![\"\"](\"http:\/\/totfc.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/weOwn.jpg\")
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Oh noes, sports talk!\u00a0 After I left Talking Chop, I don\u2019t really have any outlet to gab about baseball anymore, and when the day is over, this is still my brog and ultimately I\u2019ll write whatever I want to write about and post it, and not necessarily worry about catering to my seven readers.<\/span><\/p>\n In spite of my general apathy towards baseball these days, I\u2019m still a fan of the game, and still a fan of the Braves.\u00a0 When the day is over, I still want the Braves to win every single game possible, and I want the Braves to ultimately become World Series champions at least once more in the span of my life.<\/span><\/p>\n Over the weekend, the Braves came one step closer to fulfilling that ambition, when they mathematically clinched the National League East division.\u00a0 In doing so, they\u2019re guaranteed not only a spot in the playoffs, but avoid the bullshit one-game playoff game that was marred in controversy in its inception last year, which culminated with the Braves\u2019 season coming to a close after a single game.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n As solely a Braves fan that wants nothing but success in every biased and conceivable manner, I\u2019m excited that the team is in the playoffs and is avoiding the one-game wild card game.<\/span><\/p>\n But as an over-analyzer of sports, statistics and nerdy crap, I still don\u2019t really like the Braves\u2019 chances in the playoffs that much, and predict that they\u2019ll get bounced in the first round.\u00a0 It sucks that I feel that way, but it\u2019s not without justification.<\/span><\/p>\n First and foremost, the Braves simply have to overcome well, themselves.\u00a0 Historically, since 2002, the Braves have made the playoffs six times.\u00a0 In five of those instances, they were bounced in the first round, with the sixth being last year\u2019s first-ever one-game Wild Card game, where they lost that too.\u00a0 The Braves have developed somewhat of a reputation of being kind of a Buffalo Bills or Philadelphia Eagles of baseball, where they can get their foot in the door, but not really advance any further.<\/span><\/p>\n The Braves fan in me knows that salvation is always beyond the next shot, but given the competition in the National League as a whole, nothing necessarily seems tremendously advantageous in favor of the Braves.<\/span><\/p>\n Which alludes to the second reason, which is the aforementioned competition.\u00a0 The Dodgers have been playing .693 baseball since June, and despite the fact that their record indicates they\u2019re cooling off, it\u2019s worth mentioning that they\u2019re in the same boat with the Braves and are resting players at the now irrelevant expense of winning baseball games, since they too are clinched into the playoffs as well.<\/span><\/p>\n As of now, the Cardinals are in the playoffs in some capacity as the Central is still not determined, due to the resiliency and tenacity of both the Pirates and Reds.\u00a0 But back to the Cardinals, they\u2019re baseball\u2019s most charmed team, and come playoff time, it\u2019s almost impossible to ever count them out.\u00a0 I used to say that I found it hard to dislike the Cardinals due to the quality of their fans, the clean and efficient manner in which they played ball, and that they simply never really did anything that would make me dislike them.\u00a0 But then there was the whole debacle of the outfield fly rule from last season that pretty much essentially cost the Braves their season, and earlier this year when the Cardinals just decimated the Braves repeatedly, I just snapped.\u00a0 Screw the Cardinals; out of all playoff contenders in both the NL and AL, I can live with a World Series champion as long as it\u2019s not St. Louis.<\/span><\/p>\n But then if the standings hold true to now, the Braves are lined up to play either the Reds or Pirates in the first round.\u00a0 And the thing between those two teams is that they\u2019re both currently playing with all cylinders firing, because nothing is a given for them, and every day is possible elimination.\u00a0 A team like that is not necessarily the one you want to play in the first round, and you simply have to hope that they\u2019re out of gas by the time October rolls around.<\/span><\/p>\n Third, we have pitching.\u00a0 The popular saying is that pitching is what wins championships, and if that is necessarily true, then the Braves are flat out screwed.\u00a0 To me, it\u2019s almost amazing the Braves have succeeded this much on the quality of their starters this season, because so many of them are untested young pitchers, with consistency issues.\u00a0 My concerns over their long-term stamina have already come into play over the last month, as their best starter, Mike Minor has been more or less putrid over his last few starts.\u00a0 Relying on him to start in the playoffs is now somewhat of a scary reality, and beyond him, there\u2019s not much fallback.\u00a0 Kris Medlen has been inconsistent all year, and Paul Maholm isn\u2019t going to fool anyone with his 86 mph fastball.\u00a0 Younger guys like Alex Wood and Julio Teheran will probably be put in the bullpen, or on some standby capacity, but even then they\u2019re still untested rookies whose nerves very well stand a chance to come into play.