As I said in another post, when we have to struggle into extra innings to beat the Pirates, lose the series to the Orioles (and now Reds), we are NOT making anyone think there's a dominant team here.

Who cares if Phillies/Mets can't close the deal? The NL East is uniformly mediocre, so it really doesn't matter who gets to play in October -- it'll be 1-series-and-out for whoever is least bad.

There's no fire, no life, no leadership, and a LOT of sloppy fundamentals right now (Chipper! -- 2 errors in 5 games, 0-21? From our team's arguably best player?). Putting the horrible upcoming 12-game stretch aside, to get excited about postseason I will have to see a few series sweeps, a 5 win streak, maybe take 8 out of 10....y'know, the kind of things that winning teams do...... here's a thought -- maybe take a few pitches before hacking away, and scramble a little more on base -- it might lead to more runs, whaddayaknow....

Enjoy the season as best you can; the countdown to football will grow louder as our losses mount.

I can't get behind this. The NL East as a whole is pretty inconsistent, verging on weak. As in prior recent years, it won't matter who ends up at the top of our little hill -- they'll be out after the first round of playoffs anyway.

The analysis of the Mets/Phillies issues is fine, but the Braves are in no shape right now to capitalize. When we have to struggle in extra-inning games to beat the Pirates, then go on to lose the series to the Orioles, we're not exactly a dominating force that scares anyone.

When I see us sweep a few series or put together a 5+ win streak without turning around and losing 5 in a row, I'll think about post-season. As it stands now it's a pipe dream, and even if we end up being less bad than the Phillies, Mets, and Marlins, we won't last 4 games against the Cardinals or Dodgers, let alone the Red Sox or Yankees.

Don't get me wrong -- I'll watch and cheer like everyone else. But we should enjoy the games during the season because I don't believe we'll be playing in October.

I hated the Josh Anderson trade; I think it was a big mistake. Schafer will be fine after he clubs a few AAA guys around again. Too bad Bobby gave him chance after chance before going this route -- we might have gotten a few more RBIs and won a few of those close games.