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Saturday, July 29, 2006
Cox, Braves will never quit
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terence Moore
They won’t continue their miracle by reaching the playoffs for a 15th consecutive season. They won’t slip into October as one of those hideous wild cards. Even so, with the dominant color of the National League East finally turning from the navy blue of the Braves to the royal blue of the Mets, the most important “won’t” involving those around the home clubhouse at Turner Field is that they won’t quit.
They never quit.
They aren’t allowed to do so. “Most of this obviously comes from Bobby,” said Braves first baseman Adam LaRoche, referring to Bobby Cox, baseball’s all-time best manager for so many reasons. In fact, Cox is adding something else to his already dandy list of accomplishments, ranging from those slew of trips in row to the postseason with the Braves and the Toronto Blue Jays to his ability to perfect victory more often than not with different rosters.
Cox is adding his ability to make his players fight when there actually is nothing left to fight for. Well, not when it comes to after the regular season. “The mentality around here is that you should never lay down,” said LaRoche, in his third year in the major leagues, all with the Braves. “You don’t worry about how many games back you are, and you forget about how close the wild card is. Just go, play every inning. That’s the way Bobby has trained everybody, and coming here, you know his expectations.”
You can see Cox’s expectations, because he lives them through his ability to remain the same no matter what. He is intense in battle (just ask any umpire), and he is comforting afterward to anybody with a tomahawk across his chest, especially those who never give up. “The way I look at it is that you’ve got to give everything you have every day, and you can’t wait for one series to say that it’s crucial,” Cox said, pausing before increasing his voice a few decibels to make his ultimate point. “You’ve got to play with that mentality from game one. I mean, that’s how you get through 162. Every game is big, and that has been my attitude since I was 18 years old.”
This isn’t to say Cox’s Braves never lose. They’ve done so enough these days to sit within a winning streak or three from just mediocrity. On Saturday, for instance, courtesy of Tim Hudson’s ongoing evolution from All-Star pitcher to whatever he is now after getting clobbered in an 11-3 loss to the Mets, the Braves lost for the sixth time in 11 games.
Still, the Braves remain in their fantasy chase of playing near Halloween. After the Mets took a 2-0 lead in the top of the first inning, the Braves scrambled for a run in the bottom of the inning on a sacrifice fly. Then, when the Mets scored again in the top of the second, the Braves rallied in the bottom half with a single, an error, sacrifice bunt and Marcus Giles’ two-run single.
“Oh, you know they’re going to play hard, and they play hard every single time they take the field,” said Carlos Beltran, after he homered twice and collected five RBIs to help push the Mets’ lead over the Braves in the division to a ridiculous 14 games. “All of those guys, I have a lot of respect for them, because [Jeff] Francoeur, Chipper Jones, Marcus Giles, Andruw Jones, they always come to the ballpark every time to win ballgames.” The thing is, the Braves only could take their hustle so far in this one, with Hudson looking more like a joker than an ace during another start. In contrast, the Mets’ Orlando Hernandez was whirling and hurling like the old El Duque to cool what was baseball’s most sizzling offense.
You could see the Braves’ effort, though, because they don’t quit, and they haven’t for the longest time. Not during their shockingly relentless run from worst to first to start this streak. Not when they once trailed San Francisco by 10 games in July, only to win 104 times to the Giants’ 103 for a division title. Not given their ability to survive horrific injuries for long stretches to David Justice, Andres Galarraga, John Smoltz, Javy Lopez, Mike Hampton and Chipper Jones. Not this year, when they refused to mail, fax or special delivery it in during their 6-21 disaster of June, along the way to this big series that really isn’t at Turner Field against the Mets.
Not with Cox across the way, cheering, prodding, demanding.
Permalink | Comments (60) | Categories: Braves / MLB, Terence Moore
Braves losers in game, trade
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
This is the kind of trade the Braves shouldn’t be making. It’s the kind of trade that probably won’t help in the short run and could really hurt in the years ahead. It’s the kind of trade a smart organization, which this has long been, considers but leaves unmade.
Essentially the Braves swapped young infielders — Wilson Betemit goes, Willy Aybar arrives — for the purpose of hiring a set-up man. When you’re six games under .500 with 60 to play, where’s the percentage in giving up on Betemit, who’s further along than Aybar? Where’s the percentage in dealing away a guy who can play third and second base when your third baseman keeps getting hurt and your second baseman is having a lousy year?
As if on cue, Chipper Jones tweaked his oblique against the Mets on Friday, necessitating an in-game call to Betemit. Who, two hours later, was no longer on the team. The Braves had held out hope of getting reliever Scott Linebrink from San Diego for Betemit, but they settled for Danys Baez instead. Where’s the percentage in settling for anything? Isn’t the smarter move simply to let this season play out and not offload any more youngsters?
Lest we forget, the Braves traded Andy Marte, once the heir apparent at third base, for Edgar Renteria. Now Betemit, who turned 26 Friday, is gone. Aybar is 23. Were those three years and one eighth-inning pitcher worth the cost of giving up on a guy who seemed to be nearing a big-league breakthrough?
Friday was a lousy night all ends up. The Braves entered their series against the front-running Mets making their usual bold noises, and after an inning they led 4-2 and seemed to be driving Pedro Martinez, making his first start in a month, back to the disabled list. Then Horacio Ramirez spit out the lead, and Pedro, being Pedro, gave the Braves next to nothing, and when Billy Wagner notched the 27th out the Mets had stretched their lead to 13 games. Then the Reds beat Milwaukee, leaving the Braves 6-1/2 back in the wild-card race.
“I’m really proud of this game,” Martinez said. “I kept my team in the game, and we were able to bounce back and get a win out of it.”
The Braves got rather less. They had no hits after the third inning. Jones was gone after the fifth. They lost for the third time on the homestand that was supposed to bring them closer to the Mets/Reds but has to date had the opposite effect. And then they dealt Betemit.
There comes a time when a team must realize what it is. After 102 games, the Braves are a sub-.500 aggregation. They had their hot streak before and after the All-Star break, but that’s becoming more of a memory with each passing loss. They don’t need to be trading prospects in the faint hope of sneaking into the postseason. They need to be worrying about next season and the seasons beyond.
If another hot streak should arrive, take it as ridiculously good luck. Just don’t go making a slew of trades in the hope of making such a thing happen. And really, the deals for Baez and Bob Wickman have left the failing that would fuel such a run unaddressed. The Braves got where they are by having a bad bullpen, yes, but they’re apt to stay where they are because they don’t have enough starting pitching. Ramirez’s shoddy performance Friday — 10 outs recorded, 12 baserunners generated — underscored the point.
Betemit for Linebrink would have been a reach. What sub-.500 team deals a promising position player for a set-up man in the last days of July? Instead the Braves made an even worse trade. Baez isn’t as good as Linebrink, and Aybar doesn’t have Betemit’s pop.
In their desperation to keep their postseason streak alive, the Braves are acting like a franchise that hasn’t been to the playoffs in a generation, not one that has gone every year since 1990. For reasons utterly unknown, they’re acting as if this is a last chance.
If they keep giving away players like Wilson Betemit, it will be.
Permalink | Comments (161) | Categories: Braves / MLB, Mark Bradley
