Three years ago, Tim Hudson forgot how to pitch for a season. Jorgé Sosa forgot which direction he was supposed to throw the baseball. Chris Reitsma and Ken Ray both got extended time in the closers, much to the late-season chagrin of fans. Despite Brian McCann living up to his billing and making the first of his three consecutive all-star teams and a deadline pickup of proven closer Bob Wickman, a dramatically improved second half team could not overcome their mediocre first half coupled with a surging New York Mets team, leaving the fans only able to anticipate next year, where the team would have the benefit of a stable bullpen and a true closer for a full year.
Two years ago, the Braves started out the season with three proven closers. Mike Gonzalez's arm blew up before anybody was even contemplating magic numbers, and Bob Wickman decided around midseason that if he wasn't getting all of the saves, his discount at the buffet-line would decrease, and was booted off the team for sulking. Despite a surging Mark Teixiera being acquired at the deadline and turning in the most impressive stretch I've ever seen by a Brave, it wasn't quite enough, and the Braves were eliminated three days before season's end. The fans still had reason to hope, though, and eagerly anticipated "next year, when Mike Gonzalez comes back, and Scott Thorman is not the starting first baseman for half the year."
It's next year. Rather, it was. Yet, the Braves are not playing in the postseason, and in fact turned in the most decrepit showing they've had in almost two decades. Greg Norton received extended playing time, and the team won fewer games than the Kansas City Royals. Quite frankly, it's an embarrassing time to be a Braves fan. What happened to the once great team?
The Good
Chipper Jones - The one thing that has been a constant in my life since the first time I turned on a Braves game in 1995 is that Chipper Jones is a very, very good baseball player. Every year, supposed experts predict his decline, saying that his body has worn down and his bat speed is due for a decrease. Yet every year he produces, and this year was certainly no different. The best hitter in the majors for April and May, only an absurd summer by Lance Berkman overshadowed what Chipper Jones was accomplishing. That is, he made the first extended run at batting .400 since Tony Gwynn tried in the strike-shortened 1994 season, finally succumbing to the toll of the season in late July and falling to a "modest" .364, a career high for him and enough to win the batting title by a considerable margin. While it's true that the Braves can only count on him to play for 130-odd games out of the season at this point, 130 games from him are more valuable than a full season by any other player on the team not named Brian McCann, and the team can rest easy not having to worry about third base for at least a few more years.
Brian McCann - One of two of the aforementioned "Baby Braves," (Kelly Johnson, not the human out machine) to exhibit any sort of success, McCann finished the season with his third consecutive all-star appearance (if only in the slightest sense of the word) and if there is any justice in the world, should win the silver slugger, finishing the season just over .300. While he may be the slowest man in major league baseball, and his defense is generally suspect, McCann plays the catcher position competently enough to be a lock for the team at the hardest position in baseball to competently fill, and should be a lock for the core of the team until his knees blow out.
The minor leagues - Despite Jordan Schafer being suspended 5 games into the minor league system for failing to abide by the HGH policy (Which sounds incriminating, but the fact that he could not have failed a drug test needs to be pointed out, as an HGH test does not exist) and a slow-start once he returned to the minor-league club, Schafer ended off the season with a bang, and should still be regarded highly by the club, possibly as the starting center fielder next year. Along with Schafer, Jason Heyward and Freddy Freeman showed incredible progress in the minor leagues, Brent Lillibridge and Gorkys Hernandez are still highly regarded, and Cody Johnson would be a huge name were he not the only person in baseball who has a worse eye at the plate than Jeff Francoeur. While the pitching in the minors is not nearly as accomplished, Tommy Hanson pitched a no-hitter early this year and could make the club with a strong showing in spring training next year (though should not). Jo-Jo Reyes and Charlie Morton were both ineffective over the full season, but showed glimpses of competency, and Cole Rohrborough and Jeff Locke are both high-upside, low-accomplishment prospects. If only two of that list can become major league ready pitchers, the Braves have (with Jair Jurrjens) 3/5 of a solid rotation, needing only an ace (Jake Peavy? Please) and an innings-eater. There are a lot of questions, but since the Braves pulled Smoltz, Glavine, and Avery from the farm system, how many pitchers can you think of that they were able to groom and keep? Adam Wainwright and Jason Schmidt have gone on to experience success with other clubs, Kevin Millwood was great for Atlanta and is now as consistent as Josh Smith's jump shot, Jason Marquis has gone on to annoy Cubs fans, and Kyle Davies is going to be good one day, or so everybody says. Assuming we don't have another class of Bruce Chen, Jung Bong, and Trey Hodges, the team has a solid basis of starting pitching in the minors for the first time in almost two decades.
