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Home > Mark Bradley > Archives > 2009 > January > 10
Saturday, January 10, 2009
Optimistic Braves GM Wren refuses to admit team is in rebuilding mode
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Occasionally Frank Wren will check a message board. Friday wasn’t such an occasion. “I’m savvy enough to know this probably wouldn’t be a good day,” he said.
It wasn’t. According to some AJC.com bloggers, the Braves general manager deserves to be flogged, flayed and fricasseed for the sin of letting John Smoltz leave for Boston. “Fire Frank Wren,” wrote someone posting under the screen name Fire Frank Wren. “He is a disaster as a GM.”
Said Wren, speaking of the reason he strategically avoids such sites: “It’s not unlike talk radio, and I’ve stopped listening to talk radio. I don’t think the average sports fan calls talk radio, nor do I think he goes on the blogs. That’s a special group of fans — someone who wants the experience of making a call or typing a sentence. I don’t think that represents the masses. If you go by those, you get a somewhat distorted view.”
Fifteen months on the job, Wren has become a civic flashpoint. This from someone posting as Salmanator: “Another case of Frank Wren asleep at the switch. He got played by [free agent A.J.] Burnett, got played by [flip-flopping Rafael] Furcal and lost the face of the franchise by not making him a reasonable offer. Total, utter incompetence.”
Has the offseason indeed been a washout? Said Wren: “I don’t view it that way. I’m the eternal optimist. In this game, you have to be. Things change day to day.”
And maybe they do. On Saturday it was learned the Braves are on the verge of signing Japanese pitcher Kenshin Kawakami.
About Smoltz, Wren said: “We were the first team to make an offer. But after what we all suffered through last season with injuries to our starting pitching, it was incumbent on us to put a pitching staff together that we were relatively sure would stay healthy and answer the bell. We told Tommy [Glavine] and John we had to put a team together [separate from the two pitchers] — that we could not look at them as key parts.
“We saw John [throw in December] and he was making good progress, but by John’s own admission, he was six months from pitching. He initially told us he’d be ready opening day. That [date] slid in the last month. We made a very solid offer. All we asked is that he be healthy enough to pitch.”
Even without Smoltz, the Braves intend to field a team. “We’re very good in the infield and at catcher … as good there as any team in our league or in baseball,” Wren said. “We’ve said all along we’d like to have another bat in the outfield, but we’re hopeful Jeff [Francoeur] will have a good year and that we’ll have speed and defense in center field. Our starting pitching is starting to come together, and our bullpen will be outstanding. There are ingredients that give us hope.”
Why doesn’t Wren admit what seems increasingly apparent — that the Braves are in full rebuilding mode and are targeting 2010 or 2011 more than 2009? “Because you don’t know exactly when things are going to click. It might be this year or it might be next year. None of us knows that. It’s a hope-inspiring game. If you get off to a good start, if a couple of young ballplayers show something … That’s what you hope and plan for.”
Wren was asked if a major move — the signing of Derek Lowe, say — might persuade some who just claimed to have sworn off the Braves to reassess. “I don’t know. I would hope so. Our guiding principle is to put a winning team on the field. I know fans get attached to players — we all get attached to players. And we would love to have John Smoltz on our club. But our goal is to put together a winning team.”
Pitchers and catchers don’t report until Valentine’s Day, which means the GM still has time to work. His many critics will take that as a threat. The undaunted Wren sees only an opportunity. Really. Truly.
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