AJC > Sports > Columnists > Archives > 2007 > April > 01 > Entry
DEL.ICIO.USThe year in review - in preview
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
This is the year we learn if last season was the raging exception or the new rule.
This is the year we discover if the Braves can seize on the benefit of the doubt they’d accrued in finishing first 14 times running.
This is the year we find out if it’s better to have a bullpen than a rotation.
This is the year we see if Marcus Giles was as indispensable as the fans thought or as overrated as the Braves believed.
This is the year Bobby Cox says will be his next-to-last, and if you don’t think that’s cause for concern, you know nothing about baseball and shouldn’t even be reading this.
This is the year Chipper Jones will be lucky to play 110 games.
This is the year Mike Hampton needs to earn at least one-quarter of his massive salary.
This is the year the Braves get a new PA voice, and to that we can only say, “Now that’s HOT!”
This is the year the Braves get a whole new broadcast operation, and to that we can only say, “So what was bad about just having Skip and Pete and Don and Joe?”
This is the year Kelly Johnson proves he can play second base. Or doesn’t.
This is the year — actually, it’s another in a series — when the Braves really need a quality backup for their third baseman. And Wilson Betemit’s gone.
This is the year Ryan Langerhans proves he’s more than just a fourth outfielder. Or doesn’t.
This is the last year we’ll see Andruw Jones in a Braves uniform. Enjoy it while you can.
This is the year Liberty Media gets a big, fat tax writeoff. Bully for LM.
This is the year the Mets are defending NL East champs, and how strange that sounds.
This is the year Tom Glavine wins his 300th game for somebody else. Rats.
This is the year Chuck James becomes either the next Tom Glavine or the next Damian Moss.
This is an awfully big year for Roger McDowell.
This is an even bigger year for Terry Pendleton, who’s suddenly auditioning for Cox’s job.
This could be the biggest year of all for John Schuerholz, who has to be asking himself: “Do I really want to go on doing this without the best manager in baseball to handle my personnel?”
This is the year the jostling for Schuerholz’s job, which has been ongoing for the past decade, gets really serious.
This is the year Scott Thorman hustles more conspicuously than Adam LaRoche but accomplishes significantly less.
This is the year Jeff Francoeur learns the strike zone. Or doesn’t.
This is the year Brian McCann proves he’s worth the Braves’ long-term investment.
This is the year Jarrod Saltalamacchia learns a new position in the minor leagues.
This is the year John Smoltz hits the big 4-0.
This is the year Tim Hudson either turns it around or pitches himself off the roster.
This is the year the Braves have three closers but no proven big-leaguer on the right side of the infield. This is the year — actually, it’s another in a series — when Edgar Renteria gets his hits and plays a highly professional shortstop.
This is the year Kyle Davies finds a place in the rotation or an apartment back in Richmond.
This is the year Cox achieves immortality by breaking John McGraw’s record for career ejections. No word on whether Bud Selig plans to be on hand to witness the gala event.
This is the year — the second in a row, to be precise — the Braves finish third in the East.
Permalink | Comments (12) | Post your comment | Categories: Braves / MLB, Mark Bradley
Comments
By DC_Pete
April 2, 2007 12:21 AM | Link to this
Seriously…that was a really, really bad column. I’m honestly speechless. If it’s a year in review, in preview, shouldn’t you at least make a few predictions instead of hedging every single bet.
The only statement you even made was the one about the Braves finishing 3rd in the NL East. As a braves writer, you should either De Facto pick the Braves, or if you’re going to say something stupid like they’ll finish 3rd, at least back it up with some analysis. A three year-old could have written this article.
By D-MAN
April 2, 2007 12:27 AM | Link to this
MARK, I WAS WITH YOU ALL THE WAY TIL THE LAST COMMENT ABOUT THE BRAVES FINISHING THIRD THIS YEAR…MY COMMENT TO THAT? FORGET ABOUT IT. THE BRAVES WILL WIN THE DIVISION THIS YEAR. MARK MY WORDS (PUN INTENDED). D-MAN, OUT.
By hal
April 2, 2007 4:36 AM | Link to this
Now I feel a helluva lot better… for one dreadful second I thought MB was gonna put a hex on the entire season by picking the Braves to win something.
By Matt
April 2, 2007 8:14 AM | Link to this
Go to NY.
By Nancy Cole
April 2, 2007 9:30 AM | Link to this
Could someone write why the Braves wouldn’t sign Javy Lopez as a backup catcher? Have they forgotten how populalr he was with the ATL fans and how great he was? They should give him a chance!!!
By kcr211
April 2, 2007 11:49 AM | Link to this
This column combines your trademark irrational pessimism, with infuriating smugness, and a startling absence of any real information. Reading this column was like watching a local news human interest story; I gained nothing except a confirmation that you are a vapid, pandering individual. Of course I have no idea to whom you are pandering, seeing as how no one likes you, but then maybe it’s possible that you are delusional as well. I’ll put this as I would to a child who has just made a disgusting mess: Mark Bradley, get rid of this coumn right now! You are a professional journalist and professional journalists don’t throw crap onto paper.
