Fire Fredi? No, but the Braves did some major mismanaging
Esteemed colleague Mike Luckovich offers this extremely flattering bit of imagery.
Midnight had come and gone, and Frank Wren stood in Bill Acree’s office just off the main clubhouse. (Acree is the Braves’ director of travel, and earlier he’d been triangulating the hoped-for trip to St. Louis and then to Milwaukee or Phoenix. Moot point now.) The general manager was staring at a TV above the door. Boston had just lost. Tampa Bay had just won.
“Coming into September,” Wren said, disbelief in his voice, “we [meaning the Red Sox and the Braves] had two of the four best records in baseball.”
Neither will be part of the sport’s eight-team tournament, and today the Braves’ one source of consolation is that the Sox choked even harder than they did. (Unbelievable that two of the three biggest September flops in the game’s century-long annals were concluded within moments of each other. The third happened in 1964 to the Pholdin’ Phils.) There were similarities in these contemporary collapses — starting pitchers got hurt and everything unraveled — but we’ll let long-suffering New Englanders suffer long with theirs.
As for the local nine: Wren did his job. He built a good-looking team. He landed Michael Bourn in July and fleshed out his roster with Matt Diaz and Jack Wilson in August. (And what did the glove man Wilson do? Became the new Brooks Conrad by erring on a double-play grounder that became Philadelphia’s second run Wednesday night.) This should have been a playoff team, and for 5 1/2 months it was playoff-bound. Then it derailed itself.
Blame should attach itself to Fredi Gonzalez, but not the sort that has been tossed around. Jose Constanza would not have saved the season. (He’s a journeyman. Come on.) Starting Derek Lowe in Game No. 161 was a justifiable choice. (You’d start the rookie Julio Teheran instead? Come on.) This wasn’t so much about managing situations — every manager, even the learned La Russa, whiffs on a nightly basis — as in managing people.
I’m not a big fan of team meetings, but sometimes they’re necessary. Gonzalez had one after the Braves lost seven of nine early in the month, which might have been a day too late, and another after they lost Game No. 161 to fall into a tie with St. Louis. What Fredi said Tuesday night was appropriate — “I wouldn’t pick any other guys over you to go out and win a game” — but by then the panic was full-blown. Panic is why this season ended after 162 games.
Ninth inning, Game No. 162: The kid closer Craig Kimbrel is on to do as he has done 46 times in 53 tries — slam the door. He yields a leadoff single to Placido Polanco, strikes out Carlos Ruiz, walks the part-timer Ben Francisco. It’s clear the kid closer, who’s 23, is trying to hurl the ball through the backstop. (”I was overthrowing,” Kimbrel admitted.) Brian McCann walks to the mound.
Roger McDowell sits in the dugout.
Only after Kimbrel walks Jimmy Rollins to load the bases does the pitching coach emerge to speak to his kid pitcher. (Something similar happened in Monday’s game, when McDowell watched as the Phillies mustered four base runners and one run in the fourth inning before going to the mound to counsel the rookie Randall Delgado.) It’s entirely possible that a coaching visitation would have had no effect on Kimbrel, but why not try? Why didn’t Gonzalez say, “Roger, get out there,” one batter sooner?
I asked. This was Fredi’s response: “That’s here or there.”
But it isn’t. There are certain things managers can do to manage a game, and dispatching a pitching coach is one. The Braves’ dugout seemed to be a beat slow in this final series, this whole final month. Again, it might have made no difference. Again, why not try?
And then the hitting, or the lack thereof. Once the Phillies tied it, nearly every Brave wanted to be Kirk Gibson. Guys were overswinging as badly as Kimbrel had overthrown. The Phils were deploying pitchers who won’t work a postseason inning, and the Braves’ flailing made Justin DeFratus and David Herndon look like Mariano Rivera.
“We’ve been swinging really, really hard for a while,” said Chipper Jones, who had the best late-game swing — the deep drive that Michael Martinez hauled down in the 10th — of any Brave. And that, sad to say, was this team’s signature: Swing really hard in case it hit something.
