The Collapse of the Braves, And the Shine Just Came Out Fredi Gonzalez: Fredi Gonzalez quietly gave the senior management of the Braves, Bobby Cox, who never fired before in an instant face-wink, nudge nudge, and nobody really had a problem with it. His resume and personality, everyone loved and respected him. He knew the players, the organization and the city. The Braves were not in the principal's office because they were changing a light bulb. Something went wrong. This is not a “Fire Fredi Gonzalez” column. But we’ve just witnessed one of the worst collapses in sports history, and the Braves can’t just assume that a few roster tweaks are going to fix the problem. When a team goes 10-20 down the stretch including 0-9 against their two biggest competitors “Philadelphia and St. Louis” and loses three consecutive series to the division’s flotsam “Mets, Marlins, Nationals”, this isn’t just about injuries or a few guys being in a slump. The vibe was missing this season. That’s on Gonzalez. The team fell apart when it needed to come together, blowing an 8½-game lead in 23 days. That’s on Gonzalez. The Braves seemed tight and meek and borderline frightened, as if waiting, hoping, white-knuckle-praying for a playoff spot to just fall into their lap. They didn’t just take it and didn’t play like they felt they deserved it. That’s certainly on Gonzalez. The shine just came off the perfect replacement. I understand this isn’t football. Managers make in-game decisions but they aren’t calling plays. They change the lineup and the batting order. Gonzalez did that. He pulled Chipper Jones out of the No. 3 spot. He benched Jason Heyward. Ultimately, the question is whether a manager is making a team better, making it believe. The Braves clearly weren’t, therefore Gonzalez clearly didn’t. Even with injuries, this was twice the team that reached the postseason last year and lost three one-run games to the eventual World Series champions in San Francisco. Gonzalez doesn’t need to go. But he needs to change something, and maybe someone. Maybe it’s his hitting coach “because for all the screams from the cheap seats to dump Terry Pendleton, Larry Parrish brought nothing to the table”. Maybe it’s hisown approach. Maybe Gonzalez came in and, consciously or subconsciously, didn’t want to disrupt things too much in the first season after Bobby Cox retired. If so, that backfired. When asked about the collapse following Wednesday’s final loss, Chipper Jones said, “It’s cruel, because probably nobody in Atlanta sports is probably under as much scrutiny as he is filling in for Bobby Cox. To have it slip away in late September, it’s cruel. It’s really cruel. It’s not indicative of the way this team played, the way he managed, and what we deserved in this situation.” Not sure about the “deserved” part of that quote. The Braves just played 162 games. 
That’s enough time. They blew it. They blew it like no team in Atlanta sports history. That blew it like few teams in all of sports history. The only people who aren’t saying today that they blew it live in Boston, because they’ve got their own problems. What just happened is mind-numbing. But even before the collapse, the Braves seemed to have chemistry issues. They never quite came together like most anticipated. This was a team that figured to challenge Philadelphia in the National League East and possibly a World Series. There aren’t a lot of tangible things we can pin on Gonzalez. He certainly stuck with Derek Lowe too long, and the decision to start him Tuesday over rookie Julio Teheran blew up in the manager’s face. He made the bold decision to go with Jose Constanza over the struggling Heyward in right field for several starts, which seemed to ignite the lineup. But then switched to Heyward, who is the better player, but still seemed confused, But he never had to make that decision or any other country begins Lowe. When a team goes 10-20 to close the season and is swept at home for the last three games, things are bigger than this. Implosions are also the leader. He did not make the team better. Underachieved Braves, Gonzalez and just lost my support.The Collapse of the Braves, And the Shine Just Came Out Fredi Gonzalez:
That’s enough time. They blew it. They blew it like no team in Atlanta sports history. That blew it like few teams in all of sports history. The only people who aren’t saying today that they blew it live in Boston, because they’ve got their own problems. What just happened is mind-numbing. But even before the collapse, the Braves seemed to have chemistry issues. They never quite came together like most anticipated. This was a team that figured to challenge Philadelphia in the National League East and possibly a World Series. There aren’t a lot of tangible things we can pin on Gonzalez. He certainly stuck with Derek Lowe too long, and the decision to start him Tuesday over rookie Julio Teheran blew up in the manager’s face. He made the bold decision to go with Jose Constanza over the struggling Heyward in right field for several starts, which seemed to ignite the lineup. But then switched to Heyward, who is the better player, but still seemed confused, But he never had to make that decision or any other country begins Lowe. When a team goes 10-20 to close the season and is swept at home for the last three games, things are bigger than this. Implosions are also the leader. He did not make the team better. Underachieved Braves, Gonzalez and just lost my support.The Collapse of the Braves, And the Shine Just Came Out Fredi Gonzalez:
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