Braves Down Yanks In Game 1

Tommy Hanson improved his record to 3-0 since being called up to the bigs and the Braves recorded their second shutout in a row tonight against the visiting New York Yankees.

Braves vs. Yankees - 06/23/2009

Sparked by a 3-run third inning with a 2-RBI double from Garret Anderson and a solo home run from Brian McCann in the 8th, the Braves shut down the Yankees 4-0, issuing only 4 hits.

The game wasn’t without tense moments however, with Tommy Hanson and Peter Moylan both working out of some jams with runners in scoring position.  Let’s hope this is a good sign for the Braves when the Yankees series continues tomorrow and we can put together a much-needed win streak.

Rumors Of Demise Have Been Exaggerated

In response to Colin’s post about the season being a loss for the Braves, Kent responds with his opinion on the matter:

As I write this, the Atlanta Braves still find themselves wedged slightly under .500. They’ve demonstrated no reason for Braves fans to wager a month’s rent that they will still be playing baseball beyond 162 games. And I realize it’s hard to muster much faith in any team that’s not even north of .500 by the middle of June. The Braves have certainly been a frustrating team to watch this season. No doubt about it. That said… I wouldn’t advise selling all your ’09 Braves stock just yet.

The reality is that the Braves have at least most of the ingredients necessary to be a high quality team, and they are blessed to play in a surprisingly weak NL East division. For these two reasons, they’re still alive, and they still have a legitimate chance to appear on the formerly familiar October stage.

Atlanta’s pitching is strong and deep. This starting rotation is so solid right now, that recovering staff ace, Tim Hudson, may have to take up temporary residence in the bullpen when he returns to action, presumably about six weeks from today. And despite a couple of recent failures, the Braves ‘pen has been nearly airtight since mid-April. An already very good pitching staff is likely to do nothing but improve in the second half of the season with the afore mentioned return of “Huddy”, and the ongoing maturation of rookie phenom, Tommy Hanson.

As for the offense, Bobby Cox’s lineup now features 3 all-stars (Chipper, McCann, and McLouth) , and two other quality hitters (Escobar and Kotchman). Garrett Anderson may have a much better second half as he continues to acclimate to a new league and a new team, after getting a very late start to his ’09 season. And the return of Omar Infante, not long after the all-star break, will provide further insurance against Kelly Johnson’s patented hyper-slumps. It’s not as though the Braves have nothing to work with here offensively.

Even if Frank Wren and Co. make no further changes to this roster, I think we’re likely to see more offensive output from this Braves lineup than we witnessed through the first 10 weeks of the season. Nate McLouth was mired in a bit of a slump when he was traded to Atlanta, so the full impact of his arrival was not immediately apparent, but I believe we’re beginning to see it. This team will get tremendous offense from at least 3 positions, and solid production from at least 6 or 7 positions.

Given the quality of and depth of Atlanta’s pitching, I believe the Braves could muster enough offense with the pieces they already have to make a post-season run this year. I really do. However, I, every other Braves fan in the world, and every member of the Braves organization realize that something’s missing. There is one missing link that stands between an offense that is hopefully serviceable enough OR unquestionably dangerous! And that one missing link is, of course, a right-handed hitting run producer. Someone who can pick up where Jeff Francoeur left off… in 2007.

The Braves are one piece away from becoming a truly excellent baseball team. And fortunately for the Braves, they’re the only team in their division that can say that. Even if the Mets add one significant starter, or one more noteworthy bat, they will still have substantial holes. And even if the Phillies add a top-tier starter, their rotation will still be thin, and they will still have a closer problem. In short, Atlanta has less to fix than their division rivals.

If the Braves add nothing further to their roster via trade, they will remain an incomplete team. However, with excellent pitching in a division stocked with nothing but incomplete teams, they can still make a run – or at least a spirited jog – at a division title this year. BUT, if Frank Wren can pull off another trade, this time for the quality right-handed run producer they so clearly need… the Atlanta Braves will be the class of the National League East. By a country mile.

Either way, they’re not out of the hunt. There are still 100 games left to play, folks. Rumors of the Braves demise have been greatly exaggerated.

What about you? Have you abandoned all hope, or are you holding onto your Braves stock a little longer?

The Braves Are Toast

I said it. I admitted it.

As much as I want the Braves to add another bat, step it up offensively and back up their pitchers, it’s just not likely going to happen. And that’s another season down the drain.

