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
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585 comments Add your comment
Sonny Clusters
September 29th, 2011
12:39 pm
Bottle of Beer, Pack of Mints, What this Team Needs, is Stinky Wintes!
jarvis
September 29th, 2011
12:40 pm
P.S. Winners don’t say they are proud of losing a 2 digit lead in 4.5 weeks.
Homer Run
September 29th, 2011
12:41 pm
Fredi wastes Teheran in a 5-0 game after Lowe implodes and uses Linebrink when everything is on the line ? That’s just retarded.
Homer Run
September 29th, 2011
12:42 pm
Something about that picture reminds me of Bobby Cox…
Dawg Tired
September 29th, 2011
12:42 pm
White Rat. I agree with Pat in saying get a life. You are odd.
TomB
September 29th, 2011
12:43 pm
You are wrong on this one Bradley. Linebrink should not have been part of this rotation,and yes, Delgado,Beachy, Minor, or Teheran would have been more effective. Why save Beachy? If you don’t win this game then a playoff game is irrelevant. What does one day of rest matter anyway in this situation? Delgado is the better pitcher. If I’m the manager and the game is on the line, guess what, I’m using my best pitcher. I think your praise of Wren is too much frankly. Who is ultimately responsible for Lowe,Linebrink,kawakami, Parrish, and Fredi?
MWC
September 29th, 2011
12:43 pm
Everone needs to listen to Sonny Clusters………….
Angus
September 29th, 2011
12:44 pm
If I were Liberty Media, he’d be fired.
They’ll be trying to sell pretty soon. The value of the organization just took a big hit.
Reid Adair
September 29th, 2011
12:44 pm
I absolutely disagree that Frank Wren did his job. Look at the offensive numbers for the season.
Batting average – 26th out of 30 MLB teams
Doubles – 29th
Runs Batted In – 22nd
Strikeouts – 6th (as in 6th MOST)
Runs Scored – 22nd
This is NOT a good offensive lineup. It wasn’t from the start, and it wasn’t at the end. The highest batting average among everyday players for the season was Freeman (.282). Bourn was a .278, and Jones was .275. McCann was .270.
country boy
September 29th, 2011
12:45 pm
Alright – I am the dumbest guy on this thread – but can someone explain to me the reason a team meeting is a bad idea. I only played high school football and baseball but prior to EVERY game we had a team meeting. Things discussed in the baseball team meeting were the opponents batters, pitcher, our pitcher ( a curve baller would maybe have more pitches pulled ) our signals from coaches, opponents weaknesses ( maybe a poor throwing catcher), ect. This meeting was a give and take between players and coaches and served to focus our team. It was never a call out and yell at session. Don’t pro players and coaches communicate? thanks for the help.
Fire Fredi? No, but the Braves did some major mismanaging | Mark … | ENA news
September 29th, 2011
12:45 pm
[...] Read more here: Fire Fredi? No, but the Braves did some major mismanaging | Mark … [...]
Homer Run
September 29th, 2011
12:49 pm
Team meetings are necessary. It gets everyone on the same page and lets everyone speak their minds.
joe
September 29th, 2011
12:49 pm
Parish was overrated as a player…so he needs to be run out of town as hitting coach…
8dogman
September 29th, 2011
12:49 pm
I think I would have taken my chances last night and not pitch to Pence who has killed the braves and he is the best hitter on their team. I don’t understand why Charlie Manuel played the game like it was the 7th game of the world series. One would have thought he would played the regulars for 6-7 innings and then rested them but he didn’t. I think in the 13th inning (which I didn’t stay up for) he had at least 5 regulars in the game. In the 9th inning McCann, Heyward, and Wilson all struck out and I went to bed because I knew they were doomed. Charlie may regret his decision to play his best team the last 3 games when he didn’t need to because this means the phillies have to face the cardinals and they would have had a easier time with the braves than they will with the cardinals in my opinion. Why in the world did Diaz start in right field instead of Constanza? That baffled me too. Freddie just seemed to forget about Constanza in the past 2-3 weeks and I don’t know why. Does anyone know why? To me he was a sparkplug they needed.
