Not that it will make a difference; Fredi Gonzalez fired as manager of the Atlanta Braves after the team falls to a Major’s worst 9-28.
So often times is the case, not just in baseball, but in all professional sports, when a team is playing poorly, the manager is thrown under the bus and fired. In some cases, it’s well deserved, like a coach showing unwavering loyalty to a veteran player and giving them premium playing time when a younger, more talented player rides the bench.
However, in more often than naught cases, the coach/manager is shit-canned for no other reason than being a sacrificial lamb; as if it’s their fault the place kicker missed a field goal, the team can’t shoot free throws, or the hitters can’t hit the ball. This is often times the case, because in the perplexing world of professional sports, accountability is demanded, and regardless of logic or truth, coaches and managers are representative of those who should be held do it, and are the first ones to go when things are going bad.
I’m not even going to pretend like I was a Fredi Gonzalez fan. At first, I supported his hiring, because I was one of many going through the post-Bobby Cox separation anxiety, and a guy like Fredi, who worked so long under Bobby Cox seemed like a good guy to transition the Braves organization into a new era. Opinions quickly changed, as Fredi managed the team like a robot, quick with clichéd statements that became memes within the Braves community, and decision-making that went against the ever-evolving game.
Ironically, if Fredi were shit-canned at any point between 2011 and 2014, I would’ve said that it was well deserved, because Fredi Gonzalez simply was not a talented nor competent manager for today’s game.
However, the decision to fire Fredi Gonzalez right now, when the Braves were expected, and are delivering with gusto, the notion that they were going to be the worst team in baseball? It’s not only pointless and meaningless, it’s executed in a manner that actually manages to draw sympathy for Fredi Gonzalez, a metaphor that it’s almost a mercy kill.
In a manner of speaking, Fredi Gonzalez doesn’t look so much like the dead witch vanquished by heroic upper management, but now something of a martyr, like an attempt to encapsulate and symbolize the organization’s failures, and throw it out the window like garbage.
Except that even with Fredi Gonzalez gone, the team is still probably going to lose tonight, probably going to lose tomorrow, and probably challenge the hallowed 120-loss mark set by the 1962 Mets.
Firing Fredi Gonzalez, accomplishes absolutely nothing for the team. The players aren’t going to see the shit-canning of Fredi as any sort of message to them, that they need to shape things up, or else a similar fate awaits them; they’re almost all guys who are entirely outmatched as it is, and should mostly be in the minor leagues to begin with.
In many cases of managerial firings, inexplicably, teams occasional respond with sudden influx of victories. Sometimes, it’s a response by talented players who suppressed their talents with hopes that a losing streak would jettison their coach/managers, or sometimes it’s just unexplainable why talent suddenly rises in response to a change.
The Braves are replacing Fredi Gonzalez with Gene Snitker, in the interim. Gene Snitker is a long-time baseball guy, who a lot like Fredi, served under Bobby Cox, and probably profiles similarly to a Cox-disciple, which is to say a little old-fashioned. What the Braves probably don’t want people to remember is the fact that Gene Snitker has already been a scapegoat for the team’s shortcomings, several times over in his career, with the most recent being demoted from the Major Leagues as the Braves’ long-time third-base coach, to manager of the Minor League AAA-Gwinnett Braves.
With Snitker at the helm and the fact that the roster isn’t suddenly getting Mike Trout, Bryce Harper, Clayton Kershaw and Giancarlo Stanton, the Braves are a safe bet to not be one of those teams that experiences a sudden influx of wins in the face of managerial change.
The truth is, nobody is capable of winning with the 2016 Atlanta Braves. Bobby Cox couldn’t win with this squad. Tony LaRussa, or Joe Torre would struggle to eke out wins from this squad. A mutant mash-up of Cox/LaRussa/Torre couldn’t win with this squad. An actual mutant, like Professor X with his mind-reading abilities, using them to anticipate specific upcoming pitches, and relaying them to the hitter; wouldn’t be able to win games with the 2016 Atlanta Braves.
Sometimes, admission that a team is simply not good, has to be done, instead of haphazardly firing guys for no good reason. Fredi Gonzalez should’ve been fired a long time ago, when he actually deserved it, but by doing it now, they’ve done it at the one time in which even he didn’t deserve it, and he ends up looking more like a martyr than a moron.
Then again, the Braves have long passed the point where they were capable of making good decisions, so I guess it comes as no shock that they are incapable of making a good decision in regards to this, either.
