The more I watch these young guys play, the less I care whether the injured veterans ever come off the DL. It's no secret to anyone who follows baseball that half the Braves' current starting lineup is barely old enough to shave; yet they continue to win ballgames at a much more consistent rate than the veterans were winning them before they started bruising, tearing, and straining stuff.
Make no mistake, though: these guys are no Cinderella men. Most of the younger ones were virtually bred in vitro to be major league ballplayers; for example, Jeff Francouer's goal this spring was to make the big club, and he was quite disappointed when he didn't. And the rest of the suburban Atlanta crew is pretty much the same in terms of ambition; they think that it's their birthright to be there, and despite the arrogance that must accompany such a mindset, it's one of the reasons why they play with a confidence that belies their experience. Most of the others I saw come through Greenville when their AA club was here. Wilson Betemit and Ryan Langerhans were once the organizations' top prospects, but their stocks dropped as they languished at the AAA level for a few years until they finally made the big club by default. In fact, Betemit only made the team because he was totally out of options and the Braves wanted to hang onto him for his potential trade value.
In short, there are no Charles Thomases in this class of rookies. Yet there is still some degree of inspiration and drama in the way they have performed so far, especially if one factors in the contributions of the team's two grand old men: John Smoltz, who at the end of his last complete-game victory had something specific to say to each of his teammates about how they contributed to the victory, and the new ambassador of graceful aging, Julio Franco. Go get 'em!
Posted by MHB
at 5:54 PM EDT
Updated: Saturday, 9 July 2005 6:11 PM EDT