By: Mike Anthony

TheSouthernSportsEdition.com news services

With the sting of a devastating loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers in the National League Championship Series still fresh in the minds of Atlanta Braves fans, it can be easy to get emotional.

Not only is the season now finished, but it ended – in typical Atlanta sports fashion – with seemingly unnecessary extra helpings of heartbreak dished out by the sports gods.

For the 2020 Braves, that came in the fashion of blowing a 3-1 series lead and letting two separate Game 7 leads slip away.

In the immediate aftermath of the game, social media and message boards were flooded with calls for the Braves to fire manager Brian Snitker.

Whether it was complaints about bullpen usage, lineup management or simply frustration over what could have been with just one win over those final three games, there was no shortage of people crying out for a change.

But is that really the best route for the Braves to take? Not if they know what’s good for them.

For all the disappointment of how the 2020 season ended, there wasn’t much Snitker could have done.

In the end, it was simply a matter of two very talented teams taking a series to the bitter end, with room for only one in the World Series.

To look at things from a larger perspective, it’s hard to say that Snitker has been anything but a great asset to the organization as it has undergone a huge turnaround.

Snitker took over in 2016 after a 95-loss season and a last place finish.

Since then, he’s overseen the club as it has won back-to-back-to-back National League East crowns. Aside from the glory days of the 1990s, this is the only Braves team to make the postseason in three consecutive seasons.

Of course, that success is largely due to the overwhelming success in drafting, developing talent and bringing in free agents to plug needed spots.

Those calling for Snitker’s job at the moment will say that – since he’s not in the front office – he had little to do with that progress.

But before taking the helm of the major league club, Snitker served as the Braves’ Triple-A manager.

While much of the team’s current corps of young stars were in the minor leagues, Snitker played a large role in showing them the ropes of professional baseball.

For players like Ronald Acuna, Ozzie Albies, Dansby Swanson and plenty of other players who will be counted on to keep up the success for years to come, Snitker has been a major factor in their rise to prominence as MLB stars.

There are times where a managerial shakeup might be necessary in order to get a team over the hump, but this isn’t that moment for the Braves.

As much as the last three postseasons have hurt when they didn’t end in a World Series, Atlanta is still in the unique position of having a veteran team with playoff experience and a handful of key players, who are still in the beginning of their prime.

On top of that, it seems clear that those talented players give Snitker plenty of credit for what has been achieved over the last three years.

The Braves may not have reached the top of the mountain yet, but they show no signs of slowing down, so it’s only fair to keep the same man steering the ship