The Freak and the Giants are inbound

Great stuff Carroll.

is it me or does McLouth foul off an AWFUL high amount of pitches? Needless to say he is in a slump.

Carroll one question:

With our starting pitchers being so effective this year, why is our bullpen overworked (as usual)?

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If Escobar is traded, you gotta one-man boycott here…

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Have any of you went to a game at Nationals Park? If so what are the best/affordable seats to get? I’m planning on going to the Braves series in September.

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If Escobar is traded, we better get the moon and at least 2 gas planets revolving around the sun.

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Thank you Carroll for your remarks about Esco. The media should get off his back and let him just play ball. He is the most dependable of ALL the Braves in run producing situations. Start praising him for that and leave off with the negative.

On another note, thanks to the poster last night who reported that Dish Network now has Peachtree TV on channel 449 or 450. PTV has the Tuesday & Wednesday games and our Dish guide already shows that those games ARE on Dish!!! Thank the Lord that somebody at Dish finally woke up.

Thanks to DOB and Carroll for the blog – enjoy reading your comments.

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Great blog Carroll. I’d be interested to see what McLouth has to say about his recent plate struggles, seems like he is pressing, or not comfortable in the lead-off role?

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wow! thats awesome that Dish network finally added Peachtree TV!

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The Freak needs to get a new hairstyle. Haircut is more like it! Right now, he looks like someone’s mother, especially when he gets hot and sweaty during a game. Someone’s mother that lives in a trailer park, in a trailer with no AC.

Dude can throw the rock like nobody’s bidness, but somebody needs to get in his ear about his personal grooming habits. Please Timmy, lose that hairdo, before some trucker mistakes you for a trailer park Momma.

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I want to give Church the benefit of the doubt, but I think we need to move McClouth to right and find a leadoff guy that can also play CF.

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I’m so glad that I was able to make the game Friday night. The Braves hit the celebration out of the ballpark. I’m not sure how they could have done a better job. It certainly didn’t hurt that the team just destroyed the Mets as tribute as well. It was enough to pretend it was the late 90s again!

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Josh, what?? what channel #?

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Buffalo NY Braves Fan

July 20th, 2009
1:10 pm
Great blog Carroll. I’d be interested to see what McLouth has to say about his recent plate struggles, seems like he is pressing, or not comfortable in the lead-off role?

The team needs Nate to break out of his slump. One of the announcers (Joe Morgan) said last night that when a player is acquired mid-season he might try too hard to do what the team acquired him for. Hopefully he will snap out of it. The good thing is that he has not let it affect his defense and he did get on base 4 times last night.

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Slugger–Jordan Schafer.

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McFann and Lew, as far as comic strips Pickles is the best. Of course it is closer to my age group.

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CB

July 20th, 2009
1:21 pm
McFann and Lew, as far as comic strips Pickles is the best. Of course it is closer to my age group.

I am a big Garfield fan as well as Luann and Funky Winkerbean

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Esco is money in the 6 slot and his defense is fantastic. He has mental lapses like all kids that age but you take the good and bad with talented people. I would have taken that ball that Esco missed as well. That pitch was so far inside, even if the hi & run sign was on, Diory should have had the base stolen. Love Diory, he is just a slow baserunner.

Somebody needs to get Nate & Chipper’s arses in gear.

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Slugger – theweeklyscene.com – I will agree that I over simplfied it by saying the hitter always swings. I should have said almost always swings. Not to be arguementative but in your opinion when would a hitter not swing on a hit and run? Here is my opinion. The only slack I cut Escobar is that the pitch ran in on him. He might have frozen up because he thought he was going to get hit. Do you not believe swinging impeeds the catcher a little? Do you think that it has to be a strike to swing?

Interesting discussion. Just interested in your take on it.

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Russell, Amen.

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Alabama, I also think Nate has somewhat had his “teeth” taken out. I realize they go hand in hand (hitting and stealing) but over the last month, there have been at least 5 occasions where we should’ve stolen him and we didn’t. I wish we would use his talent more on the bases, maybe even drag bunt to get him going again.

I still wonder though, he seems to foul off a ton of pitches when it seems like he should drill them.

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If we are shopping Escobar, we better get a huge return!!

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glord, I also was wondering why we had such a POOR lead at first on that hit and run. At least make the thing interesting. With the pitch inside it, even with Esco not swinging, it should been closer.

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Can we make one thing clear and put it to rest:

We ARE NOT shopping Escobar. The dude is a stud and he in only due $500,000 next year. It aint happening. You don’t get that caliber of play for half a million, he is one of the best deals in the league.

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Oh man… Escobar, Escobar, Escobar… Carroll… You talked about a lot of stuff in this latest blog and guess, what: The fans can’t keep off the subject… Geez… Can we move on now?

The bottom line is that Yunel needs to learn English and he will not only get better treatment but he can also defend himself better. I hope he is trying very hard right now to take down those barriers because I don’t have much respect for people who don’t do what is necessary. So far I’m on the fence with his attitude. I default to Bobby on this one. He’s been around long enough to know that Escobar should know better… So this is first time and last time I’m going to talk about him and his attitude, except maybe to talk about trades.

One important note… For any of the California teams, we always and I’m mean ALWAYS need to mention ballpark effects. Pitching in the western dry air combined with huge ball parks is akin to offense in the high altitude in Colorado. Los Angeles, San Francisco, and San Diego have the advantage when it comes to staff ERA.

So… San Fran may sport a league low 3.46 ERA, but they are benefiting from that humongous ballpark since they have a tiny 3.17 ERA at home. The Dodgers lead the league with a 3.12 ERA and the Braves have a 3.50 mark at home. if it wasn’t for the summer humidity in Atlanta, they may have an even lower ERA (water droplets reduce friction on the ball so it travels further). San Fran has a 3.78 road ERA thus balancing out the minuscule home ERA. The bottom line is that the Braves have an advantage playing at home for this series. They have the lower ERA and the Giants have the league’s worst run scoring on the road. Good combination for the BRAVES!

Hopefully the Bravos bats continue to hit against the Gints!

GO BRAVES!

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Slugger – theweeklyscene.com

July 20th, 2009
1:16 pm
I want to give Church the benefit of the doubt, but I think we need to move McClouth to right and find a leadoff guy that can also play CF.

I agree with moving Mclouth to either RF or LF. I the offense can be fixed with two players. A lead off hitting center fielder and a power hitting 1B.

Look at this line up by July 2010.

1. lead off CF
2. Prado 2B
3. Chipper 3B
4. Power 1B
5. Escobar SS
6. McCann C
7. Mclouth FL
8. Heyward RF
9. Pitcher

That is a pretty good line up. Especially with Esco amd Mac at weak hitting positions. The big question in all this is Schafers health/development. If he could be that lead off hitter by next July then we could put this line up together without much salary increase.

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unbelievable those are the sports alternate channels. I never seen anything being picked up on those, but Ill give it a shot

True – but our Dish Guide shows the game there on Tuesday!

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g lord how about putting Votto in that line up at 1B

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Glord – it’s not my opinion. It was what I was taught by several former MLB players that were my coaches.

Please take what I previously said with far less emphasis, because I see now that you weren’t stating a hitter MUST swing EVERY time there is a hit and ru.

Times when the batter does not swing on a hit and run:
-If there’s a 54-footer breaking ball, you don’t swing.
-If the ball’s inside and a breaking ball, you let it hit you (and dont swing).

I played under two systems in college bball, with a third system for two summers in a wood bat league.

You’re going to have some coaches that say swing every time, no matter what, but that’s usually with a younger (HS or lower) type player. Of course no coach is going to want you to swing at a breaking ball bouncing on or infront of the plate on a hit-and-run.

It really depends on the pitch and situation, all things a hitter should know.

Should Escobar have swung?

Fastball inside, YES! (if not, he should have taken it off the left tricep).

Should Escobar have swung if it was a CB bouncing before the plate in the dirt or on the plate? Probably not.

I think he just had a mental lapse. I don’t think it was selfish or anything, he was just really suprised by a FB inside.

It happens, but if he wants to get 3 hits and drive in 4 every game after missing a hit and run, I say we let him forget to swing on hit and runs more often

Great response from Escobar, and I think everyone should appreciate a guy that makes up for his mistakes with his bat (his glove too, the guy’s really started to come get the ball, HOORAY!!)

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just called Dish Network, they DO NOT offer the channel

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Atticus

The amount of games between each wild card team and the Braves isnt insurmountable. I believe with yesterday’s win, the Braves are tied with Hou, 1 game behind Mil, 2 games behind Chi & 4 games behind Col. Those teams can be caught, especially if the Braves keep playing at this pace. Add a potent bat(like Martinez’s-preferably), and just keep playing the way we have been recently and the we will be playing meaningful baseball in August and September. Something the Braves haven’t played in the last 2 seasons

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Curtis I heard an interview with Cox and he said “Norton is one of the best fastball guys we have had here”…..I wanted to puke, come on Bobby do you think we are THAT gullible?

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diamondjim, hopefully we’ll be able to see it on tuesday. According to Dish Network it will most likely be blacked out in my viewing area

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Kotchman may not be starting tonight against the LHP Jonathan Sanchez.

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N8 to reply to your post toward the end of the last blog

Am not for sure when he came aboard…..but the Braves had a pretty serviceable back-up first baseman to Sid in 91/92 (I think he was still a Brave in 92) in Brian Hunter.

I actually liked Hunter a lot, actually. I remember one game where Sid and him won a game hitting 2-run HR’s in the 9th…and I called both.

LOL

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should be ’shows’ – sorry about that!

