While Bobby Cox has been given a lot of credit for the Braves success over the years, he’s really the reason they have only won 1 World Series in their long streak of winning divisions. In his lack and inability to change within a game has costed his teams time and time again. He also doesn’t care if his stars hustle on the team or not, and that’s been a bad example for all the younger Braves players that have been coming up through the system.

Last night the Braves lost a heartbreaker in 14 innings to the Houson Astros. Now Cox did some things really well in that game, like letting Throman pinch hit in the 3rd inning when the team was down 5 to 1. Now in tonight’s game he let Smoltz take swings in the 5th inning and the Braves were losing 4 to 1. The reason that Cox did it last night was because JoJo Reyes was pitching and tonight it was John Smoltz. Smoltz is a favorite of Cox and not only did his favoritism hurt us in tonight’s game, but it did the night before against Houston too. Oscar Villareal had pitched 2 innings the night before and was thrown to the wolves, because he was the last relief pitcher the Braves had. Cox didn’t want to get Smoltz up, because he was the Friday Night Starter. So by Cox saving Smoltz for the Friday game, he costed us the Thursday game. He doesn’t understand the importantance of winning the game that is in front of him. He would prefer to prepare for tomorrow’s game, and that game just never gets here.

Also, we got to watch the Jones Boys grimmace with every swing in Thursday’s night game and Chipper hit into two double plays late in that game that was killer. Only to see the two hobbled stars in the 3rd and 5th spots in the batting order tonight. It never did cross his mind to start the weakest hitter in the lineup in Andrew Jones at the 8th spot and Chipper being injured in the 7th spot in tonight’s lineup. Instead he took the best hitter on the team in Brian McCann and put him in the 8th hole. It’s ridiculous the favortism Cox continues to show these high priced stars. Not to mention Chipper hit one off the wall tonight to only see the outfielder bobble the ball and Chipper only got to 2nd base because he wasn’t hustling as usual. Earlier in the game Chipper had runners at 1st and 2nd with no outs, and swung all 3 times to try and pull the ball to the left side of the field, before he eventually struck out. I’m not sure why he or other Braves players continue to try and pull the ball, instead of getting the runner from 2nd base to 3rd base with less than 2 outs. The stars are leading the Braves out of another division title possibility and won’t even contend for a wildcard if things stay like this. Bobby Cox is the one leading this mess and why he still has a job is beyond me. He only shows favoritism to his stars and is quick to give up in a game that he is losing in by the 7th inning.

As long as Cox is leading the charge, then we will still continue to see the weakest hitter on the Braves in Andruw Jones taking up the very valuable 5th spot in the lineup away. Andruw has 21 homers, but that’s because he is swinging for the fences every at bat. He strikes out often and his at bats are wasted many times by not even moving up the runners on base. Willie Harris is clearly the best choice at centerfield and Matt Diaz should be the everyday left fielder. Jones should be sitting on the bench and Chipper Jones needs to be benched for not hustling and by no means should be batting 3rd with his hand so messed up.

Bobby Cox has never been a good manager. Just a manager that anybody could have lead to 14 straight division titles with all the talent he has. He prepares for the late innings and the game for tomorrow, is why he always fails to win the game that is in front of him today. The Braves have no chance of winning the division title this year or even playing for a wild card as the team will continue to waste it’s 3rd and 5th spots in the batting order by 2 players that don’t hustle or hit to the team’s best interest. Bobby Cox should be held accountable for all the plays the Braves continue to fail on, because he has never had the strict orders or the guts to bench his stars when they fail to perform in critical situations. The Braves are a hard team to watch because they do have a lot of talent, but that talent doesn’t play to the best of their ability, and this is due to the way Bobby Cox manages a game of baseball!