Friday, August 24, 2007

Braves Cut a Man

The Braves designated Bob Wickman for assignment today. This means they now have 10 days to trade him, demote him to the minors, or outright release him. This news probably comes as a mix of both shock and relief to many Braves fans. While servicable last year, Wickman has been fairy ineffective this season. His stats probably don't appear all that bad if you're not a Braves fan, but trust me, he's let too many games get away.

One might ask, why not just remove him from the closer role, pitch him during the 7th or 8th inning, instead of cutting him? This is a fair question, and one that I asked myself. According to this article in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (still probably the dumbest name for any major newspaper), Wickman had increasingly alienated himself from teammates by getting angry whenever he had to pitch in non-save situations. To me, this is even more troubling than his pitching problems, because this obviously led to some unease in the clubhouse. So basically his attitude was "pitch me in save situations or don't pitch me." And not surprisingly, Bobby Cox called his bluff, and he gonne.

Nothing personal against Wickman, but I think this will greatly help the Braves. Getting rid of a negative clubhouse presence is a justifiable move, a move made much easier given his on-field performance. Wickman is obviously past his prime; the fact that the Braves have as yet been unable to generate any trade interest in him bears that out. He actually apologized to Bobby Cox for letting the team down, which makes me respect him a lot more. He's a fierce competitor who wants to win badly, but whose frustrations were getting the best of him. Still, he's not totally unusable. I'm betting he'll land somewhere (read: Kansas City), and, who knows, maybe he can turn it around.

1 comment:

the happy ninja said...

let me just say that is one gross picture. it nasty. i can't believe they couldn't get anything for wickman in a trade. surely some dumb like the yankees would traded for bullpen 'help.' and if this was terrell owens, we would've heard about this situation non-stop. i just wonder why espn report some stories constantly and not others even though they are similar.

i am still angry at kaz ishii, and it's not even over something that he did in real life. i still don't know how chipper hit that inside change. so bitter...