Before Saturday afternoon's game I had a chance to speak with Chipper Jones about his season and the struggles of this Braves team.
Martin Gandy: You're having a pretty good year personally, and a bad year as a team, how do you reconcile those two?
Chipper Jones: You do what you can individually to fall in line with the ball club. Hopefully your performance can help put the team over the hump as far as a win or a loss on any given day. Just keep going out there every day trying to be as consistent as possible, and hope that some wins start coming.
MG: For you, what's been the biggest disappointment this year?
CJ: Injuries again. It's been really tough. I've been on the DL twice, and a lot of other good players in this clubhouse have been on the DL a significant amount of time. That's probably the biggest thing; we just haven't been able to operate at full force for a lot of the season.
MG: How have these struggles and the injuries affected your confidence and the team's confidence?
CJ: They haven't affected my confidence at all. I can't speak for the rest of the guys on the team. I know that while I was on the DL a lot of guys kept coming up to me saying they couldn't wait for me to get back, so that obviously means they want me in there. You know when you don't have your big horses in there day in and day out your confidence is probably going to waiver somewhat because you don't have the best opportunity to win.
MG: What makes you think this season is or is not over?
CJ: One thing we got here is pride, and we're not out of it yet, we're a winning streak away from getting back in the wild card and being able to do something in the postseason. It is looking rather bleak, but until we're mathematically eliminated you'll see every one in here giving full effort.
MG: Is there anything that the media is not focusing on that they should be?
CJ: That's the media's job. They focus on what they want to focus on, it's my job to go out and play baseball and you guys can worry about all that other trivial stuff.
MG: Is it hard to keep answering these questions day after day?
CJ: No. It's y'alls job, and my decision whether I want to answer them or not, and if I don't want to answer them I won't answer them.
MG: Make a prediction of where this team will finish.
CJ: I'm going to say second in the division and Wild Card winner. I may be wrong, but we'll see.
MG: Finally, what is that necklace you've been wearing lately?
CJ: Magnets. I'm not much on it, but ever since I've been wearing it my oblique has been feeling a lot better