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Despite sweet dreams, this was never the Braves’ year

By Michael Boylan

Do you remember how miserably the season started for the Braves? It was bad. Tampa Bay Devil Ray bad.

It seemed as if everybody in the sports world had either the Phillies or the Marlins winning the division and some people even had the Mets finishing ahead of Atlanta. After the first few weeks, who could argue with those assumptions? Heck, before the Braves went on their mid-season tear they were in fourth place behind all three of those teams. It looked like it was going to be a very long summer. Chipper wasn’t hitting, Giles was injured, DeRosa stunk it up and Hampton couldn’t buy a win.

Things got a lot better. The Braves made their usual charge to the top of the pack in the NL East and the playoffs once again seemed inevitable, but there was still something amiss. Perhaps they peaked too early, but all of the hot hitters started to cool. It seemed that Estrada wasn’t driving in men in scoring position like he was earlier in the year. Chipper continued just missing home runs and Andruw went through typical Andruw stretches of strikeout after strikeout, though I’ll give him credit for being a stud in the playoffs. Too bad that mojo didn’t rub off on J.D. and Chipper.

If you seriously looked at it, you couldn’t really see how this team would go all the way. In those imagined scenarios, the Braves would have needed lots of luck and as the regular season wore down, their luck was running out. If you don’t think so, ask Mark DeRosa, Mike Hampton and John Thomson. When the injury bugs bite, even if they aren’t big bites, it takes something out of a team. Before the playoffs even started, there was a sense of “Uh-Oh, here we go again.” Russ Ortiz looked lost in September and Hampton, who had pitched lights out, was questionable for the playoffs. Jaret Wright took a ball off the leg and limped gingerly off the field. John Thomson got injured and ended up scratched from the playoffs. I know that this Braves team isn’t as reliant on pitching as teams of the past, but you have to have somebody throwing the ball and our top guns weren’t pitching or feeling great.

So, who is to blame for yet another early ending in the playoffs? It isn’t any member of the Braves, player or coach. If you want to see why Atlanta lost in the first round, just look at Carlos Beltran, Jeff Bagwell, Craig Biggio, Jeff Kent, Lance Berkman, etc. The Astros hit and pitched better than the Braves. It is what it is. Some days one team is better than the other. The Astros certainly learned that in their first two playoff games with the Cardinals and now the Cardinals are feeling the heat.

So, if you’re an angry fan demanding Bobby Cox’s head, cool it.

Cox is one of the greatest managers in modern baseball. A killer instinct wouldn’t have helped the Braves in the playoffs this year and if you really look at it, this team had more speed and played more aggressively than Braves teams in the recent past. Cox has the respect of every player who has ever played for him and I am certain that every player on the team gives 100 percent every game.

If Cox gets fired, who replaces him? Somebody who has bounced around from team to team over the last decade or so? I’ll take consistency any day of the week and though I want the Braves to win another World Series in my lifetime, I’ll take a trip to the playoffs and a shot for a title every year.

This was a fun team, no doubt about it. There were so many great stories this year: Wright, Drew and Thomson’s resurgence, Hampton’s second half, the minor leaguers coming to the show and sticking around (Green, LaRoche, Thomas), Chipper’s move back to third. The players of this team appeared hungrier than the teams of the past few years and that bodes well for the future. The Braves will be back here again next year and maybe they’ll be the better team and have a bit more luck on their side.