Today, we discuss... Frank Wren or Suspenders?
Suspenders has an impressive resume of 14 straight divisional titles, although his critics say his last few years in office were nothing to be proud of. He also had the luxury of having the highest payroll for several years in baseball , before the Yankees dethroned us and doubled.
Frank Wren has been on the job for 5 years, and I think most of us would give him a thumb of approval.
Forever Fredi
JS drafted Francouer and Cody Johnson...
He also drafted/signed Freeman, Venters, Heyward, McCann, Prado, Teheran, Medlen.
FW has drafted/signed Simmons, Minor, Wood, Beachy, Kimbrel....
Forever Fredi
It's JS. It's like comparing a good modern band to Led Zeppelin. Maybe in 20 years we'll look back on it and say Wren was a classic. JS won at KC and completely turned around the Braves. He just about made all the right moves in the 90's and early 00's. Sure he struggled at the end of his career, but who doesn't?
thank you weso1!
Schuerholz hired Wren. End of discussion.
I don't really see where you could adequately compare the two when Wren's still active. JS and Bobby were really the architects of the dynasty. JS made a lot of great deals, but some bad ones in his final years, but was generally on the money with free agent signings. Wren has been a great trader, but his FA signings haven't really panned out.
While we all love that many our youngsters have blossomed into stars, we've had some growing pains with them. Wren likes to hold on to our top prospects and let them help out the big league club, particularly our pitching prospcects. And while that formula has worked so far, sometimes you have to take a gamble and risk your future if you want to win it all. The Upton trade is really the only time Wren has traded premium talent in return for premium talent. JS wasn't afraid to do that, and he did that several times with trades for McGriff, Sheffield, JD Drew, Tex, et al. Now obviously some of these trades burned him, like the Drew and the Tex trade, but he put together a very good unit nearly every yr he was GM. Even still Drew and Tex played some of the best baseball of their career as a Brave.
I don't know that one philosophy is much better than the other. It's quite obvious JS's method worked quite well and that Wren's method is currently working. Just glad we are winning again and at the top of the league again.
Last edited by Carp; 08-15-2013 at 11:33 PM.
JS made far less mistakes on the free agent front, but (so far) a few more on the trade front.
IDK, to me it's an era thing. JS had more money to throw around, so it was easier for him to offer the guy he really wanted to go after and do it.Originally Posted by Dalyn
Wren had a huge amount of money to spend a few years ago when we got Kawakami and Lowe, but the market was thin and he needed more than one. That year I think AJ Burnett was also available, but IDK.
The Upton signing certainly hasn't looked that good, and Uggla's contract extension (I know he was a trade) doesn't look like the best money spent either.
In this day and age, teams are more willing to bring up a guy from the minors than drop a big ticket contract for somebody. The free agent market is thinner, meaning the teams with more money are the more attractive option. To Wren's credit, he hasn't really overspent. BJ's contract for what he got I considered was market to below market value for a 2012 contract when you think about contracts inflating these days. Lowe and Kawakami were needs, so I can understand why he paid more for that.
Forever Fredi
Wren hasn't made a decent free agent signing yet (outside of the organization).
Fortunately he hasn't had to. He traded for Jurrjens, got rid of Hansen. Kotsay trade sucked.
Since he's taken over, the Braves have become a mid market payroll team. JS's last few years we were still in the top 10 I think. Now we're around 15-16.
Will McCann potential extension be considered a signing? If he leaves, then Gattis or Bethancourt are our likely starters.
Freeman is still under control, as is Heyward. Simmons is under control. He traded for Justin and CJ. Still early to tell IMO. The signings he made that sucked in 08 were his first year. Still green.
Forever Fredi
Chad Durbin
Stockholm, more densely populated than NYC - sturg
So far Wren has pretty much flopped on every large contact he has handed out (Lowe, KK, Uggla, BJ). It's almost like the $90M-$100M budget puts him in the position where he can't splurge on the truly impact FAs, so he is stuck overspending on the next tier down. He would probably be better served signing filler FAs that require a much smaller commitment. Maybe take some chances on stars coming off injuries.
He has more than made up for it on the trade front though. He has also done an amazing job constructing a cheap and effective BP.
Ramiro Pena? The Troy Glaus move was ok until his knees gave out.
I think the key is that the organizational philosophy has seemingly remained intact for the most part to the point where Wren slid in and took over for JS without a hitch.
Sure all of the free agent signings have bombed so far (which is pretty inexplicable, it's like guys come here and just flame out). But with a mid market payroll, he has our team in contention to win every year which is all you can ask for.
Pena is okay. I mean, he played in 50 games for us and did well. Nothing wrong with that. Not a huge signing or anything. Glaus had an awesome run. I still remember the incredible (all things considered) double-play he started. Wow.
Overall, I'd say they both have done (did) excellent jobs. I honestly couldn't pick one over the other at this point.
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