Making Sense Out of the World
Blogging About Things That Make Sense

It’s not been looking that great for the Braves team and their fans in the early 2012 portion, of the Major League Baseball season. And then again, it doesn’t take much to impress the baseball crowds around Turner Field these days. You still hear so much about Bobby Cox and those great 14 straight seasons of winning their division. That is a nice stat to have, but isn’t it “championships” that we are after?

From the dawn of sports, every coach and player gives the same answer to the same question. What is it that you hope most to accomplish or get this season? That question is followed by the “ring” or “trophy” or just whatever the prize is for that particular sport. If winning the World Series is what we all want in the ATL; then the Braves have been one of the biggest failures in baseball and not a success story at all. After all, the Braves did manage to get to the post-season 14 times straight and won just 1 time. In fact, their only World Series win, under ex-coach Bobby Cox, was a slim 1 run victory over the Cleveland Indians. In a game that finished 1 to 0, with two good pitchers on the mound, you figure it was the manager with the best move, that would have won it, right? Like a hit and run play, a crucial steal, or the old squeeze play. Nope! It was none of those clever things a baseball manager gets credit for. It was a solo home-run shot off the bat of right fielder David Justice, that would be the deciding factor in this game. You can go back over these 14 years and think of a lot of big moments.

*Otis Nixon Towering Over the Wall To Steal a Home Run Away

*Francisco Cabrera Hitting a Big 3 Run Homer Over the Reds

*Francisco Cabrera’s Single To Left Field with Sid Bream Sliding Home

*Andruw Jones Hits 2 Home Runs at Yankee Stadium

*Terry Pendleton’s MVP Season of 91″ To Kick It All Off

These are a few things I reflect on, when I think about the Braves baseball team over those great 14 seasons. None of my memories consist of Bobby Cox making a great call or changing a pitcher in the game. For as much credit as you can give Bobby Cox for winning over this 14 year run, you can also blame him for the lack of World Series wins. He barely got the one he did win. What happened to the team after the 14 streak ended? It wasn’t like we missed season 15 by a hair and came back and won 2 or 3 more division titles in a row. The fact is, Cox produce a winning atmosphere and its been the best thing in Atlanta sports recently. The Atlanta Dream appear to be the next big thing around the corner for this city; which is starving for a winning coach, team, and system to take over any of the sports franchises here.

Obviously Fredi Gonzalez has his own problems, he is dealing with. The 4 game losing streak to start the season and the recent games the team has been losing, which started with a sweep at the Great American Ballpark in Cincinnati this past week. Both of these things are easy excuses, right Joe Simpson? The master of making up excuses is Braves TV announcer Joe Simpson. Joe likes to think of the recent injuries and just a slow start, for the team’s recent downfalls. It’s really much more than that, when you break down the strengths and weaknesses and how Coach Gonzalez is managing it each nigh, in his 2nd year of coaching for the Atlanta Braves.

What is the biggest strength of this Atlanta ball club? By far, it is the pitchers in the bullpen. The arms and firepower this team has at the 7th inning and beyond is incredible. It’s something that has to be used, in order for this team to win with any consistency. However, due to the last month of last year’s downfall, the club has placed blame on the bullpen and the fact they wore down. I don’t think it was that at all. The other guys in baseball started to figure out some of these guys the Braves have, like rookie of the year Craig Kimbrel and lefty Johnny Venters. They gave up some runs in some key games, but at the same time, our offense had their own problems. We had games where all-star Brian McCann was at the plate with a runner on 3rd and less than 2 outs and couldn’t get the run in. It was the whole team that failed short and the big lead made them a bit over confident perhaps.

So this year, the team is holding back and not bringing in those star relief pitchers as much. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist, to figure out that using your lower tier guys in the bullpen, you will get less of a result. Especially when the coach does it night after night. Our top pitcher is Kimbrel and he has seen the least amount of innings. How does that work? Don’t you play your best players the most? Or at least in most sports you should. We should have seen our star closer in lots of games this year. Bring him in during the 6th inning, if you have a bases loaded situation and no outs, in a 1 run game. But the Braves manager doesn’t want to do this, because he will burn out those arms and these guys will not be rested, when October rolls around. He doesn’t understand, the Braves will all be at home for winter break in October, if he doesn’t start playing these guys. Use your weapons now, build up a nice lead, and then you can worry about the rest time in the last 4 to 6 weeks of the season. By not playing these guys, they have become shaky in games and everyone sees it.

Once the manager starts using his best players and trying to win ball games within 9 innings of play, the fans will come out to the ball park more. Right now, there is no reason for a family in the suburbs of Atlanta, to pay for a family of 4, to go to a game. Especially when the prices are high and you’re going to watch the 2nd and 3rd best players our team has on the roster. I haven’t even went down the “not hustling” road yet. The millions they pay these baseball players to play and they can’t even hustle on the field. No way should families in Atlanta spend their hard-earn money, on a baseball team that refuses to hustle. They watch the ball after they hit it and their eyes let them know the speed they should be running out there.

