being julio heyward
(part ten)
((fare thee well, bobby cox))


152 games.

that's how long the 2010 version of the atlanta braves were in the mix for the division. all things being equal, had you offered me that number before the season opened along with the deal that the club would still hold the slimmest of leads in the race for the wild card with 10 games to play, i would have jumped at it. given that deal and that deal alone, this is how i would have told you it happened.

jason heyward was worth the hype.

he has been. before he hurt his thumb in the second month of the season, he was going to run away with the nl rookie of the year trophy. then he hurt himself with one of his always cringe-inducing headfirst slides. cringe-inducing not because it looks bad. quite the contrary, it looks elegant and graceful, just like everything he does on the baseball field. cringe-inducing because there are ten digits that are exposed for all sorts of bad things to happen to them when sliding head-first into a base, all ten of the utmost importance if you are going to swing a bat and make contact with a baseball. he hurt his thumb. bobby cox kept trotting him out, because "i love seeing the kid play". his numbers dropped. he finally went on the dl and after cox's incompetence cost him STARTING in the all-start game as a rookie, (ugh) he came back. he got healthy. his average jumped 50 points, and he regained his form from april and early may. then chipper got hurt. braves nation (including myself) cast their lonely eyes to the twenty year old to lead them. on certain days, he has. he still gets on base a ton. but, to be as patient as he is, throw a breaking ball to him with two strikes that starts at his knees and ends up in the dirt, he is going to strike out 9 times out of 10. he's been good. probably rookie of the year good. but he hasn't been able to carry the team by himself.

hudson, lowe, jurrjens, hanson and kawakami would be the best starting five in the national league.

they'd have to be, right? the braves were never going to score a ton of runs. not like the phillies. and yet, only hudson has been really good this year. lowe is what we thought he was. jurrjens has been radically inconsistent. hanson should have 15 wins, but, when bad, he has been really bad. kawakami was the worst starting pitcher the braves have trotted out for more than 10 starts in 20 years. people call him "kamikaze" for god's sake.

chipper stayed healthy.

he did for a while. and then, of course, he didn't. on a great, jeter-esque jump throw against the astros, chipper's old knees couldn't hold him, and he shredded one of them, lost for the season.

those would be have been my three factors necessary for the above deal to manifest into reality, but only one played out. so, what happened?

martin prado and omar infante happened. both all-stars, both hitting over .300, both integral to the braves offensive success when they've had it. they've both been miscast as leadoff hitters, but the braves were presented no other choice when nate mcclouth forgot how to play baseball.

mccann's been mccann. i love mccann.

johnny venters happened. he's finally hit a rookie wall, but, wow, for several months he was unhittable. same with billy wagner. those two have been off the chain.

with the exception of one month and half by troy glaus and one grand slam by derek lee, first base has been a disaster.

the escobar/gonzalez combo at short has been up and down.

heyward is the only constant in outfield. platoon's sometimes "work", but they never thrive. how could they? baseball is a game where you will "fail" 65-75 times out of a 100 at-bats anyway. combine that fact with not getting consistent plate appearances, and you have a platoon. the ole "if you have two quarterbacks, you don't really have one." philosophy can be applied to the braves outfield, minus heyward. if you have four or five outfielders, you don't really have two.

and then there is bobby cox. the "players manager". the winner of all those straight division titles and a world series to boot. the guy that gets thrown out of games a lot.

i admit to being a "what have you done for me lately" sports fan, and here is what i will remember of cox in his last season. not being quick enough to let heyward get healthy. and this week's phillies series.

charlie manuel placed so much importance on this series, he rearranged his rotation to make sure his 1, 2 and 3 starters would face the braves. in doing so, he announced this series makes our regular season a success or a disappointment.

did cox find a way for hudson to pitch last friday against the mets so that he could pitch today against the phillies? nope. could he have rearranged things to get lowe a start too? of course. but he didn't. so, the braves went to war in the two biggest games of their season with a rookie making his first major league start on monday and a rookie making his seventh (i think) start last night. both were seriously outclassed. the braves lost both. thanks, bobby.

and now, the wild card that cox has said over and over and over again that he despises is "our" braves carrot on the stick.

i love the wild card. it allows me a small glimmer of hope that the braves may still wiggle into the playoffs after conceding the division last night. i can't wait to hear cox backtrack over the next few days and give us soundbites like "we just want to be in the dance" and riff on previous wild card winners' success. it will be soaked in irony and it will be beautiful.

here's hoping the braves have a little something left in the tank...,

in spite of their manager.