Mandatory Credit: Steve Mitchell-US PRESSWIRE

Despite the chances of anything changing Fredi is right, something must be done about this playoff system. After watching a format that was severely lacking in fairness there are a couple of changes that should be made for next season and beyond.

The first change that should be made is to change the playoff format to the model that the NBA uses: Once a team qualifies for the playoffs the teams are seeded by wins. Just because a team wins its division does not mean that team should be seeded higher than a team that wins more games despite not winning its division. Some divisions are tougher than others. For example this past season the Detroit Tigers had the least amount of wins in the American League with 88 wins. That was five wins less than both the Baltimore Orioles and Texas Rangers who had 93 wins each and faced each other in the Wildcard playoff game. How is that fair? By seeding by wins it would put the emphasis on playing all the way to the end of the season. It would also still keep the emphasis on winning your division, which is part of the reason why the extra Wildcard was added in the first place. After making this change the Wildcard round should be renamed the Opening or First Round of the playoffs.

The second change is the one Fredi is hoping for, a change of the Opening or First Round of the playoffs to a best of three series. After changing the seeding of playoff teams by wins teams must also have a chance to each host a playoff game after playing 162 games. This could be done by tweaking the schedule a bit during the regular season and/or including scheduling double headers as baseball has done in the past. This past season the Braves had a comfortable lead on the second wildcard for most of the season and ended up with six more wins than the St. Louis Cardinals. No team that plays that well for as long a season as baseball has should have their season come down to a one game playoff, especially if the first wildcard has significantly more wins than the second wildcard. Also, this is not the other major sports where all of their top players play in the playoffs. A team could have a balance of starters while another team could have a top flight starter and no one else and the team with the top flight starter would have the advantage in this current one game playoff system. By changing the playoff format to a best of three it would be fair to both teams.

When asked what he thought of the new playoff format during the season Chipper Jones said that baseball is a game of three to four game series over 162 games and that is how the playoffs should be. Now you want to throw two teams into a one game playoff? Chipper then summed it up succinctly, “Stupid”.

Much has been made of his illustrious career. He’s been compared to All-Time greats and Braves legends. But his impact on Atlanta and Atlanta fans has been scarcely analyzed, even if widely understood. Chipper is a real rarity in sports now – he was in the same organization for 22 years. 22 years! That’s as long as I’ve been alive. There has literally never been a moment of my life that Chipper was not in the Braves organization. And for most of the people my generation, Chipper has defined Atlanta , the Braves, and baseball for as long as they can remember.

One of the reasons that baseball is so great is that it invokes a strong feeling of continuity. We’re watching essentially the same game they played during the Civil War. It’s a game where every current player and event is judged against the ghosts of those who came before.  As soon as you start your fandom, you become surrounded by the history (often highly romanticized) of the game. And for Atlanta, Chipper Jones will forever be a part of the city’s historical consciousness.

I think there’s an immense comfort in continuity. As we grow, so much in our lives changes.  For me, I saw many of my friends move away from my childhood neighborhood. I moved away myself, and came back to see my old neighborhood completely gone to make place for a strip mall. I experienced a death in my extended family, switched schools 3 times, said goodbye to all my friends after high school, and then said it again after college. I have a job now and a few of my friends I grew up with have kids. Atlanta changed too.  Its population has been swelling enormously. Skyscraper and road construction in the city has been constant. Cell phone towers now dot the horizon everywhere. The Olympics came and went. As did the Atlanta Thrashers. Turner Field replace Fulton County Stadium and Atlanta sports won its 1 and only World National Championship. The Atlanta Hawks and Falcons players of my childhood – Dikembe Mutombo and Mookie Blaylock and Jamal Anderson are long gone. As are former staples of the Braves dynasty: Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine, John Smoltz, Andruw Jones, Leo Mazzone, and Bobby Cox.

Chipper Jones was a constant throughout all of that. A piece of continuity that has embedded itself into the heart of Atlanta as much as Cal Ripken did in Baltimore or Robin Yount did in Milwaukee. Suffice it to say that I’m really glad we got to witness his career and that he (as well as Crazy Train at Turner Field) will be missed. Peace, Chipper

Heading back to that 1990 draft, Todd Van Poppel was the consensus top prospect, but signability pushed him down in the draft.  The Braves picked a tall, skinny shortstop from Jacksonville, FL, a switch-hitter with polish, even at 18 years of age.  This was a blessing in disguise, as Chipper ended up having the best career of anyone in the draft, while Mike Mussina, Andy Pettitte, and Jorge Posada were the only ones worthy of HOF consideration taken.

