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Atlanta Braves
Scouting Report
By the Numbers | Players To Watch | Projected Roster
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With four aces, including Glavine, the Braves hold all the
cards in a division race that isn't a race at
all.
(John Iacono)
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Of
course
they're going to be good. The Braves are
always good. Who's going to beat them? The denuded Marlins? We
don't
think so. The Mets? Not likely. The Expos? The Phillies? Please.
The Braves will win the National League East, just as
they've won it every year since 1991 (excluding
strike-shortened '94). As long as the usual suspects are
around—Tom Glavine, Greg Maddux
and John Smoltz—Atlanta will
win.
It is true that Ted Turner may not know who's who.
("Hey, hey," he said to Maddux, passing the
pitcher on a walk through the clubhouse during spring
training, "there's the guy who keeps winning those Cy
Young awards.") But Turner is a
big-picture guy.
Somebody must have told him early on that you win with good
pitching, and he took it to heart. Maddux (the guy with the
glasses, Ted) is signed through 2002. Smoltz (the big guy
with the facial hair, out until May recovering from
arthroscopic surgery on
his right elbow) is signed through 2000. Glavine (the guy
who looks 12, although he's 32) is signed through 2001.
Remember how Clinton won the presidency the first time
around by reminding himself daily, "It's the economy,
stupid"? Baseball is about that
complicated. Got a bad team?
It's the starting pitching,
stupid.
The continued presence of those three pitchers creates an
impression of stability on the club. You think the Braves
are trotting out the same team year after year. Fans dig
stability, and more fans means more money, which, if you
want to win, you spend
on players, those already accomplished and those still
developing.
Anybody not getting
this? Actually, Atlanta tinkers like mad. There are only eight
players on the current roster who have been with the team
for more than four
years.
Along those same lines, the Braves pretend that money is no
object. It is true that they have one of the highest
payrolls in baseball, in the
$65 million range. But when the Braves are trying to save
money, they wisely shut their mouths about it. Why? Because
if fans and players and agents think all a club is trying
to do is keep expenses down, they look elsewhere. Remember
the trade Atlanta made
in spring training last year with the Indians, shipping out
David Justice and Marquis Grissom for Kenny Lofton and Alan
Embree? Quality for quality, the Braves said at the time.
Now the truth is out. Orders came from on high to make
budget cuts. The Big
Three are expensive, and so is lefthander Denny Neagle, who
went 20-5 last year, his first full season with the Braves,
and who is signed through
2000.
You can nitpick the Braves, if that's your thing. They
don't have a classic leadoff hitter. They don't have much
speed (but they rarely do). The players in leftfield and in
right catch the ball competently, no better. Maybe there
are a couple of other
nits in
there.
The significant question about the Braves is whether they
will become complacent. But manager Bobby Cox, general
manager John Schuerholz and president Stan Kasten—the
brain trust—are too smart to let that happen.
Don't believe anything you read, hear or see about how good
your team
is. That was a theme of spring training this year.
Prove yourselves
nightly.
Cox is an interesting character. He can play avuncular
uncle like nobody in the game, but he's more complex than
that. Starting his 17th year of managing in the bigs, he's
already won 1,312 games, which puts him 23rd on the alltime
list. Another four
years of 90 wins per and Cox will be number 11th or 12th on
the list, depending on what Tony La Russa does. Cox will be
61 years old and is, most likely, Hall of Fame bound. How
does a manager get to Cooperstown? By having his team prove
itself nightly,
April through
October.
A few more wins in October would be nice—for Cox, for the
Braves, for the record books. Atlanta has been a superb
baseball team since '91, but not a dynasty, not in the
classic sense, not with just one world championship. The
baseball psychologists have
been trying to make sense of the Braves' autumnal problems
for a while, but there's no there there. An extra base that
should have been taken. An injury. A call. A bounce. What
can you
do?
You nurture good pitching and keep it. You create a loyal
fan base. You hire quality players and never complain
publicly about the expense. You play the games, one at a
time. You see what happens. Far more often than not, it's
something
good.
—by Michael
Bamberger
Scouting Report | By the Numbers | Players To Watch | Projected Roster
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