Enough with the Negative
So, I’ve been noticing a lot of hopeless negativism around the Braves-o-sphere already. It’s been a rough nine games, we’ve had a lot of bad news and some heartbreakers, and our 3-6 record puts us at tie for last in the NL East with the Nationals. And we all know that the Nationals have cooties.
But seriously, lets get some perspective here. Nine games into the 2007 season the Braves were 8-1, the Phillies were 2-7, the Rockies were 4-5, and the Red Sox were 5-4.
Do we have a few issues to iron out? Absozoobilutely.
- Certain members of our bullpen are not living up to expectations.
- One fifth of our starting rotation needs to be sorted out.
- Three fifths of our starting rotation need to start going deeper into games.
- Certain highly-paid Scott Boras clients in their free agency season need to stop hitting into goddamned double plays.
But of those issues, the bullpen is the only one worthy of major concern right now. And when Glavine, Smoltz, and Jurrjens start giving us 7 instead of 5 on a regular basis (which they will) even that becomes less of a concern.
I agree wholeheartedly with BravesNuWorld that it’s time to end the Chuck James Experiment. But I really do think we’ll get some quality starts out of Hampton this year. And when he’s down, we’ve got other guys who can take a back-end spot in the rotation. Some Guy has been dependable, if not spectacular this year. Buddy Carlyle is capable of winning more often than not and is a lot less sporadic than Chucky.
As for Tex, so long as he not throwing the season so the Braves can afford to keep him next year, I think we’ll see him pick it up soon in his Yankee’s Audition Tape season.
The team we’ve got on the field this year is a better team than last year’s team (which won 84) even if our record after 9 doesn’t show it.
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