 Braves, and Wren is accelerating that as fast as he can. I don’t see us breaking past either the Phils or the Mets under his direction.

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some are disdainful, many, many others ambivelant.

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I think you guys should give DWad at least some slack.
I’ve been following the Thrashers from 2001 and am just as frustrated as anyone.

But this season the guy has actually done some really good deals.
Any GM who gets Max Afinogenov with 800k $/a year can’t be all that bad.
Added with the Kubina and Antropov deals + the drafting of Evander Kane,
he’s actually had a really good season. Not to mention the last season additions of Marty Reasoner and Rich Peverley.

Also, as far as I’ve understood, the ownership hasn’t actually made his job any easier.
And he’s had some terribly bad luck over the years.

BUT, I do also agree, that as a whole his whole career with the Thrashers has been pretty darn bad. Other than bad luck, he’s also made some really bad decisions over the years.

Also I think that in all of its excistence the Thrashers have had huge problems with the defence, but at no time I’ve seen any real commintment in trying to prove that. I think that many of the goalie problems also have a lot to do with this fact. – the lack of defence just makes the goalies look terrible.
Most of the Thrashers’ d-men are well known for one ability – the good offense abilities.
So we pretty much lack of any good defensive defence-men (aint that their #1 duty?).
We did have Braydon Coburn once, but DWad decided to get rid of him.

So we’ve had this system – where the best defence is suppposed to be a good offence for over a decade now. And where has it put us? Once in the playoffs, with not a single one game of them won.

So to summ it up. I’d say that only because of his good moves this season and the season before DWad still may earn this his extension time as a GM. But if the Thrashers don’t only get to the playoffs this spring, but also go at least to 2nd round there, he just got to go. Plus, nevertheless, I think he has to change his whole concept of building a team.
(Coach Anderson, who is also known for his offence emphasizing attitude towards the game, already tries to change the team philosophy to more D-minded one. But it just may be too little too late.)

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A better question is were does Bobby Cox rank as a manager – when you look past the fact that he rode the best pitching staffs perhaps in baseball history to Division wins over the long 162 game regular season sechedules in spite of in management procedures and lack thereof.
Do Cox supporters NOT THINK:
(1) That it defies logic that even with this great pitching he could sin only 1 WS in 14 post season opportunities;
(2) That it is a little strange that he continuously keeps position players in the lineup for months when it is obvious to everyone that they cannot produce and that he has far better options on the bench;
(3) That it is a little odd that he does not seem to know that he can adjust his batting order up and down based on who is hot and who is not.
(4) That it is hard to explain why season after season he takes a relief pitcher who cannot get anyone out and keeps on using him on and on and on;
(5) That it is wierd that he does not make lineup adjustments and batting order adjustments based on how great or how terrible certain hitters do against certain pitchers;
(6) That it is difficult to justify that he misuses his bullpen season after season, after season;
(7) That it is odd that he doesn’t seem to know that you if your 3rd place hitter is in a terrible slump (even though he has been a star), you can still move him down in ghe batting order;
(8) And most important of all, that it is unbelievable that he apparently has no concept at all of the absolute necessity to run production that you to teach, emphasize, demand that hitters work the count, be selective, make the opposing pitcher throw a lot of pitches
(9) That it cannot be explained why he seems to have no concept of putting pressure on the opposing pitcher – in a variety of situations and in a variety of ways.
(10) And this does not even go into his blundering strategy moves in game after game after game.

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You are too kind with a D. 10+ years of futility would have ended Donnie’s tenure in any major sports city long ago. And if several coaches, including him, cannot succeed, you have to wonder about the GM.

Saddest is that if they had a winning franchise they would sellout every night even without “Chik-Fil-A Night”.

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Whether Waddell gets a D, D-minue, or an outright F, doesn’t matter because neither is a grade to be proud of and even if he re-signs Kovalchuk, he needs to go.

If the former Hawks G.M. Knight had a track record even remotely close to Waddell, Knight would have been fired long ago. Why is Waddell given so much slack? Why was Pete Babcock given so much slack despite what he inherited from former G.M. of the Year Stan Kasten which was an enviable situation and despite what he proceeded to do over succeeding years including the outright stupid is-he-on-drug decision to bring in J.R. Rider?

