Improved rotation, deeper lineup = 7-game Braves win streak

Uggla has hit Zito well in the past.

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sure cause all the other teams did so much better

I think a lot will depend on the next 14 months, nolie. I’d say most of us would be pretty upset if they continued to miss the postseason. I sorta consider us to be a bit higher than the Pirates, Padres and others. Gotta grab a playoff birth(past the one-gamer, so I guess Division crown) within the next two seasons…..

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Good still outweighs the bad with Wren, even if we miss the playoffs this time again. I just want what any little whiny bitch fan wants if we do miss the postseason again and that’s for Wren to be tarred and feathered.

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“Dempster is not going to be a Brave. He pitched his way off our radar by getting on the LAD, BoSox, etc. radar”

Why is that? Why would he go to the Red Sox who can only get there by wilcard? Not saying he may not but hard to understand why he would go there. Dodgers offensively are pretty weak. They may or may not win their division and probably don’t get WC if they don’t finish first. Braves are right there. If he wants opportunity to win, here is as good as the other places.

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“Tarred” – that’s how my stepdad says the word “tired”. Man is country as you can possibly get.

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No Diaz…interesting…

I think it’s simply a result of Chipper playing, and the team wanting more solid defense at SS with JJ on the hill than Prado is likely to provide.

Good still outweighs the bad with Wren, even if we miss the playoffs this time again. I just want what any little whiny bitch fan wants if we do miss the postseason again and that’s for Wren to be tarred and feathered.

I totally agree that Wren has given more good than bad, and my personal feeling is that he shouldn’t be on the hot seat at all. My comments were slanted more toward what might happen if the Braves underperform this year, not necessarily what I think should happen. I personally would get rid of Fredo and keep Wren.

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Anything with a change of speed and being located properly can be an effective pitch.

His change is Hanson’s fourth-best pitch; you’re lucky to see it at all. He’d be better off throwing a split.

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Oh well, can’t do anything about trades. Let’s make it 8 straight and put our faith in the decision makers. Late.

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Efrim, yep. Fredi has made blunders even my wife questions. That’s bad. Now if they get him Sheets (assuming he stays healthy and effective) AND another solid SP and they can’t even claim a wild card spot? Ewww … bye Fredi boy.

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even your wife??? I’m gonna tell her you talk that way about her

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Even if they miss this year, you have to give Frank Wren the opportunity to give it one more shot with all of the payroll flexibility.

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neither Wren nor Fredi is getting fired, Bank On It

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me too Murph

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Why not call the man by the name he prefers? I used to hate Woodrow.

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Sorry, I hated “William”

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the roster will be expanded by the time Simmons returns most likely, nothing should happen to any of them though Tyler might get sent down if they don’t wanta spend that 80thou for September on him

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Whassup Woodrow

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What do the Braves really need? Everyone is talking about another SP, but do we really? And at what cost. We have several options for SP, and now with the apparent resurrgence of Sheets, we’re looking pretty good.

Solid relief pitching? We have a very reliable core of relievers, plus Venters is coming back, Moylan is going to be ready shortly, and he should help. I know he had an off outing last night, but…so did Huddy in A ball, so did Sheets…etc. A great quote from those guys is you can’t pitch to those A Ball Hitters – they hit everything you throw!

A bat off the bench or a bat in the outfield? Ok, I agree with a good PH/spot starter in Left – but you only use him once a day (twice this Sat) – but what are you willing to give up for him? And if you get a starter, who do you bench? Bourn, Prado or Heyward? And no, Prado is an EMERGENCY SS! Not everyday. Or, is there a SS out there with a good bat we can get? I don’t think so, or we’d have gotten him instead of Janish.

I read on here almost daily complaints of what we’ve traded away for ‘quick fixes’ and how those players are now All-Stars! And the quick fixes either fizzled or left. The team is playing well, I’d welcome another bat or two for the bench, but the starting 8 are just fine right now. Simmons will be back in a month or so, Uggla will figure it out and Mac is swinging better, plus his defense is looking better.

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What up, cricket.

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Baseball Expert Tony DeMarco about Angels’ pitching trade options-

Greinke isn’t a big-market kind of guy, so I’d dismiss him.

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Believe me nolie, Brian knows his stuff and yes, he teaches me the game all the time. It’s ok.

DS1, you aren’t even half the man Brian is. Dipstick.

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okay time to go, getting really weird around here.

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Come now Woodrow – I’m not falling for that “Sorry, I hated “William””

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Trade the Rev or JW + Delgado for Zack Greinke?

Not sure who “JW” is, but if you can get the Brewers to agree to a negotiation window? I’d do that deal in a second.

