Eulogy For Something Special

It’s over, and that’s the most startling thing about this whole 2010 Atlanta Braves journey is that it has come to an end. It didn’t happen the way the players wanted it to or the way the fans wanted but maybe it ended in the way most fitting for Bobby Cox’s career. More pertinently it wasn’t just the season that ended, the game 4 loss to the Giants in the National League Division Series marked the final time that Bobby Cox would sit on a Major League bench as a manager. Bobby’s career has been eulogised enough by people far more eloquent than I but these last two series (the Phillies and Giants) showed us exactly how much love the city and team of Atlanta has for the veteran manager.

The three sell outs to end the regular season during ‘Bobby Cox Weekend’ gave the fans the chance to thank Bobby for the 20 plus years he gave to the city and the team, it was an outpouring of emotion that only ever happens in sports. The epic finale to his wonderful career was the moments following Melky Cabrera making the final out of game 4, with the Giants beginning their celebration in the middle of the Braves diamond something strange happened in the capacity crowd. There wasn’t any boos, as the fans had showered on Brooks Conrad the night before, there wasn’t the mass exodus as witnessed the night after at Tropicana Field, the 44,532 individuals inside the Ted simply began chanting one name; Bobby. With the increasing volume and passion in the chant Bobby made one more walk up the dug-out steps and onto the field, his players stopped and applauded, the fans all stopped and applauded and, in one final touching tribute, the Giants stopped celebrating to applaud. One final great tribute to one of the last great managers.

It wasn’t just the fans who were demonstrating their love during the NLDS the Braves players made it clear from the beginning that everything they did was in Cox’s name. No player was more forthright in their feelings or actions than the only Braves on the play-off roster who appeared in Cox’s last postseason appearance back in 2005. Brian McCann was a young rookie who came up as part of the ‘Baby Braves’ and Tim Hudson was serving as the Braves ace making his first play-off appearance as a Braves. This year they were the veterans of the team and the backbone that Cox relied on to be his leaders. Both paid tributes to Cox with their performance in the NLDS. Hudson only made the one start after appearing on sort rest at the end of the season, he had however been set up to pitch game 5 had the Braves forced a decider. Huddy proved the Braves stopper again in Game 2 after Tim Lincecum had pitched his 14 strikeout complete game two-hitter; Tim went seven strong innings against the Giants number 2 ace Matt Cain without giving up an earned run. He earned his ‘ace’ tag over the season and it’s just a shame that he didn’t get the chance to pitch in a Game 5 and was denied the ability to play in his first League Championship Series. In what was an extremely challenged offence Brian McCann proved the rock in the middle of the line-up that he has been for the past 5 years. Whilst playing in all four games McCann posted a .429 batting average that included a go ahead home run in game four that looked, to all intents and purposes at the time, to have kept the Braves in the hunt. Nobody took the series loss harder than McCann as he continues to be one of the most underrated players in the game and the building block for any future success the Braves may have.

Apart from the ending of Bobby Cox’s legendary career the sad thing about the Braves postseason elimination is that never again will we find ourselves in this situation with a team like this. They were nowhere near the best team in the National League let only the Major Leagues but they were one of the hardest working and that was a quality nobody appreciated more than Bobby. After moves like the Mark Teixeira trade that began to make the Braves look like a faceless team of hired guns, this team was one of the most easily likeable Atlanta has had in a long time. Regardless of how it ended this season was unique and incredibly special and should not be forgotten by anyone.

Brave new world?

We’re not 48 hours removed from the end of the World Series, congratulations to the Yankees are due, and I’m already thinking what’s ahead for the Braves in 2010. This has been a constant on my mind since the end of our play off push this year but seeing as today players filed for free agency and I got my e-mail trying to sell season tickets today I got thinking. Well number 1 this, officially for a change, will be Bobby Cox’s lat year as Atlanta Braves manager, this is plain emotional for anyone involved with the organisation, especially for the people who have had the chance to be involved over the last 2 decades. There is no doubt Bobby will one day be smoking his victory cigar in Cooperstown, NY of that there is absolutely no doubt, there will be no asterix alongside his name he’s just plain earned it.