Sonny Clusters
September 29th, 2011
12:49 pm
Everybody loves Chipper and so do we . . . to a point. Past that point of admiring his career as a very good player on an almost-good baseball team. Almost goood because the Braves organization has told us for years that winning the division was good enough and competing for the pennant was always going to be difficult. Consequently, they never competed well for a pennant. We say take down those little division signs in the outfield and only leave up the ones where the team won the pennant. Anything less is not winning. Walking off the field early in the playoffs is not too different than walking off the field last night. The team doesn’t win the big ones. We still say Eric Hinske should have been preparing the team instead of those who have failed again and again to win the ring.
Homer Run
September 29th, 2011
12:51 pm
Mark : “He landed Michael Bourn in July and fleshed out his roster with Matt Diaz and Jack Wilson in August”.
Diaz & Wilson are pathetic.
Mark Bradley
September 29th, 2011
12:53 pm
Phillies had four regulars — Rollins, Utley, Pence and Ibanez — in at the finish. Ruiz, Ibanez and Polanco were out, and Victorino was used only to pinch-hit.
Fan of the Game
September 29th, 2011
12:54 pm
Payback for the way the organization treated Glenn Hubbard!
meh
September 29th, 2011
12:55 pm
we need a hitting coach that will explain to the players that it’s ok to get a single. every hit doesn’t have to be a home run.
kreedham
September 29th, 2011
12:56 pm
Soon to be former Braves-Linebrink, Lowe (if we pay most of his salary to whomever will take him, Sherrill, kk and McLouth, Parrish should go and a new strength and conditioning coach….seems like too many were out of gas. No hitting coach could fix Heyward and Prado.
On the bubble-Jack Wilson, Conrad, Hinske (needs to drop 20).
New Braves-whomever they can sign for the BP so OVK can work about 10 games less next year. Moylan will be a big help there! Could use 1 more. Moylan can spell any of the 3 so it doesn’t always have to be Ovenbrill.
Starting Pitching-Hudson, Beachy, JJ and Hanson if they recover fully. Minor could make it but could be the bullpen guy to go with Moylan. Bring the best new guy up-Delgado or Teheran…if one of them falters then switch em. They look like they’re close to being ready.
Some of the coaching staff-prob Parrish and maybe McDowell will be gone so Fredi can say “we made some changes”.
Phillies keep getting older and one of their big guns is due for some time on the DL. I mean, isn’t it their turn to have Hamels, Olswalt, Holliday or Lee out for the season.
DC
September 29th, 2011
12:57 pm
meh, its called the Furcal effect.
There we went again
September 29th, 2011
12:58 pm
So, how many seasons should we give Gonzalez in “on-the-job” training before we can expect some actual major league caliber managing?
country boy
September 29th, 2011
1:00 pm
@ Homer Run – Agreed ! But why only two team meetings in Sept. per MB ???
meh
September 29th, 2011
1:01 pm
ha ha, the “Furcal effect”.
Kyle
September 29th, 2011
1:03 pm
With as much money that goes into these teams now and this team couldn’t even go 500 in the last month with the playoffs on the line? If that doesn’t deserve a manager and a few of the players to be giving their walking papers I don’t know what it would take.
meh
September 29th, 2011
1:03 pm
they need to take a tip from “Major League” when Wesley Snipes character kept trying to yank everything out of the park and the coach told him that everytime he hit the ball in the air he owed him 20 push ups.
Fredi G
September 29th, 2011
1:06 pm
Playoffs? Don’t talk about — playoffs?! You kidding me?! Playoffs?!
TomB
September 29th, 2011
1:07 pm
I’ll never understand why Bourne wasn’t stealing second? Why have speed if you don’t utilize it?
Shug
September 29th, 2011
1:08 pm
Is Chipper still on the roster? Wake me when he isn’t.
