The Atlanta Braves had home-field advantage throughout the postseason and won one playoff game before bowing out to the Philadelphia Phillies in four games for the second consecutive October. Brutal, just absolutely brutal. For a team to win 104 games during the regular season to manage only one in October is just pathetic. You used to be good, what the hell happened to you? What a joke...
Of course, I will somehow find a way to think the 2024 Braves can win it all because that is who I am, and this is the team that I care about. However, we have been presented problems and offered no solutions as to how to fix this ongoing postseason conundrum.
Phillies favorite Braves starter Spencer Strider may be incredibly quirky, but he is not about to blame the playoff format for failing.
"The people trying to use the playoff format to make an excuse for the results they don't like are not confronting the real issue. You're in control of your focus, your competitiveness, your energy. If having five days means you can't make the adjustment, you have nobody to blame but yourself."
Leadership may be the bottleneck in this entire operation, but rest vs. rust is a whole other debate...
While some in Braves Country think firing manager Brian Snitker or sending him into early retirement is the right way to go, I am afraid this is not a panacea for Atlanta's non-2021 postseason woes.
Strider doesn't know what that is, but at least he's trying, Jennifer...
"I mean, it's hard to explain. To fans who would like an answer, I'd love to give them one. Ultimately, I think we gotta accept whatever we did, whatever we're doing, wasn't enough. If we truly want to win a World Series, if that's our goal, then we're gonna have to change something or add something, int he way we prepare and the way that we focus."
To me, that sounds an awful lot like signing a veteran star pitcher to the rotation this offseason...
Don't expect anyone in Braves Country to watch the NLCS, as baseball is no longer fun for us, man.
Spencer Strider is not about to blame MLB postseason format for failing
Look. I have followed and rooted for this team for my entire life, and I can tell you this. The 2023 Braves were the best Atlanta team to not win a World Series since Bobby Cox took over in the very early 90s. I don't know if it was markedly better than the '96 team, but it was definitely right up there. But besides paying top-dollar for a veteran pitcher, I may have one solution we are not considering.
Looking across the living room at a framed Braves picture I have on my wall from when they beat Houston in 2021, every identifiable player on that picture was not a contributor to this year's team. Pitchers Ian Anderson and Tyler Matzek suffered injuries that kept them out of action, but guys like Dansby Swanson, Jorge Soler, Adam Duvall and William Contreras are all playing for somebody else.
While many players from that team remain, such as Ronald Acuna Jr., Ozzie Albies, Travis d'Arnaud, Austin Riley, Max Fried and Charlie Morton, there are a lot of new faces on the team as well. Of course, I am talking about guys such as Strider, Matt Olson, Sean Murphy and Bryce Elder. See, the core has changed just a bit. The Braves may be missing a guy or two who just win, like Soler or Joc Pederson.
I think what needs to happen is for general manager Alex Anthopoulos to take a good, hard look at the starting rotation, the bullpen, and maybe even some position player reserves to figure this out. While Philadelphia may have been a momentum-driven buzzsaw nobody could slow down, maybe the Braves need to add another gamer or two onto their roster. How to acquire him remains to be seen.
Yes, the playoff format needs some refinement, but so does the Braves' overall roster construction.