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AlabamaBrave,

That is understandable. He did take 4 walks yesterday, so it’s not affecting his plate discipline either. I was kind of hoping Carroll or DOB would ask him what he makes of his struggles, what he thinks the issue is, etc.

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Why is everybody trying to run the third best (behind Chipper and McCann) everyday play on the Braves roster out of town? The Braves knew that this kid didn’t speak English. Get him some help. There is clearly a communication breakdown between him, the media and the Braves organization. Why isn’t anyone trying to fix it? Last time I checked, poor communications is the fault of TWO parties.

I am a big fan of Bobby Cox, but why is he getting a free pass here? He made this a big deal by making a big show in the dugout when he thought Yunel missed the sign. In recent years, Bobby has pulled Andruw and Yunel out of games for what he considered to be lack of effort. Meanwhile, Kelly made error after error at 2B and Garrett jogs around the OF and nobody embarrasses them!

The Braves and the AJC need to get off of Yunel’s case or we are going to lose one of the few good everyday players we have.

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Curtis, agree with you on Kotchman and his hitting… he’s just not that good. But, don’t underestimate how important his glove is at first. Say the Braves went out and got a offensive 1st baseman and we and the pitcher that day watches him stretch out innings because the errors he makes. Kotchman saves errors from Chipper/Yunel/Prado/ etc. just with his glove and more importantly, he saves the pitchers arm from long a** innings. He’s more important than what people give him credit for.

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Slugger, we are nowhere CLOSE to the lineup and I will tell you why–look at the SB count on that team. Bobby doesn’t steal. Look how many different players stole on that team.

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Carroll,

Your explanation and the events which surround the Escobar situation were first rate.

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Carrol, any word as to what the roster move is yet? Or do they keep that a secret until the clubhouse is open?

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Carroll

How nice to have a blog without having to wade through all the music crap to pick out the baseball comments.

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Pearls Before Swine is pretty funny, too…and I’ve read a few Pickles.

Garfield Minus Garfield is really funny, IMO…but my favorite are definitely Calvin and Hobbes and The Far Side. And the early Foxtrots (’80’s-90’s) were classic, but now that it went Sunday only there are as many funny ones. I also like Get Fuzzy…

Thanks for the new Blog, Ms. Rogers!

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scoots – yeah I don’t know when it was or what happened but Yunel was married when he first came up and now he’s not.

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RHR, my wife is Korean and a friend’s daughter is a Korean translator for a hospital in Charlotte making 70,000 for simply talking to the patient!

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Horner’s Corner,

Bobby pinch ran Ross for him because he fouled that ball off his knee. I don’t think there was any other reason pinch running Ross.

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We’ve had 2 NL Players Of the Week in the last month or so I believe.

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McFann :Ô:,

Apparently you haven’t seen Sandoval’s “svelt” physique. He looks like heap pre-2009. He’s got Prince Fielder type speed.

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Much more enjoyable when Carrol handles the blogging. As I have said many times before, it seems as though DOB would rather react to negative comments than positive comments. After surfing the last few blogs, it seems as though 4 out 5 comments written by him are responding to negativity by people in the internet world. I think DOB does a WONDERFUL job covering the team and seems to be passionate about it, but wish he would focus more on the Braves and music rather than idiots getting on these blogs successfully getting a reaction out of him.

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PWHjort,

I would imagine the move would just be Hanson for Valdez. The real interesting move will be what they do with Kelly. Keep him in the minors? Cut Norton? Send Diory back? But then you dont’ really have a backup for Esco. Tough decision.

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Bobby pinch ran Ross for him because he fouled that ball off his knee. I don’t think there was any other reason pinch running Ross.

I just don’t understand the logic of using Ross. He’s your only backup catcher and he’s slow. Use a starter. Or heck…use Norton to run and let Ross hit. I don’t care if he’s a righty. I’d rather have a drawing of Greg Norton bat than Greg Norton.

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Freeman doesn’t hit a lot of homers though from what I understand.

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.313, 10 HR, 48 RBI. I give you Barbaro Canizares’ AAA stats so far this year. Compare that with Norton. Even Kotchman. What am I missing here? Could the Braves use some offense?

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Daily Prado update -

Last 17 games
Hit in 16
10 extra base hits
9 multi hit games
.400 average
11 RBI

Not bad.

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I was under the impression that Freeman was a power guy, but he’s only got 7 HR so far this year. He had 18 last year though.

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I can’t tell if SanFranFan is serious or not

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Well Said Curtis…..why not bring Canizares up and give him more PT? Gotta be better than Norton, and Kotchman is just like every other Braves hitter – NO POWER and NO SPEED!

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SanFranFan: Jeff Francoeur is not on our team anymore. Good try though.

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“Freeman doesn’t hit a lot of homers though from what I understand”

Freeman is very young. He is a big kid that projects to hit with power. Remember that MB is a very bad hitters park in a pitchers league. That is wjat makes Cody Johnsons season scary right now. MB record for homers in mid june.

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SanFranFan–

That’s kind of sad, actually…

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I couldn’t believe the Braves on the base paths when they had runners in scoring position and couldn’t/didn’t score. They looked like turtles out there.
Thankfully Esco broke it open.

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I have to think that only in Atlanta is someone like Escobar considered a “problem”. I agree that he needs to learn English. But what astounds me is the fact that those who employ and work with these people refuse to meet them half-way and learn a bit of Spanish, Korean, Japanese or whatever native language.

People don’t have to become fluent in Spanish, but they should be able to learn enough to carry on the most basic, elementary conversation. We make money off of these player’s talents. Newspapers are sold and blog hits generated with reports and articles that feature their exploits in some part.

The idea that they alone are responsible for making all the adjustments is an outdated notion and a recipe for failure as baseball continues to bring in talent from around the globe.

But how dumb are the Braves to allow Escobar to be branded as a “problem child” and then after lowering his value, try to trade him? If he is traded, we will have conclusive proof that the Braves are not serious about winning.

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CB – being bilingual or multilingual is a huge advantage in the workplace. My daughter is a nursing major minoring in spanish, she thinks it will be a plus for her when she starts looking for a job, and I agree.

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I don’t think there was any other reason pinch running Ross.

Ross was used to pinch run because he was already getting into the game- they had pinch run for Mac at the start of the inning…

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“1st back to back no hitter in nearly a decade will be tonight against Francouer and the Braves.”

Fear our 3-8 pitcher and his mighty 4.69 ERA!

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RHR–it will definitely give her a leg up, that’s for sure.

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Carroll – Of course we would all be better served learning other languages! Knowledge is power. But you should not have to apologize because you don’t know a foreign language. As a reporter you can not possibly learn the native language of everyone you deal with. No one should have to apologize for not knowing a foreign language in their own country!

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My daughter is a nursing major minoring in spanish…

As a nurse, she would get a job even if she was a mute. Great career choice.

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g lord, the guys on TV were comparing him to Mark Grace said he’d hit 10-15 a year so that didn’t sound like a big HR hitter, but who knows….certainly Cody is a masher if he can play at the big level, which I gotta think he can.

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Zerk13,
They can’t keep him in the minors because he’s out of options. They either have to activate him or DFA him when his rehab stint expires. He’ll be activated if he isn’t traded.

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Okay know I know he’s kidding. I hope

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We get no hitter Sanchez on the road where he is 0-6 with a 6.27 ERA

We’ve made worse look better

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Carroll went to Duke, she should know 5 languages!!

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Barry Bond’s doesn’t play any more dingus. SanFranFan

Willie Mays?

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Omar Infante .349 .389 .430 .820
Brooks Conrad .344 .382 .688 1.070
Martin Prado .324 .386 .498 .884
Brian McCann .303 .375 .496 .871
Yunel Escobar .303 .365 .468 .833
Matt Diaz .301 .375 .460 .835
Chipper Jones .289 .408 .473 .880
G. Anderson .286 .316 .424 .740
C. Kotchman .282 .355 .401 .755
David Ross .278 .375 .533 .908
Nate McLouth† .257 .331 .446 .777

These are the guys that will get the majority of the ABs for the rest of the year, barring any trades. Far better than the list at the beginning of the year. I like our chances.

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Saw that Smoltz is pitching against Millwood today. Started thinking about ex Braves pitching in MLB.

A pretty decent young rotation could be made out of this bunch of former Braves. I am sure I am missing several, Zach Miner and Jeff Locke come to mind.

Jason Marquis – 30 – Braves traded Wainwright, Marquis, Ray King to St Louis for JD Drew and Eli Marrero
Kevin Millwood – 34 – Traded to Phillies for Johnny Estrada
Adam Wainright – 27 – Wainwright, Marquis, Ray King traded to St Louis for JD Drew and Eli Marrero
Charlie Morton – 25 – Morton, Gorkys Hernandez, and Jeff Locke traded to Pirates for Nate McClouth
Matt Harrison – 23 – Feliz, Saltalamacchia, Harrison, Andrus, Jones traded to Texas for Teixeira and Mahay
Neftali Feliz – 21 – Feliz, Saltalamacchia, Harrison, Andrus, Jones traded to Texas for Teixeira and Mahay
Kyle Davies – 25 – Davies was traded to KC for Octavio Dotel
Joey Devine – 25 – Devine and Richmond were traded to Oakland for Mark Kotsay

Then we can look at position players, certainly not as strong as the pitchers, but some young potential there, esp in Salty, Andrus, Flowers, and Gorkys.

