Atlanta Braves

It's early. There is no denying that. However, with an eighth of the season already complete, it's not too early to speculate on who will win the postseason awards.

Washington Nationals top prospect Stephen Strasburg successfully completed his first Triple-A start Friday night in front of a sold-out Syracuse Chiefs crowd.

The 21-year-old simply dominated the Gwinnett Braves on the mound, and even drove in two runs at the plate. Dave Shenin wrote in Nationals Journal:

What is going on with the Braves lately? They have been dropping like flies.

First Yunel Escobar went down, then Jason Heyward left Wednesday night’s game against the Washington Nationals with a sore groin, and now they have placed RHP Jair Jurrjens on the 15-day DL. Surprisingly, Chipper Jones is not on this list, but I guess it is just a matter of time before he gets there.

The Braves placed Jurrjens on the DL because of a strained left hamstring. The move is retroactive to April 30th.

Today, in the Braves second consecutive win (we need one more for a winning streak), Troy Glaus had three hits in four trips to the plate (his only out was when Hunter Pence made a diving grab) bringing his season average up 25 points to .221.

That was rough, wasn't it?

Count the layers of the L-sandwich: W-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-W.

After a stretch of futility of nonagonal proportions (bad geometry joke), the Atlanta Braves scratched out a win (and their first save in 20 games) Friday night in Atlanta as Billy Wagner induced a double-play to Houston clean-up hitter Carlos Lee.

Timely offense, superb pitching, and mostly clean fielding (we'll forgive J-Hey's boot in right field) netted the 'Bravos' what had so eluded them for over a week.

This is not the storybook ending to the Bobby Cox era that the Atlanta Braves had envisioned.

In fact, it is a nightmarish beginning to the end of the illustrious Braves manager’s 29-year career.

Cox, in his 25th season with the Braves and in the final year of his brilliant managerial career, just watched his club endure an 0-7 road trip, their worst since 1949.

His team has lost nine straight games to drop them to an embarrassing 8-14 on the season.

Frank Wren is preaching patience…but is anyone listening?

The Atlanta Braves have missed the playoffs for four consecutive seasons. In his reign at the helm of the Braves, Wren is 0-3 for his efforts.

So, in effect, he’s batting .000 as general manager.

That number looks comparable to the number of wins the Braves have mustered in the past eight days…a bunch of zeroes.

Watching the Atlanta Braves these days is like pulling teeth...no pun intended.

As I recover from mouth surgery this week and try to figure out just what has happened to the Braves, I can’t help but remain flabbergasted by their sudden and shocking downward spiral.

After experiencing one of the most exhilarating wins in franchise history over the Phillies on April 20, the Braves now find themselves in the midst of a seven-game losing streak, in which their offense has plummeted to new, disturbing lows.

One of the best sports movies of all time is "Field of Dreams."

The movie told the story of Ray Kinsella, played by Kevin Costner constructing a baseball diamond on his cornfield in Iowa.

The film did a wonderful job of allowing us to revisit baseball in its infancy and enjoy what it meant to our fathers and grandfathers.

The 2010 Atlanta Braves could best be characterized as a crying shame thus far.

Floundering leadoff men, poor batting averages, atrocious RISP numbers, and a lack of fundamentals.

But they can sure take those walks, huh?

It's really been a downer in A-town since late-inning dramatics last Tuesday against the NL East-leading Phillies, and a large part of the time, it's been painful to watch.