New York Nine

It's really not fair to compare this incarnation of the Braves to the heyday of the three headed monster of Maddox, Smoltz, and Glavine in the 1990s, but its hard not to. A decade plus of excellence and domination seems but a distant memory to Braves fans so management has tried to do something about it. Indeed, making one of the bigger splashes of the off-season with Derek Lowe and Javy Vazquez but one look at their lineup and its clear these Braves are not ready for the big time.


With Smoltz and Hudson found to be unreliable Atlanta needed a replacement for both and they went out and did that with the big trade for Vazquez and the Lowe signing with some moderate success. For sure, while perhaps not being the flashiest or wow me type of pitchers, these two have been the model of health and consistency for years, Lowe giving 30 plus starts for seven years and Vazquez pitching at least 198 innings for nine, it doesnt get much more reliable than that. These guys along with Jair Juirgens who won 14 games as a rookie and Japanese import Kenshin Kawakami they are poised to have one of the more durable and dependable staffs in the division and indeed the league.



But where the problems arise is the rather punchless lineup. Sure Chipper Jones at the tender age of 37 had another great year leading the league in batting average on on base percentage, and Brian McCann is arguably the best hitting catcher in the National League but after that it gets dicey. Indeed, the whole Braves outfield last year hit 27 home runs, 27! You've got to be kidding me! Former "The Natural" Jeff Francoeur hit only 11 and the rest didn't fare well either. To make matters worse they traded Mark Texiera and replaced him with Casey Kotchman, a solid player who proceded to do jack shit when he came to Atlanta hitting two measly home runs with the club. While its true they added Garrett Anderson to the mix, a good veteran hitter from the left side, he hasn't proved to be durable not even playing 80 games in the field and hasn't seen a pitch he doesn't like, with a career OBP under .350. This, my friends, is not a recipe for a winning ball club.


I give the Braves a B- for their offseason, addressing their pitching needs very astutely but not bringing enough to the table at the plate. The addition of Anderson is a smart and cost effective one, but its not enough to make this team any more than a fourth place team in a very competitve division. Of course as the saying goes pitching and defense wins championships and they have a durable staff and a top flight defensive squad to back it up its going to be hard for them to muster the runs to back these guys up. They're on their way and the Braves are absolutely loaded with talent on their farm that will be making an appearance real soon (remember the name Tommy Hanson) but not now, not yet.