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Sunday, July 16, 2006
No reason for Braves to look past this season
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Anyone still suggesting the Braves should wave a figurative white flag on this season and instead aim for the future must not be paying attention to the rampant parity in the NL wild-card race. Either that, or they don’t believe in this recent Braves resurgence.
And if that’s you on either point, then frankly, I have a difficult time understanding your reasoning.
It’s a day game and I’ve got to get out to the ballpark here in San Diego, so I’m going to keep this brief. But after noticing how bogged down the blog has gotten from the rash of posts during last night’s rout, I figured the least I could do is get a fresh post up here so you folks can get some quicker downloads and not operate at dial-up speed on DSL or whatever.
Anyway, the Braves have won eight of 10 games and four in a row, the last two against the NL West-leading Padres, who won their last five games before the All-Star break and had the NL’s lowest team ERA before the Braves came to town.
Atlanta has pounded nine homers and scored 26 runs in the first two games of a series that ends this (Sunday) afternoon. They beat up Chris Young in the opener Friday, after Young had been 5-1 with a 1.75 ERA in his previous eight starts. They beat up Chan Ho Park on Saturday, after Park had gone 4-1 in his previous seven starts.
The Braves are 5-1/2 games behind wild-card leader Cincinnati, a team they won a series against right before the All-Star break. They have reduced the wild-card almost in half since July 1, from 10 games to 5-1/2.
The Braves have the best record in the NL (8-3) in July and lead the majors in every major offensive category this month before Sunday’s games. They led in average (.340), runs (88), homers (25), OBP (.406) and slugging (.603), among others.
Of course, this isn’t going to last. Not this torrid hitting. They’re not going to hit like that as a unit for the rest of the season. No team could.
But the Braves are going to hit somewhere between that and their awful June work, and a midpoint between the two should be good enough if the Braves get a little better pitching (they’re winning despite modest starts from those other than Smoltz in July) and, especially, if they make at least one trade to help the bullpen a bit for the stretch.
The trade is still essential, in the view of many including Smoltz, who said as much after Saturday’s game, when he pleaded that Braves brass make a deal to bolster the cause if the Braves keep playing like they have and keep themselves in the thick of the playoff picture.
The Braves need to bring in a veteran to help stabilize a ‘pen that’s simply relying too much on journeyman and youth, and the cracks will show if you lean heavily on pitchers of that ilk during the tension-filled moments of a playoff race. Trust me, they will. Weaknesses are exposed in those moments.
But these Braves are otherwise pretty solid, especially if they can get Tim Hudson back on the kind of run he enjoyed before his ongoing and latest skid.
Kyle Davies is progressing in his rehab and should rejoin the rotation in late August. Smoltz is pitching very steadily and doing the smart thing by not trying to pitch complete games in mid-summer the way he did a year ago. Horacio Ramirez, three times out of four, pitches a gem. Chuck James has been brilliant at times and at least solid at others.
And the lineup … folks, it’s very tough from Nos. 2-7, as we’ve been reminded in recent weeks.
With Chipper Jones as hot as he is now _ and he is blazing, looking like the Chipper of years past (and not the past two years) _ and Andruw Jones hitting moon shots to the upper decks, and Renteria reeling off hitting streaks left and right, and LaRoche and Francoeur capable of going deep at any time, and McCann playing like a 28-year-old veteran instead of a 22-year-old….
Even Marcus Giles has come around in recent weeks, and X-rays on his swollen thumb yesterday were negative. The Braves think he’ll be back in there very soon, but in the meantime, Wilson Betemit merely got on base four times and hit a home run last night as Giles’ replacement.
Again, we know the Braves aren’t going to hit like this the rest of the season. But we should also know they’re not going to play like they did in June again. That 6-21 month was not representative of the talent on this team, and everyone knew it.
The NL wild card is a wide-open race, and if you ask teams like the Padres and Reds and others the Braves have won series from recently, they’d tell you that Atlanta absolutely should not be counted out. Orel Hershiser picked the Braves to win the wild card a few nights ago on Baseball Tonight, and right now the bespectacled former Dodgers pitcher is looking rather intelligent.
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