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At this point, I am not sure that you should give Dimitroff an A. I am not a Falcons fan, but I admired the new GM’s work in his first year, but his 2nd year left a lot to be desired. Every team has injuries, and the Falcons had their share, but the Falcons played in a division that wasn’t very strong. The Falcons knew they needed upgrades on their offensive line and their defense, and they didn’t do enough there. On the other hand, Tony Gonzalez was a nice pickup, the kind of guy who can keep a second year QB like Matt Ryan from losing his confidence. I think you should have given the Falcons GM a B-minus; lines of scrimmage win in the playoffs, and the Falcons need major upgrades on both of theirs.

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Ive said it numerous times and I will continue to say it until I get feedback from others. The Falcons blew an opportunity to easily WIN a superbowl this season by releasing players during the offseason. Those players would have enabled the Falcons to be Superbowl champions this season. If they had those three players signed right now, the Falcons, healthy, would have been better than the Saints, Vikings, Jets and Colts, the remainding four teams that are currently playing to get into the superbowl. The Falcons season of 2009 would not have been a waste, but rater a superbowl championship season and about 3 weeks from know the Falcons would be getting fitted for the Superbowl championship winning rings. Too bad. Bad personnell decisions by Dimitroff caused this and now the Falcons will regress and go backwards from here. Case in point. The Falcons record this season was 9-7, DOWN from 11-5 last year, so you can see the regression starting to take place. Next season, the Falcons should be sitting at either 6-10 or 7-9 if they are lucky and the regression will continue from there. They had the players to be champions, they were too cheap to sign them and give them market value for their services. The Falcons need a new general manager as far as Im concerned.

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“Even the jaded among us presumed the pursestrings would be loosened slightly given Cox’s pending retirement.”

Why? What sense would that make? Cox has already shown that he can ruin a top budget team as thoroughly as he can ruin a mid-budget team

The time to think about expanding the payroll budget will be when we have a chance to win something – which will be the day after Cox leaves the premises for good

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The only mistake that Billy Knight made as a hawks gm was not drafting chris paul over marvin williams. Thats is! In spite of that mistake the Hawks are in first place and when billy first came here, the hawks were the worst franchise in professional sports. Billy Knight should receive a bouquet of flowers for the job he did in turning around the Hawks. If the Hawks dont win a title now it wont be Knights fault. Knight provided all the horses for the Hawks to win. If they blow it now its their own fault or the fault of the current hawks gm.

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Wren – All Blow Give him a big fat F

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“Robert..are those scrabble words?”

A fancy way of saying that something has the proper number of chromosomes.

I wouldnt be at all surprised to learn that Cox is missing a few – it would explain his retardation

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After being involved in baseball for over 60 years (as a player, coach, manager, fan); the two biggest mysteries – most amazing things I have seen are:
(1) How could Bobby Cox manage for over 20 years and continuously do and fail to do the things that he does that defy logic and common sense and the most fundamental essentials of winning?
(2) Secondly, why do the AJC writers continously ignore Bobby Cox’s obvious incompetency and blunders game after game after game? Are they under orders to do this? Do they just have an agreement not to be critical? Has the Braves organization ordered this or they will not give thim access. So many things are so obvious – things that any manager (at any level of baseball – Little League to High School – to College – to Semi Pro – to Minor League – to Major Leage) would do or not do as some of the most simple essentials of winning. Is it that his incompetency is so significant, his blunders so numerious – that there is no where to begin – that it is impossible to address?

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All I can say Braves fans is we’re in for another disapointing year. No lead off hitter and about all we got was players out of their prime. As long as a media company owns the Braves and no individual owns them we can’t expect much so hang on to your hats Braves fans. We’ll be talkingabout this next year again.

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Don – Baseball is a good ole boys club. Nobody says anything bad about anyone else in the club, cuz if one does, then they are essentially black-balled.

Sportswriters depend on their being “in the club” to get access to, candid discussion with, and scoops from, players and staff.

Look, anyone with HALF a brain realizes that Cox is incompetent. It’s the elephant in the room. But if you’re a sportswriter, you have to toe the party line and speak only well of Cox (or any other of the frat brothers).

Now, a guy like Canseco – you can rip him apart. Never mind the fact that while player after player has been proven a liar, the one guy who every claim of his that has been checked on he has been proven to have told truth. Thing is, he spoke bad, he said things that “dissed” others, or put them in bad light

Appearances and buddy-buddy are what count in this ole boys club. Everyone SAYS they think Cox is great. Now tell me, do you think any team would actually do anything but laugh if we offered Cox in a trade?

