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Atlanta Braves Poised for Deep Playoffs Run

by Christopher McIntosh
09/25/2009

The Atlanta Braves are poised for a deep run into the playoffs.

Nope, I'm not having an acid flashback or proving that writers recycle leads wherever and whenever they can--although whoever came up with this beauty, "Holyfield to Fight Contender, Global Warming" yesterday gets a gold star--but I am honest to God saying it and saying it out loud.

Am I a homer? Am I out of it? Could I possibly be right?

Yes, undoubtedly yes, and possibly.

Bear with me here, realize I am the same man who advised readers to mortgage their house on USC over Texas in the BCS title game aka the "Vince Young was apparently controlled by a 12 year old Malaysian video game prodigy and singlehandedly beat what could have been the greatest team of all time after calling his shot precisely one year earlier" game.

But I also gave you Summer Bird cold as the winner of the Belmont. So I've got that going for me. Which is nice.

And I have written before that the Braves had a chance when really it was the equivalent of the sixty year old retiree at the five dollar craps table at five in the morning, black socks drooping down to his sandal straps, putting his last dollar on a hard eight and bellowing out so that the entire place can here the gambler's creed, "ONE TIME!".

This is not that time.

The Rockies had to lose last night. They did.

The Braves had to keep pace with the Rockies over the last few weeks--the Rocks have gone 13-7 (now 8)--and the Braves just finished another satisfying meal consisting of New York's um, second finest? 4 game sweep.

So where does this leave us? We've got ten games left, they've got nine.

We're down 3.5 games in the wild card. Which basically means we've got to make up/play four games better than the Rockies over the last ten games.

Here's where it gets tricky. The Braves must finish the season at least 7-3. The Rockies have to finish 3-6.

Impossible? Obviously not. But for two winning clubs, seems unlikely they'd reverse form.

Why am I proffering hope to long suffering (irony intended) Braves fans (although if you extend into the future, we may be about to begin given the imminent departure of one Bobby Cox, but that news hurts too much to mention so let's move on)?

1. How we got here. The Rockies have been beating up on bad teams and managed to lose their last two games to the woeful Padres. The Braves are coming off a confidence inspiring four game sweep of the Mets in Shea (or whatever they call it these days)

2. Pitching. Our rotation is the deepest in baseball. I'm not kidding. Lowe, Vasquez, and Jurrjens have been studs year long. Hudson is back and pitching lights out *and* well rested. Tommy Hanson has been a revelation. Even Kawakami is waiting in the wings should he be needed and has had a vastly improved second half. Can you even name a Rockies starter? That's what I thought.

3. Here's where it gets good. The remaining schedule. Of our ten remaining games, three are against the Marlins and the remaining seven, count them seven, are against, wait for it, the Washington Nati(o)nals. A team so bad they're about to lose a 100+ games. If we win the series against Florida--taking two out of three--and take five of the remaining seven from the Nats, voila, seven wins. Doable? Yes. Likely even, yes.

If you think I'm nuts, think about this for a second. In every single game the Braves have left to play they will be the odds on favorite. I realize baseball odds are not the best predictor of well, anything, but it's worth mentioning.

That's all well and good I hear you saying, but who've the Rockies got? The Brewers, and six games with none other than the NL West (and NL as a whole) leading Dodgers and the NL Central leading Cardinals.

Want to venture a guess on who's going to be favored in the majority of those games? Exactly. They lose each of those series 2-1 and all of a sudden we've got a one game playoff between the Braves and Rockies.

Get swept in either of those series and well, even I'm not that much of a dreamer.

One last thing. Games aren't played in fantasy land--sorry seamheads. They are played by real people with real emotions and real lives. What do you think is going to happen to the Rockies if for some reason they wake up on Monday and they're suddenly staring at back to back series with the best teams in the league and we're 2 or even 1 game back? As anyone who's ever been a race (swimming, track, cross country, horse, car, boat, dune buggy, etc.) knows, it's easier to win a race coming from just behind the leader than it is to lead the whole way. If the Braves can make the Rockies think the national press is going to go bonkers--not because it's the Braves and the Rockies, as Joe Buck and Tim McCarver aptly demonstrated for nearly every fall of the early 21st century, no one in the media likes Atlanta, but because baseball has precisely one possible race for the playoffs left. And that might be gone by the time this comes about.

When the pressure's on, starting pitching matters. If there's one thing I've learned in 32 years of watching the Braves, this I know. And we're rolling deep.

Who'll the Rockies be relying on to shut down the Dodgers and match up with the likes of Chris Carpenter and John Smoltz.

Exactly.

It all starts tonight.

One time, baby. One time.