Four Quarters

A new segment from The Collegian

Q: How far will the Atlanta Braves get in the 2004 playoffs? Will they choke again? —Jordan Harrill

For the 13th straight season, the Atlanta Braves are National League division champions—a record unrivaled by any other team in the history of any major professional sport.
But unfortunately for Atlanta, that does not translate into postseason success. The Braves have only one World Series championship in their impressive postseason run, and it doesn’t appear that will change this year.
Atlanta no longer has the dominant pitching staff of the 90s, nor do the Braves’ have the offensive output of last year. The Braves best pitcher is their closer, John Smoltz.
Last year, the Braves led the league with a .284 average and 235 homers. But this season, Atlanta only had 174 dingers and batted .270. And don’t look for that to improve against the likes of the Astros’ Roger Clemens and Roy Oswalt.
Atlanta has always been able to find a way to win during the regular season, but as long as manager Bobby Cox manages the same way during the playoffs as he does during the regular season, the Braves will not last in October.
—Zack Walton

The Braves are one of the most storied franchises in recent baseball history. The façade of the upper deck at Turner Field has banners from each year the Braves made the playoffs, every year going back to 1991. Atlanta won it all in 1995 in a worst-to-first surge that saw the Braves romp through the playoffs after sitting in the National League West cellar just weeks earlier.
But don’t expect any heroics this time around.
For the first time in a while, the Braves go into the playoffs as underdogs.
And with good reason.
Atlanta gets the wild card Astros in the first round. Houston is a dangerous team with deep pitching and a solid stable of bats. The Braves, meanwhile, always known for their top-notch hurlers and adequate hitting, feasted on a weak division, taking control in June and cruising the rest of the way.
The one-two punch of Clemens and Oswalt will be too much for the Braves’ mediocre hitters to battle, especially when Atlanta is throwing Jaret Wright and John Thomson.
Will they choke? No. But they won’t win, either.
—Nathan Hathaway

Going just by the pitching matchups, the Braves don’t look like they will be too successful against the Astros in the NLDS. However, given the two teams’ history in the postseason, and the fact that the Braves have home field advantage, anything can happen.
For the Braves to win, they will have to put multiple hits together and produce runs the old-fashioned way, rather than with the long ball. The same goes for the Astros, who, with Roger Clemens and Roy Oswalt pitching games one and two against the Braves’ Jaret Wright and John Thomson, could possibly advance to the NLCS for the first time in years—and years.
However, with the hot bats the Braves have been swinging, and the consistency from their pitching staff, I’m looking for the Braves to advance to the World Series before dropping it to one of the AL’s big boys.
—Darrell Copeland

The Braves are consistent—give them that. Year after year they own the NL East and everyone else plays for second.
But the Astros are a dangerous team—one that has won seven straight games to close out the season and claim the wild card berth.
Another thing that makes Houston scary is the one-two pitching punch of Roger Clemens and Roy Oswalt. The Braves will not be able to win two straight against those pitchers in the best-of-five series and might even lose both.
Expect this series to go the full five games, but the Astros have to be the favorite because they are the hottest team in baseball.
Plus, wild card teams have a history of doing well in the playoffs—just look at last season’s world champion Florida Marlins.
—Eddie Hughes