His professional career did not start as planned, as he hit .229/.321/.271 in the Gulf Coast Rookie League.  The Chipper we know and love came alive in Macon the next season, as he hit .326/.407/.518 and stole 40 bases, though the 56 errors were a bit more than necessary.  1992 saw him take a step back offensively in A+ Durham, but he still got promoted to AA Greenville halfway through the season.  He rewarded the organization by hitting .346/.367/.594, leading him to be named the #1 prospect by Baseball America heading into the ’93 season.  A .325/.387/.500 line at age 21 in AAA Richmond showed that he had learned all he could in the minors.  Chipper got a small taste of the majors as a September callup, but he was not placed on the postseason roster.

The Braves determined he wasn’t ready to play shortstop at the majors, so they were preparing him to take over for an injured Ron Gant in left field in 1994, before a torn ACL in spring training ended Chipper’s season before it began.  With Terry Pendleton now leaving for the Florida Marlins, Chipper could settle in at third base before the ’95 season.  He also settled into the Braves lineup, not missing more than ten games in any of the next nine seasons.  While he did not burst on the scene, Chipper finished second in the ROY voting.  More importantly, the new 3-hole hitter led the team to their only championship in Atlanta.

Over the next three seasons, he became a perennial all-star, putting up .300/.400/.500 lines in 160 games.  1999 saw him transform from all-star to superstar, hitting .319/.441/.633, winning the NL MVP, making the Mets his personal batting practice.  Unfortunately, the other New York team spoiled the ending, sweeping the Braves in the World Series.  Chipper continued his elite performance until 2003, and questions of his decline came up after his ’04 season.  Looking back, it’s quite evident that it was just a BABIP fluctuation, as his plate discipline and power rates stayed the same, but the .246 BABIP sent his average plummeting to .248.

Sep 28, 2011; Atlanta, GA, USA; Atlanta Braves third baseman Chipper Jones (10) waves to the crowd following the game against the New York Mets at Turner Field. The Mets defeated the Braves 3-1. Mandatory Credit: Kevin Liles-US PRESSWIRE

Part of the concerns were realized, however.  He missed 25 games in ’04, and he never again exceeded 600 PA in a season.  His production in the lineup returned to elite level, leading the league in OPS in 2007 and eventually reaching a career-high 175 wRC+ in 2008, winning the batting and OBP title.  After his age 36 season, Chipper could not recapture the power, leading him to sub-.200 ISOs and sub-.300 BABIPs the final four seasons.  He was still 20% above average, but his declining defense and increasing injuries made him a 2-3 WAR player starting in 2009.

In his career, Chipper finished at .303/.401/.529, one of 21 .300/.400/.500 hitters in MLB history with at least 5000 PA, while only five of those have more PA than Chipper.  Among position players, his 81.5 rWAR rate 31st all-time, while his 90.4 fWAR rates 33rd all-time.  Unfortunately, we probably can’t call him the best third baseman in Braves history, as Eddie Mathews rates 22nd and 23rd in those same rankings respectively.  Among both pitchers and hitters in franchise history, Chipper ranks sixth in rWAR, with Hank Aaron, Mathews, Kid Nichols, Warren Spahn, and Phil Niekro ahead of him.  That’s three top-30 hitters and three top 15 pitchers all in the same franchise, plus Greg Maddux accumulating 2/3 of his WAR with the Braves.

Among hitters who played at least 60% of their games at third base, Chipper ranks 4th in PA, 4th in hits, 3rd in doubles, 3rd in HR, 1st in RBI, 1st in runs scored, 2nd in walks (to Eddie Yost?), and 5th in rWAR.  Among switch-hitters, he’s 6th in PA, 5th in hits, 3rd in doubles, 3rd in HR, 2nd in RBI, 4th in runs scored, 3rd in BB, and 2nd in rWAR.  He never had a below league-average season, a very rare feat for someone who plays through age 40.  While he never had a historic 10 WAR type season, I think it’s safe to say that there won’t be another Braves player to amass such prolific totals for quite some time.  Farewell Chipper.  Hope the hunting, fishing, and family life is as great as your baseball career.