Here's the facts- Cox had the best pitching staff arguably in the history of baseball, three first-ballot hall of famers in their prime together for a decade +, guys that never missed any significant time with injuries and passed CY Young Awards around to each other for an entire decade + and 4th/5th rotation guys that would be most clubs 2nd-3rd option. He also benefitted from having the greatest defensive center-fielder in MLB history who never missed a game and one of the top 3 switch-hitters of all-time, some dude named Chipper Jones. Cox was given a team with a payroll that averaged top 4 in the MLB... EVERY season, for the duration of his ENTIRE career... Check the stats, If you eliminate 1995 you could easily compile a strong argument Bobby ultimately did less with more than anyone else as a manager all-time.
Frank Wren & Co. had been given a payroll that ranked in the mid-bottom half of the MLB (15th/16th past 2 years), 3/5 of the rotation was injured in spring training. You cannot operate a successful franchise and convince players to play just "because it's the Braves" and lower than the market value, you no longer have the luxury of declining any and all no-trade clauses, you cannot alienate agents like Scott Boras (who control a large portion % wise of the talent market) to not even respond or speak to them because your team is bigger than that, it's a much different game economically than it was 10-15 years ago. So when you compare staff A who consistently achieved slightly above average with the best assets vs. staff B who achieved nothing with mediocre assets who wins? spoiler alert... both suck!!
Here's the kicker- In reality comparing the two is idiotic, but JS and the "Braves Way" and assuming they still hold the cards, why Bobby has so much influence despite him being 'retired' is absolutely asinine to think about. Frank Wren was mentored in 'The Braves Way' and then the landscape of the game changed, his moves were bolder, louder and cut and dry and they failed... but the Braves way left him with almost no choice in this. If you walk from players like the Uptons, Uggla, etc. and don't complete these deals (with very little leverage and current club foundation similarly experienced by JS-who indirectly caused great deal of the erosion of that by trading 5 prospects for Teixeira since it was no longer on his watch) Less money, harder to sell frachise, less clout, more higher market clubs all those things lead to you making knee-jerk FA signings, otherwise you can turn into the Astros pretty quick,
Freddie Freeman says he agrees with Bobby Cox's vote of confidence for Fredi. "Always positive, always has our backs" #Braves
— Kevin McAlpin (@KevinMcAlpin) September 22, 2014
Anyone have a job where they fail to meet their expectations consistently over course of entire year and your manager is sincerely positive about that and had your back? probably not. If they did then their a pretty terrible manager. Why? because their job is to see that you improve, you grow and not that you benefit the entire unit. Otherwise you are saying "I'm really satisfied with being mediocre." or "they played their hearts out", lets pretend its ok when the situation wont ever change, and their approach wont either.
I'm hearing what some other folks have speculated with #braves: Wren wanted Fredi Gonzalez out, and Bobby Cox pushed to keep him.
— Jerry Crasnick (@jcrasnick) September 22, 2014
Let's be real clear...the 'Braves Way' has really never changed, its 3-run homer baseball for the reg season win vs. terrible inter-divison pitching 70 games a year... it's half-full ballparks and shutout losses in October once playoffs starts, it's once you face pressure or teams that manufacture runs in high-leverage situations you choke, it's when we strike out a dozen times or more each game and then go home and talk about how good we are "the Braves way" because we go to that first round. Justifying that as your goal is and it's always being upbeat... when you should be angry because your not satisfied with that.