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Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Braves still in it, but need an infusion
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Don’t ever let anyone like me tell you the first couple of weeks of the 162-game baseball season aren’t critical.
Here’s what I mean: The Braves are 33-31 since April 17. Granted, it’s not particularly good. But it’s better than the Marlins (31-30) or the Mets (30-32) over that same span, and only three games behind the Phillies (35-27).
But yet the Braves sit in fourth place, and have been in third or fourth for most of the season. They’re 4-1/2 games behind the Phillies, 3-1/2 games behind the hanging-tough young Marlins, and a half-game behind the dysfunctional Mets.
And it wouldn’t be that way if the Braves hadn’t gotten off to one of their typical bad starts in the first two weeks of the season. They were 5-9 through April 16, while the Marlins were 9-5 and the Mets were 7-6 (the Phillies were 7-8).
The Braves did things the way they often did during their run of 14 consecutive division titles, not panicking or even seeming to be concerned at all after that 5-9 start.
The thing is, most of those Braves teams during the division-title run were loaded with stud pitching and more middle-of-the-order hitters who were either more proven and/or a bit younger than the team’s current best hitter.
All those Braves teams could afford to get off to a bad start, even if that start lasted a month, because they knew at any given time they were going to go on an absurd run, a 35-10 surge or something like that to reel in the rest of the division and then another one later in the summer to leave teams in their dust.
This team can’t do that. It doesn’t have the healthy, proven pitching to expect such a sizzling mid-summer run, and it doesn’t have enough catalyst-type offensive players who can alternate putting the team on their backs and carrying it a while.
Fortunately for the Braves, this division also doesn’t have any team that’s not without its flaws. For that reason, and that reason only, the Braves have a legitimate chance to stay in the race until the end.
They really do.
But they’re going to have to play better than they have, because the Phillies probably aren’t going to have many 3-9 skids like they’re currently in, which has permitted the Braves to not just stay close but actually gain a game on the division leaders during a very mediocre stretch for the Braves.
The Braves needed to come out of the gates quicker, obviously. But they didn’t. They had a string of injuries, every older player they were counting on basically turning into a worst-case scenario and getting hurt.
But despite all the problems, and remarkably, despite their 6-11 record since June 6, the Braves are still just 4-1/2 games out of first place (albeit behind three teams in the division standings).
What needs to be done? Pretty obvious they need to pick up another right-handed bat, be it Pittsburgh’s Xavier Nady or Jason Bay, or someone else that might be available for a reasonable bounty between now and the trade deadline.
Nady’s .314 average, 10 homers and .376 OBP, or Bay’s .283 average, 15 homers and 40 RBI, would provide a much needed boost to an injury-riddled and/or underperforming Braves outfield that ranks near the bottom of the NL in most offensive stats.
Braves outfielders are 10th in average (.262), 14th in homers (18) and 14th in slugging percentage (.386) in the NL.
Yes, the hopeful return of Mark Kotsay next week could help a lot, if he stays healthy. And Matt Diaz could be back in 2-3 weeks and could help a lot, if he hits like the Diaz of the past couple of seasons, and not the one who struggled so this season before his knee injury.
But the Braves can’t count on both of those guys, or even one of them, providing all the improvement they need from the outfield in the second half of the season. And they can’t count on Jeff Francoeur to snap out of his career-worst slump.
Francoeur has hit .233 with five homers in his past 66 games, and .206 with nine RBI in his past 27 games. Braves right fielders (Francoeur in all but two games) are 14th in the NL in average (.244), last in OBP (.298) and 13th in slugging (.394).
Keep in mind, that’s the outfield position they were counting on getting the most production out of in the absence of Andruw Jones, not LF or CF.
You gotta feel for Francoeur, if you know him. Very good guy, a hard worker who cares as much as anyone on the team about winning and doing things right.
But his head is so full of advice now, he doesn’t know which way is up. He’s trying things, including the right-eye contact and a new position for his hands, etc., desperate to snap out of this funk.
Yesterday, I saw something I’d never seen from Francoeur: He slipped in his usually upbeat, perfectly accommodating image that he always potrays when the cameras are on: A local TV guy asked him, on-camera, about all the bashing he was getting on the radio that morning (slick how TV guy passed the buck to the radio guys), and Francoeur said, “I don’t listen to that bull$%#@,” only he didn’t use those symbols. He said the whole word.
It wasn’t a big deal, since they weren’t live. But it was revealing. He’s never struggled like this, never been this frustrated. He’d probably like to punch the next one of us who refers to him as Golden Boy.
Dude just wants to play ball and figure things out.
I’d suggest he start with a one-on-one, hours-long session with Terry Pendleton and Chipper Jones, who are always willing to help. Time for Francoeur to understand that pitchers have figured out his weaknesses, the holes in his swing, his overagressiveness and are exploiting it all to the hilt.
He’s too talented to lose an entire season. And the Braves, with all their injuries to others, need him to produce like never before.
Without him, they’re got to cross fingers and hope for the best from the likes of Kotsay, Diaz, and Frank Wren, who really does need to make a move or two in the coming weeks for the Braves to have a serious shot at getting back to the postseason and avoiding a third consecutive October of watching playoffs on TV.
Speaking of Chipper…. You folks will love this item on Hoss from, of all places, The Onion: http://www.theonion.com/content/infograph/chipper_jones
OK, gotta get down to the clubhouse for updates on Chipper, Soriano (yeah, right), etc. But first, I leave you with a classic from one of the greatest. Been listening to the Rastaman Vibration remastered album a lot lately, and I also love Johnny Cash’s cover of this with Joe Strummer, on the Cash Unearthed box set.
”REDEMPTION SONG” by Bob Marley
Old pirates, yes, they rob I;
Sold I to the merchant ships,
Minutes after they took I
From the bottomless pit.
But my hand was made strong
By the and of the almighty.
We forward in this generation
Triumphantly.
Won’t you help to sing
These songs of freedom?
‘Cause all I ever have:
Redemption songs;
Redemption songs.
Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery;
None but ourselves can free our minds.
Have no fear for atomic energy,
‘cause none of them can stop the time.
How long shall they kill our prophets,
While we stand aside and look? Ooh!
Some say it’s just a part of it:
We’ve got to fulfill de book.
Won’t you help to sing
These songs of freedom?
‘cause all I ever have:
Redemption songs;
Redemption songs;
Redemption songs.
Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery;
None but ourselves can free our mind.
Wo! Have no fear for atomic energy,
‘cause none of them-a can-a stop-a the time.
How long shall they kill our prophets,
While we stand aside and look?
Yes, some say its just a part of it:
We’ve got to fulfill de book.
Won’t you help to sing
Dese songs of freedom?
‘cause all I ever had:
Redemption songs
All I ever had:
Redemption songs
These songs of freedom,
Songs of freedom.
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