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Wednesday, August 17, 2005
Lousy time for Braves’ bullpen to go AWOL
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
There are alternatives, yes, but there aren’t really any answers. August is the wrong month to fix a bullpen. The time for that was before the trade deadline, and back then the bullpen seemed ducky. If Chris Reitsma isn’t a bona fide closer, he picked the exact wrong occasion to be named Rolaids Relief Man for July.
The party line from the home clubhouse at Turner Field: There’s nothing wrong with Reitsma except, ahem, a little trouble with his location. One good outing and he’ll again be closing games with dispatch and this whole tempest will be forgotten come October. But what did you expect from a team managed by the most optimistic man in the history of the species? Furniture-flinging angst?
For the record, Bobby Cox said this Wednesday: “[These relievers] could be good enough. They should be good enough. There’s talent out there, no doubt about it. It’s our job to get it out of them. [Everything] could be fine â€â€? we’re in first place with a pretty darn good bullpen.”
Half of that is true. The Braves are in first, but suddenly this bullpen is an issue. After converting nine consecutive saves, Reitsma has flubbed his last three. The team has blown 15 saves this season, more than it did in the entirety of 2002. That ironclad ‘pen, you’ll recall, featured Chris Hammond and Mike Remlinger as set-up men and John Smoltz as closer. Only Smoltz is still here, and he’s no longer a closer. And therein hangs a tale.
In their zeal to strengthen the rotation over the winter, the Braves re-assigned Smoltz and thereby weakened their bullpen. The soft-tossing Dan Kolb lost the job he was imported to do within two months. Reitsma didn’t so much win the spot as he fell into it. Through June and July he looked splendid in the ninth inning, which was somewhat surprising given that he’d always been considered an eighth-inning pitcher, but now he seems to be catching Kolb’s cold. And what appeared a strength 10 days ago looks more and more like a liability.
There’s no such thing as a solid bullpen with a shaky closer. Everything in neo-baseball is geared toward getting the game to the ninth inning with a one-run lead. Reitsma doesn’t fit the closer profile â€â€? he has good stuff, as opposed to great â€â€? but there is the Braves’ clubhouse a reminder that stuff isn’t always the determinant.
Kyle Farnsworth, acquired at the deadline, should have been a smart buy. He throws hard and strikes people out, which is what you want a closer to do, and he figured to offer cover in case Reitsma faltered. But nothing Farnsworth has done since his arrival has been terribly impressive, and already the Braves must be wondering, as the Cubs did before shipping him to Detroit, why a guy equipped with such an arm isn’t a better pitcher. Just on demeanor, the placid Reitsma seems more suited to the task of working the ninth inning than the flighty Farnsworth.
Beyond those two, who else is there? Kolb has generated 78 baserunners in 47 innings, a terrible ratio. John Foster is the get-out-the-lefties guy. Jim Brower is a fill-out-the-bullpen guy. You can’t switch Smoltz because then you’ve got nobody of his stature to start Game 1 of the Division Series, and not having a No. 1 starter is how the Braves lost their last Division Series, which is where we all came in.
“We’ll play it by ear,” Cox said, but there aren’t many plays to be made. The Braves simply have to hope Reitsma perks up. He’s the best they’ve got, and at his best he’s good enough. He was at his best in July. Then again, July isn’t October.
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Hawks need a team mascot can be proud of
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terence Moore
What about Harry the Hawk? I mean, what were the folks involved with the new Mascot Hall of Fame in Philadelphia thinking this week? Surely they had to use one of their first ballots to include the most consistently wonderful thing about Hawks games.
Actually, Harry the Hawk is the ONLY consistently wonderful thing about Hawks games.
Those other first-ballot inductees are deserving. You have to pick the Famous Chicken or the San Diego Chicken, which was the best mascot in history. And who can argue with the Phillie Phanatic, a green thing that was a fun thing and never a mean thing, except to Tommy Lasorda? Then you have the acrobatic and exciting ways of the Phoenix Suns Gorilla.
Well, Harry the Hawk is a little of them all, with a mighty dash of uniqueness. Here’s the big thing, though: Unlike the team that Harry the Hawk represents, he never is boring, and he never loses. Like the team that Harry the Hawk represents, he often is rather silly. It’s just that Harry the Hawk gets paid to look that way, while the Hawks players don’t.
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