Braves Were Swept -Time To Clean House

Sunday the Braves were swept out of Arlington and any hope of a post season berth. The season’s a disaster and it’s time fro major changes in Braves leadership.

The Braves were swept?

If you were fortunate enough to miss the slaughter, a brief recap will suffice. The Braves have been playing the worst baseball in over 20 years. They came to Texas to face a Rangers team team decimated by injury, under the leadership of an interim manager, who had not won a series since April and who fielded a team with only a third baseman, center fielder and shortstop from their season opening nine.  Those rookies and s few 4A players unceremoniously swept a lethargic, uninspired Braves team the out door.

Swept and embarrassed

That the Braves were swept is nothing new, the Braves were more than once this year. This one was more embarrassing due to the timing and the fact that the Rangers could barely field a major league caliber team. Once the Rangers got in front however, there wasn’t much doubt about the outcome, The Rangers kids had their tails up and were all fighting for next season’s jobs. With the exception of Jason Heyward, Philip Gosselin and Emilio Bonifacio the Braves looked to be fighting to stay awake.  Making matter worse was the Braves’ track record of rarely scoring after the first four innings. If they have a lead or are tied after four and fall behind they will probably lose that too.  How bad is it been?

Going into Sunday’s game the Braves were 9-45 when they entered the fifth inning behind. That’s ninth in the league ahead of a less than daunting group including the Mets, Cubs, Padres, Rockies and Diamondbacks. They are now 75-74 with 13 games remaining and will have to win seven of those to finish above 500.

Washington can clinch at the Ted by taking the first two games of the series and they would love to sweep us at home to even things up for the way we’ve treated them in their house. If the Braves were swept the number becomes  seven of ten if they simply lose the series it’s six of eleven.

The Mets follow the Nationals into town and we are just two games over 500 against them this year. The Pirates are next and nothing would please them more than to pay us back fro casting them into the wilderness. It would not surprise me to see the Braves finish below 500. It matters little for anything but pride and the bigger question is what now.

Change begins at the top

When a team’s in trouble they turn to the manager for a way to right the ship. Fredi Gonzalez seems out of ideas and when caught on camera looks in a daze. The team knows it and their play shows it. Gonzalez being in over his head isn’t new but the latest debacle in Arlington made it clear that they’ve lost confidence in his ability to lead.

In spite of finishing in the post season in two of the four previous years, as a manager Gonzalez is a good third base coach. He achieved those wins mostly because of  the ineptitude of the opposition  When the games became critical and there were no more AAA teams masquerading as major league players to deal with, Gonzalez has consistently lost.

On September first 2011 the Braves had the wildcard race well in hand. Their 81-55 gave them a lead of 11 games in the lost column over the 73-64 Cardinals. From that point forward they managed only the third worst record in baseball (8-18) ahead of only the Twins who no one noticed and the Red Sox whose national notoriety all but drowned out the Braves collapse.

In 2012 the Braves had what was at first glance on the surface was a great year, winning 94 games to finish second to the Nationals. Looking deeper reveals that they weren’t  that good. The Braves 94 wins and second place finish were primarily due to residing in a division that fielded three teams barely better than AAA standard.  They did what they were supposed to do posting a 14-4 record against a Marlins team  was ripped apart by their owner mid year and were 12-6 against both the Mets and the Phillies.

Outside the division the Braves managed to take the series against another bad teams the hapless Rockies, but lost series to the Cubs, Reds, Pirates and Giants. Although the Braves took the season series against the Cardinals, the Redbirds behind Kyle Lohse came to the Ted and shut the Braves out. Fredi Gonzalez presided over all of those debacles and now Gonzalez must go. He isn’t alone however.

While hitting and pitching coaches unreasonably take the blame for not fixing the unfixable and may well be changed when a new manager is found. The man who built this unbalanced, malformed and ultimately unable to deliver RISP roster has to go too. It’s time for Frank Wren to find new work elsewhere.

The Roster

I’ve said over the past few years that much of Gonzalez trouble stemmed from having an unbalanced roster and spent money on free agents whose numbers and projections didn’t warrant that kind of expenditure. As Ben pointed out a few weeks back. the sum of Wren’s signings since he took over have produces a –0.25 rWAR and frankly that isn’t good enough.

When veterans left they were replaced by young inexperienced players still trying to figure their own game out much less shoulder the responsibility for helping get a team through a rough spot. The veteran’s he did bring in – save Gerald Laird – haven’t produced nor have they been leaders who could help lift a team when things got rough. They were just cheap signs or trades of players no longer prospects. To be clear, inexpensive, undervalued players are good signs. Players who come cheap because no one wants them are not.

Without getting into the strikeout is just an out argument again, the roster’s also seen a steady increase in strikeouts. While the departure of Dan Uggla and reduced playing time for B.J. Upton will keep them from breaking the franchise record again the number will still be high. Here’s how the 10 players with the most hits for each year since 2009 looked relative to strikeouts.

Of course 2014 isn’t over and we may stay under 1000 for the ten players with the most hits but that’s a small victory brought on by chance rather than design. Frank Wren’s tenure has been marked with success due to being the least bad rather than being among the best. His luck’s run out an dit’s time for him to go.

That’s A Wrap

The Braves can’t allow what happened to the Pirates to happen to them. Mr. McGuirk will have to go to Liberty and explain that hey will  1) need funds to offset the bad business decisions made and 2) he’s already removed the employees responsible for those decisions. They must agree to provide sufficient funding to sign the type of players needed to solidify the franchise into the future in order to protect their investment. Liberty and the Braves have too much money invested in the Cobb County project for the team to slide into the wilderness and not provide a championship capable team for the opening of the new venue.

Ideally Terry McGuirk will meet with Frank Wren and Fredi Gonzalez Monday, thank them for their effort and wish them well in their new endeavors and say adieu. John Schuerholz and Bruce Manno would slip into a GM by committee mode and Terry Pendleton or Carlos Tosca would wear the interim tag until the season ends. Doing so won’t change a lot but it might provide a short sharp shock to the team prior to this crucial home stand.

There are plenty of outside candidates for both jobs and I believe that’s where the change has to come from. In an interview back in 2007 JS was asked about promoting Wren instead of hiring someone else. He said that’s the way the Braves do things and that Frank was the only one left to promote after other had taken GM jobs elsewhere. While I’m sure that was a lighthearted comment, what’s happened since then makes new blood essential for a change of direction.  The game has changed in so many ways and the Braves are behind the power curve. Doing what’s necessary now will signal the fans that they won’t have to see another year of mismanagement on multiple levels that ends with the Braves being swept by a team full of AAA players trying to get a job for the next season. That’s simply unacceptable.