Under hitting coach Terry Pendleton, the 2010 Braves led the National League in on-base percentage. Under Larry Parrish, the 2011 Braves were 14th of 16 teams. Parrish was hired as hitting coach despite never having been a big-league hitting coach. Maybe the Braves would have hit .193 in September with runners in scoring position with Ty Cobb as their tutor. Then again, maybe they wouldn’t.
Yes, players ultimately must bear the blame for plays unmade, but this fine team was, in the end, both too laid-back in its oversight and too tightly wrapped in its playing. I don’t think Fredi Gonzalez needs to be fired — he did, after all, lose his two best starting pitchers — but I do think he needs to be more assertive. He absolutely needs a new hitting coach, but …
No such luck. Fredi announced Thursday the coaching staff would return intact. Which makes you wonder about Fredi.
By Mark Bradley
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
585 comments Add your comment
Jason Heyward's Gynecologist
September 30th, 2011
12:37 pm
Brian Snitker would’ve held up Sid Bream at 3rd.
Pat McGroin
September 30th, 2011
12:42 pm
Question: What would Arthur Blank say if the Falcons had a season equivalent to that of the 2012 Braves? Top notch ownership who says the buck stops here is always better than having a button-down, walled off, conservative corporation as owner!
Leftfronttire
September 30th, 2011
12:42 pm
We were an 89-win team all year. The numbers just caught up to us on the last day of the year.
If the Cardinals had not had an awesome September we would be preparing to go hack and slap for three or four (total) runs in a five-game series.
I bet those grown men felt silly when they looked in the mirror yesterday morning and saw those mohawks staring back at them.
Pat McGroin
September 30th, 2011
12:43 pm
Hey, Jason Heyward’s Gynecologist. It’s good to hear from you again today! Have you started the treatments yet – or is your patient still in denial?
Tom
September 30th, 2011
12:48 pm
There much too much time and effort being spent on analyzing the 2011 Braves. Spend as much time as you like but,at the end of the day, here’s the answer: these guys sucked. That’s pretty much al there is to it. The end. Better luck next time.
TiredofTheBraves
September 30th, 2011
12:52 pm
If Francona is fired we need to get him ASAP!!!
neil marlowe
September 30th, 2011
12:53 pm
losing two starting pitchers down the stretch was a problem, but lets face it,
this bunch did well to finish where they did. Half the team is either triple A
players or over-the-hill types like Chipper. I pick up the paper and read the
box scores and think to myself, “who are these guys?”
I don’t know what I would do to get ready for the 2012 season, but a healthy
pitching staff would be a good start. Can somebody convince Chipper not
to come back? There is nobody in the batting order that scares pitchers.
And give D. Lowe a big party and say goodby.
Let’s face it, the current players are not going to frighten anyone else in
2012. Unless we get great pitching, this bunch will do well to break even.
neil marlowe
Rick
September 30th, 2011
12:55 pm
Anyone else tired of Chippers arrogance? He reminds me more and more of Glavine. Their preformance is overshadowed by their ego.
Great column Mark.
Fredi's a loser
September 30th, 2011
1:01 pm
Fire Fredi the Loser!
Hire Francona asp…and his coaches
Pat McGroin
September 30th, 2011
1:03 pm
Here’s one thing for sure… We cannot come back with the same hitters and expect them to suddenly provide offense. If we stand pat with this group thinking they will somehow come around, I am done with the Braves.
dark30
September 30th, 2011
1:03 pm
@Tumbledown, thanks for putting into your well-written post what many of us longtime fans feel. I was born here and sat through the bumbling 70s/80s teams, and now I prefer them over the choking bunch put out on the field the past 10+ years. At least your expectations were kept in check. Is there any other city that has suffered through such misery? No one should even mention Boston, ’cause that’s a city with championships across multiple sports, and this one year is a catastrophe to them. Try the last 10+ for the Braves, not even counting the Falcons, Hawks, etc. When September comes I’ve reached the point where I stopped watching. Why invest yourself emotionally in a game where you know the outcome, the players seem to know it, and all they do is pack up and return to their gated estates and pocket millions? I did attend the 7-1 Phillies game because I was invited, and you could sense the inevitability from the players, fans, etc. Depressing and a waste of time. I always hope they’ll win, but life’s better without the investment in a team that seems content to be good and not great. Or maybe cursed.
joemoedee
September 30th, 2011
1:06 pm
If at the beginning of the year we would have known…
.260 from Prado
.227 from Heyward
.178 from Uggla up until July 5th
23 and 22 games from Jurrjens and Hanson respectively
… none of us would have thought the Braves would have been even CLOSE to the playoffs, yet alone two wins away. Even though the collapse is hard to stomach, at the end of the day, they won more games than they probably should have.
