Garbage Juice: Atlanta Is Brave to Think They Even Have a Shot

Here's our first installment of Garbage Juice and I thought we'd start off with a team that I've hated for a long time - the Atlanta Braves.  Ever since the Braves joined the NL East, they have been a force and a team Mets fans have unfortunately had to be jealous of for a long time.  All through the 90s and early 2000s, we could never beat them, they had the unstoppable pitching staff, and you know how much everyone in NYC loves Larry Jones.  While they've been absent from the post-season for a few years now, it does look like the Bravos are going to make it back to October baseball.  Does this matter? No.  Why?  Same old Braves - no World Series for them.

In the Braves historic run of playoff teams from 1991-2005, they won a single championship in 14 post-season chances.  That's terrible.  Well, you might say that those teams are not this team and this new team is young and ready to blast into legitimacy again.  I say, this team isn't all that different than those from that 14 year span.

First, you have the exact same manager.  Bobby Cox may be loved by the Atlanta faithful, but in my house, we've been waiting for him to trip and fall when running out to the dugout to yell at an umpire for years.  The guy has been thrown out of more games than any manager in the majors.  That's not as important as the fact that while his teams win, they don't win championships.  At some point, that comes down to managing.  This is Cox's last season as he's announced his retirement.  It would be pretty fitting that while this team is making a run for a championship that they fall short as Bobby has always done.

Next, this team does have a pretty good pitching staff like the dominant staffs of the 90s and early 00s Braves.  Sure, it's not Maddux, Glavine, Smoltz, Avery, etc., but Tim Hudson is pitching lights out this year, Tommy Hanson and Jair Jurrjens are excellent young players, Derek Lowe is pretty good for a 4th starter, and you don't really need a 5th guy in the playoffs.  Well, like I said, these guys are good, but they're not the big time starters of Braves teams past.  Tim Hudson has a career ERA of almost 4 in the playoffs, Hanson and Jurrjens have no experience, and while Lowe has had some success in the post-season, he's 37 now and is not the same guy that pitched in Boston or even LA.  And the question comes to mind, if a rotation full of hall of famers can't get it done, how is this rotation?

Finally, Larry Jones, my least favorite player of all time. As someone who has killed the Mets year after year for most of the time I've watched baseball regularly, it's been a pleasure watching him get old and fade into the sunset.  At the end of the day, Larry's batting in the mid-.200s and has 10 home runs this year.  I'm pretty sure no one is scared anymore and no one outside of Atlanta cares either.  He should probably retire after this season and go on a bicycle tour of America with Bobby Cox where they can hold hands and reminisce about how they couldn't win more than one championship with so many opportunities.

So, with all that, this team is a lot like the old Braves teams.  There are some new additions in Prado, Heyward, etc, but that doesn't seem like enough to carry this team to a championship in 2010.  The Braves will just float into the playoffs, get knocked out early, and then next year settle back to the middle of the pack in the NL East as the Mets rise to the top.

Spiteful? Yes.  Kinda convoluted? Yes.  Does it make me feel better? A little. 

Drink it up.