Fredi Gonzalez Braves

The Atlanta Braves’ collapse in September didn’t officially go into the record books as the worst last-month swoon ever. It didn’t result in the departures of the manager and GM. There were no offseason recriminations of players drinking beer and eating fried chicken in the clubhouse. All of those honors were held for Boston. But the Braves’ collapse was surely no less devastating to its players and hard-core fans, as they let St. Louis nip them at the wire and then watched the Cardinals win the World Series. As second-year manager Fredi Gonzalez tries to bring his team back, TheSportsNotebook takes an up-close look at the Braves, based on their ability to get on base, hit for power, starting pitching and relief pitching.