Reading Between the Lines: DOB’s Interview with Atlanta Braves AGM Coppolella
Jul 29, 2015; Baltimore, MD, USA; A general view of the on deck circle before the game between the Baltimore Orioles and the Atlanta Braves at Oriole Park at Camden Yards. Mandatory Credit: Tommy Gilligan-USA TODAY Sports
The Questions
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You could break down the questions O’Brien asked into these general categories:
- Have you noticed what’s going on?
- What happened???
- You realize fans are ticked off, right?
- What are you gonna do about it?
At this point, I’m going to guess that most of you don’t care so much anymore about the first two of these at least… but in short:
- Yes – they’ve noticed. Very much so.
- After some hand-wringing, Coppolella and John Hart opted to go “all the way on this” rather than to do just a halfway job. They committed themselves… and all of Atlanta, for that matter… to the task in the hopes that they can be back to a contending level faster than any other team has been rebuilt in recent memory.
Regarding that third point:
- Quoting directly: “Yes, I get a lot of hate email. You hear a lot of comments. There’s a lot of guys that say they don’t read stuff (criticism), but I do read stuff.., Is it painful now? … It’s painful. Every day.”
I want to get to the future-scoping here, but before that, there is one major bit that we cannot gloss over here. It’s specifically about Fredi Gonzalez and his staff. There were two questions on this subject, and on both occasions, Coppy declined to put the blame on this season on any member of the coaching staff. He wants to judge them based on the effort that the players are making – “they’ve played hard every night” – and not on the results, given that the Front Office has effectively been yanking rugs out from under the coaching staff at various intervals throughout the season.
The phrase mentioned twice in two different ways was that it would be “unfair to judge” them based on wins and losses specifically because of the injuries and trades and roster changes throughout. But more on that in a bit.
Next: Never mind what he actually said...