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Monday, August 13, 2007
McKeon: It’s not the Braves’ year
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terence Moore
Although Jack McKeon is wrong about the next king of the National League East, the accomplished manager of yore is right about everything else along the way to the divisional throne.
I mean, with apologies to McKeon, the Braves will overcome Andruw Jones’ microscopic batting average. They will survive the significant holes on their pitching staff. They will discover ways to have as much energy in the division against the little boys of Florida and Washington as they do against the big boys of New York and Philadelphia. They will return tonight to Turner Field against the San Francisco Giants after splitting six games on the road with the Mets and the Phillies to sharpen their focus for the stretch drive.
They will win the division.
“You know, I got to say that you’ve got to lean toward the Mets, and I like to think that the underdogs are the Phillies and the Braves,” said McKeon, 76, in his second year of semi-retirement in Elon, N.C., after leading Florida to three of its four winning seasons, including a world championship. Since the early 1970s, there also were managerial stints for McKeon in Kansas City, Oakland, San Diego and Cincinnati. He spent a decade with the Padres becoming “Trader Jack” as their general manager. Even now, as a special adviser to the Marlins with hopes of managing again, McKeon watches an average of “three to four” baseball games per day on television between puffs on his omnipresent cigars.
So, except for that logical but wrongheaded thinking involving the Mets as NL East favorites, McKeon knows what he’s talking about. For instance: He knows the key player for the Braves the rest of the way isn’t exactly Martin Prado.
It’s Jones.
The other one.
“Yeah, they’ve got to keep Chipper healthy, because you can see a big difference in that ballclub when he’s not in there,” McKeon said of the Braves’ third baseman with the NL’s third-best batting average (.337) to complement his mostly clutch 19 home runs and 66 RBIs. He also is second in the league in on-base percentage (.428) and third in slugging percentage (.596). That said, the most significant numbers for Jones are “52-14,” which is the Braves’ record when their frequently aching slugger is in the lineup, and “10-14,” which is their record otherwise.
Added McKeon, “You put Chipper in the class with Barry Bonds. Then you put him up there with people in the past like Thurman Munson, Joe Carter. Guys that, when things get tough for your club, they always seem to be able to rise to the occasion. Chipper has done that kind of damage to me enough. He’s a real professional. He’s a money player.”
He’s also a member of the Braves’ veteran quartet of Bobby Cox, John Smoltz and Andruw Jones when it comes to pressure in division races. It’s a veteran quartet that will help the Braves conquer the Mets despite that little fact: The Mets are better, but only by a Billy Wagner.
Other than Wagner’s closing prowess, the Mets’ pitching is flawed, especially without injured Pedro Martinez for maybe the rest of the season. It’s just that the Mets are slightly less flawed on the mound than a Braves bunch that has mighty questions at the end of its starting rotation and throughout its bullpen.
As for the potent everyday lineups of both teams, it’s about whether you prefer baseball’s version of chicken or fish after the Braves acquired Mark Teixeira to make Chipper Jones even more frightening to opponents.
“You really can’t leave out the Phillies, because even though they don’t quite have the pitching with all of their injuries, they’ve always been a team that has had the talent but has never seemed to be able to put it all together,” McKeon said. “You know, with those three teams going at it, I just think it’s going to be a nailbiting time for everybody during the next six weeks.”
Two words: wild card. Not a bad consolation prize for the Braves, Mets or Phillies. McKeon’s Marlins were one in 2003, and they won it all.
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