Bowman: Braves With Decisions To Make After Disappointing '14

[bravesnumberone]

I'm failing to see what exactly Wren has done all that wrong in his tenure, aside from handing out two questionable and expensive contracts while he was operating on a middle of the road budget.

I mean, during his time here he has refused to trade most of our top tier prospects allowing them to flourish in Atlanta, all the while making some pretty lopsided trades in our favor. We've been one of the winningest teams in the majors while he has been here. What more could you ask from a GM?

Here come the Fredis......

[Julio3000]

My only beef with Wren is that, on a couple of occasions, he has failed to come up with creative solutions to obvious problems. When faced with a glaring need—a starting pitcher, a CF—he has just aimed a fire hose filled with money at the candidates that conventional wisdom considered to be best. Of course, the caveat here is that I'm not privy to any other options that were explored in these situations. Of course, if he'd ended up trading prospects away either time, he could well be taking heat for that. It's a pretty unforgiving job.

The CJ extension was a weird move, IMO, but not a huge issue.

[50PoundHead]

My only beef with Wren is that, on a couple of occasions, he has failed to come up with creative solutions to obvious problems. When faced with a glaring need—a starting pitcher, a CF—he has just aimed a fire hose filled with money at the candidates that conventional wisdom considered to be best. Of course, the caveat here is that I'm not privy to any other options that were explored in these situations. Of course, if he'd ended up trading prospects away either time, he could well be taking heat for that. It's a pretty unforgiving job.

The CJ extension was a weird move, IMO, but not a huge issue.

My biggest beef--and perhaps only, but it's a pretty big beef--is that he does not appear to work from any type of blueprint when putting the team together. Granted, he's been hamstrung by a moving budget target, but it's all plug-and-play with him. I think the Chris Johnson extension is just an example (and admittedly it's not a back-breaker) of the impulsive short-term approach that Wren seems to employ. I didn't think M. Upton would be this terrible, but again, Wren's move there was impulsive. He totally ignored the market with that choice.

The minors are in a shambles. We have one position player above A ball (Peraza) who looks like he could be a solid regular. Just because we've graduated a bunch of guys over the past half-decade doesn't mean we still can't draft and develop players. This is especially important when the budget is in flux.

Looking at the composition of the team and barring some considerable turn-arounds by several players, this is a team that is a .500 team at best with huge impending decisions on J. Upton and Heyward.

PS--I'd bring in Edgar Renteria to do something with the team (not talking manager or GM, but something).

[Julio3000]

I have to admit that I don't understand the organizational structure and hierarchy with regard to baseball operations, so I don't know how to apportion responsibility/blame for the lack of prospect depth.

Edgar seems like a good guy to have around. Is he working in MLB?

[Hudson2]

http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2014/0...out-as-gm.html

Looks like Wren could get the boot today.

[Hudson2]

Renteria would be a good guy to look at for hitting coach. Julio Franco maybe to.

[zitothebrave]

I don't agree on your analysis of the Johnson extension 50 (there is no better way of saying that) I think what happened in that case was Johnson came to him and said he wanted to extend with the Braves. I have little doubt given the boner people get over batting average that Johnson would have gotten more money in arby and we can still comfotably move him. He doesn't have much value, but neither did he before. It's a lateral move that secured some financial stability. Not a great move, not a bad move, just a move, not one Wren had to make, but it's hardly gonna kill the team. And we've discussed ad nauseum the Bossman signing. He overpaid to not risk missing out on a CF or being held up. Sure in the end patience may have paid off. But perhaps if BJ was on the table still the cost of Bourn and Span goes way up. Revisionist history is that.

I think Wren's focus has been pretty clear. His first few drafts were all about depth. The reason we have the BP depth we have now, the rotational depth, the bench depth, etc. is cause of the organization's focus on filling our upper minors, since then we've started focusing no more high value picks. Our first 2 picks were HS picks this year, last year 3 of our first 4 were HS kids (our number 1, was Hursh from OK State) in 2012 also 3 of our first 4 picks were HS kids. The issue is that we lost one of our more powerful weapons, the draft and follow, right before Wren came into place.

[Braves1976]

It sounds like they're just going to fire Wren and that we're stuck with Fredi...

[Dalyn]

It sounds like they're just going to fire Wren and that we're stuck with Fredi...

This is coming from the team who had their manager say everyone was safe a few hours before firing someone. Can't believe a word of it. Fredi's gone. They can't be that stupid.

[Braves1976]

This is coming from the team who had their manager say everyone was safe a few hours before firing someone. Can't believe a word of it. Fredi's gone. They can't be that stupid.

I hope you're right but that isn't how it sounds so far.

[The Chosen One]

I hope Coppolella gets a chance. I do not want to see Hart get it. He's as old of a baseball mind as JS and Cox.

We need a guy like Coppo with new ideas.