Atlanta Braves: 2016 Leadership Starts With Core Four

If the Atlanta Braves want to right the rudderless ship from 2015 into a respectable club in 2016, leadership must emanate from its four franchise players. Those four players are 1B Freddie Freeman, SS Andrelton Simmons, SP Julio Teheran, and SP Shelby Miller.

With 11 games remaining on the 2015 tilt, the Atlanta Braves sit with the second worst record in baseball at 60-91. While I don’t think that Atlanta will go 1-10 and lose over 100 games this season, this was a harder team to watch on a nightly basis than last year’s homer or strikeout team.

One could, and probably will, argue that the reason the Atlanta Braves lost so often in 2015 was because President of Baseball Operations John Hart shipped away all the team’s best players to acquire assets. That’s not fair to say since the Core Four remains and are all either former National League All-Stars or in Simmons’ case, the best defensive shortstop in the game baseball.

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Another faction will say that the reason Atlanta loses all the time is because of the poor managerial job of Fredi Gonzalez. However, he’s only on the field to either mess up the pitching staff or orchestrate double switches that don’t work. Fredi is not playing between the foul poles at all nine defensive positions every night for your Atlanta Braves.

Where I see the Atlanta Braves’ biggest problem is that the team’s best four players, the foundation in theory, are not commanding the leadership roles they need to assume for their team to become a contending team. We can’t chalk it up to youth anymore, as Freeman and Simmons just turned 26, and Teheran and Miller are rapidly approaching 25.

If Atlanta wants to take the next step in 2016, the faces of its franchise must become the leaders the team deserves. Sure, the club can learn from guys like A.J. Pierzynski, Michael Bourn, Nick Markakis, and Nick Swisher on what it means to play professional baseball, but they are better suited as role players going forward. For Atlanta to contend for World Series Championships in SunTrust Park starting in 2017, it will be because Freeman and Simmons took control of the position players and Miller and Teheran assert themselves on the pitching staff.

I’m not saying that any of them have to develop charisma overnight, but these four players can’t allow their team to have another uninspired month like August was in 2015, next season. It’s not like Chipper Jones, Tim Hudson, or Brian McCann are walking through the Braves Clubhouse door as big leaguers any time soon.

We can’t say this is a young team anymore with so much of the team’s core about to enter the prime of their careers. It shouldn’t matter if the PBO is stockpiling arms that need Tommy John surgery or the Manager can lose almost daily and still keep his job. What it comes down to is do the Atlanta Braves have the leaders in their clubhouse necessary to overcome being “half awake in a fake empire”? When the alternative rock group The National seems more sprightly than grown men playing a kid’s game professionally, that speaks volume about where your ball club is at.

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The Atlanta Braves cannot kid themselves as an organization anymore and say that they are the pinnacle of baseball excellence when the on-field results heavily dictate the contrary. For the Atlanta Braves to get back into playing like a contending team, it starts and ends with the best and most valued members on its roster.

Though I’m sure they are making strides now, come Spring Training 2016, it’s time for Freddie Freeman, Shelby Miller, Andrelton Simmons, and Julio Teheran to assume the greatest leadership roles on their ball club. The core four should use the remaining two weeks of the regular season to get ready for what it is going to take to have a successful 2016 MLB Season.

Next: Tyrell Jenkins: Should Braves Promote Prospect?

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