AJC > Sports > Braves > Blog > Archives > 2008 > July > 18
Friday, July 18, 2008
Don’t rain on my second-half parade
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Well, I was about to say good morning, happy second half, in that refreshed, welcome-to-the-restart-of-the-season kind of way….but a couple of things popped into my e-mail inbox and they’re raining on my good morning parade.
Shall I share?
First of all, some dude named Scott sent me this:
“You people in Atlanta have really lost it. Do you really think the Phillies, Mets and Marlins are all going to collapse and allow the below average Braves to win the NL East?
“Stop drinking the Kool Aid and get back to reality. The Braves are not even a blip on the screen. They are no longer a factor, whatsoever. Accept the fact that the Braves will not make the playoffs for the third straight year, and are no longer contenders. The team needs to rebuild because they are not even close to those other teams anymore. Deal with it. The Braves run is over. They are no longer contenders.”
Like I said, good morning to you too. Scott, are you by chance a New Yorker?
Not sure why he sent that to me, unless he thinks I had Kool Aid this morning with my protein bar. Or maybe he read the Q&A with Frank Wren where Wren at least keeps alive the possibility the Braves can contend this second half. And frankly (hey, that was fun), if he was ready to give up on the team and say so publicly, I’m not sure what kind of GM he would be.
I thought Wren was plenty firm in his remarks. And I summarize: No more talking about winning. Gotta win. Or else tough decisions come.
I also got this little nugget of an e-mail from BetUS.com: a listing of odds to win the World Series. Mets and Phillies are 12/1. Marlins are 30/1. Braves are 40/1. (Hey, the Nats are 1000/1.)
Thank goodness for Steve Hummer’s good humor in the paper this morning - bubble wrap Chipper and “holy men on base, bat man” - or I might have to go crawl back in bed and not bother even covering the start of the season half (DOB is taking a couple of days to recover from his cross country excursion to cover the All-Star game.)
Hey, another e-mail just popped in, a plea asking for Terry Pendleton to be replaced by Brian McCann’s dad. Are blogs not good enough anymore? People need to vent directly into my inbox?
OK fine. As long as you’re reading, good people, talk back to me any way you choose.
These are bizarre times for the Braves. It’s like Wren is sitting with his hand over a big red button, just waiting to push it (I’m visualizing Family Feud, work with me here) and send Mark Teixeira and maybe Will Ohman on their way for some future help. Or as DOB suggested, maybe some immediate help at first base but with less of a price tag and some length on his contract.
Either way, Teixeira’s impending free agent status, not to mention his agent, will make trade prospects tricky.
Wren didn’t want to put a number on it yesterday or a direct timetable - say, for example, the Braves are 10 games out on such-and-such a date, he’ll make his move. And he reminded us he could still make a trade after the July 31 non-waiver deadline.
But just for the sake of discussion, I’m taking a look at the schedule and coming up with one myself. The Braves’ first nine games out of the break are against NL East opponents - three against the Nats, three against the Marlins and three against the Phillies. That gets them to Monday July 28 and four days before the non-waiver trade deadline.
What better way to figure out if they have the stuff to contend in the NL East than against NL East teams and then you’ve still got time to pull the trigger.
Of course they need to start well on this nine-game venture or it doesn’t matter what happens at the end. Not sure if 6-3 would do it, but perhaps 7-2 or 8-1 would. Though, really, the odds are the Braves won’t do it, if they played like they have all season.
To get Wren’s hand away from that red button it’s got to be a statement - or as Wren said, a feel, that this team is headed in the right direction.
What it boils down to really, is this team has got to prove - not to the fans, or the bloggers, or Scott, the e-mailer - but prove it to their own GM that they’ve got some fight in them.
If not, then he’ll start taking things apart. And when you start with a cleanup hitter who’s leading the team in RBIs and plays some of the best defense on the infield, that’s saying something.
And while everybody around here was idle last night, the Mets won their 10th in a row to pull into a tie for the NL East lead with the Phillies. The Braves start the second half 6 ½ games behind two teams. Maybe it’s already over.
Or maybe Scott would be so kind as to send his e-mail to the Braves and let them post it on a bulletin board.
Meantime, Tim Hudson heads to the mound tonight to face a Nationals team he’s toyed with for a 7-1 career record and a 1.13 ERA. And I’ll get some updates on you on Hampton, Soriano later and company later this afternoon as I get them.
Oh, yeah, and happy second half….Here we go….
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