Here’s the thing: The Braves have tried to pretend like they’re impervious to this rebuilding year thing. Sure, we’ve got young pitching – finally – but we tried to bring in the young stars gradually and just let them pick up the slack left by players like Edgar Renteria and Johnny Estrada.  And ya know what? As good as Brian McCann is, Yunel Escobar, Jeff Francoeur, and Kelly Johnson have been just as disappointing. Yunel’s playing sloppily again. Francoeur is in his slump (is it a slump if it’s two years in a row, or the new par-for-the-course?). Kelly has had some good streaks… but he’s very streaky. Jo-Jo Reyes is frustratingly binary. Jordan Schafer was a bust this season.

Sure. We’ve got McLouth. We’ve got Chipper and BMac. We’ve got Kotchman returning from this hit-by-pitch-on-the-ankle thing. But we need more than that. Pitching may win postseason games – and we’ll have the pitching staff everyone wishes they had for the postseason – but we need an offense to get there. And we not only don’t have it, we won’t get it in time. So it’s down the drain with this season.

What do we need to do to put ourselves in position to compete next year? Or am I giving up too early?

Maybe It’s Time For Bobby To Call It A HOF Career

I love Bobby Cox, so it is hard for me to say this… but I would like for this to be his last season.

There are two facets to being a big league manager: Leadership, and strategy.

As a leader, there isn’t a better one anywhere in baseball. Players love playing for Bobby Cox, and respond to him. The Braves have even been able to attract or retain certain players in large part because of their desire to play for Bobby. How often do you hear of infighting or soap opera-like drama in a Bobby Cox clubhouse? The leadership facet being a manager is often overlooked by fans. It shouldn’t be. It’s hard to quantify how leadership translates into wins, but it does.

On the other hand, as a strategist, Bobby is NOT the best in the business. Far from it. He CONTINUALLY leaves pitchers in the game entirely too long. Case in point: Saturday night, when Eric O’Flaherty allowed the first two runners to reach, and obviously didn’t have his best stuff/control that evening, with a right-handed hitter at the plate… it was time to bring the hook. But he waited 2 hitters too long, and by the time he made his way to the mound, Atlanta’s 4-2 lead had been squandered. Then he stuck with Peter Moylan longer than he should have as well, which resulted in the Orioles putting the game all but out of reach.

He did the very same thing in the first game of the recent home series vs. the Pirates. He stayed with Moylan WAY too long in the late innings of that game. I’ve wondered if he was simply trying to save the bullpen by leaving a pitcher on the mound a little longer than many feel he should. But in the particular game I just mentioned against Pittsburgh, the result was 15-inning marathon contest. I don’t think that did much to help the bullpen.

Another for-instance is Bobby’s handling of starter, Javier Vazquez. When he arrived in Atlanta, I heard several commentators say “One thing about Vazquez… when he loses it, he loses it quickly. You have to recognize that point and bring the hook immediately!” Apparently, the Braves announcers received a memo that Bobby never saw. Several times this season, he continued to ride Vazquez after it was painfully clear that he had lost his edge. And the results weren’t good.

Then you have Cox’s mind-boggling decision to use Rafael Soriano (and Mike Gonzalez) Friday night WITH A 5-RUN LEAD for the second consecutive night; the 4th time in 5 days (including a 2-inning outing); and the 6th time in 8 days. Again, WITH A FIVE $%^&*# RUN LEAD!!!

I’m not second-guessing these decisions, I FIRST-guessed them. I was yelling at the TV each time at that very moment. “Bring the hook, damnit!!!!” But time after time, he would wait until the lead had been surrendered, or the opposing team had put the game out of reach. It’s been maddening to watch, to say the least.

Bobby Cox is one of most well loved and respected men in baseball. As well he should be. When his number is deservedly retired at Turner Field, I’ll be on my feet with every other Braves fan to applaud all that he has meant to the city of Atlanta and the game of baseball. He’s as great a leader as the game has ever known. But… in my very humble opinion, he’s a substandard strategist. And I can’t help but wonder how many wins his mishandling of the pitching staff has cost the Braves this year.

Maybe I’m wrong. I have to admit, my own words sound pretentious to me. Who the hell am I to act like I have a better handle on how to use a pitching staff than a Hall Of Fame manager. But I tend to think that other HOF managers (take Tony Larussa, for example) wouldn’t be so patient to a fault. They would bring the hook as soon as it became apparent that a pitcher doesn’t have what takes to get the necessary outs that day (assuming there are better options in the ‘pen).