We learned that Beachy and Minor have the talent to be major leaguers. Freeman and Kimbrell are both the real deal. Landed an actual leadoff hitter with speed in Bourn. Chipper looks to have some life left in his bat. Kawakami and McLouth’s contracts are now gone. AGon will be gone. A full year of Medlen. The team is set up pretty well for next year. They have the right pieces in place to compete for a long time.
Pat McGroin
September 30th, 2011
1:14 pm
joemoedee – those are a few nice pieces… but not anything that is going to challenge for the ONLY TROPHY TEAM PURSUE : A WORLD SERIES. Not winning the division, not a Pennant!
Pat McGroin
September 30th, 2011
1:18 pm
If I hear this organization say they are proud of all those division championships ONE MORE TIME…. These as&es JUST DONT GET IT… They are in another reality – disconnected from their fans!
msd
September 30th, 2011
1:27 pm
Spoken by someone with no responsibility and perfect 20-20 hindsight. Pretty easy to say you should have done this after you know the outcome.
Anon
September 30th, 2011
1:27 pm
Sure did miss Proctor in the series against the Phillies. After seeing how well he did for the Yankees, he might replace Rivera next year.
keith bragg
September 30th, 2011
1:52 pm
I’m just a fan, but I know baseball. I was glad they hired Fredi G. as manager, but have come to regret their choice big-time. I know the world loves Bobby Cox, but I didn’t for that same reason I have no love for Fredi. They cannot seem to learn from their mistakes when it comes to taking a pitcher out or leaving him in. Both managers would sit on their butts and watch a pitcher load the bases and wait til the damage is done before reacting. I don’t care how good a pitcher is, all men have their days when they just can’t get it done. And Cox and Gonzalez don’t seem to understand that the original plan sometimes has to be changes. And whoever makes the decisions as to who will be traded and who will be retained as a player is really dropping the ball in Atlanta. Linebrink, Diaz, Heyward, Sherril, Lowe and various others are liabilities and not assets. And I believe Fredi Gonzalez is as well. And someone needs to take Freeman, A. Gonzalez, and others under their wing and teach them to identify hittable pitches and to not take golf swings at nearly every pitch that is thrown within the vicinity of the plate.
If the same guys show up next season-including the same hitting coach and the same manager-the results will be the same or worse. Atlanta could have gone after Cliff Lee and many other assets to the team, but instead, dips into the minor league stock and gets the results that might be expected by a reasonable person. As is, the team is barely mediocre and will stay as such until their are responsible reasonable changes made in the roster.
bvillebaron
September 30th, 2011
2:09 pm
Mark:
Your “come on” comment about pitching Teheran over Lowe Tuesday is absurd. Gonzalez (and if he was consulted, Wren as well) absolutely deserve to get ripped for failing to send Teheran instead of Lowe out for not only that game but for at least 2 or 3 of Lowe’s prior starts.
Teheran is widely regarded as the best of the team’s “Big 4″ prospects (Vizcaino, Minor and Delgado). He also pitched 2 games earlier in the season and was something like 15-2 with an ERA around 2 and the IL rookie and pithcer of the year.
The team had no problem giving Delgado something like 5 starts or so at the end of the season and this worked out well. However, unless I missed something, Teheran did not pitch at all (and clearly did not start any game) after his September call up until the team was behind 6-0 Tuesday. I thought they weren’t pitching him because they shut him down for the season. Since this obviously wasn’t the case, why did they bother to add him to the roster in September if they weren’t going to give him a chance to pitch?
