RIP Braves

Sorry FuerteJ...but you know the city fans in Atlanta are WAYYYY too refined to wave the stars and bars...LOL
Unlike those at Dawg games and/or Auburn games and/or Bama games....you get my drift.

 

The arm-chopping happens at the Ted, though.

I hate to think about the people in the lower rows. As the arms are waving, the three-day accumulation of armpit stench in the 100-degree heat carries through the air, wafting down toward the field. No wonder these games don't sell out.

 

Braves now 12 games out of first, six games under .500, and on pace for 73 wins.

 

So they're on pace to win three more games than your best-case scenario. Go back to blogging, dumb ass!!!

It pains me to think this is over. Most amazing streak in sports history.

 

It's really gonna suck for you if the Braves come back and win this thing. And given the teams above them, it's not like it can't happen.

Lot of dumb moves, but pulling this bitch back out before Atlanta is officially dead ranks way up there.

 

Dog, if the Braves win this thing, it's going to be quite possibly the greatest comeback in baseball history. [/hyperbole]

The Mets are about to sweep the Phils and go 9-1 on their road trip. For all their faults in the front office and dugout, it's going to be tough to blow that lead. The Braves are battered. To make up a 12-game deficit with the holes on that roster would be a miracle.

 

They were dead the minute I posted this thread. Now I'm just beating a dead horseBrave.

 

Oh, it ain't likely, and I'm in no way saying it is. Alls I'm saying, if you gotta pick a team to blow a 12-game lead and another to overcome a 12-game deficit, I'd go with Mets and Braves.

 

The main reason they (probably) are going to be DOA is the lack of a closer. It will end up costing them 4-8 wins. Last night was one: blew a 5-2 lead late. At least they've learned their lesson with Reitsma finally and put him on the DL with *ahem* numbness in the hand/wrist, somethign like that *ahem*.

Their only real chance would be to put Smoltz back in the pen and go get a starter. And Johnny ain't going back to the pen.

 

Braves need to trade LaRoche + somebody to the Angels for Escobar and put him back in the pen (he was lights out there last September and in 2002 had 38 saves for the Blue Jays, and LaRoche grew up in the OC).

They're in desperate need of a McGriff-trade shake-up. So are the Angels, for that matter.

 

But why would the Angels trade Escobar after signing him long-term?

He was great out of the pen last year, but it comes down to would you rather have a great arm giving you 200 quality innings or 70 quality innings? The answer for the Braves is obvious but I think most teams would rather have a guy like Escobar in their rotation.

 

Because they have the Weaver Family Conundrum, they don't have room for their Cy Young winner, and Santana has a much brighter -- and longer -- upside than Escobar. Plus, Escobar could be damaged goods. They can get rid of him and still have five quality arms in the lineup (well, OK, three plus a fat Cy Young winner and Weaver the Elder, who is going nowhere).