C – Saltalamcchia
1B – Flowers or Adam Laroche
2B – Derosa
SS – Elvis Andrus
3B – Jon Gilmore or Andy Marte
OF – Jermaine Dye
OF – Gorkys Hernandez
OF – Andruw Jones…….I could not think of one

So……….in looking at Braves trades, some go well, some not so well. I think the perception that the Braves generally come out on top has taken some hits in the last few years. The Marquis/Wainwright trade, and the trade for Texiera may be two of the worst trades in MLB History when judged in hindsight. On the flip side, the trade that brought Gorkys and Jair to Atlanta may turn out to be one of the best ever.

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Okay Carroll, enough with me okay? The obsession the AJC has with me is giving me a headache.

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kdbanks: There is a difference in “incorporating” other cultures into our “American” culture and apologizing for not knowing a foreign language. I just found it to be disturbing that an American journalist would feel the need to apologize on American soil for not knowing a foreign language. Maybe if the journalist were in Mexico, Japan, the Dominican, etc, one might feel the need to apologize for not knowing the language of that country, but I do not feel the need for Americans to start apologizing in our own country because we don’t know language of a person from a foreign land.

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Oops forgot Church

.273 .332 .361 .694

Not too bad when only ONE guy hitting below .273 and six (6) guys hitting over .300.

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I agree Russell. When I read the article, I thought – hmmm, why doesn’t Yunel learn English? I think he’s too proud for that.

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Trade Idea update from old blog:

BRAVES GET:
1B Victor Martinez
RP Rafael Betancourt

INDIANS GET:
SP Kenshin Kawakami
IF Kelly Johnson
OF Jordan Schafer
1B Casey Kotchman
C Clint Sammons

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Roy, hardly any of those players would be in this lineup the way it is playing and pitching right now. Dye would be nice but that trade was a long time ago. Wainright is good, I still didn’t care about Marquis and our pitching is fine now anyway. Salty, Andrus and Harrison wouldn’t be playing on this team either, but they woul dbe nice to have as trade bait still, I agree.

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Hey SF Fan, go back and and play with your friends in the Castro. This blog is about baseball and clearly you have no clue.

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Thanks for the feedback Carroll. I was really trying to be a bit of a “devil’s advocate”. Since I played a part in apparently getting a day long discussion of various language issues under way with an early morning post yesterday, a great rarity for me when I pose something a bit different from the typical back and forth on the blog, I perhaps got a bit carried away with the putdown of athletes’ quotes. So I do understand the pressures required in today’s blog/reporting world. However, the more poetry in the writing, the more fun it will be. Now I also understand reporters’ circumspection in the face of access issues as well. I remember last year when the LA Times TJ Simers blasted Andruw repeatedly. I did not like it as I have always been an AJ fan, and I did not believe anyone gave any credit to AJ and all the damage he did to his body in all those great plays. The overextension to his elbow and the damage to his knees all threw him out of sync, and of course his weight did not help. But really in a way TJ was right. Except for one thing. He should have been blasting the Dodgers’ management for their stupidity.

One other note on access and baseball. I have really not seen anyone criticize Joe Torre or Tony LaRussa for turning a blind eye to the huge number of players using illegal substances under their watch. No one says the Braves should get credit to all those World Series they lost because so many Yankees were dopers for example.

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What can you tell us about this Riaan Spanjer-Furstenburg character who is currently tearing up Appy League pitching? He was a blogger favorite from the get-go because of his name, but after his first 23 games, he’s hitting .402/.452/.620 at Rookie-level Danville. Is he a legitimate prospect? Or is he just having an extremely hot start to his professional career?

Peter W. Hjort III
Atlanta
Spanjer-Furstenburg might have the coolest name in pro ball. But at this point, he’s more of a player off to a sizzling start than a real prospect.

A South African, Spanjer-Furstenburg was on his nation’s provisional 2009 World Baseball Classic roster but didn’t make the team. He began his college career at Florida Atlantic but transferred to NCAA Division II Nova Southeastern (Fla.) this year. He set a school record by hitting three homers in one game, and he batted .393 with 15 homers before signing with the Braves as a 16th-round pick.

A 6-foot-2, 235-pound righthanded hitter, Spanjer-Furstenburg played a variety of positions as an amateur but fits best at first base in pro ball. He’s old for the Appy League at 21 and his bat will really have to carry him, but he does have above-average power potential.

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Carroll is a dookie? My opinion of her dropped 100%

Any word on the roster move for Hanson? MY GUESS is NORTON is DFA or Valdez goes down. With our short bullpen, I say DFA NORTON

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Kentavo They looked like turtles out there.

Rally McTurtle is slight offended by this comment.

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From what I just read on Mark Bradley’s blog about Heyward, I can’t imagine the Braves trading anything for a right fielder. And someone showed a lineup wth him hitting eighth.
If you have a power hitter who strikes out only one out of 10 times he’s up, that’s pretty golden.
A selective power hitter is a diminishing commodity.
I would think Heyward would be more likely to be in RF this year than anyone else.
Is it far fetched to imagine a Braves’ outfield in 2010 of McLouth in LF, Schaefer in CF and Heyward in RF?
And I don’t know as much about Freeman, but why trade the farm for a 1B.
The guy we have can hit and field, more of a Mark Grace, but he’s solid.
This club is close. I wouldn’t trade any more prospects for a one-hit wonder. The Texas deal should teach us that.

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Dook sucks! WAHOOWAH!

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Is there such a thing as a freelance journalist anymore? Seems like a huge opportunity for a Spanish-speaking writer to get access and file some interesting stories. I’m kind of surprised, even with newspapers hurting as they are, that the AJC doesn’t have a Spanish-speaking journalist on staff that they could assign to assist with the Braves’ beat. Escobar can’t be the only one who is more comfortable giving interviews in Spanish.

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Carroll,

Thanks for the new blog. Kudos for talking to Yunel around the cages. I think we all appreciate the difficulties of a deadline and hope that you continue to ask Yunel for his thoughts on good and bad days.

I really hope that Chino or Eddie Perez or one of the current players can help coach Yunel to understand that not talking to the media is going to cause more problems for him than he realizes.

I believe that most fans in Atlanta love to watch Yunel play and hope that he can be apart of this team for years.

But in order for him to do that, he has to follow the manager’s rules. He has to pay better attention.

Heck, the great day yesterday made most folks forget what happened on Saturday.

Yunel just needs to grow up a bit and take responsibility for his mistakes and continue to get better.

That is all anyone would ask of him!!

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Wow, that was a grammatical tragedy.

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has anyone seen heyward lefty/righty spilts…. ya they are terrible

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Sounds like you handled it nicely with Escobar Carrol. Next time, I think he will talk to you. I think honestly though, the way he’s played in the last couple of weeks speaks for itself. I think he’s playing as hard as he can and he probably was just upset he was taking the heat for that loss the night after he was a big reason for a win that’s all.

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When Omar Infante returns and gets his feet wet again I think Bobby should put him back in the leadoff spot and playing second. Prado to first base and McClouth deeper in the order where he belongs. Let Omar and kotchman platoon and Prado swap back and forth from first to second.

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BravesfaninKY,
That’s what impresses me the most about Heyward’s numbers – his walk-to-strikeout ratio.
Seems like he has a great idea of the strike zone already. That can be one of the most difficult things to teach a young player (and he’s still only 19?) as we found out with the previous guy in right.

The fact that Heyward already has such a firm grasp is pretty amazing.

And I think he’ll be up sometime before the all star break of next season, might be the starting RF out of spring training.

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I’m glad to see a general trend towards thinking the Braves should stand pat. I agree, I think we should stick with the peices we’ve got and see if this team can do it.

We’ve got great prospects coming up, and the outlook for 2010 and 2011 is tremendous, so there’s no way you’d want to mortgage any part of that.

Especially considering the Braves, unlike previous seasons, have no glaring weaknesses. The offense has started to come around since we traded the amiable out machine, the bullpen has mostly been solid (but obviously overworked), and the starters have been more than anyone could have hoped for.

We have a good chance to compete this year with the team we have (especially when we get Infante, Hudson, and yes, even KJ back). We have an even better chance to compete next year if don’t trade key prospects. So let’s give it a go and see what these guys can do.

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Any ideas on what the Braves do when/if Tim Hudson comes back this year and performs well? Bullpen? Starter?- if so, who gets the boot from the rotation? Do they pick up Hudson’s $12million option for 2010? Trade Kawikami and admit it was a mistake signing him? Trade Vasquez?-which would be a huge mistake! So many questions, so few answers.

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The only lefty/righty splits I can find for Hewyard are just for his time in AA — where he’s had a GRAND total of 11 at-bats against leftys.
In those at bats, he’s 2 for 11 with a double, triple and four walks.

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Kawakami has allowed 3 runs or less in something like 12 of his last 13 starts. It was NOT a mistake signing him. Not in the least bit.

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Riaan Spanjer-Furstenburg is the noise I make when I throw up from drinking too much.

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kirkinga -

Nicely done @ 2:22.

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Who nominates the player of the week candidates? Anyone know? I like that Loaf was also in the mix.

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IMO- If Escobar is getting paid decent money..why not take the time to learn English? Seems like all the other “Caribbean” athletes know some basic stuff..what makes Cuba so different?
McLouth/Church- really starting to frustrate me with their lack of hitting. Someone may have to correct my stats..but McLouth doesn’t have a hit since returning from the All Star Break?
Tim Lincecum (sp?)- Tell me he doesn’t look like Mitch from Dazed and Confused!!

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When Omar Infante returns and gets his feet wet again I think Bobby should put him back in the leadoff spot and playing second.

It’s going to take a little more than getting his feet wet. Dude had all sorts of problems hitting for two months after he came back from the injury last year. Some here think he’s going to come off the DL and rake, and that is pretty optimistic.

