MARLINS 4, BRAVES 3: Pitching disaster not new to Tanner

It’s not Bobby Cox. “No, this isn’t his fault,” said Chuck Tanner, referring to the Braves’ free fall in the National League East standings. That said, Tanner, who should know such things, suggested that this really is the reincarnation of his 1988 Braves, which isn’t good, by the way.

Those other Braves lost 106 times. The current ones are wretched, but they already have more victories than the 54 for those other Braves.

Whatever that means.

That means little if you listen to Tanner, the accomplished manager of yore, speaking over the phone from his home in New Castle, Pa. As a major league scout nowadays for the Pittsburgh Pirates, he remains close to the game. That’s why he noted a similarity between his Braves of 20 years ago and the current ones imploding in their division.

“Heck, there are games I see where they’re using four or five relievers, just like we did,” said Tanner, sounding younger than his 79 years. “In three weeks, their arms are hanging, and then your bullpen’s gone. It doesn’t matter that the right fielder [Jeff Francoeur] isn’t hitting, or you can look at the shortstop, the second baseman, the first baseman or the catcher.

“Those people can help, but when you have pitching, you have everything. We didn’t have it, and for the Braves, it’s not [manager] Bobby Cox’s fault. It’s not the pitching coach’s fault. They just don’t have Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine and John Smoltz anymore.”

No, the Braves don’t. Instead, they have the pitching likes of Elmer Dessens, Julian Tavarez and Vladimir Nunez. That’s why the Braves began Monday’s game in Florida against the Marlins ranked 10th in the NL in ERA and falling.

Before the All-Star break, the Braves fluctuated between first and second in the league in ERA, and not coincidentally, they were deep in the division race. That was before they lost the pitching likes of Tim Hudson, Rafael Soriano and Glavine for the season —- joining Peter Moylan and Smoltz .

At least these Braves had all of those pitchers to lose.

“We had [everyday players] Ozzie Virgil, Gerald Perry, Ron Gant, Ken Oberkfell, Dale Murphy, Dion James, Ken Griffey Sr., some good players,” Tanner said. “But then we had Glavine just getting started, and that’s when I pitched him a lot, knowing he’d be good someday. He was 7-17. Rick Mahler was 9-16, and Pete Smith was 7-15. Zane Smith, 5-10. We had Bruce Sutter, but his arm was done. We were bringing Smoltzie along, but he was 2-7.

“We couldn’t catch the ball sometimes, but they couldn’t pitch it, either. They’d throw a fastball when it should have been a change-up or something.”

Sounds like the current Braves, with fielding issues everywhere and severe problems when it comes to swinging in the clutch. Much of this also sounds like the current Pirates, which is why Tanner, who managed Pittsburgh to a “We are Family” world championship in 1979, recently told his bosses with the Pirates, “This is not going to work until we get pitching. Go out in free agency and get a productive guy that’s been successful. I’m talking about someone who can win 12, 15 games.

“Then you bring a young guy in behind him. I know the Braves have that kid they got from the Tigers [Jair Jurr-jens], and he’s a good one.

“But if you want a young guy like that to be your leader, well, in the long haul, it’s hard.”

The same goes for the short haul.