This brings me to my first big unknown, will this also end up being Chipper Jones’ last season with the team? Chipper has never known anything in the majors except for Bobby Cox, hell Chipper could well be the Braves next manager, but that’s a half baked idea for another time. Chipper, as everyone including him knows, stunk last year, I mean good old fashioned stunk. In 12 months Jones dropped 100 average points, he has only been that bad 3 times in his career, 1995, 2004 and this year. The injuries are well reported as well as Chipper himself saying he would call it quits if he’s that bad again, so he’s already thinking about it. I just can’t think of a more fitting way for Chipper to go out than at the same time as the manager that brought him up way back in 1993. Of course this would involve Chipper having to boycott his last year of his contract and walk away on his own accord, not exactly the easiest thing to do, there is also the possibility that if he gets his production back to where it has been he will happily see out the contract and hopefully continue helping out the Bravos. Jones is purely me speculating on an idea that I’ve been thinking about for some time, however there are some other things about the Braves that make me a little nervous about next year.

The first is that we have over half our payroll hooked up in only 9 players: Javier Vazquez, Tommy Hanson, Jair Jurjenns, Derek Lowe, Tim Hudson, Kenshin Kawakami, Chipper, Brian McCann and Nate McClouth, one of those (knock on wood Lowe or KK) will be traded, that however still leaves a lot of money being spent for not many bodies however talented. Those 9 were almost exclusively, with the exception of Martin Prado and Matt Diaz, where our best players last year so where in the payroll do we have enough financial movement to bring in players to improve our team. Nowhere, that’s the answer.

Second, we have almost twice as many contracted starters as we do competent relievers. JJ, Vazquez, Tommy, Hud, D-Lowe and KK, in case you can’t count, that’s 6. Eric O’Flaherty, Peter Moylan, Boone Logan and Kris Medlan are the only relievers under contracts who you would want in a game. Medlan could possibly even start the year as a AAA starter, which personally I want to see, but it was certainly interesting to see the developing trust in Medlan from Bobby through the season but maybe not to the point that he becomes the Braves Phil Hughes. There guys like Luis Valdez, Todd Redmond and Stephen Marek who there seems to be some belief in, especially Valdez. Even in both Rafael Soriano and Mike Gonzalez re-sign (and it’s unlikely both will) then that’s still a weak bullpen, and this is even without mentioning it was by far the most burdened in 2009. So even if our 6 starters are able to carry the team in each and every game how can we ask the bullpen to finish the job. Soriano’s meltdown at the end of the year is evidence enough of how hard the ‘pen worked throughout the year and even now there is very little help. The signing of Scott Proctor to a minor league contract is intriguing in that it happened before there was any attempt to sign back Gonzo or Rafa, and used money, even just a little bit, that could have gone towards either of those deals. Unless the starting rotation turns out to have 3 or 4 Cy Young candidates (which it could) this bullpen could end up churning out bull-something else by the end of the 2010 season.

The biggest concern is the Arizona Fall League. Last year Tommy Hanson went and became the first pitcher to win the winter league MVP and this year was supposed to be the year of Jason Heyward. Instead the AFL became a pain in the ass for Heyward, literally, the gluteus strain putting him out of the league. Then there was Freddie Freeman slumping like a rollercoaster, luckily he seems to be bouncing back but the start was worrying. Luckily Mike Minor, our number 7 draft pick, is throwing nicely, maybe not Hanson nice but promising nice. The worrying about the AFL is that it’s made me realise that the next generation of Braves superstars are maybe a little further away from Major League service than we hoped. Heyward will likely be starting the year in Gwinnett at AAA, Freeman at AA in Mississippi and I have no idea about Minor, I don’t even know if the Braves management do.

By the start of Spring Training Frank Wren may have made some of the kind of moves he did last year with the starting rotation and made me have a little more faith. I’m running on hope heading into the cold, dark winter months but does anyone else see this year being anything but a passing the torch one? All every Braves fan in the world asks, and we don’t care how, give Bobby the best baseball year of his life in his last one.