There is no scenario in which moving players around like Strat-O-Matic makes the offense appreciably better from a personnel standpoint. And calls for the likes of Brooks Conrad, Matt Young, and Barbaro Canizares to get playing time…Holy Cornelia.

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Roy Hobbs -

Bad post when you started talking about “two of the worst trades in MLB history.”

They weren’t that bad, most of those guys didn’t have a position on the MLB roster (except Wainwright).

Get over it, and quit being so dramatic.

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Heath Gosh I hope the Braves don’t let me down by laying an egg.

Me, too. That would be disgusting…

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Lincecum does look like Mitch.
Hopefully the Braves treat him like O’Banion —- wait for him right outside the outfield fence, get him in the parking lot and then knock the tar out of him with their wooden paddles. Metaphorically speaking of course.

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MiltonDawg……….what makes Cuba so different? Really? It could be the fact that the US has upheld an embargo against them since before Yunel Escobar was born? All travel by Americans to Cuba has been against the law since before he was born………..Seriously

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Nice job, Carroll – I agree that what the Braves did was good and hopefully it went a long way in shoring up relations between the fans and the front office (they took a hit this winter).

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Russell, Abreu has 7 homers this year – not exactly a power-hitter. And he has a .970 fielding percentage. I’ll keep Kawakami.

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Back to Cuba. I used the DVR to record a film on OvationTV of Dizzy Gillespie in Havana in the 70s. Not only do you hear they rhythms of Dizzy and of Cuba and how they work together, but he also talks about the language and dialects. Anyway, as it relates to Yunel, he has that Cuban swagger. Watch how he takes an extra step before throwing, just because he has such power in his arm and he wants to be accurate. Watch him hit. Compare to other Cubans. The Baby Bull Orlando Cepeda, Jose Canseco, Livan Hernandez and El Duque. Dizzy’s jazz and Cuban music. Yunel and baseball.

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Media please leave Escobar alone. The is getting on base and driving in runs, that are really in short supply in this line up. Since you recognize there is a language barrier, good game or bad game, just do not bother the guy. Basically, he damned if does or does not talk to you guys. Things will remain smooth in Braves professional dressing room and you want waste your precious deadline time to do your job. It’s his choice to learn to speak English, just as it was your choice not to learn to speak Spanish. Bring your own interpeter or let it be!!

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civilized white trash- Heyward has only 11 AB’s against lefties. While batting .182 against them is not ideal…. it’s only 11 AB’s. Not enough to say “terrible”.

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Do you think Escobar sits around wondering why ethnocentric fans call the way he was raised to play the game ‘hot-dogging’ and not ‘artistic’?

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Atticus- Can’t trade Lowe for a few reasons. One, the Braves over paid to get him. That contract is not very tradable. Second, if the braves ever want to sign a player again they shouldn’t trade him. Nothing tells the next wave of free agents to sign witht the Braves as much as “Sign with us but you better do well and not have a rough stretch. If you do you’re out the door”.

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If lack of speed could knock a player out of the majors, Bruce Benedict would have never graced a diamond.

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Slugger, sorry, you are correct. There would be no place on the Braves roster for Jason Marquis and his 12 wins, or for Adam Wainwright. Its always better to spend money on free agents than grow the guys at home….

Slugger, sorry, you are correct. There would be no place in the Braves farm system for Neftali Feliz. The number one prospect in the Rangers org and number 10 in all of Baseball. Certainly no room for him. Elvis Andrus would also be a horrible fit in the Braves org. No room for an up and coming shortstop. Its not like the Braves could trade Escobar or move him to 3B at some point.

Keep on drinking the kool aid.

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Heyward might only be 2-11 against LH’s, but those two hits were a double and a triple. he has 4 walks and 1 strikeout and a mid 400 obp.

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Tom Lasorda said Benedict ran like a pregnant woman in heels.

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1. Carroll, I’m certainly aware of the differences between AAA stats and ML stats. And I recognize that Norton’s ML stats are pathetic. Yes he was a great PH a few years ago. Before that, Hank Aaron was a great power hitter, but I don’t think we want to bat him third tonight. Norton’s expiration date was 2008, and no one told Bobby.

2. Kotchman is a one-tool player. Does his defense make up for the runs he doesn’t drive in, with his endless grounders to second? Some of you make it sound like he’s valuable only because our other infielders can’t make a decent throw to first. When other good corner infielders around the league have 60-70 RBI at the mid-point of the season, I really have to question whether Kotchman’s magical mitt has saved 40 runs this year at 1B.

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What Lasorda actually said was, “If Bruce Benedict was racing a pregnant woman, he would come in 3rd.” Add Kotchman to the mix, and Benedict is still 3rd.

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Daslied -

Agreed. For this team KK > Abreu.

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Curtis – yes and no, er maybe

He may not have saved xx runs but on many of his plays he may have saved us runs/runners that would have cost us those 1 run games… I think we are actually over 500 this year in 1 run games whereas we know how poorly they have turned out the last 3 seasons where we are way under 500 in 1 run efforts.

CK is and never will be a power bat but he is not as bad as your 1 tool belief implies either

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There would be no place on the Braves roster for Jason Marquis and his 12 wins

Well, the Braves didn’t have to put up with those years when he was a 4.5+ disaster, so, yeah, there might be a place for him…now, LOL. Unfortunately, the choking dog that lives within him might show up to bark, right after you landed him.

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UNCBrave: Come on now. Get real.

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Those who would minimize the impact that Kotchman’s glove has on runs allowed, don’t watch/listen to many games, or they have selective hearing.

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UNCBrave-

I’m assuming that was a joke.

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Daslied: Ok, so Abreu’s HR total might not be that high, but he is hitting .306 with 60 RBI and 19 SB at the price of $5 million/year. Those numbers would help the Braves a lot better than Kawakami’s 5-7 record and $8.3 million salary!

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Robert (Chipper Is The Best)- I think if the Braves can get in they will do some real damage with that rotation. I would rather have great pitching. It just seems pitching takes a team further than offense in the playoffs. Now getting to the playoffs…. that’s a different story.

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dogsbrekky

What for me is puzzling about Kotchman, is that sometimes he crushes the ball, but not often enough.

But yet, if our offense were playing all season as they have been playing lately, he would have quite a few more RBI’s at this point.

He is a legit 290/12/75 guy in the right lineup.

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Ned Yost is a Bobby Cox clone. What about giving Eddie Perez a shot? And I am OK with Snitker at third.

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seriously? who would waste time predicting the coach/managers in 2015?…

Geez some of the stuff you see on here…what a waste of time…

if it wasn’t for the great info provided by DOB & CR one could not bear some of the stuff written on here

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scoots
I wasnt assuming he would come right back and rake. I should have said if and when he gets hot like he was when he got hurt. That could be the best ball hes played in his career, so maybe with that confidence it wont take as long to bounce back this time.

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Wayne – I have always and will always defend Casey Kassum on his glove alone and I was always of the belief that the rbi is a reflction of those around you and the type of situations one finds themself in etc etc… we had awesome teams in the 1990s with hitters far worse than CK

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Wouldn’t the blog be fun if the Braves fell apart?

Yep.

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Wayne in Utah- “Team Moral” Maybe? That’s all I got about the usefulness of TP

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I do like Escobar, a great deal. I am annoyed when people assume someone from Cuba should speak English. I do agree that he should be learning it, and would guess that he probably is.

As to Marquis, it just seems like a recurring theme is developing. Coaches in Atlanta cant get through to someone so we need to get rid of him. That and everyone seems to think the Braves get the best of every trade they make.

The fact that Management did not figure out how to fix the outfield in the offseason is not a reason to panic now and trade the future for a run at a first round exit from the playoffs.

Sorry, perhaps they were not among the worst in MLB History, but they were very bad. One last supporting point. Separate trades, but Perez, Andrus, and Gorkys are ALL higher ranked prospects than Freddie Freeman. Yes, they may not pan out, but alot of people on here are calling Freeman our savior at 1B. It might be nice to have three more top 50 prospects in the system as well, the future would be much brighter.

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Piedmont Blues

Last year, the Phillies peaked at the perfect time. Let’s hope this year, they hit their stride a bit early.

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Geez, just think where we would be if Bobby and Leo could’ve gotten along with Tim Spooneybarger.

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It might be nice to have three more top 50 prospects in the system as well, the future would be much brighter

Your system is gonna look a bit weak after you graduate Hanson, Schafer and Medlen from it, three legit top-100 guys.

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In fairness to Pendleton, this offense was great until this year. Let’s keep in mind the previous three seasons the Braves had one of the best offenses in the NL. The reason they couldn’t win is because of their atrocious pitching.

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UNC Brave,
WTH are you talking about? Haven’t seen anything saying the Sox were gonna release Smoltz, nor has his performance warranted it.

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MiltonDawg – “politics aside- how long has he been in the country and learn some decent amount of english?”

You’ve most likely been here a lot longer than he has and your English sucks! This may be the worst defense of an argument I’ve ever read.

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Well, if I only derived my entertainment from watching the games, I don’t think I’d blog here. I was a Braves fan for twenty years before I first commented here in 2005. The reasons I come back are:

1) I get bored easily.
2) The blog is funny.
3) I’ve learned a couple of things.
4) DOB has expanded my musical catalog.
5) I get to make smartass comments.
6) I get to make smartass comments.

My fan experience with the Braves would be healthier if I didn’t blog here, but health sucks.

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Kudos to Carol for this blog. Very smart, insightful stuff. Probably my favorite work by her.

