Response to Firing TP

I didn't write this, but since I read it it changed my mind about the TP situation. From Chris Gesner at 680 The Fan:

The Bravos aren’t scoring a ton of runs and aren’t hitting all that well in the clutch. In fact, despite a few notable exceptions, the Braves aren’t hitting much of anything this year. Home runs, batting average, slugging percentage, etc. are all down. Damn you, Pendleton! Firing squad, enter stage right. Even certain 680 the Fan hosts have been calling for TP’s early retirement (I won’t name any names...John Kincade). Many callers during that Pendleton-bashing segment agreed with the unnamed host, save for one thoughtful listener who suggested that somebody among the Dickey Broadcasting staff be tasked with researching stats that would prove TP’s brilliance/incompetence. Since we are always fan friendly here at 680, your resident roadie is up to the task. Should Terry Pendleton be sent to the bread lines? No, and here’s why.

Point One: We Are What We Are For my opening salvo, I’d like to you all to welcome Rick Pitino. “Fred McGriff is not walking through that door. David Justice, Ron Gant, Mark Lemke, Andres Galarraga, Edgar Renteria, Marquis Grissom, Dale Murphy, and Terry Pendleton (ahem) are not walking through that door.” Thanks, Rick. If there is a disconnect between what the Brave’s roster consists of now and what came before, it needs to end. There are only three reliable batters in this lineup; Chipper Jones (178 AB, .303 BA, 31 RBI, 8 HR), Yunel Escobar (214 AB, .294 BA, 33 RBI, 6 HR), and Brian McCann (145 AB, .324 BA, 26 RBI, 6 HR). Three hitters out of nine on any given day. And the difference between these three and the rest of the roster can be equated with the distance between the Earth and Alpha Centauri. The trick is keeping them healthy, but we can hardly hold TP accountable for bad feet, bad eyes, and bad luck (Or can we?). NOTE: Brian McCann is our clean-up hitter. He has the fewest at-bats of the three and is tied with Escobar for the second most HRs on the team. Clean-up hitters on most competitive teams are in the double digits by now. Chipper’s eight HRs are the most any one player has hit for the Braves this season (McLouth has hit 10 for the year, but only one for Atlanta). That means that our very best power hitter has as many home runs in 2009 as Troy Tulowitski. That’s good for 32nd in the league. By comparison, Philadelphia has three players top ten in the league in HRs. Bottom line, we have no power and what little we do have is not very difficult to pitch around. You can’t teach power, they either have it or they don’t. Maybe if TP gave our guys some HGH (my bad, Jordan Schafer), he’d have a better chance of keeping his job.

Point Two: The Outfield Like my Pappy always says, “Cook the big fish first.” Jeff Francoeur needs to go. Corner outfield positions are usually reserved for guys who can flat out rake. Not so on this roster. Frenchie’s legend was born from local high school heroics, which pushed him fast through the farm system and a major league debut. Whatever glow he once had on him is now wearing off as evidenced by the AJC’s new poll question, “Should Jeff Francoeur be traded?” Absolutely, I say. Assuming any team would be willing to deal more than a set of old Jane Fonda workout tapes. I wrote recently of Mike Vick’s diminishing stats over the course of his career. That argument certainly holds many parallels here. In the beginning, Francoeur was an insanely popular and productive player. Under Pendleton’s tutelage, Francoeur hit .260, and .293 in his first two full seasons respectively. In those years, Francoeur drove in 103 and 105 runs. These last two seasons have marked a sharp decline in his production. Batting averages of .239 in 2008, and .253 so far in 2009. He’s also on pace to match last year’s 71 RBI total. Over his brief career, Francoeur has struck out a whopping 464 times and walked a piddling 125. Further damning, there are multiple signs of a player who just doesn’t get it. Without even a tweet to his teammate/hitting coach, Francoeur consulted the hitting coach of the Texas Rangers (That’s really paying off dividends, by the way). Jeff’s response to any possible insult to TP, “...it is what it is.” Way to be disrespectful and classless at the same time, Jeff! Then there was the curiously unreported, profanity-laced, childish tirade during spring training that Francoeur unleashed upon a member of the Atlanta media who had been critical of the right fielder. Dismissive of his coaches? Check. Can’t take criticism? Check mate. He’s just a water bottle, a dead dog, and a bad outbreak of herpes away from drawing a real cult following in the ATL. Pendleton would have a better shot at teaching Helen Keller to recite the Gettysburg Address than he would at teaching Jeff Francoeur to be a patient, selective, consistent hitter to all fields. Nate McLouth? Hate to beat up on the kid since he’s new to the train wreck, but here it goes. A lot of the buzz surrounding him is that he was an All-Star with the Pirates. Let that sink in for a minute. The Pirates had one representative in the 2008 All-Star game. Each team is guaranteed at least one All-Star berth. He only hit .276 that year. He’s never driven in more than 100 runs in a season. Yea, Frank Wren! If McLouth never wins the triple crown, I’m sure it’s because Terry Pendleton is incompetent. Somewhere warm, Andruw Jones can't stop laughing. Left field has been been vacant since the departure of Gary Sheffield. Name me the team that has been successful without power, average, or run production from each, or any, of its outfield positions. Coming up empty? Me too! The Matt Diaz/Garrett Anderson platoon is cute in theory, but lacks common sense in actual practice. Heaven forbid the Braves make an offer to Raul Ibanez this past off-season, we might have actually had an outfielder that could hit the ball over the fence. That must be TP’s fault too.

