As one that has been in the corner of Frank Wren and under the assumption that he has done a solid job, I think one has to look deeper at potential moves that were made that weren't headliners where I think Frank Wren failed and made his bed allowing the organization to be where it is at today.
From a baseball personal matter, Frank Wren the GM in my opinion did a great job outside of 3 major blunders: the BJ deal first and foremost, the 5th year on the Uggla extension, and the KK experiment. He had other moves that did not pan out as desired (McClouth, the Uggla trade, etc.). That's too be expected no matter how good of a GM one is. He held his ground on not overpaying with impact prospects to fill potential needs (Hanson for Peavy, Simmons for JUp) and built the team around those youngsters. He came out a head in most trades and had a few steals (Renteria for Jurrjens, Infante/Ohman deal, Vazquez for Flowers, and the JUpton deal). He was also great at finding pieces on waiver wires and filling needs especially when it came to the pen and rotation. How much that was due to Wren or his assistants is up for interpretation, though.
As you look into it deeper, though, there were some pretty apparant warning signs that some of us in Wren's corner turned a blind eye to. One is from a player development stand point. There is no doubt that our farm system has slipped signifcantly as we went deeper into Wren's & Manno's tenure. Granted we graduated a lot of talent throught the years, but some of that is due to the old management team and the cupboard at this time is pretty bare.
I'm still under the assumption that Bobby was forced out. It didn't make any sense at the time why Bobby would want to step down going through all those down years from 2007-2009 and step away at a time when so much young talent was right at the doorsteps ready to make an impact. We know Wren and Bobby had their head to head battles, and I think Wren wanted nothing more than a yes man....and he got it in Fredi. A lot of the same failings that happened under Wren in Baltimore seemed to manifest itself and show up once again in Atlanta when Wren was given more and more control. Wren got a pass in Baltimore due to Angelos, but there is a trend here.
Wren seemed like a reactionist. Remember the Furcal debacle that was embarrassing as hell. Whenever he had money to spend, he spent it on needs and didn't look at unconventional ways to solve problems and often did not look at the big picture. And while I supported most of the moves that he made on a baseball level, there was almost a sense that Wren was in the mode to get a deal done as quickly as possible. While I like the fact he acted on instinct, at times it was to his detriment.
We have not been able to put together a viable coach that can rely to the players hitting since Pendleton was demoted. I always thought in this case Wren never did do his due dilgence both times in the search. His first go round was like he was trying to light the world on fire, his first interview was Parrish and he shined in the interview, but had no experience and ended up being a disaster. His second search wasn't much more exhaustive, as it seemed he was more interested in getting someone with experience that had local ties and wanted to be here instead of performing an exhaustive search both times, talking to many people, and hiring the best candidate. I don't know what everyone else expected with Walker, the same problems we are having now are the same exact sentiments that people around the White Sox camp were saying before his dismissal.
And with that, through all of this, young new Wren was good, the more power Wren was given the more blunder prone and arrogant he become, causing the strain it has caused within the organization. It's dumfounding that he fooled around as long as he did with McDowell almost losing him. No matter what some may believe here, McDowell is a top 3 pitching coach at the MLB level. We'd be lost without him. The instructional instutions in the minors lost structure and are in need of major repair and stability.
While I was in Wren's camp at first, he needed to go and was a huge problem.