Matthew McConkey is from Tennessee and has covered the Braves in various forms throughout his career. He created the Braves Baseball Franchise Historical Page for The Baseball Almanac.com and researched and wrote Never Say Die: The 1914 Braves. McConkey also covered the Atlanta Braves from 2000-2003 for Diamond Cutters Baseball Fantasy Magazine.
5/08/2016
Trolling The Message Boards
So many fans of the Atlanta Braves are upset. And they should be. The team that they love, cheer for and sometimes live/die for (figuratively) are terrible. Do they have a right to light up the message boards and voice their concerns, albeit sometimes harshly? Hell yes they do.
When you’re a fan of a team you support the team anyway you can. That can entail buying hats and shirts, bumper stickers, watching the games on TV, anything team related to show people that you’re representing the team. So when fans invest a certain amount of their time and money into the Braves or any other team from any other sport there’s going to be backlash when the team doesn’t perform.
Most fans want Fredi Gonzalez fired. Just recently Freddie Freeman came out in support of his manager saying that it’s not his fault for the way the 25 other guys are playing there on the field. Fans don’t see it quite that way unfortunately. They want him gone as well as the front office that put this team together.
I have to say this as I have in the past; this team isn’t underachieving. The Braves are EXACTLY what I thought they were going to be. Why are fans shocked by their record? I’m not. I recently came out and put on the record that they wouldn’t win 70 games this year and now I’m thinking that I may have given them more wins. Looking at the team through the first month I don’t think they can win 50.
Does Gonzo need to go? Perhaps. Who do you replace him with? Exactly. Whoever would take over would have the same team on the field. The Braves’ problems at the moment run a little deeper than just management. The Braves have mediocre pitching, no power at the plate and a bullpen that is hit or miss at best. Changing the manager on a horrible team doesn’t make sense to me. I can understand if Gonzalez was managing the Nationals and had the worst record in baseball. Then you could say he needs to go. But the 2016 Braves don’t have the greatest team on the field.
The future is down in the minors right now. How good are the kids going to be in the majors? No clue yet. Time will tell. But if the fans think for one second that things are going to get better anytime soon they’re crazy. This is a complete rebuilding process in Atlanta. It may work or it may not. It worked once before in the late 80’s and 1990 to give us the team of the decade. Maybe it’ll work again.
Also I hear a lot of talking about the Braves just going out and getting a power hitter. Okay…who? The 2017 class of free agents are not ones that I’d spend a lot of money on and predicate a team’s success on. I don’t see the Braves making a splash next year on a power hitter because they just ain’t there.
Face it guys…this Braves team isn’t going to win a lot of game this year, next year or the next. And don’t get too used to the “promise of the future” because I can name about 10 Braves players that were touted as game changers or the face of the franchise in the last 10 years and that didn’t happen, did it?
Where do the Braves go from here, you might ask? Good question. No clue. But a piece of advice…support the Braves. If they’re your team and always have been, keep wearing those hats and shirts and keep watching and listening to those games. These lean times that we’re in are the times where we find out who the true fans are from the bandwagon chumps.
Contact: matthewmcconkey78@gmail.com