Just recently we saw Martin Prado on 3rd base with no outs and Freddie Freeman at the plate. Freeman hit a hard shot to first base, but it was deep at first, since the infield was back conceiving the run. Since Prado was not hustling down the line after every pitch, he got caught in no man’s land on the hard-hit grounder and had to return back to the bag. Up next was our clean-up hitter Dan Uggla and he always strikes out. So to make the long story short, the Braves didn’t get a run on this play, with no outs and a runner at third base. After this occurred, our master of excuses man Joe Simpson said “that play will eat at Martin for a week“. He said that, because the announcers and players all believe that Martin Prado is the hardest worker on the team and our most driven competitor out there.Well it turns out, it didn’t take a week and within 24 hours Prado had forgot. He came back the next night and he hit a grounder down the line at Hanley Ramirez, the third baseman of the Marlins, and he swooped in and kept the ball from going foul and ran across the pitcher’s mound to throw out Prado, who was still at the plate. He didn’t even bother to run, cause the ball appeared to be heading foul. I was watching in the games leading up to this and saw Martin do this a lot. He hits balls down the line and will keep a sharp eye on them and makes up his mind later to run or not to run. I knew it was just a matter of time or at one point in the season, it would come back to haunt him. It didn’t take long and for his non-hustling efforts, the coach Fredi Gonzalez did nothing to him. Which a couple of years ago, he did have words with Hanley Ramirez for not hustling in a game. Funny how coincidences like this happen in life and how they come back to reappear later in our lives. Hanley threw out Martin easily, because he didn’t run out of the batter’s box on a close play. Fredi had a shot to discipline Prado or say something publicly to him, so he  could have showed his former player, that he just wants good hustling and everyone must do this. Instead, Ramirez must feel like a target and perhaps Fredi Gonzalez did have a bone to pick with him, since he didn’t say anything to Prado for his lack of hustle on the field.

It just gets worse, the more you watch this team play. Brian McCann chose to blurt out his favorite “F” word to all the fans and children at the game, while slamming his bat down to the ground. He did this after a softly hit grounder to the second baseman. While he was cussing to children and pouting, the second baseman fumbled the ball and lost it. He had time to recover and pick the ball up and throw out the Braves catcher, since he didn’t hustle out of the batter’s box. Lots of players on the team are yelling out cuss words and I think something must be done or said about this. No more cuss words at the ballpark, where fathers and mothers are trying to entertain their little ones. Where is our coach when a censor needs to be put on the mouths of these athletes?

Oh yeah, he is in the ear of Juan Francisco. This is the kid that nobody wanted and the Braves signed him right when this season began. So you don’t expect much from a guy you find like this. Since Chipper can’t stay healthy, Francisco has got a lot of playing time. He has shown some power and hit a big home run at the Great American Ballpark. In a game where no other Braves player could find a hit, this kid was driving a ball way out of the park. His hit was right down the first base line. It wasn’t clear if the ball would be fair or foul, so Juan did stay at home plate a little longer than he should, to see where the ball was going to finally go. He knew the ball was out of play and no player on the field was going to get it. After the ball flew out and we could tell it was fair, the Braves third baseman had a little slide-stepping to his jog, as he ran around the bases. For this action, our coach did feel it was necessary to talk to Juan and even the coach (Dusty Baker) of the other team. Gonzalez went out of his way to let everyone know, that the Braves and his players don’t play this way. He even told Juan he could get other players hurt, cause of his actions of admiring home-runs. I find that so funny and so wrong. Nothing gets said to the non-hustlers who make outs on the field, but let’s gang up on the home run guy and expose him and not stand behind him or support him as one of the team.

Hey Mr. Francisco, are you out there? If you are and reading this, let me tell you my opinion. If you hit home runs, then you can act anyway you want. I will support and back you up, as long as you are trying your best and making something positive happen out there. I understand this was your old team and you wanted a little payback. Since their team was beating up on your team, you had to find another way to pay them back. I also know earlier in the year, when you guys played them in Atlanta and how their pitchers threw at you and even plunked you one time. That home run you hit was pay back for many things. I saw that and the real Braves fans saw it too.

This is how things work in the ATL. If a player comes here and is a little bit different, they laugh and try to expose you as a bad seed. We have seen this with many good baseball players over the years. Yunel Escobar was a fabulous shortstop and he made some great plays with his arm. He was missed after we got Alex Gonzalez from Toronto here and he couldn’t field nothing. He made so many errors on easy grounders, it was sad to see a major league shortstop play that bad. He did get a little better before leaving, but he never fielded as well as Escobar. Now we have Tyler making errors at short and the Braves have not had a good shortstop in place, since they traded Escobar away and it was all because he was different.

Joe Simpson is a major blame for festering these problems and using his voice to take sides. He takes the side of management obviously and says things he shouldn’t. Yunel Escobar went on to have a great year for the Blue Jays and now Alex is gone in Atlanta and we lost out big time on that trade. The worse part of all, is because a player acts different from the other ball players on the team, so he quickly gets deemed as being wrong. Joe Simpson has blamed Juan Francisco for making 2 errors on 1 play, trying to get a triple out of a misplayed ball, and his recent home run strut. He has blamed the kid for a few other things too and he repeats these Francisco mistakes many times over. He fails to let the fans watching at home know about Prado not hustling on multiple plays, Uggla’s struggles with a man on 3rd and 1 out or less, and things like this. If these players do make mistakes, like Freeman in a slump, he just makes an excuse and will blame it on glasses or contact lenses. He never calls the game or the play for what it really is. He must use his slants, excuses, and do all of this; while taking up for the team members he feels he has a “buddy-ship” with.