The Side Line: Gonzalez, Braves ready to forget September swoon

It has been four months since the Atlanta Braves collapsed.

Four months since a 13-inning loss to the Phillies, a season-ending defeat that sealed their doom.

They lost 20 of their last 30 games.

They squandered a 10½ -game wild card lead in the season’s final month.

It still makes no sense.

So, how does manager Fredi Gonzalez, who was handed a team with World Series potential from Bobby Cox, reflect on a meltdown labeled as one of the worst in sports history?

“We tried things. We had meetings. We had meetings for everything,” Gonzalez recently told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “We had meetings to decide about meetings. After a while it’s like,

‘How many times can I perform an autopsy?’”

How does something like this happen?

How does Gonzalez and the rest of the team get over such a depressing way to end a season?

For one, this team never really clicked. Sure they were headed to the playoffs, but we all knew we hadn’t seen this team at its best.

Pitchers Jair Jurrjens and Tommy Hanson were basically lost for most of the season after the All-Star break.

Dan Uggla hit a career-high 36 home runs, but only after one of the worst starts to a season I have ever seen.

Jason Heyward’s sophomore slump sent fans into a frenzy, and many began to think Heyward just might become the next Jeff Francoeur. The Braves were a good team, projected to reach 95-plus wins going into September.

But good teams don’t give up 10½-game leads. Good teams don’t lose consecutive series in a playoff race to the Mets, Nationals and Marlins, expecting to make it anywhere in October.

Sure, there were injuries. But injuries happen. The Braves, who have terrific chemistry, somehow could never figure out how to turn it around, which still boggles my mind to this day.

Luckily for Gonzalez, general manager Frank Wren didn’t blow up the team, instead keeping a team with such great potential in so many positions to give it a go once more in 2012.

Gonzalez was handed a gift-wrapped present with this great team, but another mediocre season won’t assure him another season in Atlanta.

We’re tired of mediocre in Atlanta. It’s time to make it change, Fredi.

Posted by Chad Patterson on Feb 2 2012. Filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.