Just look at them, they were starting a 40 yr old at 3B, a SS who can’t hit, an all or nothing 2B, who’s a terrible fielder, a very average LF, who never played LF before this year, a rookie 1B, and Nate Mcclouth was so bad that they had to trade for a CF. and Heyward is overated – Heyward hit in the .220′s this year, and his first year wasn’t as good as everyone made it out to be – Mccan is really good, but that’s really all they got on offense.

And you talk about last year about how low some of our players OBP’s were, right? Well, the Braves had FOUR starters have OBP’s below .320!!!

You even made their starters seem better than what they are – Hanson and Jurrjens are good, but it’s not like they are Halladay and Lee. You can beat them. And Hanson has went on the DL twice this year with an shoulder injury, not a good sign, and missed the final two months of the year, and Jurrjens has spent time on the DL in each of the last two years – They also have two starters who are over 35 – And their younger pitchers are have a lot of potential, sure, and are close to the majors, but are they any more talented than the pitchers we have in the minors? Like Harvey, Familia, Mejia, and now Wheeler?

Their bullpen is excellent, but you need more than an excellent bullpen to make the playoffs – Their starters are good, but aren’t great, and their lineup is awful.

They aren’t THAT good, and if you look at it like that, it’s not really a surprise that they fell apart.

K-Rod wouldn’t have blown any and everyone else would have been exactly the same.

That’s not really how it usually goes which isn’t to say it’s impossible, just not the same.

Cardinals made up 10 games on them in a month.

We were only 9 games behind the braves when we became sellers not buyers at the trade deadline!

I’m as happy they choked as anyone, I’ll enjoy it for the moment but if you think that’s going to help us compete against them your wrong. It’s not going to help us against them at all. Kimbrel, as a rookie blew his 7th and 8th save of the year in the last couple of days but we develop or acquire guys all the time that blow up at least that often and they sure aren’t saving 46 games either. Even when we bought a guy who did nail down a lot of saves he blew that many too and was never around when you really need him. Even had a 13.50 ERA in the NLCS. The kid that blew the save for Atlanta is a rookie. A rookie that any team in MLB would love to have. Which doesn’t mean he can’t choke it up. Some of the best have been surprisingly bad in the most crucial situations. Hoffman, Wagner, Benetiz and plenty of others. We will probably facing this kid 8-12 timers a year for the next 5 years. He did close 46 games this year, his rookie year. Parnell has 7 saves in four years. Acosta 8 in five. We have to do a better job of getting guys up and running before they get up here. I just don’t see how anyone can disagree with that.

We have to go out a pick up 3, 4, or 5 new guys for the pen every year, with no guarantees we’ll get anything better than than we’ve had from 2007-2011 while they pull three guys out of the farm, another off waivers and everyone in MLB would have room for any one of those guys in their pen. Any one.

Seeing them choke away a playoff spot may be fun for the moment but we are behind the Braves in scouting, drafting and developing players and that’s a problem because their a team that we have to pass in order to make the post season. In a couple of years Philly could be on the way down, but Washington is clearly a team on the way up.

If we don’t start doing better in the scouting, drafting and developing areas we’re going to be so far behind we can never catch up.

Having the better young players is no guarantee your going to win but it’s a pretty good start and it’s not exactly like older, expensive players don’t choke it away either. Just look at Lowe the other night or Glavine in ’07, Wagner in ’06 or Schowenweiss in ’08.

I’m glad they choked, I just wish they did against us.

You mean Larry and the Braves.

I want St Louis and Detroit in the Series.

It also yet again demonstrates that a large deficit in September should never be considered the end of postseason hopes.