AJC > Sports > Columnists > Archives > 2007 > May > 31
Thursday, May 31, 2007
Braves must fix flaws without big checkbook
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
The Braves awoke Thursday as close to fourth place as to first. A bright April has been shaded by a .500 May. Worst of all, they’re losing manpower.
At such a time, a big-spending organization would be tempted to spend bigger. We shouldn’t expect the Braves, who have just been bought by Liberty Media, to try the checkbook fix. So proclaims Terry McGuirk, still the team’s president after the transfer of ownership.
“Everyone feels like we’re going to be a playoff team,” McGuirk says. But here’s a discouraging word: If the postseason commenced today, the Braves wouldn’t qualify.
The doings of May had an ominous feel: The holes in the rotation grew deeper, and the bullpen lost a key man. The trading deadline is two months away, but if the Braves keep treading water it to matter. The question, then: Is Liberty Media ready to step up to the figurative plate?
McGuirk believes that’s the wrong question to ask. He says the deadline dealing hasn’t gotten going: “If somebody handed us a lot of money, there’s nothing we could do right now.” Besides, he sees nothing unduly ominous about the doings of May: “If not for two injuries [Mike Hampton and Lance Cormier], we’d probably be in first place by a couple of games.”
Hampton won’t be back this season. Cormier should be soon. But is a pitcher who has won 12 big-league games apt to make a difference in a difficult division? Will the absence of Mike Gonzalez erode the Braves’ capacity to close out games? Is another position player — Ryan Langerhans and Craig Wilson have flunked out, and Willy Aybar is indisposed — required immediately?
Says McGuirk: “Our first inclination is to fix [a problem] internally. Look at the Yankees. They’ve got more money than anybody, but there’s no fixing that unless they play better. … If it takes dollars to get a deal done that we think might be for a missing piece, we can do it. But more times than not it’s not dollars [involved in a midseason trade] — it’s giving up young talent.”
The Braves used to dangle young talent as deadline bait. (Think Melvin Nieves, Donnie Elliott and Vince Moore for Fred McGriff. Think Jason Schmidt for Denny Neagle.) That’s no longer standard procedure. Says McGuirk: “Four or five years ago we changed our approach to go with youth and hustle. … We’re very loath to give up the kids who are the whole future of the franchise.”
So don’t expect Jarrod Saltalamacchia to be sent to Chicago for Carlos Zambrano (who, coincidentally, will start against the Braves today). Zambrano is scheduled to be a free agent, and the Braves’ new world doesn’t have space for pricey imports.
“Free agency is so inefficient,” McGuirk says. “It’s the easiest way to waste a franchise’s money. … Anything that’s happened from 2000 on is tough to justify, and we learned that ourselves. Our payroll was going up like a rocket ship, and the fans stopped coming. That seemed a major statement as to what this franchise should be about.”
Where once the Braves would sign a Greg Maddux or a Gary Sheffield over the winter, they now prefer to see what a Chuck James or a Jeff Francoeur can do. That said, the biggest test of this new stance will come five months hence, when a homegrown All-Star (Andruw Jones) files for free agency.
“We want to keep him,” McGuirk says. “But he’s got a very strong agent [Scott Boras]. So we’ll see.”
And we will. We’ll see if the Braves under Liberty Media are any different from the Braves under Time Warner. The guess is that they won’t be. They might spend a little more, but only a little. If you liked that cost-efficient mind-set then, you’ll like it now. If you, on the other hand, had a yearning burning to see Zambrano in the same rotation as Smoltz and Hudson … well, you’ll be disappointed.
Permalink | Comments (88) | Categories: Mark Bradley
LeBron would make finals worth watching
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Mark Bradley
That sound you hear is the NBA brass offering up prayers for the Cleveland Cavaliers. Another championship series between Detroit, a team with no real stars, and San Antonio, a team with a star who doesn’t act like one, would tax the league’s vaunted powers of promotion to the max. But if LeBron James should enter the mix, it’d be …
Michael Jordan all over again.
Or at least that’s how the NBA would sell it.
And the NBA, as we know, can sell its stars. The NBA, in point of fact, taught every other league how to do it. It was easy when those stars were bona fide — Michael and Magic and Bird — but in the gap following their departure the promotion became almost comical. Remember how Vince Carter was briefly the next Jordan? Remember Paul Hewitt’s famous dismissal of this ceaseless tub-thumping? “Shaq versus Yao — what’s that?” he said at the 2004 Final Four. “That’s not basketball. It’s tennis.”
But now there’s a chance the finals could be LeBron against the Spurs, and LeBron is one of only two players to enter the NBA in the new century — Dwyane Wade is the other — who possesses the combination of skill and style that defines a superstar. LeBron would be worth watching against anybody, and he now has a fighting chance to reach the finals. (Heck, if he’d gotten a foul call at the end of Game 2 the Cavs might be going for the clincher at Detroit tonight.)
Hey, I admit it. I’ve long since wearied of the NBA’s hard sell, but I’m pulling for LeBron. I guess I’m just like everybody else — I like stars, too.
Permalink | Comments (22) | Categories: Mark Bradley, Quick Hit
Services »
