John Smoltz is no longer a Brave. Words that any Atlanta fan never thought they would hear as long as they lived. The only time that kind of sentence would be appropriate would be John’s retirement announcement. But, we aren’t going to get that fitting ending. No, a certain team from Boston will get to bask in Smoltzie’s twilight while us Braves fans, the ones who grew up watching him, have watched him for almost two decades now continue to watch as our team is run directly in the southern direction.

According to the AJC, the Braves have signed Japanese pitcher, Kenshin Kawakami.

AtlantaBraves.com and Mark Bowman’s blog are reporting that veteran pitcher, Cy Young winner, future Hall-of-Famer, and face of the Braves, John Smoltz, is likely to sign with the Red Sox tomorrow afternoon:

AtlantaBraves.com and Mark Bowman’s blog are reporting that veteran pitcher, Cy Young winner, future Hall-of-Famer, and face of the Braves, John Smoltz, is likely to sign with the Red Sox tomorrow afternoon:

It was reported this morning on FOXSports.com that free agent Rafael Furcal could be returning to Atlanta, with a contract expected to be signed today. Furcal supposedly had turned down a deal from Oakland, for $40 million over a 4 years period:

The Braves have acquired veteran starting pitcher Javier Vazquez along Boone Logan, a left handed reliever from the White Sox in exchange for  Brent Lillibridge, Jon Gilmore, Santos Rodriguez, and Tyler Flowers.

I’m not dead. Not yet, at least. Life has been extraordinarily busy and I’ve been really bad about writing (guess which work I’m not doing so I can do this post!), but I just wanted to express my thoughts and rant about the Peavy ‘trade’.

One of the few bright spots for the Braves this season has been the play of Chipper Jones. Chipper completed the year with a batting average of .364. Which was good enough for him to win his first Batting Title. He beat out Albert Pujols, who hit .357.

Remember what I said about this team yesterday? Unpredictable. They win, they lose, they score a ton of runs, they score none. I don’t get it. I don’t think I’ll ever it get it. All that matters is the Braves put a beat-down on the Astros and get to close out their season tomorrow.

I think it became evident early on in the season that this team would be hard to define and understand. They can suck for a large part of the season, then, seemingly out of nowhere, take two of three against teams that have given them trouble in the past in heroic fashion, and then go back to sucking so hard again. Last night was one in the last category.

It took virtually the entire season, but it looks like we finally figured out how to beat the phils, get lots of hits, score lots of run, pull Jojo early.

Sorry for the lateness of this recap, things have been mad around here. But, the Braves tried to put a crimp in the phil play off hopes, much like they did the mets. Time will tell if they were successful.

The season is rapidly wrapping up, which should lead to a bit more free time for me. Less games to watch, but I have gotten out of the habit and I get a respite from writing the recaps. I was rather hoping the Braves would put something together in the closing days, but I am beginning to lose that optimism.

It seems the only team we can beat on a regular basis is the mets. That is good when we play the mets, not so got when we play any other team. Well, taking two of three from them this close to the end of the season is nice.

It feels good to play the role of spoiler. OK, it doesn’t, but its all we’ve got, so we might as well relish it. We have pretty much owned the mets at Turner Field this year, and tonight, it appears, we were able to take them out of first place.

After working so hard, getting swept by the phils, keeping the mets out of first place. Now we had a chance to keep the mets out of first, by WINNING and we couldn’t do it.

Another day, another lose at home to the phils. The phils beat the braves every game the played at Turner Field. No one has swept the Braves at home since 1909. But, that is just the way this season has been going.

Pretty disappointing game all around. Jurrjens wasn’t so good. The pen didn’t do well. The bats were absent. Well, once again, we can take solace in the fact we kept the mets out of first place!

This was kind of a good news / bad news game. On the “bad news” we lost, our pen failed to hold the lead, twice and Parr gave up his first runs. On the good news side, at least we lost to the team who is in the process of catching the mets (again).

If only we had played this well when we were in the hunt. This season may have gone differently. But, hopefully, we will play a small role in spoiling the mets.

The Braves showed some signs of life in the first game, only to be totally shut down in the second. Who would have thought we’d beat the great Jose Santana, but get blanked by a pitcher with an ERA of 15? But, I guess that is the way it goes sometimes.

Sure, not that I all but give up on this team, I comment to a friend that we are rapidly catching the nats for the cellar, that management has given up we go on a winning streak. If only this could have happened back before we gutted this team for a bunch of mediocre players.

Who is this team and what have the done with the 2008 Atlanta Braves? I don’t know quite what to make of this, yesterday and extra inning win today a come from behind after the pen blows it win. Its almost like they care?

Well, it was just a few days ago that I stated one of the constants of the universe what the Braves not winning in extras, and then they had to go and prove me wrong. Of course, the Braves didn’t so much win as the other team lost. Seriously, balking in the winning run in the 10th?

A few recaps ago Ben posted one of the world constants in this universe was the Braves losing one run games on the road. I think we have found another. The Braves losing in extras.

I hate to say this, but I am really tired of writing recaps for losses. When I first decided to write these recaps, I said to myself, “I will keep these positive, I will focus on the good.” I haven’t been able to hold myself to that, this season has just been too disappointing.

Braves win two games in a row. I hardly believed that would happen again this season. Then again, we are playing one of the few teams in baseball with a worse record that us (for the moment).

I don’t know how long it has been since I got to write a recap for a Braves win, and this was a quality win at that. Its nice to see the Braves win with quality pitching and just enough hitting… and the pitching came from an unlikely source, a new call up.

Well, I guess we couldn’t hope for a miracle two days in a row. Today we were back to our losing ways, decent starting pitching, poor work by the pen. I’ve been following the Braves since the early eighties, I must say this is the most depressed I’ve felt about them.