The Bad
The personnel - This is going to be the only bullet point in the "bad" section, because it's pretty all-encompassing. I place a lot of the blame for this season not on the players, but the coaching and management. Foremost among them is Bobby Cox. When asked about his overuse, reliever Blaine Boyer quipped, "Well [my arm] hasn't fallen off yet, has it?" Boyer, along with Will Ohman, Jeff Bennett, Buddy Carlyle, and virtually everyone who was unfortunate enough to be healthy for the entire year, were ran into damn near every ballgame, and were ineffective by June. Meanwhile, players like Phil Stockman languished in the bullpen, afflicted by "Joey Devine's disease." That is, Bobby Cox refused to play them for reasons that only Bobby Cox knows. While I give full credit to Roger McDowell for the limited success the Braves pitching has had this year, I honestly think a lot of this can be attributed to the loss of Leo Mazzone, who Bobby trusted more to override him on bullpen decisions. This is consistent with my view of the coaching. It's not that I think that Bobby Cox is a bad coach, because he obviously is not, it's just that he's surrounding himself with people who magnify his weaknesses. Chino Cadahia is a perfect example, as I'm sure he does a fine job with a lot of things, but managing defensive positioning, one of the bench coaches primary responsibilities, is not one of them, and the Braves looked woefully unprepared on the field for a number of plays. Terry Pendleton is victim of the same. It's a little known fact that the Braves finished in the top 5 in both receiving walks and not striking out (largely due to Chipper Jones and Kelly Johnson), because Terry Pendleton has utterly failed at developing patience with Jeff Francoeur, Andruw Jones before him, and Rafael Furcal before him. The team as a whole batted well, so Pendleton obviously did something, but his inability to get anything out of these players should be the death-toll on his coaching résumé. He's been linked as Cox's possible successor before, but I pray this is not going to be the case. Rather, I hope for a coaching clearing-house soon, and when the dust is settled, Eddie Perez and Roger McDowell may be the only ones left. And maybe Phillip Wellman, because he seems like a fun guy.
Some of the blame for the season also falls under Frank Wren's jurisdiction. While I'm one of the few supporters of Wren (as I can't expect everyone to be John Schuerholz), I feel that the trade of Mark Teixeria was the end of the Braves dynasty, as it marked them having completely given up. I still don't doubt for a second that the Braves could have (and should have) re-signed Tex, as they obviously have plenty of money this offseason, and are still going to have the problem of obtaining a power bat. While I do like Casey Kotchman, and feel that he will be a good first baseman for years to come, Tex could have been the greatest first baseman in Braves history. Of course, after trading Tex and throwing out the white flag, Wren decided against trading overused yet effective reliever Will Ohman, someone who should have been easily movable. This backfired, as Ohman remembered that he was not good after the deadline, and as such failed to qualify for either type A or B free agency, meaning the Braves will get no compensation for him. Wren still has plenty of time to prove himself, but he did himself no favors this season.
The Ugly
Injuries - John Smoltz, Tim Hudson, Tom Glavine, Mike Hampton, Chuck James, Chipper Jones, Matt Diaz, Yunel Escobar, Mark Kotsay, Brian McCann, Pete Moylan, Rafael Soriano, and Mike Gonzalez all missed significant time this season. For those of you keeping track, that's the entire preseason rotation, the top three relievers, and five of eight starting position players. I don't know what Phil Falco has been doing wrong, or what kind of voodoo curse Jeff Porter left on the team, but I've never seen a team be so absolutely decimated by injuries.
Jeff Francoeur - I'm going to do my absolute best here to remain non-partial and ignore any biases I may have about Frenchy. That said, he had an abysmal year this year. As in, the third worst showing by a right fielder of all time (Behind Bob Bailor in 1978 and Al Cowen in 1976, if you were wondering). After showing marked improvement last year, there was nobody with greater expectations this year than Frenchy, and he failed to meet them all, marking 70% of his plate appearances with strikeouts, GIDPs, and weak popups to the second baseman. Then, after being demoted to work on his swing with the aforementioned Wellman, Frenchy complained about not deserving it, and was back in less than a week due to his key role in team marketing (Damn you, Delta.) After the return, he managed to actually be worse than before his demotion. I want Francoeur to be good, I really do. I know that he's at the ballpark before everyone working on hitting, I understand that he is suffering through a degenerative eye condition, and he seems to be one of the nicer guys in sports. But his year was awful on a historic level, and the Braves can't succeed if Francoeur is a vortex of suck in the lineup for every game of the year.
There are plenty of people on the team that I could classify as above-average (Kelly Johnson and Escobar come to mind), and others that can get an incomplete (Kotchman and Gonzalez), but for the most part, the 2008 Atlanta Braves can be classified as stunningly mediocre. As such, Frank Wren is going to have a lot of work this offseason rebuilding this once great franchise. I'll be back in a few days with part two of this post, "The Prognosis" so if any of you actually enjoy trying to sift through my essays, by all means come back for that. And hopefully Adam should be back from the take-home test from hell on Friday to give us his weekend picks, and I'll try to throw some in as well.
1 comment:
Didnt the team die in a firey crash around april?
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