BRAVES NEWS
FRANK WREN FIRED AS GENERAL MANAGER
2 late season collapses in 2011 and 2014. 2 early exits from the postseason in 2012 and 2013. Some may put that type of record on the man who's calling the shots on the dugout. Not the Braves. Instead, they've decided that the man who must pay for these failures is former General Manager Frank Wren, who was relieved of his duties as GM yesterday. Senior Advisor and MLB Network talking head John Hart is now the interim GM, and he is part of a 3-man team including Bobby Cox and John Schuerholz that is tasked with finding the next GM. The happiest person to hear about this is Fredi Gonzalez, who was reassured by Bobby Cox (of all people, the guy with no active role in the organization) that he is safe. That's fantastic. Fan-freakin-tastic. Anyways, here's some related links.
- Scott: Cox Needs To Go
- Schuerholz Defines The Braves Way
- Players React To Wren's Dismissal
- Wren Wasn't Bad But Some Of His Moves Were Bad Enough
- Amazin Avenue Reacts To Wren Firing
- Could Dayton Moore Return To Atlanta? (Please no.)
- Fangraphs' Coverage Of Wren Firing
Oh yeah, there was a Braves game last night! They lost! They also got shut out in the process! More of the same! Enjoy this video of another good-yet-wasted pitching performance by an Atlanta Braves pitcher!
Schuerholz: Nobody's Quit On Fredi Gonzalez
During yesterday's press conference in which Wren's dismissal was officially announced, one of the media members in the building asked if the team had quit on Fredi Gonzalez. Here's part of what John Schuerholz had to say about that:
...Anybody who puts on a major league uniform and goes and plays a major league game — and these two guys [Cox and Hart] as well as myself — think that that would not be an appropriate comment about major league players.
"They have personal pride, professional pride, organizational pride and I don’t think anybody ever quits in a baseball game."
Whatever helps you sleep better at night. Anyways, here's Craig Kimbrel's (unofficial) response to that:
Let's go to Craig Kimbrel for comment on Fredi Gonzalez reportedly being safe. Your thoughts, Killa? pic.twitter.com/ttV2e6QREB
— Demetrius (@fergoe) September 22, 2014
In slightly positive news, late last week the Braves decided to have a little fun with the game ops. Instead of going with the boring and played-out Kiss Cam, they decided to go with the Simba Cam. Ever since then, it's been blowing up on the internet. It even had a segment on The Today Show, and the link above came from a British website. It sure would've been nice to have this as a small footnote for a playoff run, instead of it being one of the lone bright spots of a frustrating season.
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