Jason Heyward's Gynecologist
September 29th, 2011
1:09 pm
Yes, Fire Fredi.
Also, we need to consult with Dr. Kervorkian on our no-hustle, no-heart right fielder.
Billy (not Martin)
September 29th, 2011
1:09 pm
You guys that saying pitching to Pence was a mistake?
It’s not like he hit a sceaming line drive in the gap.
He broke his bat on a good pitch by Linebrink.
Uggla is cheating up the middel and couldn’t get to a very weak hit ball.
It was stinking bad luck, just like the braves always have.
The problem was that Linbrink walked the leadoff batter.
Just like Bourne getting called out on a steal that was a terrible call.
The problems with the Braves is that they now seem to expect these things to happen and don’t have the confidence they can overcome them.
That’s where the manager needs to light a fire under their @#@# and remind them they are proffessional athletes that once had one of the best records in baseball and owe it to the fans to play with confidence.
Brother John
September 29th, 2011
1:11 pm
Well, if my fiery comment ever gets out of moderation (whatever that is?) — I hope some folks get to read it. Lots of passion there. No curse words. I’ve frankly got better things to do. Later….
O'Brien
September 29th, 2011
1:11 pm
We have counted on Freeman and Kimbrel all year, and they are both rookies. We dont know what we would have gotten from Teheran, but we knew what we were going to get from Lowe. At least 4 runs in 4 innings.
And mentally, I think the players had a mindset that whenever Lowe was pitching, they would have to score at least 5 to have a chance.
Curious George
September 29th, 2011
1:12 pm
If the Braves are still paying Bobby Cox as an active team consultant, what the heck kind of advice has he been giving them over the past month?
Jason Heyward's Gynecologist
September 29th, 2011
1:13 pm
Matt Diaz will NEVER be a patient of mine.
Mr. Diaz has too much toughness, perseverance, integrity, team-FIRST mentality, respect for the game and HUSTLE for me to ever help.
Thank you, Matt Diaz.
Pat McGroin
September 29th, 2011
1:13 pm
Let’s call it what it is… a weak offensive team that was lucky to have such a solid bullpen. It is what it is.
TechRon
September 29th, 2011
1:14 pm
Fire Gonzalez. He blew it badly. For the whole 2nd half, he was awful. These are the guys he wants to go play with, huh? Well, they suck. They have no heart and neither does he. Is there a hitting coach on that team? Really? I keep hearing that there is. Well, I don’t believe it. Braves bats suck, the hitting coach is a failure and Gonzalez licenses all of it and acts like it is all good. Also, there is the fool who hired Gonzalez and sat there and watched the house fall down and did nothing. There is a lot of blame to go around and it needs to go to the top first.
Curious George
September 29th, 2011
1:15 pm
Mark,
As it is now approximately 1:15 PM already, why is it taking SO LONG today to fire Larry Parrish and Roger “Kids Don’t Belong at the [EXPLETIVE] Ballpark McDowell?
DTC
September 29th, 2011
1:15 pm
Mark, Cox’s teams did not play tight in the playoffs. He never knew how to coach them up in the playoff, with the one exception, and that was the year Tom Glavine and David Justice won the last ballgame for them. No one else could do anything. Then they traded David Justice, whom I often wonder if it was not Justice who was the real spark plug of the teams of the 90’s. He made one mistake of running his mouth, then hit the homerun to make up for his immature statement, and basically put his bat where his mouth was.
Pat McGroin
September 29th, 2011
1:16 pm
Curious George – I’ll tell you what Bobby’s advice would be… Stay the course; rely on your veterans; don’t make any major changes; rely on statistics… stay the course – all is well.
Pat McGroin
September 29th, 2011
1:17 pm
Oh – and be sure to praise your opponent for playing so well against you that you just coudn’t overcome it.
