Is there a nother team in baseball with a worse playoff history than us?

When your best pitcher is your closer, you've got problems.
Eh...in this case we're talking about a historically great closer. This 2-3 year stretch he's on has been nothing short of incredible. So, in this instance, it's not necessarily a problem since we're talking about Kimbrel. However, right now we don't have a legitimate ace, although Minor looked pretty close to one in his start.
 
Very annoyed when I read "Kimbrel pitches one game in a 4 game series".

To anyone that didn't watch the series, you'd think it was unreal.

Game 1 we were out 6-1, no need to waste Kimbrel.

Game 3 we were down 13-6, no need to waste Kimbrel.

Yeah Game 4 we can debate all day long, but everytime I read "1 game in 4", you guys make it seem much worse than it actually is.

It's one of those incendiary statements that sounds best when you only have half your brain working. Calling Kimbrel your "best pitcher" is already clouding the issue. He's a dominant closer in his prime, but he's effective in the role that best suits him, the adrenaline rush of the 9th inning.

There's a good argument for using Kimbrel in the 8th against the heart of the lineup and then perhaps Carpenter in the 9th if Kimbrel's pitch count gets up, but it's a debate that will never end.

Some of the same people who wanted Kimbrel to go 2 innings also blame Fredi for overusing relief pitchers.
 
I think you guys lack perspective.

For one thing, it has broken the other way for the Braves, also. The 1992 and 1996 NLCS were both epic comebacks. But, in general, you tend to not have much post season success when you suck. From 1966-1990, the Atlanta Braves went to the post season twice and won 0 games total. In 1991 they became respectable and a bit more. In the '90's they rarely even lost a single game in the divisional series, and they won more NLCS games than they lost. With a bit more luck they could have won 3 or more World Series titles during the 'decade. Since the '90's they've slipped a bit - they've been good, but not great. But, they me be on the verge of another run, we'll see.
 
Despite rallying to win the 1991 NLCS, Game 7 in the 1992 NLCS, winning it all in 1995 and the comeback against the Cardinals in '96, the deck is still slanted way toward misfortune for us.
 
I think you guys lack perspective.

For one thing, it has broken the other way for the Braves, also. The 1992 and 1996 NLCS were both epic comebacks. But, in general, you tend to not have much post season success when you suck. From 1966-1990, the Atlanta Braves went to the post season twice and won 0 games total. In 1991 they became respectable and a bit more. In the '90's they rarely even lost a single game in the divisional series, and they won more NLCS games than they lost. With a bit more luck they could have won 3 or more World Series titles during the 'decade. Since the '90's they've slipped a bit - they've been good, but not great. But, they me be on the verge of another run, we'll see.

I'm kind of in this camp. Fact of the matter is, we've been good-not-great for awhile now. The Cards have a $120m payroll and the Dodgers have $220m. As long as we're in that $85m range, we should be thrilled to be in the hunt every year.

Myself, I'd be thrilled with another $25m in payroll so we could keep our core together and outrun a mistake or two. It's got to be exhausting, not being able to make mistakes. We pay Dan Uggla $13m, and Frank should be fired. The Dodgers pay Josh Beckett $16m, and who cares? Just some dead money to take on so we can get Gonzalez and Crawford.
 
Despite rallying to win the 1991 NLCS, Game 7 in the 1992 NLCS, winning it all in 1995 and the comeback against the Cardinals in '96, the deck is still slanted way toward misfortune for us.

Fortune does not always favor the team with $220 million payroll team over the one with the $85 million payroll, but that's where the smart money is. When the Braves were good, things went their way a lot of the time. When they aren't so good, not so much.
 
It's one of those incendiary statements that sounds best when you only have half your brain working. Calling Kimbrel your "best pitcher" is already clouding the issue. He's a dominant closer in his prime, but he's effective in the role that best suits him, the adrenaline rush of the 9th inning.

There's a good argument for using Kimbrel in the 8th against the heart of the lineup and then perhaps Carpenter in the 9th if Kimbrel's pitch count gets up, but it's a debate that will never end.

Some of the same people who wanted Kimbrel to go 2 innings also blame Fredi for overusing relief pitchers.

No, he's a historically great pitcher in the middle of a historical run. I guess if you don't think the 8th inning of a 1-run elimination game gives the same adrenaline rush as the 9th inning of a 3 run game against the Marlins in late June... well, you're entitled to your opinion, I guess.
 
I think we have been the underdogs for a while now. Up until 2003, we went to the playoff as the favourites to win (at least) the first series, but that was not the case in 2004/2005/2010/2012/2013 (maybe in 2012, but that was one game).
This doesn't justify exiting all the times, as in my opinion playoffs are a matter of luck, and we didn't have any.
What's consistent in this last 5 appearances is that our team always got to the postseason with injuries to key players; for example, this year we didn't have our projected #1 and 2 starters, nor our projected 2 setup men (and we lost because of pitching).
In 2004-5 we missed many people as well, in 2010 our lineup was probably worse than many AA lineups.
In all these years we had on the field so many players with no postseason experience as well, resulting in some shaky performance by starters/relievers, plus a ton of defensive errors (2010-12).
Add some umpire calls the other way (infield fly?) and there you have your bad streak.
 
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