The John Hart Plan
By Fred Owens
: Photo credit USA Today Sports
Some things just work
If you want to see what a successful manger will do in a new job, look at what he did to become successful. Hart took over a team whose minor league system was thin and mostly devoid of top prospects. He then set out to rebuild the teams’ core by acquiring young players through trade, coaxing experienced leaders to sign on and putting a heavy emphasis on scouting and the draft.
The players he added or extended were those he saw as leaders essential to success, not necessarily stars or household names just solid experienced players with reputations for leadership and success.
Yes but it isn’t working
I didn’t say he did that in Atlanta. That was Cleveland in 1991 and it did work. From1995 through 2001 the Indians won six of seven years division titles and went to World Series twice. It’s no surprise then that it’s the way he’s set out to return the the Braves to their place as perennial challengers. The difference is time.
After three years Cleveland was on schedule, 66-41 and one game behind the White Sox when the lock out ended the season. The next year they were in the World Series with the Braves. The Braves can’t wait three years, the new ballpark opens in 2017 and the team needs to be a serious challengers then. That gave him just a year and a half to produce results.
Not two years?
No, throwing a group of players who have never played together and expecting them to gel in the first year is an expensive fantasy that will fail. It’s a fantasy held by lots of owners and GMs in the past but one that has never worked; group dynamics works in all groups even team sports.(See also, Marlins, Blue Jays, Dodgers, Padres etc.) Besides, the Braves don’t have the financial resources to buy those players even if they were available; they aren’t.
His plan for the Braves would have to move quickly and simultaneously in multiple areas. For that to happen he had to rebuild the support staff needed to do it. Fortunately the Braves once had some of the best people in the league for those jobs and with the help of phone calls from his protégé’s John Schuerholz and Bobby Cox he got most of the old gang together along with some new blood they recommended. That done he was ready to begin putting players in place.
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