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This season, at the beginning of each series, MetsBlog will attempt to get the perspective of the opposition and their fans. From this, we hope to be better educated on the opposition going into a series. It also gives us a fine opportunity to highlight some of our favorite team blogs.
As the Mets welcome the Braves to town, we chat with William Schaffer of Chop-n-Change.
Were you surprised to see Chipper Jones rail against the umpires the other day?
No, not a bit. Especially in these past few years, Chipper has not been one to shy away from criticizing an umpire or even rarely an opposing player for their actions or comments. Some may see it as pointless complaining, but when he does it, there really was something ridiculous in the game. Chipper says it after games where blatant calls were missed quite a few times.
How uplifting was last Thursday’s win over the Phillies?
Coming off the sweep by the Mets and after a long stretch of mediocrity, that win was huge. The season looked to basically be over at that point based on the team’s play but coming back from a six-run deficit and winning in the last two innings really put a hop in their step. They turned the momentum from a mind-blowing win like that into a three-game win streak and after looking like they had no chance at a playoff berth, have climbed to within striking distance in the wild card race.
Will you be happy to see Andruw Jones go at season’s end?
No, I won’t be happy to see him go, but I won’t be losing sleep over it either. Throughout his career and especially over recent years, Andruw has been a huge offensive contributor to the team’s success along with being one of the two greatest defensive players to ever roam center field. This year has been miserable for Andruw but he isn’t this bad. An elbow injury contributed a lot to the miserable numbers early in the season but lately his performance at the plate has been right around what we have been getting from him the past two years. The Braves have both Brandon Jones and Brent Lillibridge, who could soften the blow of loosing him next year and Jordan Schafer, who draws comparisons to Grady Sizemore down the road, or they could just turn to a free agent to bridge the gap.
What’s the state of mind with the Braves fanbase? John Schuerholz seemingly did everything in his power to make the team better, but it hasn’t quite clicked.
The Braves fan base was pretty much split after the Teixeira deal. Many, like myself, thought we were mortgaging the future for a year and a half from Teixeira. The payout from that deal has been huge so far but right when we started getting production from first base, other problems started popping up like slumps from Kelly Johnson and Jeff Francoeur. The morale of the fans was at an all-time low right after the last Mets series because the team wasted an opportunity to get right back into the division race, but since the dramatic win of the Phillies, everyone seems to be excited again.
Did the Braves miss Edgar Renteria in his absence?
The team definitely missed Renteria while he was sitting out with the ankle injury, but a lot less than most teams would if they lost an All-Star caliber shortstop for an extended period of time. Yunel Escobar, the Braves’ rookie shortstop, stepped in quite nicely and provided good offense and perhaps slightly improved defense over Renteria. He wasn’t quite as good at the plate as Renteria has been this season, but there wasn’t a gaping hole left by the Renteria injury.
How tough a task will it be to hop over the other teams in Wild Card contention?
It is an uphill climb to say the least. The Braves are only 4.5 out so the possibility is there with three games left against the Phillies, who are in front of Atlanta, and a schedule from now until the end of the regular season that the Braves could quite conceivably win a large majority of. Right now everything seems to be clicking. Smoltz was beyond dominant in his last start, the Braves have scored 25 runs in the past three games with dominant pitching from the bullpen over the last couple weeks, and the team has gotten much better performance out of the back of the rotation. I’d say we have about a 20% shot right now of getting the wild card because of the way this team has been playing.
…thanks william…by the way, i did a quick q & a with him over at chop-n-change, which you can read later this afternoon…
20% chance for Braves to make wild card? Thats VERY optimistic, having to jump over 4 teams not to mention 6 back with 20 to go. I think 10% would even be an optimistic view.
We need to put this thing away. A lot of people think the division is in the bag. Yes it will be tough to lose it but we need to get through this week before we say anything is in the bag. Each game is 2 games.
20%. interesting.
BP’s playoff odds report gives the braves a slightly smaller chance. As in: 3.2774%.
But I love the optimism, it’s charmingly rustic.
love this type-o “The moral of the fans was at an all-time low right after the last Mets series”
though, living in the south, I’d have to say those morals never really go up that high!
Well, at least they are better than Jet’s fans…
I’m a Jet fan, and that was a disgrace yesterday. I’m embarrassed to be a fan today. Cheering injury? Classy.
Funny. Thanks for the correction.
All I know is, the Braves’ tragic number is 12…
“The payout from that deal has been huge so far”
How is the payout huge? The Braves aren’t making the playoffs this season and then only have one more year with Teixeira. After that he most likely leaves via free agency. So you gave up some big time prospects, for one season of Teixeira where you aren’t even a favorite to make the playoffs. Hug payout, i don’t think so.
Well, Teix is likely to give them more production than they were going to get out of Salty (hate the nickmanes, but I can’t spell it anyway!), so it could make them more dangerous next year too.
I think the huge payoff was referring to the output they are getting. So maybe the logic is, without Teix, they wouldn’t even have the 3% chance?
Not sure what if anything the other prospects in the deal are up to, but it sounds like the Braves still have a decent supply of young talent (to go along with all the relatvie newcomes playing in the majors already). So they could be dangerous in the next few years as they reload.
Trading Salts did make sense, since he was blocked at C (unless his real home is 1B), but similar to Kazmir, the deal might end up stinking not just because of who they traded, but who they got back from him. Maybe a Pelfrey from the Mets would have helped them more (just a for instance).
The fact that the Braves and their fans are holding out the fantasy that they can be the Wild Card is all the more reason to crush them. They’re not going to the playoffs, but it would sure be nice for even their fantasies to be buried at Shea. 2 of 3 should about do that. Sweep would be icing.
Hilarious…I just visited the Braves blog mentioned above (which seems well run)…there’s a post about Andruw Jones not running out grounders; a vast majority of the comments are about football (and a couple about soccer, the other football), with a bare handfull about baseball. I believe the rats have deserted the sinking ship S.S.Braves.
italics test
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one two
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hmm, color me crazy, but didn’t you interview someone from the blog Talking Chop all season, DJ? Why the change to Chop-N-Change? I mean, I wouldn’t be shocked if the other guy irritated you because his questions to you last time were pretty awful. Anyway, just pointing it out :)
Actually, I interviewed Martin from Talking Chop twice and Mac from Braves Journal twice, respectively. I simply wanted a new voice this time. Don’t look into it too much.
Noted.
[...] more insight on the Braves, check out today’s Blogger Beat featuring William from [...]