Braves Quote For The Day ... The GM Style Of Frank Wren

between Schu and Wren is the owner. Ted Turner was more interested in putting together a team to win a World Series at all costs, kinda like the yankees do now. Wren, being much more limited in terms of payroll, has no choice but to be more crafty and build from a strong farm system.

If all goes well, we should be looking to be darkhorse contenders starting this year, and series contenders by 2013.

When our pitching staff was decimated, Wren brought in Lowe, Vazquez and Kawakami, $34M/year worth of pitchers. When we needed a 1st base, he surprised us all by bringing in Glaus. Mid-season trades for McLouth, LaRoche and Alex Gonzalez. When Chipper went down for the season, he brought in Derrek Lee, a 1st baseman. Wren looks at the big picture, thinks outside the box and makes a bold move. Not all of his moves have worked out perfectly, but who knew McLouth would fizzle and Kawakami would implode. He says we need a RH OF power bat. There is no doubt in my mind he will get us one. How he goes about it is a mystery, it always is. But in the end, he makes a trade or signs a player to fill the glaring need.

only Wainwright and Andrus are really missable

I’d disagree slightly about Feliz not being a key component of that deal, but the point is made. In 20 years the Braves have never gotten burned, and I am always amazed at how rarely they give up prospects that pan out. As for the difference between JS and FW, I’d say it relates more to the pressure on the franchise to continue/restart the streak that resulted in the Drew/Tex trades. Viewed w/o context, those don’t look good now – I’m sure they’d love to have Wainwright, Andrus, and Feliz now – but the trades were understandable at the time, if pretty aggravating. Now that pressure is gone, relieved by missing the playoffs for awhile. Cox’s retirement should mean that sensible decisions continue (e.g., no rentals of players like Drew).

Go back to McGriff, Neagle, Hudson….are there any examples other than those listed here where the Braves have given up a prospect that panned out?

I was really just thinking back through the JS era, but thanks for the reminder on the Barker deal. I definitely agree that the Drew and Tex deals were bad. Drew was bad at the time, because it was an obvious desperation reach for a 1-yr bat that was never going to be enough to get anywhere in the postseason, even though Drew had a solid year. I thought the Tex deal was okay at the time – a star bat and glove for 1.5 yrs – though it also seemed like a desperate move, but in hindsight it was bad.

But my point was that, while those deals were bad and I didn’t like them much, I understood why they were made – due to pressure on the organization to try and stay on top. I think they went into those deals with eyes wide open about what they were giving up and what they were getting. The only real disappointment to me, aside from personally wishing the deals had never been done, was that we didn’t get anything back for Tex.