I love Bobby, but I think it might be in the best interest of the Atlanta Braves if he calls it a Hall Of Fame career this winter, and hangs ‘em up. Like I said, maybe I’m wrong, but that’s honestly the way I feel, with all due respect to truly great man.

The thought of Greg Maddux as Braves skipper intrigues me when BC retires. Whaddya think?

Braves Need Outfield Upgrade

Batting .240. One home run every 10 games. An on base percentage of .272. Folks, those aren’t last year’s stats.

Jeff Francoeur – “The Natural” – came into Spring Training with a new outlook on life. He was swinging differently, poking opposite field hits again, and promised he’d stick to his guns. But here we are, 25% of the way through the season, and he’s right back where he was last year. He’s playing worse than Garret Anderson, for crying out loud. And that’s saying something.

As much as it pains me to make this assessment, it might be time for Jeff to go. He needs a change of scenery. That’s nothing more than my personal opinion. But I’ve stood up for Jeff for the longest time. He’s just the hole in our lineup that needs patching at this point. Between him and Diaz/Anderson in left, our corner outfield positions have no bite. I’ll go ahead and say it – either Francoeur is moving or Diaz/Anderson are moving before the trade deadline. What other positions do we upgrade? Second base – who are we going to land there? We got McLouth. We need more offense. We can’t have traded for McLouth and still not have enough firepower. The pitching staff is solid. We have to make a run. And I’m not convinced that Francoeur has what it takes to play right field full-time on a contending team.

That’s hard for me to do. I really really REALLY like the guy. I really want him to succeed. I want him to turn it around starting tomorrow and prove me wrong. But a .240 average with a projected 16 home runs isn’t what we need out of a corner outfielder if we are to couple a potent offense with our pitching staff.

If we can keep Francoeur, I’ll be happy. But he’s got to step it up, and I don’t see that happening. He’s gone to the minors for a game or two. He’s changed his swing. He’s reverted to his old hack-and-hope mindset, and now I think it’s time to cut bait.

Tell me how I’m wrong. Convince me otherwise. But for now I’m looking at who can replace Francoeur, Anderson, and Diaz. We have got to get better offensive output from our outfield.

Braves On Track For October Baseball

A quick glance at the NL East standings will remind you that the Phillies are in first place. But unless the defending champs make an impact move to bolster their pitching staff soon, they’ll be in Atlanta’s rearview mirror by the end of September. Perhaps much sooner.

With a potentially season-ending injury to starter, Brett Myers, the Phillies’ pitching has gone from paper thin to RAZOR thin. They have big, BIG pitching problems. Philadelphia has only one starter they can bank on. ONE! And placing the ball in (closer) Brad Lidge’s hand this year has given Phillies fans ample opportunity to exercise prayer, profanity, or both.

The Mets pitching staff also appears vulnerable. Despite inconsistent performance from starters, Mike Pelfey and John Maine, and a thoroughly unimpressive back-end of their rotation, they have -so far- managed to limit opposing teams well enough to win. However, I don’t find their starting rotation particularly convincing. The Mets may have enough pitching to win 90+ games and remain competitive all season. Then again, they may not. Without a noteworthy roster move to add pitching depth, an injury to any of their top three starters could quickly derail their postseason hopes. But even if their pitching staff enjoys near-perfect health from here on out… it IS possible to bleed to death from the back end of your rotation. Just ask the 2007 Braves.

While both the Mets and Phillies are winners, both are flawed teams. Neither is a juggernaut. However, both teams lead Atlanta in the standings, so the Braves have obviously had issues of their own. What are they?

The Braves’ offensive failings have been well chronicled. What few noticed, however, were the early struggles of the back of Atlanta’s starting rotation. As of June 1, the Braves were 6-12 in games started by their 4/5 starters (Kawakami, Reyes, and Medlen) this season. Japanese ace, Kenshin Kawakami’s acclimation to Major League Baseball was not immediate. He went 1-3 with an ERA over 7.00 in the month of April. And the gifted, but frustratingly inconsistent lefty, JoJo Reyes, was winless before being replaced in the rotation by rookie, Kris Medlen.

But Kawakami has rebounded nicely to post a 3.38 ERA since the beginning of June. And Medlen was solid in his last start before giving way to top prospect, Tommy Hanson. Hanson will have his ups and downs this season like any rookie, but smart money says he’ll be solid overall.

