It appears the Braves are considering an expanded role for senior advisor John Hart within their front office. USA Today’s Bob Nightengale tweets that the Braves could consider having Hart head their baseball operations department, while David O’Brien of the Atlanta Journal Constitution clarifies that either Hart or John Schuerholz could have an expanded role in baseball operations, regardless of whether the Braves end up keeping or replacing current GM Frank Wren. Peter Gammons wrote earlier this week that the Braves could consider making Hart their president of baseball operations.
The Braves hired Hart in November for his current senior advisor role. Schuerholz is currently the team’s president. Both, of course, have distinguished track records as GMs. Hart presided over the Indians’ very successful run in the 1990s, and Schuerholz was his peer in Atlanta. (Hart also preceded Jon Daniels as the GM of the Rangers before serving as an advisor in Texas.)
The Braves have struggled down the stretch and are now 76-77, on the verge of missing a winning season for only the third time since 1990. They extended Wren and manager Fredi Gonzalez in February, but there have since been indications of trouble within the organization. MLB.com’s Mark Bowman reported earlier this week that former minor league pitching coordinator Dave Wallace took a position with the Orioles in part because of disagreements with the Braves’ front office. Bowman also notes that it was Schuerholz, not Wren, who stepped in to stop pitching coach Roger McDowell from taking a job with the Phillies.
Get Rid of Wren and promote Coppolella. Fire Fredi and staff except McDowell.(obviously) Go after Chipper Jones for manager or hitting coach. (how about both.)
He’s the only guy I can see who can light a fire under this teams terrible offense.
Get rid of McDowell, as well…look how many arms he’s ruined. Bring back Mazzone as pitching coach and clean house…all coaches, even Pendleton, needs to go.
He can ruin as many arms as he wants if they end up Top 5 in ERA every year like they do. Who cares who is getting the job done or how many it takes…..at the end of the day the results are still there from the pitching staff at least.
It appears the inexplicable collapse in BJ Upton’s career and the injuries to Gattis this year will end Wren’s tenure as GM. There is way too smoke here for these rumors not to pan out. I don’t think anyone really foresaw Upton’s sudden and complete inability to hit in his prime years. That event set so many other dominoes in motion on the team.
The only other thing you can totally blame on him was the Chris Johnson extension. GMs have to realize once you give a player a big, extended contract, you are basically forced to play them every day even if they don’t deserve it. The Julio and Simmons’ contracts look fantastic, however.
you could also blame him for getting rid of Omar Infante for the Dan Uggla experiment. And who could forget the great Derek Low signing.
Fire Fredi is the only must happen IMO. Wren hasn’t been great but I wouldn’t call him terrible either. People want to ignore his good signings. But Fredi? Fredi hasn’t contributed at all as a manager. 2 collapses in 4 season, and in between he’s got an Infield Fly debacle (not his fault) and an 8th inning meltdown with Kimbrel in the bullpen in LA (was his fault). He’s really been the cause of destruction in 3 of his 4 seasons here. Please go.
Seven shutout losses in the last month, 15 overall.
Walker and Gonzalez need to go.
The biggest problem is Fredi Gonzalez. The Braves have been underachievers ever since he took the reins. He is not a good handler of pitchers. You might blame McDowell, but it is Gonzalez who is the problem. This comes from an informed source within the organization.
The Braves have the most regular seasons wins in baseball since Gonzalez took over in 2011. Unless you expected a World Series, I don’t think they can be said to have underachieved the last four years.
That is exactly it. They contend during the season, then they fade and collapse during stretch time. They just do not have the heart to tough it out when the going gets tough. Winning in the regular season is important, but not worth much if you fold in September.
I’m not going to defend FG and his decisions, but I really think that firing him is not going to miraculously fix the team. There are more problems to this team than just lacking in leadership. Also there is something to be said about winning in the regular season. It’s much more fun to watch a team that does that than to see them lose 100 ballgames in a season. If you disagree with that then you clearly don’t remember the 80s Braves.
Yes, I remember the 80’s Braves quite well, and the 82, 83, and 84 versions were quite good. They had a pretty good leader as manager, as I recall. And, as I recall, the 70’s versions were bad also, but they were bad because they had little talent outside a few very good players. Hard to win consistently without talent.
Fredi won a division with two Wren signings, Uggla and BJ, who both hit under .200 for the year that played almost every day in 2013. You want to know when that happened before that? NEVER. Do you think Fredi wanted to play them or do you think Wren told him to play them to save himself? Blaming Fredi is silly.
I disagree. I have been unimpressed with Gonzalez as the manager. The Braves do not play with heart under him. They have had the talent to do more over the past several years, but just do not get it done. And, Fredi is just not a good handler of pitchers. The Braves need new on-field leadership. And, they need a couple of clubhouse leaders to give the team some heart, when the going gets tough. They are lacking in that.
Trade away BJ and Johnson for whatever they can. Trade Gattis only of they get some good returns back. Dump Laird, Peña and Doumit along with some sub par relievers, maybe trade Minor too. Rebuild this team! Someone mentioned the Uggla/Infante-Dunn trade, well, we need Omar and Martin Prado or similar type guys again on our club. The Glaus/Chipper/Prado/Infante/Ross days 2010-2012 were better “teams” than what we’ve had the past two years IMO. Better teamwork at the very least. I like Gosselin and Bonifacio but the rest of the bench needs a makeover too. When I look at what Hurdle and Showalter did in their cities, I realize the importance of a good manager to a team. Clint’s contract is up after ’14. Fire Fredi and Frank both. Replace with Hurdle and John Copalella. Bring Schuerholz/Hart to more hands on positions. Become a unit/team/family again. That is all
Clint Hurdle signed an extension with Pittsburgh earlier this year.
Oh did he? I saw a website that was not updated then ha. Anyways, that type of guy is what Atlanta needs.
If you search for “Clint Hurdle Contract” there are a bunch of articles with details.
Also, Hurdle LOVES it in Pittsburgh, and the ‘Burgh is also home to one of the best Prader-Willi Syndrome Treatment Centers in the country (his daughter has Prader-Willi Syndrome).