Chipper Jones And the Atlanta Braves: The End of an Era

Chipper Jones has been the Backbone of the Braves organization for well over a decade. Coming off of one of his arguably better seasons, Chipper Jones has struggled to stay healthy to date, and we're only 1/3 of the way through the season.

In tonight's game against the Brewers, Chipper left the game in the sixth inning due to dizziness. After being evaluated by the team doctors, he was cleared and released. This is good news, but Jones' performance so far this season has been all but refreshing.

Coming into tonight's game, Chipper Jones had appeared in 44 of Atlanta's 53 games. This seems average for a seasoned veteran, but the problem lies in fact that Jones remains the Braves standout player.

With an above average line-up, the Braves cannot seem to find any rhythm at all. Any type of chemistry sparked by the team is derailed by a costly injury. To date the Braves have lost Brian McCann, Omar Infante, Chipper Jones, Casey Kotchman, and Yunel Escobar all to injuries that kept them out of the line-up for more than a series. 

While the Atlanta pitching continues to hang in there and do a good job, the run support provided by the line-up is absolutely terrible. The Braves made a good move by adding standout CF Nate McLouth from Pittsburgh after Jordan Schafer continued his strikeout woes for almost the entire duration of his Major League tenure.

In order for the Atlanta Braves to be competitive in the NL East, they will have to do more than this. It is time the Atlanta Braves start looking for the next big name to drive Atlanta back to the postseason. Chipper Jones has done remarkably well, but his durability continues to fail more and more with age.

Look for the Braves to make a big acquisition before the trade deadline. I believe GM Frank Wren is taking an active approach to make this ball club competitive again, and in order to do so, it's time for Atlanta to start making a move to put Chipper in the back seat and work towards attaining the next big name and face for the Atlanta Braves franchise.