Lets just get a reset

this team is out of sorts right now. Its not anything physical (well, except Kelly Johnson, more on that later), its nothing to do with the coaching, the team just doesn't seem to be locked in.

And who can blame them, honestly? They go on the worthwhile, but whirlwind, honor of opening up the Nats new ballpark, fly home at 3 AM, then get up to take on the Pirates in Tommy's return to Atlanta. Add in the excitement of opening baseball for the entire country and then your own home opener. It may just be too much for the Braves to have that intense but quiet focus they were known for during their streak.

I normally hate the early off day during the first couple of games, but they really need this. They need a day off (if nothing else to rest the bullpen after every arm available was used last night). They need a mental reset. Then they need to play two games against the pirates and play them the right way and then get focused for the mets.

I think all the pieces are there for this team to make some noise, but it doesn't matter how many pieces you have if you aren't playing mentally sound baseball, and they just weren't in the first two games.

Now to Kelly. It's obvious Kelly's knee is a bigger deal than he's letting on. He doesn't get the same push off his bad knee and it causes him to come up a little short on balls and leads to errors. I think its hurting his hitting as well, as he can't really get the same lower body drive. I'm not one of those people who wants to platoon him and Prado, but Bobby should just keep him on the bench until its better, save him for pinch hitting or maybe even just DL him and make sure the knee is 100% fine. Kelly can have a gigantic year, he's put a year of second base under his belt, but he won't if he has this nagging knee injury all year that doesn't get better because he keeps playing on it. From what I hear, its a strain and strains only get better if you rest them. Kelly is a gamer and maybe he is downplaying the injury because he wants to play. I wouldn't have it any other way, but lets be smart about this. We have a capable backup in Martin Prado, just let him play and lets get Kelly 100% healthy so that he can have the breakout season he has the potential to.

Two one run losses, ugh. This hurts, to be honest. I fully believe the NL East will come down to no more than 4 games and losing two we should have locked down hurts. But lets not panic yet. One mentally sound week of baseball and we'll see what the team looks like then.