Any person with two eyes could see that Lowe simply didn’t have it the entire month of September and, worse yet, lost his confidence. Orel Hersheiser mentioned on the radio before the game the other night that Lowe was struggling with his mechanics. On top of all of that, this was his 5th start against the Phils this year. Lowe simply has not given a team desparately struggling to score runs any realistic chance to win any of his September starts and yet this “brain trust” kept sending him out not only every 5 days the entire month, but also for one of the most critical games of the season any way. Teheran would have given the team a chance to win Tuesday whereas Lowe did not.
Did you also notice how Joe Maddon and the Rays don’t have any qualms about permitting Matt Moore to make his second major league start today in the ALDS? No Mark, you are the one who deserves the “come on” for even attempting to justify the decision to pitch Lowe Tuesday.
Victor Pavamani
September 30th, 2011
2:12 pm
The Braves, as an organization in the last twenty years or more, has so brilliantly lulled us into accepting mediocrity as standard. They even lulled the press corps into the same rut. I recall the days when I J Rosenberg was the Braves beat writer. He epitomized the “wimp.” Then, those others who followed him, walked straight in IJ’s path. When did you ever read a caustic note that rolled off their pens? Today, for the first time I see Fredi picked apart. Poor Fredi, he says, you never did this to Bobby all those millenia and, here I am, in my rookie year and you put a noose around me? Not fair! I don’t, for a moment, want us to have something of the circus atmosphere of the New York media. But, gee, there’s got to be something in the middle, that keeps our pro sports organization on their toes.
TruthSeeker
September 30th, 2011
2:15 pm
Hire Terry Francona!
It may seem counterintuitive to fire one manager after his team choked down the stretch and then hire another whose team did the exact same thing, but Francona has done far more than Fredi ever has. He has proved that he can change a culture of losing and choking under pressure. This guy is the perfect fit for the Braves.
RA
September 30th, 2011
2:19 pm
I hate to adminit it but Bradley’s never a nail more squarely on the head.
Tumbledown
September 30th, 2011
2:22 pm
Fo some unknown reason, my last message was not posted. I just wanted to thank Dark30 and add some more comments about why a change in leadership is important. Mediocrity and complacency should not be accepted.
gobraves
September 30th, 2011
2:31 pm
I would have packaged Heyward and one of the young guns for Pence. That guy’s the real deal and I’m not sure about J-Hey. He wouldn’t be the first highy touted prospect to hit the wall at the major league level. Still, I think the Cards may surprise and take Philly down.
1eyedJack
September 30th, 2011
2:32 pm
“Esteemed colleague Mike Luckovich”. Now that’s a phrase undeserved. I drew better pictures than that in the fifth grade. Another panty “waste”.
A collapse this monumental cannot be attributed to just one man but must be placed upon the entire collective. Saving Freddie Freeman no one on this team lived up entirely to their potential. Maybe Freeman didn’t live up to his either, though we have nothing to compare it with.
Dump Lowe and take the hit or let him take Kawakami’s roster spot in Mississippi. Trade Jurrjens and/or Hanson and get a decent bat in left field. Parrish has got to go. Swap him back out with Pendleton. Maybe Terry learned something during his year in purgatory.
Can Pastornicky catch the ball well enough to play shortstop?
Let Prado play second until the all-star break next year and let Uggla play it after that. Then you could move Prado to third because by then Chipper’s going to either have a sore knee or oblique or bunions or something.
Get Heyward to a psychologist or away from Parrish or both.
1eyedJack
September 30th, 2011
2:43 pm
Maybe we could trade Lowe and a case of Budweiser for a career minor leaguer and some balls and bats. We would, of course, have to throw in some cash.
Scooter
September 30th, 2011
2:59 pm
I am still sick to my stomach that the Braves lost, that they lost as they did, and that I sat up so late the other night. However,the last person I am going to turn to for analysis is Mark Bradley. What a well-thought out commentary…”[It] might not have made a difference, but why not try it?” Are you kidding me? This is the commentary of a professional sports journalist? What a tool!
