Braves: Freddie Freeman is Not to Blame for Lack of Rest
A lot was made about a recent article on Freddie Freeman and his desire for his Atlanta Braves teammates to play every day.
After a win on Monday night and a Phillies loss, the Atlanta Braves now have a three-game lead in the NL East.
At the same time, an article on Yahoo had everyone on Twitter in an uproar and led to some pretty great memes.
While I don’t care for the tone of this article, which really tries to paint a poor picture of Freeman of this evil overlord, there are some things worth mentioning.
Braves: Snitker Should Be in Control, Not Freddie
I think the quote that got most people in an uproar is the one about Snitker calling Freddie at 1 a.m. to let him know Dansby would be getting an off day the next day and not to give him a hard time about it.
If that’s true, and at this point, we have no reason to believe it’s not, that’s messed up.
Again, I think the writer of the article is portraying the story to try and question Freddie’s character, which is why I somewhat take this situation with a grain of salt and probably overblown in the article.
But Snitker shouldn’t have to warn Freddie about giving players a hard time for sitting out. And Snitker shouldn’t be afraid to sit a person because of Freddie.
If he feels a player needs a breather, then he should give them a day off.
And that brings up the next issue.
Braves: How Much Rest Do Players Really Need?
So much is made about the fact that the Braves infield is in the top 30 of games played and no other first-place team has anyone in the top 30.
Well, those contending teams also haven’t lost their entire outfield this year either.
And I know this isn’t just a 2021 issue with games played, but the Braves have been fighting for their playoff lives all year — they couldn’t afford to give their best players a day off.
If Ozzie or Dansby takes a day they’re getting replaced by Ehire Adrianza. That’s a huge drop-off in production — especially when you already have replacement players in your outfield.
The front office is more to blame for the lack of depth. Atlanta can’t bring Gavin Lux, Chris Taylor, Matt Beaty, or even Albert Pujols off the bench to give a guy a breather as the Dodgers can.
But the question is, how many days of rest does a player really need? Does taking a day off in June really help a player perform better in August?
I don’t have that answer and I don’t think anyone really does.
Using the example from the article, Dansby didn’t play in the Marlins game on September 10. He’s 3-28 since then…
That’s one example in a short sample size, but still, not exactly a great indicator that rest equals better performance.
Maybe if you couple that off-day on September 10 with a day off back on August 12 — would his production be better then?
I’m being a little facetious as I do think players should get an off-day from their job every now and then just like we do from our jobs, but to make the point that doing that directly leads to better production is just not true.
Baseball players in particular are used to a routine, and I believe taking them out of that routine can sometimes be more detrimental than anything.
That being said, I think if a player is feeling fatigued and needs a day they have to be able to communicate that to the manager and the manager should be able to grant that request without fear of persecution.
Braves: Freddie is Not the Villain Here
This article, written by somehow who has Citizens Bank Park (where the Phillies play) as their background image on Twitter, seems more like a smear campaign against Freeman than what it should have been, which was an article highlighting his work ethic.
And you see some of that in there, but she ends it with this:
The Braves are proud of what they see as a defining part of their club’s unique culture. Maybe it’ll backfire someday, maybe it already has and their best players would be playing better with built-in days off
The entire time I’m reading the article I’m trying to figure out if the writer is praising Freddie for his work ethic or blaming him for why the team isn’t performing better.
Here is what we know and have known for a while, Freddie Freeman is going to play every day that he can. For the most part, that’s always been a great thing.
At the end of 2019 when he was dealing with bone spurs is the only time I’ve seen Freddie try to push through and it really cost the team.
That mentality, though, is the same type of mentality you see from the greatest players of all time. I saw someone mention that’s the same mentality that a Michael Jordan, Tom Brady or Kobe Bryant has/had.
And while yes, they may have been bullies in the clubhouse, they were always doing it to try and push someone to be better — to help the team be better.
But it’s true in baseball just like any other sport, everyone is playing banged up and less than 100 percent — especially this time of year.
Does a couple of off-days throughout the year really change that fact? I don’t think so, but I’d love to see an argument otherwise.
I believe it helps them more mentally than physically, which is the point that was made with Dansby. Baseball is much more of a mental grind than other sports.
And not everyone is built the same. While Freddie has that type of worth ethic, it’s understandable if others don’t and they need a breather every now and then to reset.
In our work environments, you can probably think of people with each of these attitudes and it doesn’t make one a better worker than the other if they both get the job done.
And even Freddie admitted in the article that it’s probably too much sometimes (with how he picks on players for taking off days).
But that’s the guy I want leading my team — someone who you know is going to be in the lineup every day and give you everything he has.
dark. Next. Bats Breakout in ARI
That’s why the players consider him their leader and it’s why they want to be in the lineup every day because they see how hard Freddie works to be in the lineup and his desire to win every game.