<\/span><\/p>\n If the Braves are going to have any success, in my opinion, they\u2019re going to have to take a page out of the (fucking) Cardinals\u2019 book, and get ready to have pretty much all pitchers ready to go at all time.\u00a0 They don\u2019t have a genuine ace or guy who\u2019s going to dominate, so getting a seven-inning performance out of anyone doesn\u2019t seem that realistic.\u00a0 I\u2019d like to see them have long-relievers in the form of other starters be ready to come in at signs of trouble, and for everyone to put their egos aside for the betterment of the team\u2019s chances.\u00a0 The Braves still have the best closer in baseball, and if an army of relievers can get the Braves to the ninth with a lead, the chances for wins exponentially increases.<\/span><\/p>\n Finally, we have the Braves\u2019 offense.\u00a0 Namely the strikeouts.\u00a0 The 2013 Braves were expected to challenge the 2010 Diamondbacks as the team to have the most collective strikeouts in a single 162-game season.\u00a0 Fortunately for the Braves, they will fall about 150-170 strikeouts short of that embarrassing bar, depending on how they perform in their last home stretch.\u00a0 They will fall short, because of their Dr. Jeckyll & Mr. Hyde offensive capabilities which either strike out 10+ times a game, or club four home runs and score 11 runs.<\/span><\/p>\n It sounds weird saying it, but I\u2019m almost relieved the Braves are currently slumping at the moment.\u00a0 It has happened a few times throughout the season already, but the thing is that when the Braves snapped out of them, they snapped out of them with a bang.\u00a0 It\u2019s often said that the playoffs are one gigantic crapshoot, and that a team that gets hot typically wins it all.\u00a0 I\u2019m actually hoping the Braves current slump will snap out in time for the start of the playoffs, where they can pretty much ignore whoever is pitching for themselves and the opposition, and just decimate the crap out of everything.\u00a0 But if they buy into the hype of how talented their opposing pitchers are, and strikeout 10 times a game in the NLDS, then it\u2019s going to be another short playoff appearance for the Braves.<\/span><\/p>\n Now the tone of this post might seem a little doomy and gloomy pessimistic towards the Braves\u2019 chances, but it\u2019s not the end of the world either.<\/span><\/p>\n One massive key to the Braves having a successful run, and why they really should continue to be playing hard right now, is that in spite of the fact that they\u2019ve secured a playoff spot, they still haven\u2019t locked up having home-field advantage throughout the National League playoffs.\u00a0 This is extremely important for the Braves, because they have the Majors\u2019 best home record, while they\u2019re vastly more pedestrian on while on the road.<\/span><\/p>\n It\u2019s also worth mentioning that among the current NL contenders, the Braves have\u00a0swept<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0the Cardinals, Dodgers and Pirates when they all visited Atlanta at varying points throughout the season, with only the Reds having gotten any wins in Atlanta.\u00a0 Sure, they\u2019re all different teams now, and the playoffs are a completely different animal, but any possibility at getting a mental advantage is paramount.<\/span><\/p>\n I\u2019m happy the Braves are the NL East champions once again, as it gives me bragging rights over my friends, and anyone who happens to be a phairweather Phillies phan, but I\u2019m also trying to temper my expectations and not put all my eggs in a basket for the Braves to win a World Series.<\/span><\/p>\n It would obviously be nice, but I\u2019m not going to be heartbroken if it doesn\u2019t happen. \u00a0Anyone but the Cardinals, honestly for me, although I am hoping that Detroit makes it back to the World Series, to fulfill my mighty claim that I always manage to visit an eventual World Series contender\u2019s ballpark.\u00a0 I don\u2019t care if Jim Leyland makes it 11-straight losses in the World Series from there out, especially if it actually turns out to be the Braves opposing him.<\/span><\/p>\n But no matter what, my hopes still lie with Atlanta.\u00a0 Go Braves!<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Oh noes, sports talk!\u00a0 After I left Talking Chop, I don\u2019t really have any outlet to gab about baseball anymore, and when the day is over, this is still my brog and ultimately I\u2019ll write whatever I want to write about and post it, and not necessarily worry about catering to my seven readers. In … Continue reading The Braves, playoffs, and what I think their chances are<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[62,66,83,15],"class_list":["post-37425","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-brog","tag-baseball","tag-braves","tag-observations","tag-og"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37425","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=37425"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37425\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37427,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37425\/revisions\/37427"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=37425"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=37425"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=37425"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}