Bob Rohosky
September 30th, 2011
3:03 pm
Nobody’s saying that Brad-Schultz should be fired, but…
After one season as Braves manager, Fredi Gonzalez is a failure. That is the collective wisdom handed down from the mountain by the great collective mind of Bradley and Schultz (Brad-Schultz). Fredi failed because he failed to realize the true leadership of the Braves and Falcons and Hawks and…All he needs to do to be the next Miller Huggins or Joe McCarthy is sit in his office and breathlessly await the daily pearls of wisdom carved in stone by the genius mind of Brad-Schultz, who everyone knows should be in charge of all sports teams, professional or collegiate, in the area. Brad-Schultz have all the professional credentials necessary. They played intra-mural volleyball in the third grade. They manage regularly. They manage to find their way to work nearly every day. And they passed writing 101, although on the third or fourth try apparently. We all hope Fredi comes to his senses before the next season. But the sports writer geniuses who run the teams in New York, Philadelphia, St. Louis and Tampa did not let their teams crash in September. So, nobody is saying that Brad-Schultz should be fired, but….
?
September 30th, 2011
3:05 pm
FIRE THE FATASS BALD HEADE CUBAN WHO THINKS HE IS A MANAGER.
the other side of the story
September 30th, 2011
3:20 pm
MB,
Why the philly hating and the continued nonsense on 1964 (Pholding Phillies)? The nice part of 2007 was not only the Phils winning, but the Mets replaced the ‘64 team, by giving up 7.5 game lead with 17 to play. (Phils ‘64 lead was 6.5)
Phils-Braves is a nice rivalry, and you should be writing how the Phillies played the right way, as opposed to say the Yankees not pitching Rivera the other night. If the Phillies were playing STL Wed night and the situation was reversed, you would hope they played the right way. Your team was cooked (for lots of reasons) and they couldnt hit AAA pitchers in extras – that was the issue.
Love reading the AJC, but last year you wrote the article saying the Braves could never give up the division – they did. And this year your partner writes nonsense about Chipper beating the Phils in the playoffs – and you never made it.
You are obviously annoying the baseball Gods with your silly writings…and the 1964 mis-placed reference. Move on from that – nothing (any longer) to see here.
Braves fan deserve better……
Liberty Media
September 30th, 2011
3:33 pm
Out here in Denver, we really follow the Rockies more than the Braves, so sorry you fans feel bad about what happened. We actually ran some metrics and are not happy with how this outcome may affect bottom lines and margins. Will likely have to make some further cuts to offset these projections, so a reduction in payroll is forthcoming. Cannot afford the acquisition costs to hire new personnel, so hence the announcement from Mr. Gonzalez yesterday about his staff returning. We will be offshoring everything we can and installing AstroTurf at the Ted to name a few. The future looks bright however with all of the less-expensive-for-now minor leaguers and the fact that we plan to “hold” this investment.
realist
September 30th, 2011
3:53 pm
RedSox have done the right thing, the Braves need to do the same. No excuses.
Hell, Fredi even seems to think it is funny – both interviews I’ve seen with him since the choke he’s been grinning ear to ear. No worries for him. He has now even invited all of the underperforming coaches back as well. Why not, doesn’t really matter what happens. All great fun.
papadawg
September 30th, 2011
3:56 pm
Teams of any sport who rely on young inexpensive players and players at the end of their career will always be left out of the playoffs
George Allen
September 30th, 2011
4:24 pm
Okay, here is where I’ll admit I was WRONG. PRIME EXAMPLE: Moore is Due to start 1st Game EVER as Starting Pitcher in ALDS. If he pitches AGAINST AMONG THE BEST hitters in MLB and doesn’t put forth Quality Start, I will Aquiesce: No Teheran and Maybe use Lowe. If he pitches well (and I believe he will) put away that BUNK about Good Rookie Pitchers can’t pitch in Post Season.
Ex-Brave fan
September 30th, 2011
6:50 pm
“Constanza would’nt have saved the season”—-When you lose by ONE GAME, thats pure B.S. He was the hottest pl;ayer on the team when Fat Freddie chose to display his superior managing skills.
Hy Ronatt
September 30th, 2011
9:18 pm
“Why didn’t Gonzalez say, “Roger, get out there,” one batter sooner?”
It’s called Booby Ball. The uncanny ability to wait one batter too late when everyone else on the planet can see it’s time for a change.