Atlanta Braves II

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#6,578
#6,578
Calculon said:
I believe he will be a solid major leaguer, but he will never live up to expectations.
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He just turned 22. Although nobody apparently noticed, he started to turn it around in September -- .258, .375 OBP, .739 OPS -- while the rest of the team was collapsing. He was injured for a big chunk of the season. It's way too early to start giving up on him. He's still the guy who put up those incredible minor league numbers and had a ROY-quality season in the majors last year. He needs to take some time off and then go play winter ball.
 
#6,579
#6,579
golfballs03 said:
he really did! He looked like a deer in the headlights. a little disconcerting, IMO
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I can't really blame him. I think once the lead shrunk to 1 1/2 games and then expanded back to 3 up with 5 to play everybody figured the Braves were going to escape.
 
#6,580
#6,580
Did he show to be injury prone in the minors? He seemed to be banged up all this year and if I remember correctly was banged up quite a bit of last year as well.
 
#6,584
#6,584
What could Fredi have done differently with a lineup that can't score runs and a pitching staff that was banged up at the end of the year?
 
#6,585
#6,585
VOLinthaATL said:
What could Fredi have done differently with a lineup that can't score runs and a pitching staff that was banged up at the end of the year?
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not very much. A lot of this is just frustration. Fredi would make some random moves from time to time but I really don't think he had much impact either way.
 
#6,590
#6,590
GAVol said:
not very much. A lot of this is just frustration. Fredi would make some random moves from time to time but I really don't think he had much impact either way.
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Generally, yeah. Managers don't make much impact either way; they just watch and their reputations go up or down based on what the players do. (Cf. the career of Terry Francona.) That said, moves get magnified in playoff games, which that basically was, and Fredi blew it twice last night. He let Michael Bourn make the first out at third with two on and Jones/Uggla/Freeman coming up; that cost a run. And then he just went through his normal bullpen progression last night in extras like it was an ordinary game in June. He went through his fourth, fifth, and sixth best relievers instead of managing it like an emergency situation and going to a starter. I can't see how a guy who talks about how he likes to be aggressive and make things happen would just sit there and lose that game with the back half of his bullpen.
 
#6,591
#6,591
GAVol said:
You think Larry Parish survives? I think it's one of the most meaningless positions in sports, but there's no doubt that he didn't help much.
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Yeah, you're right. They might change the hitting coach. Which would make about as much difference as if the Vols decided to shake things up and go with a different Smokey.
 
#6,593
#6,593
VOLinthaATL said:
I think hitting coaches are much more important than you are making them out to be. Shocking, I know.
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I'm just an empiricist about it. If there were such a thing as a hitting coach that got consistent, measurable results, then there'd be a bidding war for his services and he'd make millions of dollars a year. And there isn't even one hitting coach like that. Teams pay a hundred million dollars a year for players, and $200,000 to the guy who coaches their most important skill. That tells you all you need to know about how important teams think the job is.

Every five years or so some hitting coach becomes the flavor of the month, usually during the playoffs, and he's hailed as a genius. Then you never hear about him again.
 
#6,594
#6,594
I don't doubt that hitting coaching is important, but on an individualized basis. Someone who's a good hitting coach for Michael Bourn probably isn't the guy who should be coaching Brian McCann. Or Jose Constanza. Or Jason Heyward. Having one guy coach everybody means that for most of your players, the coach is just going to be some guy standing at the cage saying attaboy.
 
#6,595
#6,595
Vercingetorix said:
Generally, yeah. Managers don't make much impact either way; they just watch and their reputations go up or down based on what the players do. (Cf. the career of Terry Francona.) That said, moves get magnified in playoff games, which that basically was, and Fredi blew it twice last night. He let Michael Bourn make the first out at third with two on and Jones/Uggla/Freeman coming up; that cost a run. And then he just went through his normal bullpen progression last night in extras like it was an ordinary game in June. He went through his fourth, fifth, and sixth best relievers instead of managing it like an emergency situation and going to a starter. I can't see how a guy who talks about how he likes to be aggressive and make things happen would just sit there and lose that game with the back half of his bullpen.
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This was the most alarming thing that I saw last night. It's almost like he was managing this game to set up the playoff game.

Well Fredi if you don't win this game you go home, so how about managing like it. That was the most frustrating thing for me.
 
#6,598
#6,598
Calculon said:
Maybe change the title to something about being gutless losers...
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I don't support that kind of crap, but I atleast know how he felt now. I would be banned if I made a thread saying what I think about the 2011 "baseball" Braves.
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#6,599
#6,599
zjcvols said:
Also hadn't pitched in five days. I think that might have played a part.
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Very Dumb on Idiot Freddies fault, and Craig sure picked a hell of a time to have his collapse. Would have been nice to be able to blame it on being tired, and I'm sure some of it still was seeing as he stunk almost all of Sept.
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#6,600
#6,600
The biggest thing the Braves need to figure out during the offseason is what the heck happened to their team OBP. They went from 1st in the league in 2010 to 14th in 2011. Maybe it's the hitting coach, maybe it's Fredi's overall emphasis on aggressiveness, but that's the most glaring thing to me. Everyone spent all year last year talking about how the Braves were winning with OBP, and then it just disappeared this season.

Hard to believe that it's not a factor in what happened to Heyward too. His whole approach is built around OBP.
 
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