Braves may sense
more urgency than Phils

In the Batter’s Box
By Matt Godfrey

How nice would it be, as baseball’s trading deadline approached, to firmly believe that your team had no reason to make a drastic personnel move for the sake of improvement?
Well, maybe in your dreams. Most execs do sniff around to determine what players may be available as those teams start to fall out of playoff contention. You’d be hard-pressed to find a team that’s truly comfortable with its lineup while embarking on the season’s second-half battle to still be playing in October.
This season’s trading deadline recently came and went. And I’d have to say there are fans who saw their team land the biggest fish in the pond and improve their odds of winning the division, perhaps even moving on to the World Series.
No, it’s not the Phillies.
How about those Atlanta Braves?
The Braves added hard-hitting first baseman Mark Teixeira and reliever Ron Mahay in a deal with the Texas Rangers, giving up five young players who included star catching prospect Jarrod Saltalamacchia.
Atlanta also obtained reliever Octavio Dotel from the Kansas City Royals for a young starting pitcher with promise. And then the Braves landed reliever Royce Ring by trading two more youngsters to the San Diego Padres.
With that flurry of wheeling and dealing, the Braves ignited plenty of buzz about their playoff prospects — and perhaps sent a chill up the spine of the first-place New York Mets.
The Phillies? Well, their trade-deadline moves were mere pops compared to the explosions detonated by their East Division rivals. The Phils picked up an aging second baseman in Tadahito Iguchi, a mediocre starting pitcher in Kyle Lohse, and a questionable minor league reliever in Julio Mateo.
In each trade, the Phils didn’t part with a top prospect. Consequently, they didn’t get a whole lot in return. They doled out three minor leaguers in trades and got three marginal players in return.
The Braves, on the other hand, parted with eight prospects in their deals, most of whom were highly touted, and received four players who can help them win now.
The brass knew there was a dire need for a strong bat between the Jones boys — slumping Andruw and reliable Chipper — and Teixeira provides that long-ball pop.
The brass also knew the team had no lefthanders in the bullpen. Mahay and Ring remedied that.
The addition of Dotel was a no-brainer trade that allowed the Braves to upgrade their right-handed arsenal in the bullpen.
Comparing the trades of Philadelphia and Atlanta is a tale of two cities — more precisely, a tale of drastically different team philosophies in those cities.
The Phils have a good, young core of players that they feel they can win with for years to come.
The Braves have an aging core of players who already have amassed a decade of division titles, and the need to rebuild this team looms on the horizon.
In sports circles, it’s called the window of opportunity. The Phils like to think theirs will remain open for some time to come. The Braves no doubt sense that theirs is closing.
Age eventually catches up to players. Or their skills seemingly take a slide.
Andruw Jones is the perfect example.
He remains one of the top centerfielders in the game, and at 30 he should be in the prime of his baseball life, but Jones’ .215 batting average — even though he has decent power numbers — is a page from the Pat Burrell book of inconsistency.
Maybe it’s just an off year for Jones. The Braves don’t seem inclined to want to sit around and hope. Nor are they inclined to let those prospects ripen. There’s a division title to be won . . . perhaps even a World Series.
Though I believe that the Phillies truly want to make that same run this season, they’re not interested in mortgaging the future on a gamble that they can win a championship now.
I’d written just recently about how ill-conceived it would be to break up the Phillies’ nucleus. I think it would still be as ill-conceived.
The Braves know their core is about to be broken, with age, free agency and retirement conspiring to break up that old gang of theirs. They want that ring now.
The Phils have youth on their side. They can afford to wait. However, as any Phils fan knows, you just have to hope they don’t wait too long. ••
Columnist Matt Godfrey can be reached at 215-354-3113 or mgodfrey@phillynews.com