AJC > Sports > Braves > Blog > Archives > 2007 > August > 03
Friday, August 3, 2007
Title teams don’t lose this way
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
It very well might just be lack of sleep. Five-hour games will do that to you. And maybe I’m just not in a very good mood. Hey, it happens.
And if I were DOB, who does a good job keeping a broad perspective, I might wake up today and say “Hey, the Braves are only 4 ½ games out, with a killer offense and one very weak spot in the rotation. They’ll be fine. Yes Edgar Renteria is hurt (sprained ankle in case you missed, out at least a few days), but Yunel Escobar can be the man for a while, etc. etc.”
But instead I woke up with tunnel vision. I’ve seen it more than a few times this year, and I’m finally saying it out loud (sorta): the Braves teams that won division championships don’t lose that game last night. They just don’t.
It’s why I have a feeling we won’t have a very busy October.
I know they battled back from 5-1 down, from 11-9 down. It was cool — if not exasperating from a writing perspective — to have Matt Diaz hit the two-run homer in the 12th. And I loved how many fans stuck around until midnight and beyond, staying behind the team. And this is very obviously a different offensive team. (11 runs oughta win you one.)
But the killer instinct, I question. Not from any one player — not from the rotation, or the offense, the defense or bullpen — but as a whole. And I’m not sure you can fix that in the next 50 games.
Maybe this team will be like one we haven’t seen before and that’s why I don’t recognize the kind. Where they get on a tremendous roll the last couple weeks of the season and ride that into the playoffs. And actually show up in the Division Series hot. Or maybe they win the wild card. We don’t really know what that looks like, do we?
Say this for the decision-makers, they’ve been nipping some problems in the bud. Kyle Davies’ last terrible start, where he retired no one? Take him out, send him down, trade him.
Five runs, three innings? Jo-Jo Reyes experiment over. Call up Lance Cormier. Look, the people who put the pieces in place are trying. But I have to wonder, what the heck happens if Cormier can’t answer the call? Didn’t he give up seven homers in 7-2/3 innings when he was up earlier this year? Dead arm had better be live again, or what then? Pray for a lot of off days?
Yes, the sun comes up today. Smoltz is pitching. Cormier is arriving. Surely the bullpen will get some rest. Teixeira will homer again. (Hey, why not?) I still love the excitement he brings. And even if that trade is not the answer for this year, at least, as Mark Bradley says, it makes the Braves major players again. Amen to that.
And hey, if the Braves win big the next two days, this blog is looking pretty stupid posted up here. Maybe so. But I still say, this team ain’t the same team we’ve seen, not the winning the division kind. And it’s more than one game. More than 10 maybe, where you wonder why and how the Braves just lost it. Those add up, and worse, stick in the back of your mind. Their minds, I mean. Don’t they have to wonder when they get in situations down the line, if they’re going to lose another game like that, because that’s what they’ve done?
I know, I know. Daddy Downer and Brother Bummer (bonus points if you can name the movie that came from.) So onto the more fun stuff:
I talked to Julio’s agent this afternoon Chuck Berry (not making that up) and he said Julio’s going to accept his minor league assignment with the Braves. He’s expected to clear waivers on Monday.
Franco is in Miami now with his family, but will probably report to Rome for a week and eventually Richmond. Then he’ll be back up with the club when rosters expand in September.
“He was disappointed,” Chuck Berry said of the Braves decision to designate Franco for assignment and keep Scott Thorman, who’s out of options. “But on the other hand, he’s been around long enough to understand the rationale behind things. If he has the opportunity to come back and play in September and play in the playoffs if they make it, he can live with it.”
A little tidbit from Braves official scorer Mike Stamus, who is also an assistant sports information director at Georgia Tech. The song Mark Teixeira walks to the plate with? Jimi Hendrix: All along the Watchtower? Same song he used at Georgia Tech. He’s a man of consistency, eh?
And it works much better to me than it did for say, Bret Boone. Yes?
Greg Maddux goes against Barry Bonds tonight. Say what you want about Braves’ feelings about Glavine and 300, I can bet nobody out there wants to see Maddux give up 755, do you? He’s given up eight homers to Bonds in his career, tied with Smoltz for the most I believe. But the last one Maddux allowed to Barry was in 1998. Maddux is smart enough to walk the guy if he needs to. Walk, away, Madd-one. No big numbers tonight, please!
