As a Braves fan, it hurts me to write about them after such a disappointing season, but here goes…

1. The emergence of Jorge Campillo and Jair Jurrjens. Raise your hand if you had even heard of Campillo before this season. Me either. Already 30 years old, Campillo represents yet another example of why so many fantasy players wait to draft pitching late. Though, a quick glance at his minor league stats offers no real indication of such future MLB success, and his ‘08 season has been built upon a .279 BABIP and 6.8% HR/F. In other words, yes, he’s been pretty solid, but he’s a flyball pitcher with only a slightly above average K/9 and has a 4.12 xFIP, so the low 3 ERA might not last too much longer. Jurrjens came over along with OF prospect Gorkys Hernandez in the Edgar Renteria trade and certainly wasn’t expected to be this good this quickly. He’s been doing it with a 51% groundball rate, but like Campillo, has beneffited from a low 6.7% HR/F. With only average control and a 3.92 xFIP, he’s another regression candidate in the near-term.

2. Chipper Jones’ amazing season. Has Chipper solidified his HOF case yet? Although it’s come in only 335 ABs so far, he’s posted the 2nd best OPS of his career at the age of 36. Sure, he’s doing all this with a .385 BABIP, but he’s also hitting line drives at a 24.9% rate, and with all the injuries he’s been playing through, it really is just a joy to watch. What’s really unbelievable is that most hitters at least show some signs of decline in their late 30’s, but not Chipper! He’s walking nearly 16% of the time, making contact at the best rate since 2000, and still launching HRs like he always has. This guy is easily one of the best 3rd basemen of all time and I can’t even imagine what the case would be against voting him into the Hall.

3. Brian McCann’s rebound. Some might quibble with my use of the word “rebound” given the fact that McCann did still hit 18 HRs with 92 RBIs last year. However if we look at OPS, he dropped from .961 in 2006 to just .772 last year, but has bounced back to the tune of a .933 OPS this year. The talk is that he developed a new batting stance during spring training that he is attributing to his success. That’s certainly questionable considering how good he was in 2006 with what I assume was the same stance he used during his down 2007. Anyhow, he’s upped his walk rate to around 10%, after it had dropped to just 6.5% last year, he makes excellent contact, and he hits a good amount of fly balls that allows him to post solid HR totals. He has also hit a ton of doubles this year and his ISO is a robust .252. I’m really not sure how good he is defensively, but he definitely deserves some MVP votes.

4. The disappointing season explained. With out of nowhere years from Campillo and Jurrjens, Chipper Jones’ refusal to stop hitting, Brian McCann’s rebound, and a full year of Mark Teixeira, how in the world are the Braves 55-66? Well the interesting stat is that they are actually +5 in run differential; yes, they have scored 5 more runs than allowed, yet are 11 games below .500. Their Pythagorean W/L record is actually a much more respectable 61-60 and if we compare that to the Pythagorean records of the Phillies (the best in the NL East) and Brewers/Cardinals, they’d only be 7 games back in the division and 5 games back of the Wild Card (again, based on Pythag records), rather than 10 and 15, respectively, and would have probably held onto Teixeira and maybe have added a piece at the deadline. The most obvious explanation for the discrepancy is their putrid 6-24 record in 1-run games, which is probably the result of very poor luck and a bullpen depleted by an always injured Rafael Soriano and only half a season from Mike Gonzalez.

5. The sad loss of John Smoltz to season-ending and possible career-ending surgery. Like Chipper Jones, John Smoltz is a freak. Baseball players are supposed to decline with age, but Smoltz clearly did not receive the memo. Before going down, he began the season in spectacular fashion yet again, posting a 36/8 K/BB ratio in just 28 innings, to go along with a 2.57 ERA. At 41 years of age, it’s likely his career is over after multiple issues were dealt with during his shoulder surgery. It makes me sad just typing this as he could be the first of the trio of future HOF pitchers (plus Maddux and Glavine) on my favorite team to retire. With an ERA+ of 127 that ranks tied for 43rd all-time on a list that includes relievers, plus 210 wins, 154 saves, over 3,000 strikeouts, and being one of the best pitchers in the league every single year for a perennial division winner, he should be an absolute lock for the HOF. I, and I’m sure many others, will surely miss watching him pitch and throwing that nasty slider.

Questions, comments, criticisms, praise, expert league invitations? Email me at FBGeneralsMike@gmail.com.