Frank Wren: the Braves Knew Andruw Jones Was Donecakes

Frank Wren, the new general manger of the Atlanta Braves, did something that not even his relatively self-promotional predecessor, John Schuerholz, would attempt to pull off. That would be to simultaneously bash a former player (and beloved homegrown talent Andruw Jones), bash another GM and promote himself, all with one swift, not-so-innocuous comment on Sporting News Radio (via Larry Brown).

'We had the ability to watch over the last two or three years that Andruw was not the same, and he wasn't the same player he was three years ago. We had already seen the decline begin. Now he very well may get it back to some extent but we had seen the decline so [letting him go] was easier.'

Not for nothing, Frank, because Ned Colletti is hardly a genius (see: Jones and Pierre, Juan), but what, exactly, have you pulled off this season? Greg Norton is a beast but until the Braves lock up another innings eater or middle infielder, it might be better to let actions speak instead of words.

Look, we all saw Druw stink up the joint last year but in terms of power, I find it tough to believe Wren thought that was a permanent outage. LB makes a good point about "work ethic" (or as I like to call it "ability to stop pounding donuts")

Either way though, it just seems silly. There's no benefit for Wren -- aside from pumping himself up -- from embarrassing both Jones and Colletti on the air, so just throw the DL'd chubster a bone and say you "hope the longtime Brave can find his stroke again" or somesuch fake speak.