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Roy Hobbs…………..I disagree with your assessment in your 2:37pm posting where you say that the Teixeria trade was one of the worst in MLB history. I think that it remains to be seen whether this trade turns out to be anything other than a “wash”.

It wasnt like the Braves didnt get “any” value from the trade. Teixeria gave us a VERY GOOD year (last half of 2007, first half of 2008). Plus the Braves got 1/2 a season of Ron Mahay (who pitched pretty good as a left handed specialist out of the bullpen). Also, we ended up trading Teixera for Casey Kotchman (who is being somewhat productive for us).

Let’s take a CLOSER look at who we gave up in that trade and their abilities:

1. Matt Harrison: From what I’ve seen of this guy, he is basically the white “Horatio Ramirez”, a left hander with promise who cant stay healthy. Let’s look at his stats: In 11 starts this year, he has pitched 63 1/3 innings, given up 81 hits, 43 earned runs, 23 walks, 34 strikeouts, with an ERA of 6.11. For his career, in 26 starts he has pitched 147 innings, given up 181 hits, 94 earned runs, 54 walks, 76 strikeouts, with an ERA of 5.76.

Uh………why in the world would you guys be “losing sleep” over losing this guy? He wouldnt even be starting for us, lol.

2. Jared Saltalamacchia: This guy will bounce between catching and playing first base (neither of which he is particularly good at playing). Let’s look at his stats this year: batting .241 in 241 at-bats, 11 doubles, 6 homers, 29 RBIs, 17 walk, 88 strikeouts and .653 OPS. For his career, he is batting .254 in 747 at-bats, 37 doubles, 20 homers, 88 RBIs, 67 walks, 237 strikeouts, and .703 OPS.

Again, very UNIMPRESSIVE. I see no reason to lose any sleep over trading him. He’s a journeyman at best.

3. Elvis Andrus: While he is young and can field his position pretty good, he has a very weak bat right now. There is no guarantee that he will “fill out” and become a pretty good hitter. This year, he is batting .254 in 246 at-bats with 4 doubles, 5 triples, 3 homers, 16 RBIs, 20 walks, 40 strikeouts, and .659 OPS.

Again, not very impressive. I know that this is his first season, so I recognize that he has “potential”. However, it remains to be seen whether he will be anything more than a light hitting, slick fielding short stop. He could “fill out” and be a Yunel Escobar type hitter. However, that is a BIG if.

4. Neftali Feliz………..sure, dude is a flame thrower who has shown promise in the Minors. However, many a flame thrower has “flamed out” once they get to the Majors. He has the potential to be a closer in the Majors. However, its “potential”, far from a sure thing. As much as the Rangers need pitching, why hasnt he been called up?

From what I have seen of this trade, I see no reason to get upset about the trade. None of these guys that we traded have shown me that they are a “sure thing” for making the Braves regret trading them. Many of you guys follow what the national media said about the Braves giving up the farm in this trade. As far as I’m concerned, the Braves got FAR MORE PRODUCTION from Mark Teixeria in the one year that he played for us (plus we’ve had Kotchman for about a year now)………then the Rangers have gotten from the guys that they got from us so far.

In a few years, if those guys that we gave up are able to become All-Stars and really productive Major League players………..then I’ll come back and admit that I was wrong. However, I just dont see that happened. Nothing I’ve see has shown me that that will happen.

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Stats Debris, Norm Chad, S.I.com

I was watching a regular-season baseball game on TV the other night — granted, it was a stupid thing to do and I’m already paying the price — when the following piece of data streamed across my screen:

“Todd Helton is only the seventh player in MLB history to possess a .325 career batting average, .400 on-base percentage and .575 slugging percentage.”

You could’ve knocked my socks off with that one, except I was already barefoot and drinking PBR out of a can.

The Helton factoid is what I would call statistical debris.

In the old days, a garbage truck would come by twice a week to haul that stuff away, but nowadays this sporting trash is piled up so high so often, it’s too costly to dispose of on a regular basis. And so it is heaped into our living rooms and we must learn to live with it, like an evil mother-in-law who’s moved in indefinitely.

For years, ESPN has led the statistical avalanche. But it has plenty of company now. The Wall Street Journal covers the world of business and the world at large pretty adeptly; however, when it comes to the world of sports, the Journal has turned into USA Today, with bigger words. The Journal reduces all of sport to numbers, graphs and pie charts — it’s a statistical junkyard, with spare parts nobody needs.

The Journal even offers daily predictions. For instance, “Los Angeles Lakers 103.2, Houston Rockets 90.9″ or “Philadelphia Phillies 5.2, New York Mets 4.8.” “Scores are based on the average of 10,000 game simulations,” we are told, “and rounded to 1 decimal point.” I am somewhat thankful, for both my own emotional well-being as well as the emotional well-being of my unborn children, that the scores are not rounded to the hundredths or thousandths.

(I have another problem with the Wall Street Journal. Recently, it started a Monday feature in which someone watches TV all weekend; it’s called “The Couch.” Really? The Couch? Last I checked, I am The Couch Slouch. Have been for quite a while. Is there not some intellectual infringement here — well, assuming there was any intellect attached to becoming The Couch Slouch? Couldn’t they’ve been a bit subtler about stealing my shtick — maybe call the column “The Sofa” or “The Ottoman”? Why doesn’t the guy just sit in my lap, eat my Fritos and take my third wife? Please!)

The Journal ran a story earlier this year detailing how a couple of University of Pennsylvania professors studied 6,500 NCAA basketball games from 2005 to 2008 and concluded that teams have a 51.3 percent chance of winning when they are behind by a single point at halftime. In other words, when you’re ahead, chances are you will lose; apparently, you are more motivated when you are behind.

Geez, using that theory, the Washington Nationals should be undefeated, no?

Baseball remains the biggest sports-by-numbers perpetrator. ESPN litters the baseball screen with updated, situational numbers on every pitch — with a magnifying glass, you can figure out how a hitter does better when the count is 2-0 rather than 0-2. Speaking of which, I read the other day that the Dodgers have increased their “pitches per plate appearance” from 3.63 in 2007 to 3.81 in 2008 to 3.96 in 2009, which puts them second in the majors.

Here’s an actual sentence from a recent USA Today story: “Earned runs are constructed from a confluence of events.” Frankly, I thought I had stumbled onto a crime story and was about to digest a police toxicology report. But it was an article on ERA and what affects it. It included the following words on Atlanta Braves pitcher Jair Jurrjens:

“…a low 5.2 strikeout rate and 1.6 K/BB ratio are worrisome. His .260 BA-BIP and 84 percent strand rate are both primed for regression. Jurrjens’ 5.03 xERA is nearly three runs higher than his actual ERA, an ominous indicator.”

Heck, I’m scared.

Okay, folks, here’s a stat for you:

Nobody gets out alive. Nobody. So enjoy it while you can, and I’ll see ya 6.0 feet under.

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What do you guys think should happen when Hudson comes back? Is he in the rotation or bullpen? Could there be a trade brewing (Vasquez)in anticipation of getting Hudson back?

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Fleming……in addition, many people are calling for Prado to play first base. I love watching Prado. Its great seeing someone provide spark and play hard like that, but it would not be long before people were pointing out that Prado was providing no power at 1b and saying he also needed to be moved.

I dont love Kotchman, but the guy is actually playing above his career numbers, and showing a little improvement over last year, and he plays great defense. If what he is doing is not what the Braves expected they were not doing thier homework. I think they are hoping he will grow into a 40 double 20 HR guy who can hit .280, draw some walks, and play gold glove defense at 1B. He is not there, but he is not light years away either.

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nolie- I didn’t read your entire post, just the first couple of paragraphs. One of my pet peeves is “combo stats”. Example: Player X is one of 4 major leaguers with 200 HR, 600 doubles, 300 SB, 900 runs and 200 go ahead RBI.

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Red Sox release or DFA Smoltz and back to Atlanta as a reliever maybe???

Then trade Gonzalez for a BAT

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Jersey Gil– Thanks for the correction on Cepeda. I suppose I should have done a Wikipedia check before that post, but somehow he seemed Cuban to me. I loved watching him play for the Braves. But my favorite in those days was the great Rico Carty.

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nolie, I get a kick out of those weird “the Braves are 14-3 in day games starting with “S” in June” or whatever. Seems to be really prevalent in football.

scoots–yeah, some of JJ’s peripherals are a bit worrisome…

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Roy–I think we’ll regret Andrus and Feliz, but not Harrison or Salty. I know we’ve got Yunel, but never hurts to have a good amount of depth, especially given Yunel’s recent shenanigans…

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Paul Lentz

Get some new material. You’ve used that Tex trade post before. You’re getting lazy. How will Braves management take you seriously now?

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nolie – PBR = ????????

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I can’t say enough about Martin Prado! Can this guy hit or what? He seems to have a real level swing in that he doesn’t try to uppercut the ball, just hit it solidly. Also, you have to give Mr. Wren a lot of credit for obtaining McLouth and replacing Francoeur. The Braves are definitely still in it, however, I fear if they don’t win at least 3 of 4 from the Giants (payback’s a b*tch), then their season will be done.

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Speaking of the Marlins, where is Lou Vales? Does he only come around when they’re winning?

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Carroll — On you’re exuse on Escobar’s language barrier. How is that you have time to find a translator when he does bad, but when he does good there are other players who speak english that might have had a good day also. Come on. Give me a better exuse.

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Hey winterville, no problem.

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You’re wrong. There are certain pitches that you do not swing at on a hit/run (not sure the pitch Yunel declined on qualifies, though).

