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2013 Atlanta Braves NL East Champs OFFSEASON: Cobb County Stadium? What?

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Joe Maddon seems to understand that the game must be managed differently in the postseason, especially an elimination game.
 
Holy shit, I've been thinking Uggla had 1 year left on his contract, but he actually has 2. $13m for 2014 and 2015, $26m total. We're fucked.
 
Cards advance to their 3rd straight NLCS. I know you Braves fans will be pulling for us.
 
Can the next round just start so I don't have to see ATL 3 - 4 LAD at the top of espn.com every fucking time I go there?
 
how about these two trades (will never happen) - BJ for CarGo and Uggla for David Price....how fun would it be to watch Minor and Price reunited - remember they played together at Vandy
 
deacons1080 said:
how about these two trades (will never happen) - BJ for CarGo and Uggla for David Price....how fun would it be to watch Minor and Price reunited - remember they played together at Vandy
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Tampa will want $texas prospects. And Colorado will be super dumb to do that
 
Was tired of reading lazy BS from some friends about the Braves lacking a "playoff mentality" etc., so did a little research on what might have caused the Braves recent playoff struggles. (As shown here, and despite the narrative, Braves were very solid in the playoffs pre 2002, just ran into some bad luck/good teams in the World Series). Thought I would share here. (And, I know CYA voting is not the best "stat" to use, but it was the quickest and serves to illustrate my point).

Prior to 2002, we were actually pretty solid, 12-9 in playoff series, but an unfortunate 1-4 in the World Series. (When you think about how close some of those series were, easily could have been 3-2). Since, then, we are 0-6 (Personally, I dont count the one game playoff loss to the Cards as a loss).

As I was watching our game, and then the Game 5s of the Cards and Tigers series, I admired just how good Verlander and Wainwright were, which obviously followed admiring/being frustrated by Kershaw against us. Made me thing that maybe it was our lack of GREAT pitching (plenty of good pitchers) since 2001 had been our main hindrance in the playoffs. As I am wont to do, thought I would check some stats, and what I found was truly incredible.

From 1991-2001 (the years we were 12-9 in the playoffs with 5 World Series appearances) we had:

6 Cy Young Winners
3 guys who finished second in the voting
5 guys who finished 3rd
2 guys who finished 4th
1 who finished 5th

In other words, in that 11 year stretch, 31% of the guys who got votes in the top 5 of the Cy Young Voting were Braves starting pitchers.

Since In the 11 years since then, we have had 3 starters who finished in the top 5, with all three finishing fourth (Huddy, Vazquez, and RUSS ORTIZ!). Kimbrel and Smoltz both finished in the top 5 as relievers.

So, after 31% in the 11 year stretch of relative playoff success, We are at 5% in the top 5 in the 11 year stretch of playoff futility, and ZERO percent in the top three!
 
When we had great pitching we had poor clutch hitting; now we have average pitching and average clutch hitting.
 
"Clutch hitting" is as big of a myth as "a playoff mentality."
 
Other than Kimbrel and maybe Simmons we don't have anyone who is top 3 at their position but agree that a true TOR starter is the biggest ingredient missing. Minor and Teheran aren't going to develop in to those guys I'm afraid but I really like them. More than Medlen.

No matter who you pencil in to the rotation for 2014 I think we are a 90+ win team again.
 
CheesePritchard said:
Other than Kimbrel and maybe Simmons we don't have anyone who is top 3 at their position but agree that a true TOR starter is the biggest ingredient missing. Minor and Teheran aren't going to develop in to those guys I'm afraid but I really like them. More than Medlen.

No matter who you pencil in to the rotation for 2014 I think we are a 90+ win team again.
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Are you talking top 3 in the league or in baseball? I think Freeman is close if not in top 3 in the NL.
 
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