Catcher’s Blog

Today I was sent an article in one of my alert e-mails from SI.com writer John Donovan and he brings up a good point about the NL East when he says it’s the toughest division in baseball. But this particular part caught my eye and I agree:

Right now, the Phillies are staggering. The Mets are playing their best ball of the year. The Marlins are sticking around. The Braves, the one-time king of the division, are … I don’t know. What the heck are the Braves doing?

Every Braves fan seems to be asking that very question to themselves and other Braves’ fans. What the heck are the Braves doing? This past series seemed to be looking good in the first game and that we were picking up where we left off before the break, with almost everyone contributing, getting hits, and stealing bases, but the last two games in the series were played by a completely different team altogether. I really don’t know an explanation for any of it. How do we play well the first game and then the last two we act like we have no clue as to what we’re even doing out on the field? How on earth do we let a last place and current worst in baseball team beat us like it was merely batting practice? And former cast-off Braves at that. And why in the world do we sit arguably our best hitter right now in Brian McCann, especially right after the All-Star break? I just do not get this team sometimes.

The AJC made a good point that Mac is playing with urgency and getting fired up when it seems no one else on the team will. I have noticed him playing with a lot more fire underneath him than the rest of the team seem to want to play with. I just don’t get why they don’t get it. Something needs to happen or we won’t even get a sniff of the post season. We’ll be sitting right at home like the past two years, watching other teams play in the post season. It’s just stupid. The team and players say they want to win and they say it’s frustrating to lose, but if we really wanted to win, we would find ways to do it. No matter what it took. I just don’t see us doing that at all. We seem like we’re playing because we have to and that’s not how it should be at all.

The next two series against the Marlins and Phillies will set the tone for the second half and if the Braves want a shot at the post season, they better start playing better baseball. No one is going to hand it to them or roll over and die. They need to play and they need to start to doing it now.

I wasn’t planning on posting today, but DOB’s blog changed my mind. First, we’ll look at some quotes that I’m referring to:

“I’m finally off the hook,” he said, smiling as he ate a postgame sandwich in a clubhouse that was as noisy as a frat party when compared to the morgue atmosphere of the previous week. People were smiling, laughing, after the pins-and-needles atmosphere we felt entering the clubhouse after recent losses.

Most of you know just what Johnson was referring to — his dropped popup with two out in the ninth inning a week earlier against Philadelphia seven nights earlier, when the Braves had a game in the bag … until it squirted out of his glove.

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Johnson hadn’t stopped thinking of that popup since. But late last night, he could finally smile about it, since some of the mounting pressure of losing for a solid week after his error had finally been released.

“I told my wife [earlier Friday], if this [losing] goes on much longer, when we walk by fans it’s not going to be, ‘Hey, there’s Kelly Johnson, the Braves second baseman,’” he said. “It’s going to be, ‘There’s Kelly Johnson, the guy who dropped the ball and lost us the season.’”
If the Braves don’t start playing like they did last night a lot more frequently, that dropped ball might still be the moment fans point to first, fairly or not, as the point where the season was lost.

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No, that dropped popup is a moment that sticks out, not just because the Braves were one out from a series-opening win against the Phillies, but because they seemed to be in a daze the rest of the weekend and much of the Chicago series.

And, of course, because a dropped popup with two out in the ninth tends to stand out in the memory bank more than so-and-so failing to deliver with bases loaded with none out, or with one out, or with two outs….”

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We’ve been told before by KJ himself, that KJ is very hard on himself. I’m sure that’s all he’s thought about until last night after they won and still probably will for the remainder of the season. But even though no one but himself could be to blame for dropping the ball, there is other people at fault for that loss and it’s not KJ’s fault we went on a 6-game losing streak. KJ can only control what KJ does and even then sometimes he can’t control that since he’s merely human. I know I’m a fan of KJ and I’m not saying this because of that love as a fan I have for him, I’m saying it because some fans automatically turn on players when they start costing the team wins. Take Frenchy for example, people wanted his head, along with KJ’s, on a silver platter to feed to the wolves when he continued on his major slump.

Fans that decide to pack it up this early in the season, after a few mishaps and tough losses, shouldn’t be fans at all. Injuries are a mere excuse, but you can’t get past them when it’s half of your starting lineup/payroll on the DL; they’re going to start hurting you eventually. But with that, fans should be behind the team that much more to help pick them up. If the going gets tough and the tough gives up, you’re not going to get very far no matter what you do. We as fans need to keep supporting this team, no matter what they do. We need to show them that fans are not just there to see them win, we need to show them that we’re there for when they win, lose, or whatever. True fans never give up on their team, no matter how bad things get. I’m not giving up on this team and true fans won’t either.

Well, this past weekend was horrendous and we were at home nonetheless. But that’s what happens when you have to overuse the bullpen early in just about every game and the season overall. Something has to be done. I don’t know what, but something has to be done. I know the Phillies are red hot right now, but they didn’t over-match us really. We gave the games up by not being able to capitalize when guys were on base or in key situations, like the latter innings of all three games. Can we please just do well on this roadtrip? I know we hate June, well I think it’s the other way around, but still. Can we still not suck on this roadtrip?

Anyway, I wasn’t going to mention this yet, but since I received a mention of it in the Braves ticket guide, I thought I would. I will be going to the June 25th day game against Milwaukee at 1:00 pm. Yes, the same day that is Brian McCann Bobblehead Night Day, so I hope to get there early enough to get one. Lauren’s opinion on this bobblehead is much like mine. This bobblehead figure is missing some very key assets that Mac possesses that makes him Mac. Not to mention,  it’s missing Mac’s features that make him seem so cute and cuddly, and that make you wanna hug him like a teddy bear. OK, I’m done now.

BRIAN MCCANN BOBBLEHEAD GIVEAWAY On Wednesday, June 25 vs. the Brewers, the first 15,000 fans will receive a Brian McCann Bobblehead. Presented by Coca-Cola.

I didn’t get to see the entire game last night because I was dog sitting and the people didn’t have the channel out at their house. My friend and my mom were telling me what was happening, though, but I still didn’t get the full effect of it. I didn’t see the botched play by KJ, and I know everyone wants to blame the loss on him, but he’s not the only one that should take the blame.

From what I’ve read and heard, there are many different reasons we lost the game, KJ’s error just made it seem like he was to blame for dropping the ball. But even through that tough loss, most fans on AJC are ready to take KJ’s head and call it a season. I, for one, will not call it a season until we’re out of it in September. I don’t care if we are 4.5 games back, we can still come back from that. We have to keep trying and shouldn’t give up because of one tough loss. Today is a new day and anything is possible. Maybe it’s just me, but true fans shouldn’t be naming players’ heads to be had, we should be looking at the next game trying to win that one, and so on. We could sit here all day long naming reasons why we lost and who’s to blame for the loss, but it will not get us anywhere. Hanging our heads and wishing players to their deaths, per se, won’t solve anything.

Tonight “Never know with Jo-Jo” takes the mound against Kyle Kendrick. Let’s forget about last night and try to win the next two. On paper, this looks like a pretty even match up, even though Kendrick has three more wins than Jo-Jo and one never really knows which Jo-Jo will show up. Think of the run support Kendrick has behind him, though, and that’s probably why he’s won five games.  Let’s make it happen, guys.