Shallow Pockets, Thin Teams

As many of you will come to find out in the ensuing months, I’m a rabid Atlanta Braves fan.  I love this team with my heart and soul.  And I love them even more when they’re filled with beer, as seen below:

One of the highlights of my life was October 28, 1995, when the Braves won their first (and only) World Series.  They were the first Atlanta team to ever win a pro-sporting championship and that day will be forever etched in my memory.  Tommie Glavine’s shutout ball through eight innings, Mark Wohler’s 1-2-3 ninth inning, David Justice’s solo home run accounting for the only run of the game…all clutch plays from clutch players.

Since then, the Braves have made a number of runs through the postseason.  Though their unprecedented 13 year streak of division titles was ended last year at the hands of the New York Muts, I think it’s safe to say that they will give the Muts a better run for their money this year. 

But what this piece wants to discuss is their current team and their prospective future.

Currently, the Braves are in the lead in the NL EAST by a half game over the Muts.  They have the second best record in the Major Leagues.  They’re playing great baseball.

But, the problem is that they do not have the same financial wherewithal that they’ve had in past years.  They have a few issues that could and should be addressed through trades and free agency.  Unfortunately, due to their sale to Liberty Media, the formerly deep-pocketed Time Warner organization that runs them is holding them to a pretty strict 90 million dollar budget.

90 Million just doesn’t cut it for a big league team nowadays.  Sure, you have your upstart 2006 Florida Marlins from time to time that are constructed on shoe string budgets and come from nowhere to compete for the Wild Card.  But, these are few and far between.

Most of the time, you need a little extra cash to get you over the hump.

Just take a look at the Red Sox and Yankees.  The Sox spent how much on Dice-K?  Ohh, that’s right.  $51.11 million.  And that was just for the rights to talk to him.  They went on to spend another $52 million to keep him in a BoSox uni for the next five years.  And the Yanks just spent how much on Clemens?  How about $28 Million?  And that was for one season (although, it will be pro-rated and end up being around 18 million, instead-what a savings!).

Point being that good teams spend money as if it is no object in order to solidify (or at least hoping to solidify) their chances at a postseason run.

The Braves have fixed a lot of their glaring weaknesses from last year. 

First, they tidied up the bullpen nicely.  They resigned Bob Wickman for the year and, despite being about 800 years old, he’s pitched very well for them and given them some much needed structure for the late innings.  Rafael Soriano has been frighteningly good this year and seems to be even better than advertised.  There appear to be no residual effects from his getting wiped out by a Vlad Guerrero line-drive last year and at 27 years old, he could easily be our closer for years to come.

Secondly, they filled some holes in the offense.  Many, including me, felt that letting Marcus Giles go was a travesty…that is, until we saw Kelly Johnson playing the hell out of second base and turning into one of the best leadoff men in the National League (3rd in the NL in OBP).  Scott Thorman has played serviceably and should continue to improve.  And we caught lightning in a bottle with Willie Harris, figuratively and literally.

The problems with our team arise,  however, when we look at what many of our old warhorses are doing internally.

Mike Hampton is a pile of shit.  I’m sorry, I like the guy.  By all accounts, he’s a great addition to the clubhouse and a hard-worker and he’s just had a round or fifteen of bad luck.  But this guy is a monstrous bum.  Not only are we paying him ungodly amounts of money to go through rehab time and time again, but we also continually believe he’ll come back and bolster the rotation.  This offseason, the Braves didn’t pursue a free agent starter because they believed they had one in Hampton.  Bob Cox said specifically that getting Hampton back was like signing a top-of-the-line starter for free.  And, once again, Hampton has let the Braves down.

Furthermore, our offensive juggernauts are not what they once were.  Saying Chipper is an injury risk is like pointing out that Scarlett Johanson has huge knockers…it’s blatantly obvious.  Andruw Jones’ swing at this point looks like something my sister used to try in T-Ball, except less graceful.  Oh yeah, and she was paying 25 bucks to be in the league.  We’re paying you how much to swing the bat like that?

Finally, we revamped the bullpen.  And it’s been working, as a whole, incredibly well.  Still…we traded one of our budding stars (Adam LaRoche) to the Pirates for Mike Gonzalez, who was supposed to be our lights-out lefty.  Instead, Gonzalez has been making excuses all year for why his velocity is down, his control is off, and he’s been eminently hittable.  For what it’s worth, LaRoche has been downright pitiful for the Pirates.  But, the fact remains that we were counting on Gonzalez to help anchor the bullpen.  And now he’s not so much an anchor as dead weight.

The answers to these problems could very well be in our own farm system.  We just brought Anthony Lerew up and he pitched a great game his first time out (only to follow it up with a 3 inning mess not too long afterwards).  Cormier could be back soon, although despite his great spring training, I’m not sure how much faith you can place in this guy…especially with his triceps injury.  Matt Harrison is still too young and too inexperienced to throw into the fire.

Ultimately, I think the Braves are going to need to add one or two more pieces to the puzzle through trades.  I think this is inevitable.

As it stands, the offense is actually pretty solid, barring horrific injuries.  Left field is taking shape with the Diaz/Harris platoon, Thorman should get better and better with increased playing time, Salty might be in The Show for good now.  But, we need another arm and a guy we can count on off the bench.  Easier said than done, I know.

Many of the Braves Blog denizens have been clamoring for guys like Jacque Jones, Cliff Floyd, Reggie Sanders, and the like.  I wish these people would shut their ignorant mouths.

Jacque Jones is the homeless man’s Ron Gant.  Enough said.

Cliff Floyd was only good on ‘roids.  Now that he can’t take those anymore, he’s finished.

And Reggie Sanders?!??  We already had this bum once and he was awful.  How quickly you all forget.

For my mind, I want a couple of guys with some solid veteran experience who can provide leadership to the team and stability through the rest of the season.

How about a guy like Mike Lowell?

He’s totally under-appreciated on the Red Sox.  He’s got decent power, hits for average, is a great locker room guy.  Oh, AND he can play both 3rd and 1st, as insurance for Chipper and to take the pressure off Thorman.  So what if he makes $9 million?  You don’t think the Red Sox would eat some of that?  I think they would…especially if we offer them one of the many outstanding SS prospects we have in abundance right now.  You can’t tell me they’re satisfied with Julio Lugo for the long term.

As far as pitching goes, we have enough Righties in the rotation.  Smoltzie, Huddie, Davies, and Lerew.  Fine.  But what about adding another veteran lefty.  What about someone like Mark Beurhle?  Again, I know he’s expensive.  But it’s not like the White Sox are struggling financially.  And their hopes appear to be fading fast, since their offensive is a pile of farts at the moment.  The one thing they have a surplus of is pitching.  So…Mark Buerhle for Scott Thorman, Craig Wilson, and Mark Redman.  Who knows?  Maybe the White Sox want one budding 1st baseman and two completely overpaid washups.

The one thing I do know is that I’m happy with the Braves team this year.  They appear to have great chemistry, they’re getting timely hitting, the bullpen is winning games for them as opposed to losing them (like ALL of last year).  Best of all, they appear to be fostering an incredible nucleus of young talent.  McCann, Frenchy, KJ, Thorman, Salty, Soriano…I can see these guys being Braves for many years to come.

I just hope that Liberty Media will preserve the integrity and legacy of this team.  And will open up their pockets a little more than in the past few years.

 Oh, and one more thing?

GET RID OF MARK REDMAN.  The guy looks like he just gorged himself on cottage cheese every time he takes the mound.

GO BRAVES!

~ by Bob on May 17, 2007.