Braves hitting coach Greg Walker will turn 55 next week and the Georgia native knows he might be unemployed by his birthday. The Braves missed the playoffs and suffered their first losing season since 2008, primarily due to an offense that ranked next-to-last in the majors in runs with the fourth-worst OPS.
“A huge disappointment would be an understatement,” Walker said Monday, a day after completing his third season on the coaching staff. “Especially when a majority of the issues came on my side of the ball. We went into the season with expectations, which we created by the season we had last year with basically the same players.
“So, disappointing is … I don’t want to use another word, but it’s an understatement.”
Fredi Gonzalez said he hasn’t been told whether he’ll be back as Braves manager and might not be until a permanent general manager is in place later this month. There are indications Gonzalez will be retained and given another chance to show what he can do with an improved roster and less interference after GM Frank Wren was fired last week.
Gonzalez said he thinks he’ll know more, at least about the coaches, after he meets with interim GM John Hart on Wednesday.
“It’s so easy to blame the coaches in any sport,” Gonzalez said Monday in his office at Turner Field. “And they understand. That’s what we signed up for. Would I like to keep my staff? Absolutely. Is that going to happen? I’ll call you as soon as I get out of the meeting.”
Pitching coach Roger McDowell is the only Braves coach on a multi-year contract and presumably the one whose job would be most secure anyway. Despite key injuries, Braves pitchers were among the majors’ top five in team ERA and starters ERA.
Atlanta’s offense, under the direction of Walker and assistant hitting coach Scott Fletcher, was dreadful much of the season. The Braves were prone to double-digit strikeouts and countless wasted scoring opportunities.
Walker, a Douglas native, played parts of nine seasons in the majors as a first baseman and designated hitter, mostly with the White Sox. Then he spent 8 1/2 seasons as White Sox hitting coach, where he was part of a World Series title and drew praise from Paul Konerko, among others.
“You know, I really wanted to come here (to the Braves) and experience it,” Walker said. “And I’m glad I did, even if this last year we ended on a bad note. The overall experience has been unbelievable. I’ve gotten to meet so many really special people and be a part of it. Happy with what we accomplished the first two years, disappointed in what we did this year. It’s not Braves baseball. It just was not Braves baseball. It’s not what the fans are accustomed to and no excuses.”
The Braves hit 29 homers while their pitching staff posted a stingy 2.04 ERA during the 17-7 start. They played .500 ball over the next 82 games while hitting 56 homers and averaging fewer than four runs. They were still 10 games over .500 through July 28 before an 0-8 road trip that was the beginning of the end.
The Braves hit .232 while averaging 2.9 runs over their final 56 games and going 21-35. They hit a majors-worst .206 in September with 59 runs in 25 games (7-18).
“The construction of the team was challenging, but that would be an excuse,” Walker said. “I’ve always known that whoever they give me, that’s who I’m coaching. But it was a challenging team in the fact that a huge majority of our players had had high strikeout totals in their career. We just had so many, it was almost like it was contagious.”
The Braves scored the second-fewest runs (573) in the majors and tied for the fourth-lowest OPS (.665). They ranked 24th in OBP (.305), 26th in average (.241) and tied for 22nd in homers (123) after leading the NL with 181 homers in 2013.
“If it’s oversimplified, last year we hit a lot of home runs and this year we didn’t,” Walker said. “The last thing you want a player to do is go up there and try to hit a home run. They just have to happen. And last year they did. And not only did the home runs happen last year, but a lot of dramatic home runs. This year, we didn’t have many.”
One thing they did plenty of both seasons was strike out — fourth in the majors this year with 1,369, tied for third in 2013 with a franchise-record 1,384.
“The challenging thing when you’re coaching a high-strikeout player is to retain production,” Walker said. “It’s a real thin line there. I know we had a lot of at-bats this year where our players’ only focus was, ‘I don’t want to strike out.’ And that lends to striking out still, because you’re careful and late usually, because you’re trying too hard to put the ball in play. And two, you lose your production. I don’t believe that you can focus and take a big hitter and tell him — OK, you can have different approaches that help – but the choke-poke-and-hope to put it in play, that’s not the answer either.
“But the one overriding thing that I think happened to us as a group – first of all, I don’t think near enough credit has been given to the Washington Nationals for how they played this year. They’re a really good team that played really well this year. They fought the other team every night. And in our case I think we fought ourself more this year than we have in the past. Some early scuffles and it just kind of snowballed. And that’s my job, is to keep the focus on fighting the other team instead of fighting yourself. And I didn’t get it done this year. It’s just that simple.
“Way too many given-away at-bats, which is a tragedy in this game. If you get big-league at-bats, they’re precious. And you can not give them away. And we gave them away by the handfuls. And that comes under my department, too. So I failed in that respect, that we gave away way too many at-bats this season. I think the main reason was just frustration. Part of that was just because Washington – last year we jumped out to an early lead and they didn’t put a lot of pressure on us. This year, everybody saw that they were getting better as the year went on. So they kind of punched us in the face, and we didn’t keep moving forward.”
Another area where the Braves were severely flawed: Hitting with runners in scoring position. They were 28th in the majors with a .236 average in those situations, including a majors-worst .193 with two outs.
Freddie Freeman, after ranking second in the majors at .443 with runners in scoring position in his 109-RBI season in 2013, hit .294 in those situations this season and finished with 78 RBIs.
“I think the formula for Freddie is getting consistent chances,” Walker said. “The (No.) 1 and 2 hole was up and down this year. We couldn’t find consistent answers there. We needed Jason (Heyward) in both spots, in the middle and leading off. That was not what he wanted to do. Jason views himself as a middle-of-the-lineup hitter. He’s a team player and he’s going to do whatever the manager asks him to do, but that’s what he views himself as, a middle-of-the-order hitter.
“But if you give Freddie consistent chances and they pitch to him, that’s another big key. You’ve got to have somebody behind him, that’s part of the puzzle. Yeah, Justin (Upton) had a great year hitting behind him this year, but one reason (Upton) had a lot of RBIs is that Freeman walked a lot.”
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