Point being, the back of the rotation appears to be fixed, and with Hudson’s return on the horizon, it could get even better. Now, as for the offense…

The April/May ailments of Garrett Anderson and all-star catcher, Brian McCann, may have caused the lineup to look a little worse than it actually was. Nevertheless, more offense was most certainly needed.

Say what you will about Frank Wren. Many Braves fans are less than thrilled with the Atlanta General Manager after contentious partings with Braves’ living legends, John Smoltz and Tom Glavine. But there is no denying the quality of the trades Mr. Wren has engineered since accepting his current post. Trades for Jair Jurrjens, Omar Infante & Will Ohman, and Javier Vazquez have paid great dividends for the Braves. And now you can add the rare early-June acquisition of an impact player – all-star Center-Fielder, Nate McLouth – to his resume.

McLouth will go a long way to address the shortcomings of this Braves offense. He gives Atlanta another power threat, and the legitimate base-stealer they lacked before this trade. Anyone who doubts the impact one all-star hitter can have on a team doesn’t remember Fred McGriff’s arrival in Atlanta in ‘93.

Critics and slightly pessimistic Braves fans are quick to point out that the Bravos are still offensively challenged at the corner outfield positions. And they’re correct. But the fact of the matter is that EVERY team in the division has conspicuous faults. The outfield corners are weak, but the Braves are solid at every other position, and they have no pitching problems whatsoever.

With that in mind, would you prefer to have the Braves problems, or would you rather be the Philadelphia GM, staring at a need for 3 or 4 starters and a reliable closer? Or would you prefer the Mets challenges, which consist of inconsistent 2nd and 3rd starters, a weak back-end of rotation, and several positions from which they are getting almost no offense?

Given the addition of McLouth, the promotion of Hanson, and the eventual return of Tim Hudson, the Braves are the most complete team with the fewest unanswered questions in the NL East. This could all change should the Mets and/or the Phillies make a substantial move for an impact starting pitcher or two (it will take more than one in Phili’s case). But given the hands each team presently hold, from where I’m sitting, the Braves are on target for a return to the October stage.

How ‘bout you? Where do you see this Braves team, as compared to the Mets and Phillies?

Bobby Cox: 2000 Wins In Atlanta

A walk-off single from David Ross in the bottom of the 15th inning of last night’s game marked the 2000th time in his managerial career that Bobby Cox has entered the locker room victorious.  Having spent 24 of his 28-year career as a manager in the Braves organization, Bobby finds himself fourth on the all-time list for wins by a manager with a single franchise.  He trails only Connie Mack, John McGraw and Walter Alston, who only leads Bobby by 40 games.

A quick congrats to Bobby Cox on reaching this milestone and we look forward to seeing some more wins out of him as he wraps up a great career here in Atlanta.  When he finally walks away from Turner Field and the Braves (which will likely be on his own schedule), he will be remembered as one of the all-time greats for this franchis and in Major League Baseball.

Hanson To Make Debut

When the Braves take the field today at 1:30, Tommy Hanson will take the mound for his first major league start. That’s right, we’ve heard legendary tales of the 6′6″ pitcher’s fastball and curveball, but today we get to see it in person (or on TV).

Hanson is 3-3 at AAA Gwinnett, with a 1.49 ERA, 90 strikeouts, all while holding opponents to an incredible .169 average. His last four starts have just been dazzling – he’s gone 2-0 with a 0.78 ERA, with 33 strikeouts in just over 25 innings.

Opposite Hanson is the Brewers’ Manny Parra, 3-7 with a 6.75 ERA. Hopefully we can provide some offense. Any offense. At all. Let’s give Hanson the run support he deserves.

Braves Interested In Penny?

ESPN is reporting that the Braves are eyeing – get this – starting pitcher Brad Penny. The Red Sox are said to be eyeing Jeff Francoeur. The idea is that Kawakami has been very effective in his first 45 pitches and that the Braves could add Penny to the rotation and move Kawakami to the bullpen.

That’s ridiculous.

There’s no way the Braves need another starting pitcher right now – especially one who struggled in the early part of this season. The MLB’s Mark Bowman says that if Kawakami struggles, then Kris Medlen will move from the bullpen to the starting rotation in place of Kawakami. I’d have to agree. And I don’t think Kawakami will struggle as much if he gets some actual run support. Once again, the Braves have scored only 1.5 runs on average while Kawakami is in the game. With an earned run average of 4.63, that’s not winning many games. More offense will help that.

