Sell The BMW And Fire The Trainer

As I am flirting with the collective sports teams in Atlanta filing for divorce from me as a fan like A-Rod's wife (Hmm...Madonna or A-Rod's wife?) I submit another post focusing on Atlanta sports. I am also wondering who else out there may be planning to divorce me in the next few weeks. However, I am not worried I have a back-up plan to follow Rafael Nadal's groupie entourage around the globe for the next three years.

Today, the Braves announced that Jeff Francoeur was being brought back to Atlanta after spending the Fourth of July weekend in Mississippi, which is a version of hell that I would not ever want to endure. I spent a Fourth of July weekend in Panama City, Florida once and it was going through the eleventh ring of hell. Trust me. It was bad. Try standing around for three hours in 156% humidity waiting for fireworks with 2,000 beer slugging people straight out of Dawn of the Dead. The Braves also announced that they were putting three more players on the DL. So it's time to make a choice. It is July 8th. The Braves are 42-47. They are in fourth place in the division. They are 6 games out of the division lead and 7 1/2 games back in the wild card race. The trade deadline is looming. It's time for Frank Wren to make his first big decision of his GM career in Atlanta. Buy or Sell. Buy to try to make a run at the play-offs or sell assets and build for the future.

Let's read off the list of Braves players now on the DL:

Manny Acosta RP
Jeff Bennett RP
Tom Glavine SP
Mike Hampton SP
Anthony Lerew RP
Peter Moylan RP
John Smoltz SP/RP?
Rafael Soriano SP
Omar Infante IF
Matt Diaz OF

The players on the bench make up approximately 47% of the Braves $102 million payroll. There have been between seven and ten players on the DL most of the season and at one time half the payroll was on the DL. Chipper Jones has not been healthy all year and should have been on the DL on a number of occasions so far. Yunel Escobar also has been fighting nagging injuries all year. When over 40% of your payroll has been on the DL all year it's time to fire the trainer. Not the manager or a bench coach. The trainer and probably the strength and conditioning coach. Something is amiss off the field that has translated to injuries off the field. I know that Mike Hampton should go into the DL Hall of Fame (first ballot) and Smoltz, Glavine, and Jones are nearing the end of the line, but all of these young relief pitchers? What's going on with their training and conditioning regimen? It's like they all have turned into Lyle Alzado in his last years. Or Brit Spears after a cocaine and mocha frappuccino binge for three weeks.

Mark Teixeria was a trade deadline player and should be one this year...leaving Atlanta. The choice between buying or selling should be clear. It's time to sell and re-build. The Braves are completely beat up and snake bit (5-21 in one run games this year and 0-1,000,000 in road one run games over the last half-century). There are numerous players on the DL and players who should be shut down for periods of time to just get rest for next year. It is unlikely that the cheap bastards who now own the team (Liberty who???) will re-sign Teixeria. So use the one big asset that many teams covet to steal a number of young prospects from Pawtucket or Iowa (Red Sox and Cub Triple A teams respectively). This will allow the Braves to stock pile young talent on their roster to test the waters in September, to re-build for the future, to shut down players that need the rest for next year, and to allow the current young players to continue to mature in the big boy league. To try to buy now for this year will mortgage the future for a run that will likely result in more injuries and eventual failure. There are too many teams to climb over and the Braves need many of the players on the DL to come back, no one else to join the hospital ward, and for drastic improvement in players who have underachieved so far this year (yes, you, Frenchy). So sell the BMW to get several VW bugs to soup up later. It's the best play for the future.

Of course, you still need to fire the trainer and strength coach or the young players that the Braves should get will also end up on the DL.