Los Bravos (The Braves)

These are sad times for Braves fans. The funny (not ha ha) part is that these sad times mainly revolve around pitching, or the lack of it.

Outside of veteran starter John Smoltz, no other Brave has been consistent time in and time out. John Thomson has been inconsistent when he's been healthy. Mike Hampton has yet to be healthy. Horacio Ramirez has battled injury, but has been inconsistent when he's been healthy. Newcomer Chuck James started off strong, struggled, and well, has been inconsistent. Tim Hudson has been anything but consistent as his high E.R.A. should indicate. Jorge Sosa was so inconsistent that he got moved to the bullpen before he was traded. Those are just the starters. The bullpen may be even more inconsistent than the starters. Chris Reitmsa, McKay McBride, Ken Ray, Jorge Sosa, and others were used as starters at least once in the year. Finally, John Scheurholz traded for veteran closer Bob Wickman and Bobby has saved six straight games for the Braves. They also traded for Danys Baez to pitch the 8th in a set-up role for Wickman and he's thrown well thus far. But, before the Braves acquired Wickman and Baez, things were shakier than an earthquake measured at 7.5 on the Richter Scale. Reitsma along with Mike Remlinger have been on the DL. McKay McBride seems to be a one batter pitcher kind of guy. Ken Ray has struggled some since his great start. Tyler Yates and Chad Paronto have been solid at times, but inconsistent. The bullpen have walked way too many batters. They may not allow many hits, but their W.H.I.P. is much higher than it should be for guys who are sent to the mound to retire one, two, or at the most, three batters.

The pitching is even more frustrating given the fact that the Braves are scoring runs. If you were to combine the hitting of this club with the pitching of some of the older clubs, you may have the best Braves team during this 14-year winning streak (N.L. East Champions). Marcus Giles has finally been switched to his natural #2 spot in the lineup and has gotten hot since the switch. Edgar Renteria has been the most consistent hitter on the team. Andruw has been inconsistent, but very productive, with 28 home runs and nearing 100 RBI's. Jeff Francouer and Adam LaRoche have been fairly inconsistent, but productive, each hitting over 20 home runs on the season. Catcher Brian McCann has been very steady when healthy. Chipper Jones was one of the hottest players in the league before his injury. The only position that hasn't been very steady is in left field, where the likes of Ryan Langerhans, Matt Diaz, and Scott Thorman have all played. Langerhans is in for defense. Diaz is in for contact hitting. Thorman is in for power hitting. If there was only a way to combine all three of their talents into one, then that'd be a terrific starter. But, that has been the only uncertainty offensively for the Braves, outside of the pitcher's spot, of course.

At 52-61, the Braves have got a lot of winning to do in order to win the Wild Card. They'd need to post a 38-11 record to reach 90 wins on the season. They'd need to go 33-16 to reach an 85-77 mark. There can't be any more messing around in Atlanta. The hitters can keep on doing what they've been doing. The pitchers need to step their game up and play more consistently, though, if Atlanta has any chance of making the playoffs. Unfortunately, from what I've seen of them this season, that's very unlikely to happen.