DetroitBraves
September 29th, 2011
1:17 pm
Any manager would have been at a disadvantage down two key starting pitchers, but that’s doesn’t mean Gonzalez isn’t flawed. He’s flawed in constructing lineups, handling the bullpen and in-game tactics. Mark, you’re offering another flaw here that isn’t as easily measured, but if true just adds to the condemnation. Had the Braves stayed perfectly healthy and won 100 games Gonzalez would have still been flawed. The result isn’t the point. It’s the process. 80 wins? 90 wins? 100 wins? When you have an obvious problem fix the problem before it does show up in the results. Too late.
Argh
September 29th, 2011
1:18 pm
Another Lowe apologist. Ridiculous. Fredi should have gone with ANYONE besides Lowe. Lowe was 0-5 with an 8.75 ERA in September. Case closed.
Constanza should have started for Heyward. It might’ve sparked the offense the same way it did weeks ago when Heyward was out. Plus, we would’ve had J-Hey as a power pinch hitter if we needed him.
For all of the mismanaging that has happened this year, starting Lowe in the penultimate game was the worst. It shows me that Fredi had no courage to do the smart managing and sit a veteran earning $15 mil/year and put someone out there that gave us a chance.
They should immediately release Lowe and McClouth – even if it means eating the salaries, and get some good hitting in the offseason.
shmoe
September 29th, 2011
1:18 pm
WHY are all you columnist so AFRAID to FLAT OUT SAY FIRE FREDI?????????????????
Curious George
September 29th, 2011
1:20 pm
Could Fredi Gonzalez be a “Trojan Horse” sent by the Marlins to destroy our once-great Braves organization from within, as he is so far doing an exceptional job in that respect?
Garry
September 29th, 2011
1:20 pm
When the umpire made the bad call on Bourn’s steal attempt at third, Fredi Gonzalez made a half-hearted effort at advising the ump about his poor eye sight. You can bet the ranch that Bobby Cox would have argued until he had set a new record for ejections. Fredi looked like a deer in the head lights in the dug out. There was never any of the encouraging comments from the dugout that you could hear from Bobby when a batter was at the plate. Plus, I agree with all of the comments about the poor situational hitting. I think there is a serious lack of leadership from the coaches.
Gumby
September 29th, 2011
1:22 pm
Calm the F down. Nobody should be fired. Everything that happens in life that doesn’t go your way does not mean somebody is at fault. It’s a game and few teams make the playoffs. Like Chipper said last night, the 2 run homer by Infante looked like a sign nothing would go our way. It didn’t.
Look for the problem and fix it for next year.
Thanks Braves for a fun ride. Looking forward to 2012 and hopefully a healthy team.
SG10
September 29th, 2011
1:23 pm
Mark,
I agree that BC would have kept players more loose than FG did but he would have lost that advantage by using his players loyalties in key situations. What amazes me and nobody seems to be talking about is lack of production from the pinch hitters in the past one month or so..
I think FG did a fine job. He did everything he could. Only thing he could have done differently is to may be try Ross at catcher and Hinske in the OF in place of McCann and Prado few times.
Fire Fredi? No, but the Braves did some major mismanaging | Mark … : GEA News
September 29th, 2011
1:23 pm
[...] the original post: Fire Fredi? No, but the Braves did some major mismanaging | Mark … Filed under: news | Tagged as: ajc, atlanta, believe-the-atlanta, bradley, fredi, [...]
Dick
September 29th, 2011
1:24 pm
If we keep Fredi as you say, Mark, what changes next season? Is there any less apathy from the bench, any less of a reason to think we won’t just choke again? We upgraded from Glaus to Freeman, Infante to Uggla, McClouth to Bourn, Kawakami to Beachy…and lost one more game than last season. He did less with much more. Maybe it isn’t justifiable to can him after one season, but when next year looks a lot like this one, folks will realize that Wren is just wasting years with this staff in place.
After watching his approach this month and seeing all the ways he failed to right the ship, Fredi Gonzales is the last person I trust to repair this team’s shattered psyche going into next season. The window of opportunity won’t be open forever, but unfortunately last night just signaled the beginning of what will be a long, miserable march to the inevitable.