Don't Count Out The Braves

    Counting out the Braves, as so many of the "experts" seem apt to do, is the biggest mistake that anyone who follows baseball can make. The Mets main competition for the National League East will not be the Phillies, but will once again be the Braves, and given their history it's hard to bet against them.
    Yes, the Braves closer is weak; yes, their starting rotation has struggled at times; and yes, two of their main cogs are becoming more and more succeptible to injury. But with all that, the Braves stand at 27-23 and are only 3.5 games out of first place.
    John Schuerholz may be the best general manager in baseball at seeing what's available, seeing what his team needs and filling the holes. Bobby Cox is the most underappreciated manager in baseball for taking what he has on the roster and maximizing their abilities to get his team to the playoffs. Despite their lack of success while in the playoffs, it takes greater skill to navigate a team through 162 games than it does to win in October when weaknesses in the bullpen (the Braves achilles heel over the past fifteen years) come to the forefront.
    While the Phillies were on their hot streak the prevailing opinion was that they were going to be the Mets biggest challenge for the division. Now that the Phillies have come back down to earth, their lack of pitching depth, a porous closer who tires toward season's end and poor defense will be their downfall. Another poorly constructed roster will result in another managerial change at the end of the season (and perhaps sooner if they collapse) and the truth that maybe it's the players' faults and not Larry Bowa or Charlie Manuel or whoever is filling out the lineup card and occupying the manager's office.
    That leaves the Braves. It seems whatever challenges they face they manage to maximize the talent on their roster and play above and beyond what was thought to be their capabilities. The sum of the parts on the roster always outdoes the individuals----they simply find a way. Roster wise, top to bottom, the Mets are better, but that doesn't mean anything on the field. Every year it is said that the Braves run is over and yet it still goes on. The Mets have had their chances to bury the Braves earlier in the season and didn't. The deeper into the season the Braves hang around the outskirts of the race in the National League East, the more it can be a problem for the Mets. And the Braves don't appear to be going anywhere anytime soon.