Braves Stuggling

After a six game winning streak last week the Braves have turned the other direction this week. Playing the worst team in baseball, The Washington Nationals, the Braves just lost the series 1 game to 3. Against the Nationals. The Nationals have only won 15 games this year. Five of those are against the Braves. And they lost to the equally hapless Pirates in Sunday's game. Now this weekend they have to go to Fenway to play the team with the best record in baseball, the Boston Red Sox.

A lot of people want to jump on the pitching because they've lost the games but when you face the Nationals you should score some runs. Smoltz lost 2-1 on Monday. You pitch like he did Monday night and you should destroy a team like that. Instead they let the Nationals no-hit them through the first seven innings. They followed that up by blowing a 4-1 lead on Wednesday and a 3-1 lead on Thursday to loose the games 6 to 4 and 4 to 3. In both games the Braves had multiple innings to tie the game. Thursday alone they couldn't score one run against the Nationals in 3 innings. On the other hand the division rival Mets managed to score five runs in the bottom of the ninth to come back on the Cubs 6-5.

The problem is that only two players are currently hitting right now. Chipper Jones and Edgar Renterria. So all teams are doing is pitching around these two and feasting on the rest of the lineup. Francouer, McCann, and Thorman are all struggling a little bit. But as young players you have to ride thought it with them and you're not asking or expecting them to carry the team in a rough stretch. They'll turn it around soon. The biggest problem for the team right now is clean up hitter Andruw Jones.

As much as I hate to say it Andruw just isn't a clean up hitter. I love him as a defender and have enjoyed watching him for ten years. Bu he strikes out too much and can't get the hits right now to drive in runs to justify hitting cleanup. The 2005 season were he was remarkably clutch is seeming more and more like a one season anomaly. Much like the 2000 season that was the only time he has ever hit more than .300 for a season in his career. He's just more of a number 6 hitter. The problem with this team is that we have 3 number six hitters in Thorman, Francouer and Andruw and McCann is really more of a five. I'd advocate hitting McCann fourth but as a catcher he won't play in enough games and would keep from solidifying the lineup.
Andruw becomes a free agent and is expecting to get a huge payday this offseason. But he has to step up his performance or he won't be able to justify the numbers he's asking for. I think his problem is that he's got his mind on this huge pay day and is trying to hard to hit homeruns and not just get hits and drive in runs. He's swinging as hard as he can at every pitch and nearly falling down after he misses. It's hysterical to watch until you realize that its costing games.

The Braves got out to a hot start this year. If they want to do anything with it I'd advocate looking into acquiring either through a trade or internally a left fielder or first baseman that can hit in the four hole. He needs to hit for average with some power. This team has enough power but not near enough average. Right now they have two regulars that are hitting over .300 for the season.