John Schuerholz 'stepping down' after 17 seasons.

Mazzone's failures in Baltimore are indicative of the failures of the franchise.

 

You got that fucking right. :'(

What a sad, sad day for Braves fans. I wish I could say I feel optimism about this franchise going forward, but there is nothing positive about a future without Schuerholz as GM. In the winter of 1990, he came to Atlanta and said, "My task ... is to build the Royals of the South." (sorry Oz! )

He did much more than that.

Some may lament that the Braves won "only" one championship in their glory days, but they forget the teams that Schuerholz inherited. Perennial cellar-dwellers in a town that S.I. dubbed "Losersville, U.S.A." in 1988. The Braves routinely drew 3,000 to old Fulton County Stadium. (I know; I used to be one of them.)

Now? The Braves are known as the one of the classiest organizations in sports, with a track record that speaks for itself. Fourteen division titles in a row? When will that ever happen again? There is nothing to be disappointed about, October and all. Schuerholz's Braves gave us many great Octobers, and plenty of surprising ones. The 2004 and 2005 teams had no business winning 90 games.

Arrogance? Hardly. On the field, the Braves were the Team of the '90s: eight division titles, five NL pennants and the 1995 World Series -- the first championship in Atlanta's major sports history. None of that began until Schuerholz took over the front office, and put his predecessor, Bobby Cox, back in the dugout.

A Hall of Fame executive, if I ever saw one.

 

To counter, I offer up Jason Marquis.

 

So, maybe Dave Duncan is just a little bit better... or at least a better fit for Marquis.

Even though it was only 16 starts, Marquis did have the best single-season ERA of his career (3.49) in 2000 with Atlanta.

 

Jason Marquis, like Tim Spooneybarger, was a mule-headed punk during his time in Atlanta. (The Cardinal equivalent would be Garrett Stephenson.) Refused to listen to Mazzone, and continually tried to go Rick Vaughn on hitters when he got in trouble. Which got him in more trouble.

His attitude was the problem. Had little to do with Mazzone, or Dave Duncan, for that matter. When he wants to pitch well, he can. When he's an idiot head case, he sucks.

If you want a real counter, it would be Jason Schmidt. The only young Braves pitcher that I have any regrets about the team giving away (although Neagle did win 20 games in '97, so not a total loss).

 

Beat me to it. Too bad it appears he's staying on as president of the Braves.

 

Mazzone is kind of a chicken/egg argument. He had his nice reclamation projects in his time in Atlanta (Chris Hammond, John Burkett come to mind) but I think his impact on the pitching staff as a whole was overblown. If his failure in Baltimore can on some level be attributed to the organization, the same could be said of his triumphs in Atlanta. It's likely Glavine and Smoltz would have been highly successful anyway, and Maddux was already a Cy Young winner when Mazzone got to work with him.

With Schuerholz as president, the Braves will be fine if Liberty ups the payroll to between $95 million and $100 million. If it stays in the mid-80s, no matter who the GM is, they'll be right where thay have been the past two years.

 

Why wouldn't the Braves want Dayton Moore?

 

... for the next four years.

 

time to out myself as a closet Braves fan. (Of course Buckdubs already knows about this )

End of an era for baseball's model organization...yeah, yeah, the Yankees (and Marlins and Blue Jays) won more titles since 1991, but Schuerholz reloaded, over and over and over again and almost always from within, and was always one or two steps ahead of the curve until the last couple years, when the law of averages caught up. Every spring between 1999 and 2005, you'd wonder how many games back the Braves would finish. And every summer, they'd find their groove and just go on this epic run to bury the division.

I don't think they're the team of the '90s, b/c the Yankees had the dynastic run, but there has not been a better-run organization in the free agency era. I marvel at how Schuerholz did it, and how the Braves always seemed to do it with a touch of class...and how nobody bought more into what Schuerholz was doing than the superstars. Chipper Jones, a Hall of Famer, moved to left field for Vinny frickin Castilla. John Smoltz, a Hall of Fame starter, closed.

I'm sure they had their skeletons in the closet, but the brief public skirmish between Chipper and Smoltz this year was a reminder of how rarely they aired their dirty laundry. I read a wire story today that pointed out how secretive Schuerholz was, yet as others have noted on this thread, he never seemed to carry himself with arrogance. How many GMs can you say that about nowadays?

Back in a previous life, when I liked a reprehensible team from Queens, I used to laugh at the Braves "only" winning one World Series. I still believe Bobby Cox is a miserable postseason manager, but the postseason is a crapshoot. There's a reason it's a surprise when the two best teams in the league make it to the LCS, like this year. And the Braves had the misfortune of being the Jazz to the Yankees' Bulls. When you make the playoffs 14 years in a row, you can chalk up your "failures" to the vagueries of a short series. And Schuerholz used it as an excuse a lot less than little Billy Beane.

Best organization in baseball for more than 15 years. Too bad the pitching, of all things, doomed the Braves' final run after the Teixiera trade.

 

This pretty much sums up my feelings about the Braves, except that they are not my favorite team — they're second, mostly from respect I've developed for the organization.