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The Braves have turned from tough talk about the Mets to talk about the difficulties of winning on the road while underperforming on the field to the tune of a 9-12 record and a 5 game deficit in the standings. They were just swept by the deceptivley (good/bad depending on your expectations) Brewers.
Their last public statements described the Mets as an “NL East All Star team”,while accounting for their road trip woes by citing the loss of Larry, Curly, and Moe (actually Larry, Edgar, and Marcus), all of whom should be back in the lineup this week.
Actually, given that this is a KTE thread, the most striking thing about the Braves is how a team can continually produce winning lineups composed of players half of whom I've never heard of and know nothing about. Langerhans, LaRoche, McCann? Who are these guys? And yet they get it done (although not lately, at least not AFTER they left Shea).
Small sample size prevents us from extrapolating how much of the Brave’s recent misfortunes should be pinned on injuries, but they did just fine at Shea without Larry and without Renteria. That’s largely because Larry’s brother Andruw Jones has been a one-man wrecking crew .(especially for the Mets) and because they have good starting pitching. Honestly, my confidence is not bolstered by the fact that he will now be rejoined on home turf by the heart of the Braves lineup.
Smoltz, Thomson (a specific Met Killer if he is the same Thomson I remember—but I might be senile) and then some seemingly ineffective guy named Davies whom I’ve never heard of, will face Pedro, Glavine and Trachsel respectively. The Mets will miss Hudson in the rotation.
My guess is that the Mets will do decently against Smoltz (while coming up short), struggle against Thomson, and make Davies look like a Cy Young candidate despite his 4.56 ERA and 1-2 record. But those are just my guesses.
The Braves bullpen has not been stellar, and the closer Reitsma is suspect with a 4+ ERA, but Cormier, James, and Villareal have been very solid. Both out of fear of losing my SBS membership and out of long, hard experience with the Mets playing the Braves, I will venture that for the Mets to pry runs away from Atlanta’s awesome pen will be (unlike it has for other teams this year) pulling teeth.
Bottom line; the Braves have been horrid this year, but managed to take two from the Mets at Shea, despite their overall weakened condition. With their lineup reassembled and on their home turf, “the House of Horrors”, I think you count them out at your peril.
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