Braves collapse reveals troubling problems for future

The Atlanta Braves completed their historic collapse this past week, and while the Red Sox snagged most of the national headlines with an epic plummet of their own, the hometown disaster revealed problems in the Braves future that the Red Sox won't have to deal with.

There are a lot more problems than they would've hoped for, and their penny pitching budget makes finding decent solutions nearly impossible.

The glaring problem that led to a breakdown on all fronts, is the fact that the Braves couldn't get on base or manufacture runs. If you can't score you can't win.

They were 26th in baseball in both batting average (.243) and on base percentage (.308) and 22nd in runs scored (641). Playoff teams don't do that which is why the Braves are sitting at home in October. Sure Hanson and Jurrjens were hurt and Lowe was simply terrible, but the Braves had plenty of young kids (Delgado, Beachy) that filled in admirably. But young guys can't always go deep into ball games at the major league level. Five, maybe six, innings was what one could typically expect from the kids. This was still more than enough to coast into the postseason, except for one thing: When you can't score consistently, you tax the lights out guys in the bullpen because you have to protect your flimsy one run lead.

Johnny Venters, Craig Kimbrel and Eric O'Flaherty exceeded expectations all season and were almost always a sure thing, but Fredi Gonzalez seemed to forget they weren't machines and milked every ounce of baseball from their arms until they didn't have anything left to give when the season was on the line (The exception going to O'Flaherty in his dominant final game effort). Kimbrel blew it with the playoffs on the line, but when you're relied on what seems like every other night to close things out, it wears on a 23-year old who's minor league season would've been finished a month earlier.

Looking ahead to next season, the Braves have plenty of young arms to surround the veteran Tim Hudson, who at 36 could be done after 2012, although he does have a $9 million dollar option for 2013. Lowe is the blemish in the rotation and the organization and fans alike cringe at the thought of having to endure another full season. But the Braves owe him $15 million next year so dumping him isn't exactly an option.

The main issue though is offensive production. The only area on the field that can be replaced is shortstop, and while that is easy to say, how do the Braves replace Alex Gonzalez, who is a defensive wiz, with a guy that can up the offense's production. Tyler Pastornicky has some buzz surrounding himself in the Braves farm system but is far from being ready to produce at the big league level. The rest of the Braves infield is pretty much set for the future, with Prado replacing Chipper at third after next season, fans hope his production goes back to 2010 level. The Braves would love to resign center fielder Michael Bourn after next season (And they should), but the Scott Boras client will be hard to keep without a monster deal. Lowe, Chipper and potentially Hudson will be off the payroll after next year, giving the Braves some room to do the smart thing and resign Bourn, an offensive spark plug.

Jason Heyward's lack of production in right field can not be repeated next year if the Braves want to compete for a playoff spot. He needs to make adjustments quickly or a replacement will be another issue the organization has on their plate. He's a youngster with too much talent to abandon, but a major league team can't compete with so little offensive production from right field. The Braves will have to address these and a host of other problems if they hope to be playing this time next year.