The Braves are currently on pace to go 35-127. Nobody expected this team to be competitive, but "not competitive" is still a long way off from "easily the worst team of all time."
Rosenthal: Fredi will be fired, possibly by end of the road trip
- Thread starter dak
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The Braves are currently on pace to go 35-127. Nobody expected this team to be competitive, but "not competitive" is still a long way off from "easily the worst team of all time."
VirginiaBrave
Well-known member
It is what it is, but I didn't expect any different from a team that has Norris, Chacin, and JT leading its rotation. You have two legit starters in the lineup in Freeman and Ender, the rest are retreads and backups when you take the young pups out of the equation.
Wait, we get to play the Marlins 30 more times?
VirginiaBrave
Well-known member
And get the exact same results.
striker42
Well-known member
Likely. But at least we know we can't get worse results.
It could be worse than having Fredi.
DaneHill
Well-known member
Well, keep in mind that the April schedule was simply BRUTAL for this team, regardless of rebuild or not. I'm not at all surprised that we've only won 5 games. And we were close on several more, probably more so than some of these teams expected when facing us, such as today's game against the Cubs going 1-1 into the late innings (and on short rest from last night's game in Boston). Expect the wins to start picking up soon now that April is coming to a close, especially once some of our kids are called up and provide that shot of energy to the club.
Millwood1Hitter
Anytime Now Frankie...
Has he been fired yet?
Cause I haven't heard anything, hopefully the FO is telling him to get lost. But knowing Fredi, he doesn't understand, because he's already lost. They said your fired, and he said "I know I'm gonna go fire up my Harley and go home from the day, read up on my baseball prospectus, and be right here again tomorrow, what you think? Should I start showing up earlier? You know, I think I know what your getting at...yes, I am indeed fired up about this team, we got a chance to win a game or two here and there."
Cause I haven't heard anything, hopefully the FO is telling him to get lost. But knowing Fredi, he doesn't understand, because he's already lost. They said your fired, and he said "I know I'm gonna go fire up my Harley and go home from the day, read up on my baseball prospectus, and be right here again tomorrow, what you think? Should I start showing up earlier? You know, I think I know what your getting at...yes, I am indeed fired up about this team, we got a chance to win a game or two here and there."
bravesfanforlife88
Well-known member
no Fredi....it's neither here nor there
Perfect Cell
Lynchburg Prospect
Getting rid of Freddi would be the best news this season
Metaphysicist
Not Actually Brian Hunter
Dude, are you serious? The front office put on a full court press about "WE AREN'T REBUILDING, WE ARE RETOOLING FOR 2017," and all that has been subsequently shown to be horse hockey. There had to have been 10,000 articles about this. It is completely irrelevant that John Hart might not have explicitly said it a certain way on the record. If you ever saw his MLB draft appearances, you would understand that the man has a keen ability to talk for hours and deliberately say absolutely nothing of substance. It's probably why he and JS are such lovey-dovey kindred spirits.
But if you want some quotes about how the team wasn't supposed to be garbage for 5 years because we needed to look good for Suntrust, here are some I found by randomly googling:
http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/1...rebuilding-opening-day-2017-new-ballpark-mind
So the Braves have set out this winter, after a painful 27-40 second-half collapse, trying to walk the baseball tightrope. They're doing a tenuous "balancing act," Hart said, between the kind of gut-it-to-the-floor rebuilding he did in Cleveland and the retool-but-still-compete option that appears to be his bosses' preferred route to Cobb County.
"I didn't come in with the idea to take this thing down to the bare bones," said Hart, seven weeks after assuming the reins following the firing of general manager Frank Wren. "That's not one of the plans. But we're evaluating every possibility."
http://www.myajc.com/news/sports/ba...itter_2014_braves_sfp#14d246dc.3828699.735580
“We had a tough year, and I know there was a lot of speculation about us going into this winter,” Hart said. “We had the 29th-ranked farm system in baseball. We had some bad contracts. Everybody felt there would be some players we would definitely unload — become a seller, if you will. But we’ve never felt like there was something we had to do. Obviously we’re contractually obligated to some players who aren’t performing well. But just because 2017 is coming, it doesn’t mean we’re going to throw a hand grenade on the club and blow it up. That wouldn’t guarantee success for 2017, either.”
yeezus
It's OVER 5,000!
