MadduxFanII
Swallowed by Mark Bowman
Robothal has a new column up in which he defends Wren and says that the farm system wasn't the catastrophe it was made out to be.
Rosenthal Argues That Wren Wasn't a Drooling Moron
- Thread starter MadduxFanII
- Start date
He uses a false argument in the productivity of the farm during Wren's tenure even though a large part of that success was attributable to Roy Clarks drafting.
But, Wren did produce Simmons/Wood/Gattis and should be commended for that. There are others as well but the farm needs to continually be replenished and by every reporting outlet it was clear the Braves farm was in dire straights at the same time they were about to lose a lot of top end talent from the major league club.
But, Wren did produce Simmons/Wood/Gattis and should be commended for that. There are others as well but the farm needs to continually be replenished and by every reporting outlet it was clear the Braves farm was in dire straights at the same time they were about to lose a lot of top end talent from the major league club.
MadduxFanII
Swallowed by Mark Bowman
Different priorities. Remember that we drafted Heyward early because we sucked in 2006. Or we drafted Minor early cause we sucked in 08.
Wren had a core in place and was trying to fill in the rest with big league pieces. If BJ and Uggla produced even 2/3 of their career norms frank is still GM likely.
You spent months arguing with me how great the Braves farm system was and that they always produce pitchers so need not worry.
Wren gets fired and all of a sudden the farm system was on life support.
MadduxFanII
Swallowed by Mark Bowman
But Wren was a key part of the front office before ascending to the GM's chair. I won't even pretend to be able to apportion credit for the pre-2008 drafts among the various participants, but Wren wasn't taking tickets down at Gate 3. He played at least some meaningful role in those years, or else he wouldn't have been Schuerholz's handpicked successor.
And unless we get an injection of money from Liberty the days of the Braves dominating farm systems like the 90s and early 2000s is done. Teams learned from the Braves model of scouting and international scouting in the 90s and now every team does what we did. The Cubs have an Academy in the Dominican so they can get first dibs on whatever they discover down there. We don't have anything like that and we could lose the monopoly on curucao players too.
You aren't wrong but Freeman was also a second round pick and Teheran was signed internationally. All the players traded for Bourn I believe were Roy Clark drafted players (could be wrong about that). You have to continue to produce from the farm. Even if it was a farm that was considered in the middle third of baseball that would be fine. It was almost the worst system in baseball and it all came to a tipping point because of the impending free agency of Heyward/Upton.
Also, Wren shouldn't get a pass because Uggla/Upton sucked. Thats even more of a reason to blame him. He signed those guys.
sturg33
I
This did happen
Hard to argue with every independent outlet. Last year was a brutal year for the farm.
Sure, Wren had a role in the organization but the structure was to always let the scouts and player personel guys do their work in picking the players. I think Wren should get credit/blame with mlb acquisitions and not amateur scouting while he was in the assistant GM chair.
They got a competitive balance pick in the deal.
sturg33
I
I thought that was initially thought but then it was determined we didn't.
The portion which included Victor Reyes was not initially reported. Those "two" trades were really one.
Yeah it wasn't confirmed until a few days later and actually reported in some places as a seperate deal.
sturg33
I
I must've totally missed this
You're forgiven. You were just made about Heyward being traded.
Now your whole perception should change. Join John ^2 team!