A couple of months ago, the Atlanta Braves were just-about-the-best-team-in-baseball. They were first in their division, with great hitting, a very good bullpen and excellent starting pitchers.
But they peaked too early. The collapse we have seen over the last 30-45 days has been nothing short of spectacular. Atlanta lost approximately 10 games to the Phillies in the standings over a very brief period of time.
What happened? The starting pitchers began to lose their edge. Chipper Jones got hurt; and I suspect that opposing pitchers no longer had to pitch to the upper part of the Braves' line-up. His absence probably hurt in at least a couple of other ways. While I am a Braves fan, I am not a huge Chipper fan, so I do not take pleasure in admitting the costs associated with his absence. The team just has not been producing runs reliably.
I do not know whether the Braves will make the playoffs this year. They are currently about a half game behind for the wild card berth. But at this point, it hardly seems to matter.
You should try being a Cardinals fan. Blust and I have moved on to college football. Wait a minute, he's a Carolina guy and my team is UT. Not much better there.
Posted by: Bruce | September 28, 2010 at 04:35 PM
Joe, the Atlanta Braves were never as good as they looked in mid-summer. An analysis of their daily lineup does not suggest that they are a serious contender, but rather more like a good ball club. Chipper Jones getting injured certainly did not help them, but Chipper's production for the past couple years has not been all that great anyway. They got some serious power production out of Troy Glaus for a month or so, then he collapsed. When you look at their lineup, there is no big bopper in the style of a Ryan Howard or Albert Pujols in their lineup, other than Brian McCann. But, no good ball club in the NL, depends upon their catcher to be their power hitter. In short, their lineup is probably only good enough to produce about 2-3 runs per game on average, which is not near enough to produce a consistently winning team, especially in a division with the Phillies, who can produce 4-5 runs per game, with a productive lineup from top to bottom. It should be noted that the Braves made a good run during mid-summer, while the Phillies had many injuries to key players, such as Howard and Utley. Now, that they are back and healthy, the Braves are just not going to beat them, especially with the Phillies' stellar pitching rotation featuring Halladay, Oswalt, and Hamels. In short, the Phillies do not have any weaknesses at this stage of the season. They are once again, the best team in the NL.
Last night was a good example of what I am saying. One of their better young pitchers, Tommy Hanson, pitched a beautiful shutout game for seven innings against the Marlins. The Braves were ahead at 1-0 on the basis of a Brian McCann home run. The rest of the lineup had done nothing. Hanson was nearly perfect for seven innings, but he made a mistake in the 8th inning, which cost him a run, and the score went 1-1. So, Hanson pitches a great game, make one mistake, and he is out of the game in the 8th inning with a no-decision. the fact that Braves wen on to win the game in extra innings does not diminish the fact that Braves pitchers have to pitch nearly perfect games to win. Hanson has a record for the season of 9 wins and 11 losses, with an ERA of 3.534. He has pitched well all year, with little run support. You can only put so much pressure on your pitching for so long.
Posted by: Stormy | September 28, 2010 at 04:58 PM
Stormy, even though Chipper Jones has not been the kind of hitter he was in the past, he provided a certain reliability and stability for the team when he was able to play, and was always someone opposing pitchers had to reckon with. He also probably was good to have playing alongside the younger players from the standpoint of leadership. But your point is well taken regarding the rest of the team's hitting prowess-- and removing Jones from the lineup exposed the batting order's vulnerabilities.
I don't think that the Braves under Bobby Cox have been very good at the game of "small ball"-- manufacturing runs, moving runners along, stealing, bunts, hit-and-run, and the like.
Bruce, I grew up a Mets fan; and I don't know if I can adopt yet another team.:) But you are right-- it's probably time to move on.
Posted by: Joe Guarino | September 28, 2010 at 05:21 PM
Joe, you are right. Bobby Cox never subscribed to the small ball game. The Braves under his tenure have been a pitching-focused team. Even today, the strength of their minor league system is their pitchers. Simply, the Braves, as an organization, have not been very good at identifying, drafting, and developing position players. I don't think that was intentional, but nevertheless, it has been so.
It pains me as a lifelong Braves fan to see how the Braves have become an average franchise. I did live in Atlanta in the 1970's and watched what were horrible Braves teams that played before crowds of 2,000 fans most nights. In those days, I always liked to say that the Braves opened their season at home with a three-game series against the Reds (Big Red Machine), and after that series, they were 0-3 and mathematically eliminated form the pennant race. Now, that Bobby is moving on, we shall see what a new manager produces. In any event, Bobby will retire knowing that he is in the Top Five all-time winning baseball managers. No mean achievement.
Posted by: Stormy | September 28, 2010 at 06:22 PM
Joe, I would like to make one observation about the Braves. When I lived in Atlanta, Ted Turner owned the Braves. They were bad for many years until Ted Turner decided to spend some money and get Bobby Cox to manage the Braves. He decided to leave Bobby alone to run the team, but provide for what resources were needed. It was then that the Braves began their successful run for so many years. But, when Turner sold the Braves to Time Warner, the Braves began their decline. Time Warner did not and could not commit the financial resources to the team were needed to compete, and as a result, they began to decline. They were a mediocre franchise all of the time that time Warner owned the team. I think that selling the Braves was the one financial deal that Ted Turner always regretted. Now that Time Warner has divested themselves of the team, we will see if can get back to the glory days with Liberty. Time will tell.
Posted by: Stormy | September 28, 2010 at 06:29 PM
It's time to move on. The Red Sox are out of the playoffs, and hockey season's ready to start up any way.
Posted by: bubba | September 28, 2010 at 08:07 PM
Stormy, I agree that Time Warner was not fully committed to the team. Yes, Bobby Cox has otherwise been a very successful manager. And I find your statement about the failure to develop position players pretty interesting. It seemed we were well situated a few months ago. Now, I am not so sure.
And now Martin Prado is hurt.
Bubba, yes, it appears to be time to move on. But I am watching with interest the Rays/Yankees pennant race.
Posted by: Joe Guarino | September 28, 2010 at 09:41 PM