Nothing you posted says "We'll definitely be competing in 2017," and that's what a lot of people here act like they heard. I don't see what you're getting at. Yeah, I think the goal was to not be terrible for 2017 or to have some infused excitement - and I believe those things will be accomplished next season. My issue is with people acting like the FO guaranteed a playoff team in 2017.
Oh boy, someone spoke a lot but didn't really say anything of substance? I'd be shocked if I hadn't followed sports my whole life. If he had said "Yeah, the next two years may be brutal" we'd have people complaining that we're explicitly tanking and that the FO should show more optimism. You're better off saying nothing.
My point isn't that 2017 was never mentioned, my point is you'd think we were promised a playoff berth in 2017.
yeezus
It's OVER 5,000!
Which with Albies, Swanson, Mallex, Freeman, Inciarte playing every day plus a couple of pitchers, I think is a fine thing to say.
nsacpi
Expects Yuge Games
It is a good theme. I think some around here (not the front office) have gone a bit further in extrapolating that the rebuild will result in a 90+ win team for many years. I think that obviously is far more uncertain. But it should be fun seeing the young uns gradually incorporated into the big league team the next few years.
“I know a lot of people are looking at 2017,” Hart said. “We’re moving into a beautiful spot there. It’s going to be great. But that’s two years down the road. We want to be competitive. We want to be exciting. We have a great fan base in Atlanta, and I certainly want people to be excited about the product we’re putting on the field now. That said, it’s not just about 2017. What we’re doing now hopefully is going to establish what I like to call a sustained level of success to where you have that ability every year to have two or three young guys that can come in and fill in and gives you that ability to have sustained success instead of a one- or two-year run.”
“Everybody is putting emphasis on building to the 2017 season,” Freeman said. “That’s not our goal in this clubhouse. That’s not our motto. We still have 2015 and 2016, so we’re concentrating on this year and getting to the playoffs.”
Read more here: http://www.macon.com/sports/mlb/article30224892.html#storylink=cpy
“Everybody is putting emphasis on building to the 2017 season,” Freeman said. “That’s not our goal in this clubhouse. That’s not our motto. We still have 2015 and 2016, so we’re concentrating on this year and getting to the playoffs.”
Read more here: http://www.macon.com/sports/mlb/article30224892.html#storylink=cpy
yeezus
It's OVER 5,000!
Again, I'm not saying 2017 was never brought up by anyone. But it just seems like people think we were promised an amazing team in 2017, when in reality I think the plan was to have some young, exciting players featured in 2017 and moving towards baseball that isn't brutal to watch.
I kind of liken it to the Phillies before this year began. The past few years for them have been rough, and I think we're ahead of them as far as rebuilding goes because we have a stronger farm with more depth. But coming into the year, Phillies fans actually had stuff to look forward to as opposed to years past when all they had was Rollins, Ruiz, Howard, and Utley (still...). This year, they had younger guys to watch the development of: Franco, Nola, Herrera, Eickhoff, Velasquez, and then watching Crawford progress in the minors (and probably on the big league club sometime this year).
So I always saw 2017 as being looked at like that, as in not putting a crap product on the field like this year and the 2nd half of last year. I think too many pretend we were promised the playoffs by 2017, and I haven't seen that supported.
The point of firing Fredi is not to win more games this year. The point to firing him is so he isn't the manager next year where his tactical mismanagement of the roster will actually matter.
Things like not putting Castro in for Aybar in the 8th, and then doing it on the double switch when he brought in Viz are inexcusable. After Aybar batted in the 7th there was no reason for him to remain in the game when JJ was brought in to pitch. JJ should have replaced Aybar and Castro replaced the starting pitcher, thus keeping Aybar off the field for the few batters JJ faced. Bringing in Castro in a double switch with Viz shows they only thought about the double switch when it was clear Viz would come to bat, so put his PHer in early. The defensive substitution never even entered into the thought process or it would have been done to start the inning.
While that move is small and ultimately made zero difference, it was a move that could have mattered and should have been made. Add all those tiny mistakes up over the course of a season that matters and it may cost a game or two that really hurt to lose.
There are a finite number of scenarios that can occur in a ballgame vs another 25 man roster, and there is no reason not to have them planned out and accounted for before every game so optimal moves can be made that aren't heat of the battle decisions. It is clear none of that goes on with Fredi and this staff.
