Why Atlanta Braves fans shouldn’t be frustrated with a relatively quiet Winter
Maybe its because I understand the Braves needs. Maybe its because I know the Braves are still one of the most well rounded teams in the game. Maybe its because other teams in the NL East haven’t actually gotten that much better, but I am not worried in the least bit about our off season so far.
Today I Talking Chop I came across one of their semi frequent polls regarding fan happiness and feedback and what not. The Question was, “How Happy Are You With The Braves Off-Season?” Here are the results (from my last check):
- Very Happy- 2% (18 votes)
- Happy- 18% (167 votes)
- Indifferent- 37% (330)
- Unhappy- 26% (235)
- Very Unhappy- 15% (137 votes)
I would be fine with a large percent of people voting for indifferent as it is true that the Braves haven’t done much and a ton of people base a team’s off season success on how many moves they have made. I have been ‘happy’ with the Braves off season since they unloaded Derek Lowe. It was something that we wanted to do but nobody really expected and almost immediately Wren manages to get rid of him.
For the most part I think that the people who comment at SB Nation and Talking Chop are the smartest readers on the web. They know what they are talking about when they say something and if they don’t they will look it up (most of them). They may be a bit crazy with advanced stats and prospects but they are well informed and passionate about what they read and comment on.
Which is why I am confused with a large number of people being unsatisfied with the off season so far. If they are unsatisfied because we haven’t made any moves than that is just foolish because no move is better than a bad one any day, and we definitely had some rumors of bad moves that didn’t happen. The off season has been fine in my opinion so far, and their is still a few months to go.
Back to making moves… I do not think it is smart to make moves just because the teams in your division are making moves. If anything that is stupid. Teams should make moves based on their needs and that has been exactly what Frank Wren has said since day one.
Kent Covington had an awesome post on Frank Wren being the best in the business that I pretty much agree with 100%. He mentions this off season and it relates directly to what I am trying to get at:
"This is a credit to Wren’s restraint. He doesn’t panic when division rivals ink superstars to gaudy free agent contracts. He sticks to the plan. He plays the long game. He’ll make every effort to strengthen the roster immediately, but he won’t mortgage the future to do it. Wren has jealously guarded the team’s young arms and core prospects, preferring instead to deal from the Major League roster."
I have been a big fan of Wren for a while now, on my old blog I had a picture of him on the home page with the caption “Frank Wren makes good trades”. That’s not sarcasm as most people might think, it is a fact. And part of making good trades is pumping the brakes on the bad ones.
Sit tight Atlanta fans, we have a long way to go until the start of the season, and remember that we were a playoff team last year and will be again in 2012 even if another move isn’t made. If you really can’t get over the lack of trades then you should pick up a 2k game and turn on ‘Force CPU Trades’. That might help a bit.