I’m telling you this because I know for a fact. (Slugger)

now that’s kinda interesting. I played catcher through college, worked in the minors and scouted for years, I never heard a coach say anything along the lines of “You don’t need to protect the runner in a H&R if you don’t like the pitch.”

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Russell………..I’ve already stated my case for Tim Hudson returning as a short reliever to help Soriano and Gonzalez close games.

However, I recognize that Bobby Cox wants him to be a starter. Plus, I’m sure that Tim Hudson wants to “audition” as a starter in case the Braves dont pick up his 2010 option. If he gets a few starts before the end of he season, then if he pitches well, his agent will be able to get a good contract for him from another team.

I know that Tim Hudson is a better starting pitcher than Kenshin Kawakami. However, our problem isnt starting pitching. We are not losing games because of starting pitching. The main problems have been hitting and wearing out the back end of our bullpen. The hitting has been addressed with the McLouth trade, the Francouer trade, and Prado replacing Kelly Johnson. Plus Omar Infante is expected back soon.

However, we still need to address our short relief. A big “move” was Jeff Bennett breaking his hand. The question is if Frank Wren can acquire a short reliever to help Soriano and Gonzalez out? That is why I suggested using Tim Hudson as a short reliever. He has the mentality and stuff to help close out games. Plus the bullpen gets addressed without having to make a trade.

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I don’t think it can necessarily be assumed that Hudson will immediately be a better starter than KK this season coming off the surgery . . .

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Not upset about giving up on Marquis. Before this season he was 65-55 since leaving the Braves. He is having an outstanding year from a “wins” standpoint. Wins may be the most overrated stat when it comes to pitchers. It takes offense to get wins. I would gladly take a 7-7 Javy before a 12-6 Marquis.

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Jersey Gil

Felix Millan (little kitten) was one of my favorite players when I was a kid. Tell him he is fondly remembered.

Jaglawyer

OK, so you like Jason Marquis TODAY. Would you be willing to put up with his mediocre numbers for the past how many years??? Gotta take the good with the bad, can’t have it just one way.

Same thing with Wainwright’s injury history.

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Jaglawyer…….if the JD Drew trade stings now, revisit the Tex trade in 3 or 4 years.

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Any doubt Peyton Manning is the BEST sports personality for commercials these days. The guy is MONEY every time I see him.

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Wayne in Utah …I will..in the Winter..when i visit my family, he is the GM on one team in Winter Ball in Puerto Rico.

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nolie, that 4:00 article is great LOL

Chop Chop’s reasons for posting here are great as well. ha.

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Paul Lentz…..The hitting has been “addressed” but the problem not solved. I like the moves you mentioned, but we still don’t have the offense it will take to make it to the postseason (unless we get lucky). Prado is hot right now, what happend when he cools off? I don’t think Church will end up being very productive at all.

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KennyP

Haven’t you heard, the Braves front office is constantly reading the blog, and acting on our suggestions. They definitely read those long posts.

I am thinking about writing some really long posts, so that my point of view will be considered. I am hoping to get an Assistant GM job out of the deal.

(join most of us in just disregarding some screen names, you will be happy you did!)

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Jersey Gil– Felix Millan was terrific, and so was Sandy Alomar (father of two more greats at second and catcher) at second a few years later. Felix never got the credit he deserved. Smooth as silk in the field and a good hitter too. Those Braves had some really good players. Guy named Aaron and Joe Torre and Eddie Mathews (can not remember when he retired though I sure remember his first game as player-manager with the storm delayed home run to defeat Sandy Koufax for Denny Lemaster.

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LOL Wayne in Utah

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http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/profile.php?id=1623129198&hiq=paul%2Clentz&ref=search

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“In fact, though, some Jurrjens’ stats ARE worrisome, LOL. Just not panic-some.”

He worries me. But I TRY not to be worried about it because he has still been pretty darn good(and people here will yell at me if I say that Jurrjens hasn’t been PHENOMENAL, like his 2.77 ERA indicates). That said, I’d like to see some more strikeouts and a little less walks. He’s been a bit Matt Cain-ish this year. Very good. But not very great.

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Jaglawyer……..In hindsight, the JD Drew trade wasnt one of Schuerholtz’s better trades. While Adam Wainwright will probably have a nice career………Jason Marquis was harder to foresee. Until this year, he has pretty much been a pitcher who gave up a lot of runs, yet was the beneficiary of good run support.

Regardless, John Schuerholtz is not different than players who go through slumps. Schuerholtz got the best of SO MANY TRADES that he deserved a “pass” when he made a bad trade. Not every trade was going to pan out He rolled the dice on acquiring JD Drew. He gave ended up giving up too much. Still he did get value from Drew (even if it was for only one year).

Schuerholtz made a number of great trades. The few he made that werent great, you have to chalk up to the man being a “human”. Just like when Chipper and McCann go through stretches where they dont deliver in the clutch and go through slumps…………in the whole scheme of things, I focus more on the fact that Chipper and McCann are GREAT players who will produce over the long haul.

Frank Wren has shown that he has the makings of a GREAT GM.

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My error, we lost 3/4, we didn’t get swept in SF. There, AJC auditors.

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I don’t know why people are afraid of Sanchez. He threw a no hitter, but before that he was basically forced out of the rotation. And he did it against the Padres, which are by far and away the most pathetic offense in the major leagues–even more pathetic than the Mets (due to the fact that Adrian Gonzales has been pretty shaky the last few months. Despite the no hitter, he has a 4.59 ERA. We should beat him.

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Mrs. Rogers, Barbaro Canizares was up earlier this year. He hit the ball reasonably well and didn’t kill them in the field. No one would argue that Casey Kotchman is a fine defensive first baseman but he’s about as much a threat to do damage at the bat as Rafael Belliard was in his Atlanta days. In fact, they are about the same type player. Great defense, extremely light hitting. Problem is most major league teams are willing to accept light hitting from a shortstop as a trade off for defense but not so much from a first baseman.

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That said, I’d like to see some more strikeouts and a little less walks. He’s been a bit Matt Cain-ish this year. Very good. But not very great.

Well put. His strand rate is a bit high, too. Low BABIP. That ERA will probably go up. I wouldn’t expect to see him end up any higher than 3.15-3.25 though, which would still be outstanding for a 23-year old.

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Epinephrine -

I’m not afraid of Sanchez. I think we perform very well against him tonight.

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But does Wainwright really impress you as a top-of-the-rotation guy? If the Braves had traded a true stud, CY-caliber, perennial All-Star for Drew, then I’d probably be banging on the trade, too. Wainwright, on the other hand, seems interchangeable with any number of good, solid pitchers. Not irreplaceable.

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TurnThePage, I don’t think Carrol is gonna respond to you… she’s too busy…(sniff).

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ATTENTION ALL BLOGGERS:

Unless you are DOB, please stop with the mile-long posts. If you want to write a synopsis or short-story, I think the AJC hiring. There, I said it.

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Paul Lentz, I hope we are both posting here in a couple years. I think Neftali Feliz and Elvis Andrus will make every one of us regret that trade. Anything Harrison and Salty do will simply be salt in the wound.

Its easy to recover from bad trades if you have an unlimited payroll. Its to bad the Braves no longer fall in that category.

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Roy Hobbs………..I took into account the age of Elvis Andrus and the potential trade value of Andrus and Perez if we kept them. However again, you have to factor in the performance that Texeria gave us the year he was with us. It wasnt his fault that we couldnt make a run to the 2007 play-offs. Chipper and Smoltz getting hurt played a huge factor.

None of those guys that we traded for Tex have shown me that I will come to regret Schuerholtz making that trade.

However, let’s take a look at a trade that happened after the 2007 season that shows one team having regret making the trade. Detroit trading Jair Jurrjens and Gorkys Hernandez to the Braves for Edgar Renteria. Jurrjens has ALREADY provided MORE DIVIDENDS from that trade to the Braves…….then all 5 of those prospects have provided for the Rangers combined. Pus, Frank Wren was able to parlay Gorkys Hernandez along with Charlie Morton and Jeff Locke into acquiring Nate McLouth, who has helped solidy CF while providing offense in the lead off position.

So if you want to look at it this way……..Frank Wren was able to acquire Jair Jurrgens and Nate McLouth for Edgar Renteria, Charlie Morton, and Jeff Locke (you cant include Hernandez because the Braves did not originally have him before the first trade was made). Renteria is no longer with Detroit.

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(join most of us in just disregarding some screen names, you will be happy you did!)

The man speaks the truth. Certain people should just be scrolled over without consideration, and if you do happen to read some of their post, its best to avoid the temptation of starting an argument.

Sometimes that person will relax and become ‘readable’ again, but often this is not the case. There are about 5-7 regular posters that I ignore 95% of the time… some of the names would probably surprise, some of the names would be obvious.

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Ha. Wow.

Makes ya giggle a little bit, don’t it?

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Can we stop calling Neftali Feliz “Perez,” people?

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Wayne– While Eddie did not get to play here a long time for the Braves, he did play for the Crackers in the early 50s. I saw him hit that homer over the magnolia tree in center at Ponce. But my favorite with the Crackers was Chuck Tanner with his ability to scale the right field wall. I remembered being so excited when he homered in his first at bat with the Braves when they called him up. He became a real good manager too.

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scoots- jaglawyer says he is from the same hometown (brunswick) as AW, so he has some bias. I think AW is a solid #2. The only connection I have to AW is….his ex-stepmom’s mother was my next door neighbor growing up in VIDALIA!

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Not just a little bit, Steve. I mean…wow.

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Come on Paul,now you are comparing yourself to ESPN reruns….