Point Three: The Infield Third base, shortstop, and catcher are good, as we’ve already established. Was it Meatloaf that said “3 out of 5 ain’t bad?” No. His percentage was much better than that. We have Casey Kotchman at first. A guy who, when not on the DL, had his best season with 12 homers. TWELVE HOMERS! First base, last I checked, was a power position (like the corner outfield positions, but I repeat myself). Was Rico Brogna not available? I like Kotchman’s defense, I do, but the man has never driven in over 100 runs or hit over .300. That’s with over four years in the AL before he came to Atlanta. He may not do worse here, but I don’t think TP (Or the ghost of Ty Cobb) could get him to hit much better. Kelly Johnson is not Ryne Sandberg. A bold statement, I know. Were it not for the grace of Bobby Cox (the guy that let him start his career 0 for 30 without benching him), this guy would be bagging groceries with kids still waxing poetic about the time they spent bagging with Kurt Warner. Who started the rumor that this gibrone deserved to hog a starting gig in The Show? He’d make a passable 8th hitter (.238 AVG), but we’ve stuck him at the top of the order for reasons passing understanding. He doesn’t have lead-off speed. He doesn’t work the count (Almost 2-1 strikeout-to-walk ratio for his career). He did, however, hit .287 last year. Not that TP had anything to do with that. The Braves organization was once stocked with talent up the middle. O’ Elvis Andrus, where art thou? Oh, that’s right, we traded him to Texas for a rent-a-player who didn’t have a single meaningful hit in a Braves uniform (I’m talking to you, Teixeira). Mark DeRosa, why hast thou forsaken us? Oh, that’s right, we let you go for nothing and now you are an integral part of the success of every franchise you are with (Then Cubs, now Rangers). I guess TP is making all of the personnel decisions too.

Point Four: The Real Culprit Roger McDowell is an amazing pitching coach. This year, the Braves are 4th in the majors in strikeouts, 8th in ERA, 1st in fewest home runs allowed, and 10th in fewest runs. He’s amazing. This year, he’s amazing. From 2006-2008, Roger was a terrible pitching coach. The bullpen couldn’t hold a lead and the starters couldn’t get out of the 6th inning. That is, of course, when they actually made it into the 6th inning. Bob Wickman, Chris Reitsma, Chuck James, Jo Jo Reyes, Kyle Davies, Mark Redman, and Joey Devine were among the many hurlers who peddled their dreadful wares during those years (To say nothing of the conspicuous absence of Mike Hampton). What magic elixir did Roger drink this past offseason to imbue the current staff with such great prowess? That’s right, we got rid of all those guys and signed professionals. You could rub a million lamps and wish that Kelly Johnson, Jeff Francoeur, Casey Kotchman, Nate McLouth, Jordan Schafer, Matt Diaz, David Ross, Martin Prado, Omar Infante, Gregor Blanco, Greg Norton, and Garret Anderson were forces to be reckoned with and future Cooperstown inductees. They’re not, they never will be, and the genie you wish upon will laugh in your face. Magic, it would seem, has its limitations. A coach, a manager, a boss, or whathaveyou, is only as good as the talent he is given to field. Frank Wren has done nothing to help Terry Pendleton in this regard. NOTHING. Nothing but trade away the only center fielder the Braves had in camp that had any record of success in the majors (Josh Anderson). Nothing but alienate both John Smoltz and Tom Glavine (Who are those guys, anyway?). Nothing but allow every capable left fielder in free agency to disappear before settling on the 36 year-old who’s riding the sharp down slope of a solid career (Sorry, Garret). No real attempt was made to address first or second base (That bit with Furcal made zero sense). No real attempt was made to address serious concerns in the outfield (The answer: Ken Griffey Jr. The question: “What player hasn’t been relevant in nearly a decade?”). Then again, I guess every team relies on their hitting coach to negotiate with Scott Boras. It was posited on this very station that if an employee doesn’t respond to the message preached by his or her manager, then the manager should be replaced. Funny, maybe it’s my military background talking, but every job I have ever held has taught me the exact opposite. If an employee is not willing or able to do the work, you hold the employee accountable. If an employee is incapable of making adjustments, you find someone who can. Barring that, you fire the guy that keeps hiring substandard labor. Frank Wren's previous GM credits include driving a wrecking ball into what was once a proud Baltimore Orioles franchise (With no small amount of help from Peter Angelos). Check the Turner Field parking lot, I think he's at it again. All Terry Pendleton has ever done is win the National League MVP Award, win a batting title, play in five World Series, be a vocal clubhouse leader and a major contributer to the reason people actually care about baseball in this city. He has also done his dead-level best to polish the turds that Frank Wren keeps leaving in the dugout. Bobby Cox has done his best too (Better than all but three major league managers in over a century). So, yeah, maybe we should follow Jeff Francoeur’s lead and hire that guy in Texas nobody ever heard of.