If ever, in these last few days, we have something to play for it is that during the last six weeks of this season we play the Mets nine times. That's nine opportunities to deny our biggest rival a place in the postseason (they, having done the deed themselves last year). We start off the series facing possibly the toughest nut for the Braves to crack -- Oliver Perez. Perez was 4-and-1 against us last year, but has not faced the Braves this season.

We can help control the destinies of both the Marlins and the Phillies, whom we play six times apiece (and we've already helped the Phillies out considerably), but with nine games against the Metropolitans we have the opportunity to inflict some real damage. Here are the division standings as of today:

Go Braves! Beat the Mets!

When the Braves traded for Mark Teixeira last year there was one prospect I was really disappointed about losing (for clarification, most of those prospects I was disappointed about losing, but there was one I was "really" disappointed about), and that was left-handed starter Matt Harrison. In the 2003 draft the Braves selected Jo-Jo Reyes in the second round and Matt Harrison in the third round, so in the eyes of the Braves, Reyes was the better prospect to keep.

There was not too much I could point to statistically to say that I liked Harrison more than Reyes, except for the fact that Harrison averaged almost half an inning more per appearance than did Reyes. Harrison was not overpowering and he wasn't really a strikeout guy, not that Reyes was defined as a strikeout guy either, but he certainly racked up more than Harrison.

My desire to keep Harrison over Reyes was what I considered Matt's pitchability over Jo-Jo. Now I realize that one really can't define pitchability consistently, but I throw it out there because it's one of those things that you either see in a pitcher or you don't -- and I saw it in Harrison. I liked the fact that he had racked up almost 150 more innings in the minor leagues than Reyes had, even though a lot of that was due to Reyes missing time because of injuries. Those extra innings amount to an extra half-season to season of experience for Harrison. What I had seen of the two told me that while both were good prospects and smart pitchers, Harrison was the better of the two (I was occasionally chastised for this opinion, and may still be).

Here's how they compare this year (keeping in mind that Jo-Jo had 50.2 innings of experience last year):

Pretty damn equal, I'd say. They both are having problems with giving up too many hits and walks, and both are having some great games and some not so great games. The Rangers are certainly scoring a lot more runs for Harrison than the Braves have scored for Jo-Jo, which results in a better record.

Two lessons here, (1) what the hell do I know about young pitchers (not a lot), and (2) it's probably way too early to tell which guy will be more successful in the majors. There's a lot of pressure on Reyes when he starts against the Mets tonight. The Braves seem to be losing a bit of patience with him as he hasn't made any great strides to make them think that he can be successful long-term in the majors. He has made improvements over last year, but he is still susceptible to being made to look like he has no business pitching above rookie ball.

These two pitchers will be one of the ways we measure the Teixeira trade in the coming years, so we will certainly keep our eye on both of them in the future.

A business man's special afternoon game at the Ted today. The quote for the day is:  "If we can't beat Barry Zito, then we really do suck."

In Jeff Francoeur's current string of good game / bad game, we're due for a good game today.

Will we see the good Charlie Morton or the bad Charlie Morton?

Will we see the Jeff Francoeur who can hit or the one who cannot?

This season has now moved beyond frustrating to infuriating.

Hey, look, the Giants are coming to town. Now there's a team we can beat, right. I mean, four games against the Giants at home... no problem, right?

I, for one, will be tuning in to see if another Braves player hits for the cycle. Surely we won't have to wait 20 years for another one of those.

Last night might have indeed been the last time we see Tom Glavine in a Braves uniform. Glavine returned to the disabled list after encountering more soreness in his pitching elbow during last night's start. Age plus partially torn flexor tendon is not a good combination for a pitcher who has already lost much of his "major league" velocity.

To replace Glavine on the roster, and in an effort to make sure that every single player on the Richmond Braves spends some time in Atlanta this year, the Braves called up pitcher Matt DeSalvo. He was a pedestrian 2-11 with a 4.60 ERA in 32 games (sevens starts) for Richmond, so, in other words, he'll fit right in here in Atlanta.

Sad news on Glavine, but I think we all sort of knew in the back of our minds that he wouldn't be pitching for the Braves at the end of the season.

We've waited 21 years for an Atlanta Braves player to hit for the cycle, and we had to have this wonderful moment during a belittling sweep at the hands of the Cubs. Mark Kotsay hit for the cycle tonight, becoming the first player to accompish that feat for the Braves since Albert Hall did in on September 23, 1987.

Kotsay went 5-for-5 with a triple to right in his first at-bat, his sixth homer of the season in his second, a single past second base in his third, and a double to the right-field corner in his fourth. He added another single in the ninth.

He raised his average 12 points from .288 to .300 with his 5-for-5 night. I guess you've got to look for the silver lining of this season somewhere. Tom Glavine's "audition" didn't go so well, and after an almost sweep of Arizona, we find ourselves on the wrong end of a four-game losing streak.

I'm not real excited about this game... not excited at all. I'm pretty sure that we left our offense in Arizona, or we somehow lost it on the plane ride to Atlanta. Perhaps we checked it through and Delta somehow lost our offense. Either way I think every effort should be made to find our offense and insert it back into our lineup.

And just for shits and giggles:

We are now on the same level as Pittsburgh.

Game 2, ugh. Now, in the second half of the season, we can't win at home. Maybe the Tijuana Iguana can stop the bleeding.