Off to a 1-6 start, the Atlanta Braves appear to back in a role they thought they had left behind during the second Bobby Cox era. The famed Braves manager who took a moribund franchise and made them the premier dynasty of the sport might have a little to do with why the franchise is back to being baseball's whipping boy. No, Cox doesn't carry all the blame, the front office and ownership carry plenty of their own, but his fingerprints are on this current debacle, even if he did leave years ago.
How in the world does a man who took the Braves to not one, not two, not three, but five World Series (winning one) get any blame for where the team is now?
It's not that he shouldn't have done what he did to get Atlanta to where they were, but it's possible he left the cupboard a bit bare, perhaps needlessly, when he left.
Braves roster could be beaten by some minor league squads
Immediately following the departure of Cox, the Braves didn't descend immediately into the horrendous state they currently find themselves. As the aging players acquired while Cox was manager continued to play out the string, the team continued to win and then the cupboard became pretty bare. After winning 96 games in 2013, they won just 79 the following season and the Braves haven't broken 70 wins since 2014. It doesn't appear this version is destined to do much better than the 68 victories in 2016.
One look at the lineup that took the field on Tuesday night, with old or broken down castoffs like Emilio Bonifacio and Brandon Phillips and even Bartolo Colon on the mound, it's not a surprise the game was lost since the first inning on. Signings of players like Ryan Howard aren't going to fix that. Did Cox and company do a poor job of making sure the "next man up" was ready to go when the previous generation of Braves was stepping down?
In hindsight it certainly seems so. As a former front office member, Cox should have seen it coming before hindsight set in.
Current Atlanta Braves front office takes plenty of the blame
This isn't to say Bobby Cox is solely responsible for where Atlanta currently sits. He's been gone long enough that a trend upwards could have been made.
Managers have come and gone, and the current manager appears to be one that was hired on the cheap. It's of course, possible that Brian Snitker will turn out to be the right man for the job. The Atlanta Braves are hoping sooner or later, a younger generation of player will start cracking the starting lineup.
As the former AAA manager for the franchise, he could have a good relationship with the players who are indeed set to be the "next man up." On the flipside, former minor league managers don't have a great track record. With the combination of sub-par talent and a front office that appears to be playing for the year after next year, the Braves might be stuck here for a while, and Bobby Cox deserves at least some of the blame for that.
