Braves1976
It's OVER 5,000!
(1) I would guess that Fredi wanted to keep Peterson's "feet under him" and ease him in rather than put him in a sink-or-swim situation that would erode his confidence. Remember the old Yogi Berra quote, "Baseball is ninety percent mental and the other half is physical." Early on, Peterson was K-ing quite a bit and I think Fredi wanted to put him in situations where he could be successful. If Fredi has done one thing right this year, I think it's that he's trying to match guys to situations that play to their strengths. There have been some obvious deviations from that strategy on Fredi's part, but I think he's handled Peterson fairly well. Now he has to simply put Maybin in the line-up every day.
(2) I think La Stella's defense is what put him in Fredi's doghouse. I don't know that for fact obviously and perhaps La Stella's defensive shortcomings were more perceived than real, but as long as Peterson continues to catch the ball, he's not going to be on a playing time yo-yo.
I saw the same as what I saw happening with La Stella with the main difference being Peterson started hitting and hasn't stopped yet. And if you mean sitting him vs lefties and pulling him late vs them a few times. I'd argue that only made it tougher when he finally started leaving him in vs them. Further, I also don't believe La Stella's defense put him in Fredi's doghouse since his issues on defense came early on and the timing of his benching and comments by Fredi also were related to how he was hitting. If you check you'll see he got benched when slumping at the plate.
Fredi said Peterson would have to "earn it" if was to play regularly so I guess he earning it right now.