Braves’ solid-gold arms are undone by dime-store bats
If pitching is 75 percent — or 90 percent; estimates vary — of baseball, why are the Braves further under .500 than they’ve been all season?
Because the other 25 (or 10) percent of their team is worth about 10 cents.
Without meaning to say it, Brian McCann said it perfectly: “We’ve got to start playing better baseball.” Then he checked himself. “Not better baseball — we’ve got to swing the bats better.”
The Braves swing the bats just fine. It’s the hitting part that bumfuzzles them. They’ve scored one run in two games against the Red Sox, who have managed only five but have already won this loud and steamy series. Jair Jurrjens was rather good Friday night but wound up the loser. Javier Vazquez was nigh-great Saturday and got beaten 1-nil by a 42-year-old who throws about 42 mph.
The Braves mustered three singles against Tim Wakefield, who was knuckle-dusting the Braves in October 17 years ago, and Garret Anderson’s two-out double off the heat-bringing Johnathan Papelbon. Their biggest threat, such as it was, came when Matt Diaz walked in the eighth, took second on a wild pitch and moved to third on a groundout.
McCann again: “This team should win more games. You win with pitching.”
And usually you do, provided you have anything approaching a big-league batting order. The Braves have three only real hitters, and one of them (the increasingly peculiar Yunel Escobar) didn’t play Saturday because of what was described as a twitchy hip. McCann went 0-for-3 but walked and stole a base. Chipper Jones went 0-for-4 and saw his average dip to .290.
The Braves keep marveling about how lucky they’ve been, having not won a series since Memorial Day but still hanging within five games of first place. They can’t expect to be lucky much longer. The Phillies come to town Tuesday, and if the Braves lose that series we can bid adieu to 2009.
“We’re not out there trying to get shut out or stay only four or five games back,” Chipper said. “We’re busting our humps. But we seem a little offensively challenged this year for some reason, and I’m not talking about the front or the back of the lineup. It’s the whole lineup. Nobody’s exempt.”
This could well be the best these Braves can do, and there’s no real reason a team with a right fielder, a left fielder and a first baseman who have managed 10 homers as a triumvirate should bust any fences. We can credit Frank Wren for getting half his offseason spectacularly right — the Braves can really, really pitch — but having whiffed egregiously on the other half.
Still, unless you’re the Red Sox or the Yankees, there’s only so much you can fix over one winter. The good news is that these Braves should be pitching well for a nice long while. The bad is that 70 games’ worth of deft pitching has positioned them fourth in a five-team division.
The feeling in the Braves’ clubhouse Saturday was of reality descending like the crack of dawn . They can’t hit. They’re not apt to hit. You can only be shut out so many times — the number is now at nine — and still retain hope. “We’ve got to keep plugging away,” McCann said, and that, sad to say, is the trouble.
Plugging the Braves can manage. Hitting they cannot.
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218 comments Add your comment
Jeremy
June 28th, 2009
2:04 pm
The Braves have three good three-hole hitters without the power of a third spot hitter- AND NOTHING ELSE. Chipper is not as good as his reputation – there are guys all over the place with better numbers than him. The Braves don’t need him to hit .364 (which he’s not going to do again), as much as they need 120 RBI’s (which he hasn’t done in a LONG time). McCann doesn’t have the power to hit 4th – at least not yet. And in most line-ups he’d hit 3rd. And then there’s Escobar. He doesn’t have the patience to hit 2nd. So 5th is probably the best place for him. At least that way he can drive in Chipper and McCann with some of those 2-out singles and doubles.
I’ve had to face up to the fact that this team SUCKS and has absolutely no chemistry – mostly because their best players are sorry leaders and there’s no other talent in the line-up. Seriously, how long do you let Francouer and Johnson stink without pulling them. And if I have to keep watching Anderson and his lazy, sorry attitude I may puke.
There’s always next year.
bigcooterb
June 28th, 2009
2:15 pm
Who cares whether the Manager is a players manager or not. They need someone to chew A&& and get results.
Sonny Clusters
June 28th, 2009
2:20 pm
When we was playing ball together Jeff got beaned like he did this inning and the ball bounced way out to the pitcher and he caught the ball and throwed it to first base. But Jeff still got to go to first and run for hisself. We was state champion and thats why the Braves will get better when Jeff gets it going again at the plate. For now its just good that he can get hit now and then so he can get on base. I was on base more than Jeff but he had all the power and most of the girls except the ones that thought he was a little slow in the classroom they seemed to like me best.
Non Hockey Loving Thrashers Fan
June 28th, 2009
2:21 pm
How about integrating the team to win more games. This is not a call for affirmative action. It’s a call to get some speed, power and swagger. The Braves have not had this since the days of Gant,Nixon, Sanders, Justice, Pendleton, McGriff, Jordan, Furcal, Dye, Lofton, Grissom,etc. They are boring to the nth degree
AMEN! Tell It Like It Is!
The Braves don’t seem to keep many players that don’t : 1)hunt; 2)fish; 3)listen to country music; 4) marry as soon as possible.
The Braves do need to integrate more, and that includes more Latins who can play and not just the ones who are docile because they are barely talented and are desperate to keep a major league job anywhere they can get one.
Yunel Escobar would not be such a big deal outside of Atlanta. And why is it we only have seen Heyward as the only promising African-American player in over a decade?
The Braves need to learn to draft athletes instead of just the big tall mediocre passionless types they seem to have an abundance of now.
