I have long thought that the accomplishments of the Braves FO have been greatly overblown. If you go back to the late 80's, early 90's the Braves were in a stretch of some of the worst baseball ever played by a professional team. But, they had a plan, created by GM Cox and Snyder which was essentially to load up on talent through the draft and International FA signings, and play for the long haul. The Braves spent tons of money on young talent acquisition.
But, they also had the financial support of the South's version of George Steinbrenner in Ted Turner, an owner willing to open the payroll for the right splash. The Braves were building to a contender with a likely target date of 1992 and had started bringing in offense by signing Nick Esasky. That failed because Esasky had lyme disease and never really played any meaningful games again.
So, then as the Braves are beginning to actually turn it around a bit, Cox goes back to managing and enter JS. JS signs Liebrant (a journeyman mid rotation starter- think Bud Norris), Pendelton (a decent 3B coming off of injury and a couple of down years, with a strong reputation for leadership- think Freese), Bream (an ok 1B who could barely walk- think Kotchman) and Belliard (a defense only shortstop- think Aybar). But the basis for the offense was already there when JS arrived in Gant, Justice, Klesko, Lopez, CJ, etc. in the minors or just arrived. The basis of the pitching was already there in Glavine, Smoltz, Avery, Merker, Smith, Wohlers, etc.
JS DOES deserve credit for making some early wise moves in signing Maddux and trading for McGriff, but outside of spending Ted's money what did he really do?
Fast forward now to JS moving to President, bringing in his retired friend in Hart to essentially look over the shoulder of their "new wave" GM in waiting in Coppy (who they obviously don't really trust), and you have an aging continuation of an ancient regime who have handed the keys to the Ferrari to a kid that they don't trust to drive. And what you get is a half-a**ed plan, sorta rebuild sorta not, that very likely leads to a huge flop and the requirement to really tear it down and rebuild only after missing on the opportunity to revitalize the franchise as they move into a new and expensive home.
Public Service Announcement: If you are going to do something radical, like rebuilding a team, make a plan, commit to the plan, don't waver from the plan, and see the plan through until the end. And, for God's sake, before starting, pull your head out of your ar*e!