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Carroll: With all due respect, I don’t think we can assume that Yunel’s not swinging on the hit and run cost the Braves a baserunner. Hernandez was thrown out by a rather large margin on a pitch that was already a difficult one for a catcher to throw on. I don’t think a feeble swing attempt by Yunel would have made much of a difference. He may have fouled it off but that cannot be assumed either especially on a pitch that was that far inside.

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For science fiction fans, especially cabravesfan, tonight begins the five night in a row season of “Torchwood” on BBCAmerica.

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Paul Lentz posts.

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Curtis Jones: Oh great another negative prick on here. Wait did you just say we were barely in the race? Oh I didn’t know that 7 back in the division and 4.5 back in the wild card with 70 games to play was barely in the race. Casey Kotchman is easily in the top 5 fielding 1st basemen if not the best. Nobody is happy about 500. ball but at the same time we realize it was worse than that a month ago and we are one of the hotter teams in baseball.

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Curtis,
You’re starting to obsess, man.
We get it. Kotchman isn’t a power hitter. And he’s slow.

We’d all love to have Gonzalez or Pujols over here. But that aint happening. Kotchman is a serviceable bat (.280 and a .355 OBP isn’t TERRIBLE) and he’s a gold glove caliber first baseman. He’s not going to hit 30 homers or drive in 110, but he’s the best option right now. If you move Prado over to first and play Conrad at second, that makes you weaker at TWO different positions defensively.

Heck, he’s usually the No. 8 hitter. What kind of stats do you expect from your No. 8 hitter?

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Gotta Go. Adam 12 and Dragnet are approaching. You gotta love Retro TV

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Paul, I agree with your ideas on the Detroit trade. But, I really dont see how its any different than the Tex trade. Detroit got an aging player to try to make a run at a World Series and they failed. Atlanta got a player in his prime to try to make a run at the playoffs and they failed, and then could not afford to keep him.

Personally, I am not really big on the McClouth trade. I like Mcclouth, but I think they gave up way to much for him. I liked Charlie Morton, and loved Gorkys and Locke. I dont see this as a year the Braves can do much, and I was excited to think that Gorkys might turn into a prototype leadoff hitter around the same time Freeman and Heyward moved up to the majors. I know he is a prospect, and might not turn out. But its equally likely that the Braves will miss the playoffs again this year even with McClouth.

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Wayne in Utah…………….I’ll say one more time so you will understand, after this, I wont try to explain this to you anymore. I NEVER SAID THAT BRAVES MANAGEMENT READS THESE BLOGS.

What I SAID, was that management and players have family and friends who do read blogs. Inevitably, some of what is said on blogs and talk radio gets back to players and management.

Last night I gave 2 PRIME examples of that. 1. the “reaction” of bloggers and talk radio the day that the Braves released Tom Glavine and called up Tommy Hanson. It caused such an “uproar” that John Schuerholtz held a press conference the next day to address it. Personally, I didnt think that the Braves handled it the wrong way. However, Schuerholtz “took note” of the online and talk radio reaction and had to do something to address it.

2. The blogger who made a posting addressing the “possibility” of Raul Ibanez’s hot start being linked to steroid use. Dude didnt come out and say that Ibanez was on steroids. He just said that in the sports climate we live in, given what has happened in the past with other “older” athletes who put up great numbers………it would not be a surprise for speculation to begin concerning Ibanez’s numbers.

Well, word got back to Ibanez and he had a hissy fit. It became a topic for national discussion.

So dont tell me that word doesnt get back to players and management on what is said on blogs.

However, you are the kind of person who interprets “eventually getting back to management”….to……”me saying that management reads these blogs every day”.

I suggest you brush up on your comprehension skills.

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aha….Plato’s Apology

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I cant believe the hit and run with Esco has turned into such a big deal. To me it looked like the pitch almost hit him and he was preparing for it. The pitch had some movement and slid back away from him. I dont think he missed the sign and I cant blame him for reacting that way to a ball he thought might hit him.

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Curtis Jones: Oh great another negative prick on here. Wait did you just say we were barely in the race? Oh I didn’t know that 7 back in the division and 4.5 back in the wild card with 70 games to play was barely in the race. Casey Kotchman is easily in the top 5 fielding 1st basemen if not the best. Nobody is happy about 500. ball but at the same time we realize it was worse than that a month ago and we are one of the hotter teams in baseball.

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I used to think I was really dumb, but some of you guys make me feel Much better.

I know. Next to some of these guys you’d think that I just split an atom and manned the first flight to Jupiter. All while delivering a baby.

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Loaf shouldn’t you be at BP??

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Roy Hobbs, I think trading for an outfielder was a must for the Braves at that point. We needed someone, anyone, who could give us at least average offense at the position. I agree that we gave up a bit more than I would of liked too, but it was really just Jeff Locke that upsets me. Hernandez is a ways off. Heck, so is Locke. Were we really going to wait until 2011 for Locke, and Hernandez to show up? Who knows if they would even stick at that point. I’m not saying the Braves are going to go all for it this year and next, but with the moves they made this offseason, and the depth they had at the time of the trade, you can’t be that suprised they went in that direction. McLouth isn’t a great player, but he’s pretty good. And we needed a pretty good outfielder at that point, and probably next year too.

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Loaf shouldn’t you be at BP??

Just got done. Professionals like me only need a few cuts.

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Agreed, no way in heck that Esco can foul that pitch off. Shouldn’t have been hitting and running in that situation anyways…but there isn’t really anything Esco could have done with a pitch coming towards his face. Natural reaction is to bail, not swing to foul it off. Don’t think he could have fouled it off anyways.

I’m going to stay on the optimistic side of things for this series. Braves have to keep winning series and get an occasional sweep. Not like you can make up much ground going 2-1 on the time. Especially if the Phillies are going to continue to go 2-1 and 3-0 in series. Look we went 3-1 against the Mets, and still lost a game on the Phils because they went 3-0-1.

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ncscoots

July 20th, 2009
4:43 pm
Wainwright is most definitely a top of the rotation type pitcher. Are you serious?

Guess it depends on your definition, son. Maybe you could compare him to someone, so that I can get a read on who you consider front-line.

I agree that Wainwright is a frintline starter. I would rank him around the 20th best pitcher in baseball which makes him a #1 starter for many teams. I think he falls in with the Vasquez, Lacky, Oswalt crowd.

The guy has a 3.00 ERA and is on pace for 17 wins and 210 Ks. Last year he was 11 – 3 with a 3.20 era when he got hurt.

I would rather have Wainwright back than all the players from the Tex trade.

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Gboro Bravo–The best way to get great seats for games at Nationals park is day of or day before a game using Stubhub.com. I have season tickets in the Diamond Club section and tickets to a number of games three rows behind home plate and if they haven’t sold by the day of the game, I list them for half price. Those tickets all include food as well, so in Diamond Club seats for half price you pay $75 but that includes $35 per ticket worth of food and drink (not alcohol). You also have access to the Diamond Club restaurant if you want to go inside for a while. The cheaper seats are also plentiful and discounted by day of or day before a game, but you get far bigger savings from the more expensive seats. Hope you have fun!

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Leo Mazzone………….ATTENTION LEO MAZZONE…………if you dont like someone’s posting, either IGNORE it or REPORT it to the AJC.

I’m not going to refrain from posting my long postings, just to placate your ADD.

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anyone know some good places to eat in Baltimore?

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Paul -

Don’t regress, sir.

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And to add to the last post, it’s not one of those articles that’s a mixed bag, it is one article that just flows right into the Red Sox. I guess, Blue Jays, AL East, then to Red Sox? Was that the flow?

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but there isn’t really anything Esco could have done with a pitch coming towards his face.

That pitch was nowhere near his face. He could easily have fouled it off.

Hey Paul, can you get off the ADD thing? People with ADD aren’t lepers, you fool.

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Hey Paul – you live in San Francisco? Why are you a Braves fan? You use to live out here?

Just curious

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Sgt. Pepper

McDonald’s is always consistent….

(sorry, couldn’t resist)

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On a side note, I was happy to see how well Charlie Morton pitched on Saturday.

Me too. I hope the kid does well. He’s easy to root for.

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Salamander

I bet if we traded our 5-7 “no reads”, they would be close to identical.

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This from the Gammons article, I agree with:

“Considering Boston’s young pitching and the Padres’ lack of it (although 21-year-old right-hander Mat Latos threw 96 mph Sunday), a multi-prospect deal for Adrian Gonzalez makes sense for both teams. The Padres’ ownership is worried about the public perception if the team were to trade away Gonzalez. Fans? What fans?”

I know people have said that the Padres would be fools to part with Adrian, because he is signed cheaply and the fans won’t show up if he is there. But he is turning 28 next May and this is his contract details: 09:$3M, 10:$4.75M, 11:$5.5M club option (no buyout). Clearly, he is dirt cheap. I’d hold onto him through this year if I was SD, but with Kyle Blanks around, and serious talent issues in the majors and minors, why wouldn’t you send him packing for a Tex-like package?

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Heath (Cleveland)………….hey, I’m behaving, lol. I havent called anyone names or attacked them personally. I just addressed the fact that I’m not going to quit posting, just because they dont like to read long postings.

You have to admit, when someone “openly” posts that they dont read anything longer than a short paragraph because they find it “boring”…..then it is just TOO HARD to resist coming back with the “ADD” qujp, lol.

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Escobar shouldn’t have had to foul the pitch off, and it wasn’t an easy pitch to foul off, high and inside. If anyone should be blamed, it should be Bobby for hitting and running in the first place.