The Braves need to learn what the SEC learned decades ago if they want to get..and stay…good. And if Bobby Cox cannot deal with today’s hip hop, reggaeton loving Latin and African-American player then it’s time for him to move on.
Sonny Clusters
June 28th, 2009
3:41 pm
Jeff may get him a RBI with Anderson on second and nobody out. Wait, never mind Jeff just grounded out but the runners moved and nobody scored like when we was playing ball together.
Disappointed
June 28th, 2009
3:42 pm
Many of you are calling for TP’s head, and I agree that a change needs to be made. The only explanation for TP not having been fired this year, or last year for that matter, is that Braves brass has already determined that TP will replace Bobby as the next manager. Kind of hard to fire the guy you intend to use to replace the current guy, and still expect him to be available when Bobby retires, dies, etc.
Javier Vasquez
June 28th, 2009
3:53 pm
The pitchers on this team pitch their guts out and take the loss nearly everytime, and you cannot consistently hang your pitchers out to dry like that. And for all that Bobby Cox does well, and for all his short comings, his biggest mistake is that he has cultivated a culbhouse attitude that finds this anemic offense acceptable. Moreover, its reached a point where it is expected, and one that happens, its hard to come back. But here is the scary part: these five guys in the rotation are all going to bolt out the doors first chance they get–and no free agent pitcher is going to sign with the Braves when he sees all the other guys running out the door. The Braves stock is lower than it has been in 20 years, and trending downward.
Sonny Clusters
June 28th, 2009
3:55 pm
Well Francoeur wasnt running in on that ball very hard but when he seen that the runner was going to second he turned it on like it was a state champion game like when we was playing together back in school. If the Red Sox score it wont be JEffs fault with Kelly J out there kicking the ball around like he never played any high school ball.
Bless you
June 28th, 2009
4:07 pm
Disappointed, TP will not be the next manager. Frank Wren will hire his own man, that goes with the GM’s job. It will be someone that Frank likes and can work with.
PMC
June 28th, 2009
4:27 pm
Too bad they didn’t find a way to bring Jason Bay here last year instead of McClouth and keep Tex. All it really would have taken is money… and a solid prospect or two. Oh well.
Pretend Hero
June 28th, 2009
5:06 pm
Cant remember his name, but hopefully the next manager will be the guy running the show at Gwinnett
bigcooterb
June 28th, 2009
5:10 pm
It must be tough being a Braves pitcher and knowing you have to throw a shutout to have any chance of winning. The “Hitless Wonder of 2009″.
35YrBravesFan
June 28th, 2009
6:16 pm
Watching the Braves pitch is fun. Watching the lack of hitting to go with it is miserable. I have hope Mark when you say it’s easier to get a couple of hitters over the winter than pitchers. So I hang on to my pre-spring training thoughts which are that it will take another year to get the team really rebuilt, and we have a lot of talent still in the minors.
But this is hard to watch lately.
GO BRAVES!!
Ralph
June 28th, 2009
6:23 pm
Until we can find a solution to the lack of power problem why not move either McCann or Ross to first base and bring up another backup catcher. McCann and Ross are two excellant bats both with power and one of them is sitting everyday. Next we should put KJ on the first train out of town and make Prodo the everyday second baseman. When Infante returns put him in right field and Francuer on the first bus out of town. Next plutoon GS and Diaz in left field. Use Kotchman as the primary pinch hitter instead of Norton or Blanco whom niether can hit a lick.
LSU
June 28th, 2009
10:20 pm
Can someone explain to me why Hanson was not on the opening day roster? Not that it matters though, because it’s sad to see someone like Hanson get stuck playing with the Braves at least for the time being…You know he’s gonna bolt for the $$$ and go play for a quality baseball team whenever that opportunity arises down the line.
Kelly Johnson was 0 for 3 today….Nice job by Bobby Cox of not being able to see the forest for the trees by continuing to insert Johnson in the lineup …The love affair between Cox & Kelly continues to amaze me. Can someone explain that to me too?
Ken Stallings
June 28th, 2009
10:47 pm
Mark, when Schultz returns from his vacation, you might want to remind him of his column where he said Hanson, “could not slip through the back door,” and “crashed” in his first game.
All he’s done since is win four straight games, go 20.1 scoreless innings consecutive, and beat the Yankees and Red Sox in consecutive starts!
The debate Schultz tried to inflame about Glavine being released turns out to be a senseless exercise. You were absolutely right in pointing out the objective indications that Glavine was released because Hanson was the one to fill that position, and he’s removed all doubt it was the right choice.
Perhaps the next time, Schultz should consider being a bit more balanced in his coverage of a rookie’s debut appearance!
agrivated
June 29th, 2009
3:39 am
Don’t get too excited, so the Braves took one from the Sox. Isn’t that what they should be doing? Winning? I mean they still hit terrible. The only reason they won was because of pitching, again. Ship CJ to the AL, dump GA, KJ, French, and get some of our minor league guys up to the show for experience. Like some of ya’ll said before, they can’t be any worse than the position players that are out there now. No playoffs this year, just get used to it until someone who cares buys the team and dumps the GM on down to coaches.
agrivated
June 29th, 2009
3:43 am
E: C Jones (13, ground ball); K Johnson (6, ground ball)
Somehow I’m not surprised to see CJ and KJ on the box score for having errors. Isn’t it time for CJ to retire?