No way the Sox are moving Penny to Atlanta. They may be interested in Francoeur, but they’ll have to give up something other than a starting pitcher to move him.

On Glavine and PR

OK, so the Braves have a damn good rotation. We don’t have room for Tom Glavine, a Hall of Fame lock 43 year old coming off shoulder surgery. We paid him $1M without seeing him pitch and then rehabbed him, only to tell him we didn’t think he had the stuff to make it in our rotation. Now he’s upset, along with a lot of other people.

And one side of me says they’ve got a little room to complain. No, Glavine shouldn’t be on the roster. But maybe we could have told him Hanson gave us a better rotation and we’d prefer to give the young buck a chance.  Maybe Wren didn’t have to comment on his “stuff” and how it wasn’t as good as it used to be. Now, the problem with not commenting on his “stuff” is that the move then looks like a money issue. There was no real easy way out of it for the Braves. And it’s really hard to win with PR when you have a griping Hall of Famer who thinks he still has said “stuff” whining on talk radio. It’s really hard to pick a good position here.

Mark Bradley of the AJC has a good point. We paid him $1M to rehab his shoulder when nobody else would go near him. We gave him a serious look. And now he’s whining.

The bottom line is that Wren shouldn’t have given Glavine a contract without seeing him pitch. That’s a lot of risk to put on the shoulder and elbow of Glavine. And it didn’t pay off – not financially, not in the game of baseball, and certainly not as far as public relations goes.

There’s another side of me that says we owe Glavine no loyalty because he ditched us for the effing Mets. It was about money for you then, Glavine, so shut up and stop whining. You’re coming off as a bitter has-been who can’t admit when his best days are behind him.

McLouth To Hit Third

Chipper Jones hits third for the Braves. He’s always hit third, and he prefers third. But even Chipper is willing to admit he may get more RBI opportunities with Nate McLouth in front of him. “Bobby wants to do what’s best for the club,” said Chipper, “and if he thinks Nate might get a couple of hits hitting in the third hole because I’m behind him, then so be it.”

Nate’s excited about it too – calling Chipper “one of the greatest switch-hitters of all time.” McLouth has been hitting third for the Pirates this year and will be hopefully more productive than he was in Pittsburgh as he’s surrounded by better players – some decent leadoff talent in Escobar and Johnson (who’s been tearing it up lately), and with Chipper and McCann behind him. We’ll see what happens.

In other news, notice the Braves orchestrated the rain to allow yesterday’s game to be rained out. After making tons of money off ticket sales for Tommy Hanson’s Saturday debut, they hope to cash in on Sunday’s game now as well. Ok, maybe I’m going a little far, but a conspiracy theory never hurt anybody.

Why The Braves Didn’t Need Glavine

Tom Glavine was released yesterday by the Braves because Frank Wren and company determined that he wasn’t going to be effective at the big league level. They’re right. It was my opinion when Glavine was signed that once he finished rehabbing, he’d only be a mediocre pitcher. It’s just not needed on a club with all the pitching talent we currently have.

Last year, when Glavine was healthy and started 13 games before he was injured, he was only a shadow of his former self. He only had 5 quality starts – 38% of his starts were considered Quality Starts (> 6 IP, </= 3 RA). His career average is 64%, including last year. We saw him break 100 pitches thrown once out of those 13 appearances. The Braves scored an average of 4.9 runs per game while he was on the mound, and yet he still ended up with a 2-4 record and a 5.54 ERA. The bottom line is he just isn’t as sharp as he used to be. Sure, he’ll pitch alright for someone, but that’s not us. We’ve got Tommy Hanson coming to start Saturday – and if the hype is right, he’s ridiculously sharp.

Yes, it’s definitely surprising and somewhat sad to see the Braves release someone who has such history with the team and with baseball, but this is a baseball move and frankly I don’t feel much connection to Glavine the way I did to Smoltz. It’s just not there, ever since he decided to play traitor and move to the NY Mets for a while. Sure, he’s a great ballplayer and a nice guy, but he had no loyalty for his team and I don’t feel a need to stand up and be emotional about his release when he wasn’t going to provide a boost to the pitching staff.

The bottom line is that with a good starting four, Tommy Hanson ready to come up, and Tim Hudson coming back from surgery later this year, we just had no room for a mediocre, shell-of-his-former-self Tom Glavine. That’s a little sad, but not that sad. Farewell Tommy – thanks for all the good memories and best of luck looking for another job. I hear the Mets could use an arm or two.