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Paul Lentz –

This has little to do with your entries because frankly I form my own opinions. . .

But since you’ve been busy correcting people all day long, let me correct you on a misspelling. . .

Jair JurrJens = Good young Braves pitcher
Jair JurrGens = Close to spelling of national brand of lotion

For your records. Now you may continue your assault on your keyboard.

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Charlie Morton was a real likeable guy.

I will never fully understand the constant rehashing of past trades. That stuff is history, and has absolutely nothing to do with what is going on right now with our team.

I know about the “those that refuse to learn from the past stuff…”, but that is for Frank Wren and his staff.

I know, its fun sometimes to talk about it, but we sometimes get fixated on these things, and next thing you know, that dead horse is a bloody pile of flesh, totally unrecognizable.

BTW, I am still ticked about that Lou Brock for Ernie Broglio, Bobby Shantz and Doug Clemens deal back in ‘64!

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Heath- I’m pulling for Pujols to pull it off.

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The A Bomb: Maybe when you correct somebody you should be correct. It is actually Jair Jurrjens my friend.

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Dang it! Forgot to add LOL before closing those parenthesis.

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Enter your comments here

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Carroll are you taking the afternoon off or something?! if you are, im right there with ya. ha

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hoho,

Very true. His posts are more about himself than anything else, and i skip the majority of those as well.

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hoho

Yep, I just checked and he is STILL talking in there…..

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blazon Damond Jim…

the way Dish is showing that tuesday game in their guide under ‘Dish Season Ticket’ suggests some form of ppv to me…hope i’m wrong.

On my guide it’s listed under Sports Altenate Channel 449 at 8PM Tuesday. That’s not under the “Dish Season Ticket” or “PPV” section on my guide. Hopefully the game will be shown and not under a PPV situation. We will see tomorrow night!

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that’s ‘Alternate’ of course! Danged computer keys keep moving!

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Sometimes I wonder if Jodie McDonald (on XM) is an idiot. He doesn’t know his Braves for sure, and he just mentioned that maybe the Giants should trade for Halladay, and then trade Cain for a bat.

Wow.

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Also, for those of you who don’t think we have a chance to make the playoffs- WATCH THIS SERIES VS THE GIANTS.

If we’re able to win 3 of these games, we are definately in it.

Then we get the Brewers for 3 games- another team that’s ahead of us in the standings.

Guys, we’re 12-6 over our last 18 games. We’ve scored some runs, the D has been solid and we’ve pitched well.

This is a BIG, BIG series for our Braves…… starting tonight!

GO BRAVES!!!

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Wayne – Not sure what all of that meant, but seriously, no reason to hit and run there. Yes, if Esco could foul it off he should have, but it wasn’t like it was right down the middle and he refused to foul it off. Even if he swung and missed, Diory would have been out by 2-3 feet instead of 4-5 feet.

There is a lot worse baseball being played by the Braves than not fouling that pitch off. No one can drive in runs, hit sac flys, hit sac bunts, etc. Not too worried about one high and inside pitch that was difficult to foul off. I’d be more worried about the 100’s of other offensive blunders by the Braves this year.

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Oklahoma

If they are indeed thinking of bringing Heyward up, I don’t see them waiting until September. Then he would not qualify for the post season roster. I would expect a call-up in early August, if it happens (which is not probable).

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Wheelz07

I agree with you man…this is a big big series for Atlanta…and the only thing is…we should have swept Colorado before the all-star break…

Poor Gonzo needed some time off…and we just let that 8-7 game get away…but that’s in the past…Let’s beat the Giants!!!

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Cards GM John Mozeliak seems less interested in Halladay now that he has “lowered his sights in the trade market” and the Yankees and Red Sox don’t believe Ricciardi will deal within the division!!!

Keep this guy away from Wren and Vazquez!!!!

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Today’s near meltdown.

I’m manifested with the only known case of “Barbecue-Obsessive/Compulsive Disorder.” Please bear with me, I can’t help this.

Any-damn-way, I was hard-core obsessing on pit-cooked pork barbecue from the early morning hours. I picked up a phone to dial the CPDC (Centers for Pork-Dependency Counseling) but hung up. My family performed an intervention; I performed their ejection. The whole damn world became a sick carnival of barbecue-sadism; I was reeling.

Then a friend picked me up, Bilbo’s, fine now.

Byeeee

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VaBraveFan – Agree with all of that except the stolen bases. Take a look at how many in stole for Pittsburgh in how many games….then take a look at how many for Atlanta in how many games.

Pitts 45 games, 7 stolen bases (1SB every 6.5 games)
Atl 35 games 4 stolen bases (1SB every 9 games)

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the Mets, for now, are the most expensive fourth-place team in history. Their $136MM payroll leads the NL.

Hilarious!

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What’s up Braves fans? Nice job your boys did on my Mets (or at least what’s left of my Mets). Hey, the Braves did what they had to do. Kudos.

Gonna be a looonnnng second half for me and the rest of the Mets faithful. See why I didn’t hate the last two years even losing out on the last day of each season? I’d rather have that than this. Oh well, so be it.

I still think the Phils are primed to start pulling away. They’re better than most give them credit for. They know how to win and they’re tough.

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Guys, we’re 12-6 over our last 18 games. We’ve scored some runs, the D has been solid and we’ve pitched well.

The Braves could have their own roller coaster at Six Flags. They already have a metaphorical one.

Okay, I have no idea what I’m saying.

But we lose Saturday in profoundly frustrating fashion and not until the second or third inning last night were we sure that they would rebound and get back to 500.

You have to admit, they have been looking like a different team the last couple of weeks but we have to start winning a lot more games.

12 and 6 over the last 18 but they need to do better. We know they lost some they simply should not have.

A 6 and 2 homestand would be really nice and it’s certainly possible but that’s how it’s got to be here on out.

I definitely feel a win tonight. Or not. We’ll see.

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Yeah he hasnt stole many this year, but i think he is definitly capable of getting 20+ a year. I think were less likley to run cause our offense is poor, no need to make it worse by getting our few baserunners thrown out.

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Shamus

It ain’t nearly dinner time out here. Your making me hungry!

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All this hate on Yunel for his mistake, but nobody saying anything about the top of the order not being able to get a run home with bases loaded and 1 out. Plenty of blame to go around. Yunel has won alot more games for the Braves this year than he has lost.

Perhaps the Braves, with a pretty big latino population in the metro area should hire someone from the Padres to help them with marketing the latino players and reaching out to the Latino fan base?

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That was a little redundant, I realize.

I kind of repeated myself over and over. I probably didn’t need to restate the same thought more than once or twice. Not necessary.

A little much and a little long also. What can I say? I don’t know.

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If the Phillies are able to land Hallady they will win the division unless the Braves pull off some sort of miracle for likes of Carlos Lee or Matt Kemp. But, I do believe with the pitching the Braves have they can get into the playoffs as currently constructed and I think Wren feels the same. If he can get a Cody Ross or Mark Teahen he will do it but no Matt Hollidays or Magglio Ordonezs will be coming this way.

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Like a drum McFann:O like a drum

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BTW- That’s a pretty soft landing afforded Mr. Escobar. I mean, really. This whole -Gee whiz, maybe Yunel has a right to be angry that we don’t talk to him after his good games? What? I don’t know what’s worse – him offering his childish comment or the local media buying it.

Talk about home cooking.

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paul Lentz

You are the most maddening types of difficult people to deal with.You possess an arrogance that shows through while trying to make others feel incompetent.You lack the quality of humility,which makes it very difficult to relate to you in a “human to human” manner.You must have grown up being constantly criticized.
No one should take anything you say personal,Its more about you…

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Yeah, that comment by Escobar was way out of line. It was immature. What would you guys be saying if David Wright made that comment? I doubt you’d be coming to his defense.

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Anders, any news on Nieve, I liked that kid when he was with the Stros, I hope the leg issue is not serious…

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Robert (Chipper Is The Best)

July 20th, 2009
5:52 pm
Yeah, that comment by Escobar was way out of line. It was immature. What would you guys be saying if David Wright made that comment? I doubt you’d be coming to his defense.

What did Escobar say

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MFin04

I really don’t think he would have to “wildly flailed” at that ball to try to put the bat on it. Dude has some sort of issue with getting pitched inside, I think.

Yes, Chipper has been a butcher this year. When asked about his game(s), has he smarted off about any of them??? Nope.

I am not saying that Escobar can’t be given a pass now and then. Heck, we all want to be cut a break now and then when we screw up.

What most of us DON’T do is smart off, or refuse to speak to the press (as DOB alluded to earlier this year, he speaks OK English when it serves his purpose).

BTW, where WAS that interview after the 3 hits last night????

Hey, I love the guys fire and enthusiasm. I think he has the potential to be a top 5 SS in the league. He might be close to that now. But, he is a disruption at times in the clubhouse. Some don’t want to see that, because it messes up their tidy little world of lovin’ Yunel. Eventually these things grow and blossom into a Manny type situation.

Yunel needs to grow up, get some good advice from other latinos in the clubhouse, and lose the smart ass attitude.

Some might say, “I haven’t heard any players complain about him.” That might be true, but which players do you think want to come out and openly complain about a touchy player they have to play with to start. It will have to get REAL bad before that happens.

It is real telling the things that DOB says, and the things he will not comment on, from within the clubhouse. He has been asked if Yunel is a problem in the clubhouse, and unless I totally missed the boat, he doesn’t answer that question.

BTW, I really hope that from today forward, Escobar lightens up a bit, and has a great career with the Braves. But in my heart, I expect him to not be a Brave this time next year.

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go cubs!

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