To be in the club, you say as they say, and if you do, then they’ll verbally back whatever you do – no matter how wrong or stupid

Look at the photo on the Braves front page over the headline Meet the New Braves. Cox is visible in the background. The only other time I have seen that facial expression was whenn they showed coverage of the medal ceremonies at the Special Olympics

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Don – I have called out doucheblog Dave O’Brien many many times on the Cox issue. He despises me for it. He can not admit the truth. All he can do is try to discredit me thru ridicule and/or hate. It works with a corps of brainwashed head-nodding bloggers who either really believe anything OBrien says or who dont have the guts to disagree with him and thereby face his hate.

But the bloggers who think for themselves know. They may not all agree with me about quite how bad Cox is. Some of them also dislike me quite intensely. But they admit that OBrien and most of the rest of the ajc staff ignore the blatantly obvious Cox issue.

Here’s something that says a LOT. Who is the ONE ajc sportswriter who has done anything even close to really calling Cox out as a buffoon?

It was Bisher.

When did he do it?

A couple of months before he retired. As in, when it didnt matter any more whether the ole boys club accepted him or not.

Look what happened a couple of years ago when Smoltz treaded close to calling Cox out. He was shut up, and FAST, by Cox thru his chief minion and favorite son Hoss (aka Chumper Jones)

But then look at what Chipper himself said about his maybe retiring. It was in the interview that was posted on ajc a while back – Chipper said, and this is a paraphrase not an exact quote – that there were ’some politics in the game that get tiresome having to deal with’.

Ya think maybe he meant that my manager , (who he compared to a favorite grandpa), gee I like him like a grandpa but dang he’s an idiot but I cant say nuthin cuz I know where my bread is buttered, ya know?

I think that’s EXACTLY what he meant.

I also know that if anyone asked him that, he’d deny it and ridicule the idea.

GOTTA be that way – or you’re outta the ole boys club

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Mark

Your comment “hockey is doomed in Atlanta” is misguided and careless. Yes, attendance is bad but the core fans (there are plenty) are voting for a change of leadership in the front office by not showing up. Even Gary Bettman has said the Thrashers have not won so how can they be judged. I know you follow the Hawks closly and they are winning however attendance is horrible on a relative basis but are they doomed? When the Hawks were playing poorly during a better economy at times had 3 or 4 thousand in the building but yet did I read comments by you and the AJC making a careless projection about the fate of the Hawks in AtL? When the Thrahsers were winning their attendance was competitive and far better than the Hawks. It was just a couple of years ago that the Thrashers were out drawing Boston, Washington and Pittsburgh but they all started to win. The issue is not if hockey can survive but rather why is the GM still the voice and surviving (altough DW is a good guy). I wish you and your friends at the AJC had a better undestanding of the real issues.

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Sund A+

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Fellas fellas fellas, of course cowardly Bradley, baby girl Bowmen, and Sindee Schultz aren’t going to be critical of Booby Cox. 2 solid reasons…

Let’s start with number 1 :} These guys are not good writers and are incapable of writing a decent article, especially Bradley.

#2 Scared. Plain scared. They are little teeny eeny p-ssies and don’t want to rock the boat for fear that there job will be gone, and we all know what would happen if they lost this job…. they would not be hired anywhere in the country, mainly due to being the worst of the worst in the writing business…

So there you have it.

Not knowledgeable enough

and

No balls

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Wren did a good job rebuliding the pitching rotation, and then gave away the most durable and effective starter and got nothing in return. He should have been looking all winter for a solid #4 hitter. Betting the farm, hoping that a player who missed all of last year with an injury can be an effective clean-up hitter, makes no sense. LaRoche was more than an effective defensive and offensive player. No other Brave has hit more HR’s than he has in a season in the last 9 years.

He has upheld the GM’s traditon of trading starters for players that don’t last a year. We’ve seen Furcal, Andrus, Betemit, Sheffield, LaRoche, and Frenchy all traded for players that did not last a season. I’d say that is poor performance. He kept an ineffective battiing coach, and let Frenchy go to a division rival. Bad move. That hitting coach will still be in place when the new young studs arrive from the minors this year, and he will without a doubt screw them up.

I give Wren high marks for re-tooling the rotation last year, and then low marks for letting a starter and two key relievers go for nothing in return. He did not acquire a valid #4 hitter in the off season, and has allowed the most ineffective hitting coach in the game to stay in place. I give him a D, because he has not improved the team on offense, weakened them on defense, and kept TP as the hitting coach.

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Two suggestions to consider:
(1) Even though TBS can no longer carry baseball on a regular basis, they could still carry all the Braves games (with Cox managing) as a “Comedy Show”.
(2) The AJC should sponsor a weekly contest for fans to select Bobby Cox’s biggest blunder. Of course, it could be a daily contest.

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