Atlanta Braves Update

 

Sorry for the above.  It is part of the dull backstory.  They are going to pay a price for being MLB's only publicly traded team.

Things roll on because everyone is making money.  It is not like L.A. where that can be said of Ohtani, Freeman and others or the New York Mets who instantly became a playoff team.   In Cobb County--isn't there a glut of office space nationwide?--it includes the realtors and players like Luke Williams and Jesse Chavez.  Among the much higher-paid players there are maybe three, four, or five signed, all-around stars.

Blame Bobby Cox.  The Braves had this system--Maddux, Glavine, Smoltz, 7th and 8th setup then reliable closer, defense (i.e., consistency and dependability) and offense, for the most part, home runs.  Ronald Acuna, Jr. provided even more with speed and pressure.  A quick two-hour game based on starting pitching and power was the model.

Now that is not working.  League-wide, many starting pitchers last long enough to get a big contract and then have arm surgery.  They are expensive and you have to have back-ups.  Big, long contracts to players like...  fill in list, I will not repeat the names.  Again, you must spend and you have to be smart, prepared, and well-funded enough to adjust.

Management--Brian Snitker and president of everything Alex Anthopoulos--are holdovers.  It is clear they represent problems rather than solutions.  Nothing they have done this year has worked.  It is a fact.  They are simply not directing a championship caliber team.

Last season was unusual even with expanded playoffs; the Braves crept in with 89 wins (then flopped).  This year it will take about the same number of wins.  They are 41-51 with 69 games to play.  The best team, the Detroit Tigers, have played at or over .600.  If this Braves team plays .600 baseball the rest of the season they will have 82 wins; if they play .700 ball they will have 89.  They are not going to do either.

The season is not over but the Braves are basically playing for nothing.  

I'll get back to the reasons and the individuals.  Customer satisfaction is at the root of it.  Does that even exist anymore--I mean, these days you have a few stores to shop at and it you don't like it you go hungry.  This happens elsewhere too (e.g., the NBA), with the Atlanta Braves most of the players are not likeable.  Rafael Montero--odd looking Latin fill-in from the, are all Astros cheaters?, Houston team.  Or Marcell Ozuna, fat, older, not really power or average anymore and long ago without glove, arm, or speed.  These days he has to be pulled for a pinch runner and he is linked to domestic issues.  Even the great Ronald Acuna, Jr.; there was a day when neck tatoos and jewelry were not so important.  The point is these players are not involved in the community and are short term.  ( Glad I checked.  Ronald Acuna speaks English!).  Alex Verdugo, Profar with the PEDs, Jared Kelenic, the list goes on.  Some of the turnstile relievers in particular do not even look motivated.  Didier Fuentes (20 years old) looked is not close to a major league starter.  Nick Allen, shortstop, has one of the lowest slugging percentages in the league; Michael Harris II flirted with .200 and the shoes he sells, signs, or paints look ridiculous.

Who is this guy?  Am I supposed to root for him?
 

Apologies for the diversion.  It will take me a long while to find the Frontline episode I'm thinking about.  They were talking to one of those top presidential advisors who was articulate, prepared, and 100% insightful on the subject at hand.  I think he used a different name for it, but he was talking about that "come to Jesus moment" when it, or you, have been exposed.  He was totally nonchalant, as if to say or know that it happens regularly; this is how it works and this is what we did. Whatever crisis it was that he was talking about, it had not yet become a full-fledged scandal or fully revealed.  Nevertheless, it was irreversible.  

He was confident about what he or they had done or what the outcome was, as it was the best that could have been done, from his perspective.  What was done was done.  But how would the big guy survive?  And what will happen to the rest of us?  This is the denouement.  It has to be put back together.  

 

It never hurts to review history as of June 5 (five weeks ago).  "They’re bad on accident," Mr. Bell writes.  Gosh, I was hoping...  This is not "how it's got to be."