Nancy: The Braves shouldn’t bring Javy Lopez back because he is a washed up shell of his former self. Maybe, by your logic, we should bring Hank Aaron back as a fourth outfielder— I hear he was pretty popular with the fans too.
And one more thing Mark Bradley: next time you wish to show your complete disdain for your readers, why not just be honest.
By Dan
April 2, 2007 2:05 PM | Link to this
Intersting column but unfortunately, the line about the Braves finishing 3rd for the second year in a row is way off base. We willsee them at NL East champs come October. Prepare to eat some crow come October!!!
By Matthew At The SLC
April 2, 2007 3:34 PM | Link to this
This is the year Terence Moore once again claims baseball is racist for not having “enough” black players, but ignores the fact that baseball employs a multitude of the “wrong” kind of minorities like hispanics and asians.
This is the year in which Jeff Schultz says something smart-alecky.
This is the year that Furman Bisher waxes on about The Masters (and I hope he does so for another hundred).
This is another year where Martha What’s-her-name is further forgotten. Who? That’s right.
This is the year where Mark Bradley again claims that the Braves finished first 14 years in a row, when in actuality, they finished first only once (1995).
This is the year where I have to read and hear from the kiss-@$$ Atlanta media that the worst postseason manager in the history of baseball (an absolute, inarguable fact) is also the best manager in the history of baseball as opposed to just being the best regular season manager in the history of baseball (an opinion supported by actual fact, as opposed to sycophantism).
This is the year the Dawgs finally win another one against the Gators (hey, it can happen!), and I’m not talking tennis or golf.
This is the year that the Jackets will… continue their awesome losing streak (going on 17 non-consecutive, non-Bug Cheating years) to the Dawgs due to their continued employment of…
This is the year Chan Gaily will once again keep his job to the dismay of nerds everywhere.
This is the year in which the Falcons will show that the problem with Michael Vick was always Greg Knapp… or Michael Vick.
This is the year where the Thrashers will bring home only the second world championship in professional sports (and the best trophy in all of sports to boot).
This is the year in which Billy Knight drafts another swing man instead of Greg Oden or a much needed point guard, and then signs a fifth back-up PG to starter’s money.
This is the year that Billy Knight will not be fired by the incompetant owners, Atlanta Spirit, LLC, to the dismay of the dozens and dozens of Hawks season ticket holders.
This is the year in which Atlanta sports fans say, “Who’s Billy Knight?” “Atlanta has a basketball team?” and “I thought those guys owned the Thrashers?”
This is the year in which T.O., after running off players, and then a coach, takes annoying and alienating people to a new level when Jerry Jones decides he’d rather sell the Cowboys than work with Owens anymore, and because Owens’ agent (Satan) Drew Rossenhaus wins an injunction preventing Jones from releasing T.O., that is what Jones does. Sells the Cowboys. Or not.
This is the year in which the AJC continues to employ hacks like Terence Moore, Carter Strickland, and many, many others, to the dismay of their readers everywhere.
And finally, this is the year in which Barry Bonds’ head will explode when he is beaned in the head while attempting to hit homerun 755, and an autopsy reveals undisputed evidence that he was a steriod fiend. Because of this developement, Mark McGwire decides it’s now okay to talk about the past, Sammy Sosa remembers that he speaks perfect english, and 61 is restored as the MLB single-season homerun record. Also, because of the embarrassment he has wrought on baseball by his tacit approval of the juicers during this time, Bud Selig commits seppuku and Bob Costas is appointed Commisioner of Baseball. Costas then, working with the Union (who fired Darth Fehr because of his involvement with the juicers) reduces interleague play to 6 games (3 home and home) of same-city match-ups, or teams that are linked (New York teams play each other, Atlanta plays Boston, etc.) only, merges the Tampa Bay and Florida teams into one Marlins team and moves them to Orlando, a city which can actually support a team, and yes, abolishes the DH Rule.
And because of all of those events, the next year is the year I can return to loving baseball above all other sports. But if all of those events do not happen, then I maintain my baseball sabbatacle.
By caveman22
April 2, 2007 5:52 PM | Link to this
Mark —- you had me at …………..
well it doesn’t matter b/c you lost me with that bone-headed third place crap!!
Nancy — when Javy’s in town he eats lunch at On-The-Border on Lenox RD. Always the same time between 1:00 - 1:30 and alwasy the same thing - fajitas. So if you’re just interested in looking at his butt you can do it there..
Selah
By caveman22
April 2, 2007 5:59 PM | Link to this
matthew …. seppuku???? I thought that required you to have a high level of honor??
The only thing Selig has a high level of is GERITOL and ZANEX
funny stuff!
By Mark
April 2, 2007 7:33 PM | Link to this
Mark Bradley,
Do you really think the Braves are going to finish third? Really??????
Mark Bradley, you’re a moron. You and Terrance Moore. Dave O’Brien is the only that should even be writing about the Braves.
By KC
April 2, 2007 9:46 PM | Link to this
“This is the year we find out if it’s better to have a bullpen than a rotation.”
Not if Hudson’s on. If Hudson pitches well this year, the Braves will not find “if it’s better to have a bullpen than a rotation”… they will be reminded (for the first time in 5 years) what it feels like to have a bullpen and a rotation.