What Did the Braves Expect?

I know this is a Yankees blog but I tend to talk about general MLB stuff sometimes and I’m also living in Atlanta, Georgia so the Braves at least somewhat interest me. I have been watching them as much as I could, as long as it didn’t conflict with any Yankees games of course, and to say the team has been terrible may be the understatement of the century. For that reason the manager Fredi Gonzalez was fired this week with Brian Snitker replacing him but that left me with this very important question/rant. What did the Braves expect?

The Braves have traded everything that wasn’t tied down or on the operating table at the time with the exception of Freddy Freeman so no wonder the team had a 9-28 record at the time of the dismissal. Did they expect to win after trading away Shelby Miller, Andrelton Simmons, Craig Kimbrel and others? Sure the team has the best farm system and easily the best future but what about the now? The now seems more important to me with a new stadium looming, a tax-payer funded stadium mind you that I will have to pay for personally, to play for 2017 than 2018 and maybe beyond.

Fredi got a raw deal. Where many have confronted Joe Torre for being in the right place at the right time with the Dynasty Yankees you can say the exact opposite for Gonzalez and the Braves. He stuck around after managing this team well for so many years and got the axe because the GM and management cut off his hands at every turn.

If the Yankees need another great baseball mind in the organization they absolutely need to bring in Fredi Gonzalez. Make him a consultant to Brian Cashman, something. He is far too knowledgeable to be sitting out on the free agent market because he got a raw deal. Gonzalez was good enough to replace the legendary Bobby Cox in 2011 and he’s good enough to be a Yankee. Come on down Gonzalez. Cashman needs to make this happen.