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This is the year to go for it, and thinking they do.

Well, I’d always hope that they “go for it”, but one shouldn’t look at it as “this year is the only chance they’ll have”. That’s more “go for broke” than “go for it”. I’m definitely not in favor of that.

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Oh, and you guys calling for Fredi’s head—what is wrong with you guys? He is Bobby’s baby and he aint going nowhere. The only thing I have issue with is running. We don’t hit and run ever. We don’t steal (Bourn excepted). It seems that we are way too conservative on the base pads. I like FG and Wren and what they are doing this year. They want to win and you can see it in the moves they make. This is going to be a great season and with very inconsistent first half; and the great start to the 2nd half-I have a feeling this team has finally “found” it’s footing and I expect .700 for the rest of the season and the best record in the NL and only behind the Yanks for the best record in the bigs.

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nolie why would they send Yawnish down with an expanded roster?

im assuming simmons is back in august, so i didnt consider the expanded roster.

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Last 9 Starts of the Starting 9

_________AVG__OBP__SLG___OPS_wOBA_L9S9+
Bourn__ .371 .488 .571 1.060 .460 __144
Prado__ .297 .317 .351 0.668 .293 ___54
Heyward .286 .375 .457 0.832 .368 ___91
Chipper .429 .487 .657 1.144 .472 __161
Freeman .375 .474 .656 1.130 .462 __157
McCann_ .303 .333 .667 1.000 .407 __123
Uggla__ .138 .306 .241 0.547 .270 ___29
Janish_ .000 .250 .000 0.250 .180 __-35
Jurrjen .091 .167 .091 0.258 .108 __-38


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the cast is off simmons in just over 2 weeks, right? i think it will be only a couple more weeks after that before he is back, maybe with a brace or pad for his hand while he is batting. so, i expect in back a month from now.

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Uggla over his last 3 games (3 game hit streak) .333/.538/.667/1.205

Oh, the joy of small samples. But, I’ll hold out hope of great things to come, and this being the first 3 games of those great things.

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Oh, and you guys calling for Fredi’s head—what is wrong with you guys? He is Bobby’s baby and he aint going nowhere. The only thing I have issue with is running. We don’t hit and run ever. We don’t steal (Bourn excepted). It seems that we are way too conservative on the base pads. I like FG and Wren and what they are doing this year.

Wren has said in the past years that their goal is to get “more athletic” and start to run more. I like that development as well, and Fredi does deserve some credit there.

However, he still isn’t a great on-field manager, in my opinion. It frustrates me how slow he is to defend his players when they get into arguments with the umpire, hanging his players out to dry way too often for my liking. He also is WAY too tired to only using Kimbrel in a save situation, yet has no problem running his 7th and 8th inning guys into the ground (Jonny Venters says hi). He also doesn’t appear to have much of a process behind his decision making, such as when the shift backfired ONE TIME against Hunter Pence, to which Fredo responded “Maybe we won’t shift on him anymore”. One negative result is no reason to change a good process, and if the shift WASN’T a good process, why were they using it to start with?

And on April 21, 2011, he had Cristian Martinez throw a strike to Matt Kemp in the 12th inning with one out, a runner on 2nd, and JUAN F’ING URIBE on deck. That may be the single worst managing decision I’ve ever seen (and I’m not second guessing…I was first guessing at the top of my lungs screaming at my TV as it happened. I’m surprised the TV mics in LA didn’t pick up my voice from my living room in Atlanta.)

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there is no such thing as a two year plan.

Yes, I’ve said that. But I’d hope that Wren doesn’t work like he thinks the Mayans are right, either.

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But I’d hope that Wren doesn’t work like he thinks the Mayans are right

The Mayan’s didn’t have leap year…

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Keith Law had a nice article about Farm systems rising and falling in 2012…

He listed the Astros(previously ranked 27th), Red Sox(18th) and A’s(9th) as systems that have gotten better.

Systems that have gotten worse: Rays(2nd), Rockies(13th), Angels(15th), and Nationals(21st).

Part of it includes prospects that have since graduated and/or been traded away.

He said this on the Braves after being asked if they were in consideration in being included to the fallen category: Yes. Oddly enough, I felt like there were more candidates for the decline section than the improved section, even though overall it’s a zero-sum game (thinking of relative rankings rather than absolute quality).

We ranked 16th in his pre-season 2012 rankings.

Back third, especially after the trades we’re about to make. Oh well. Maybe we’ll get a World Series ring out of it.

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Oh, I forgot:

Geaux Braves!!

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The Mayan’s didn’t have leap year…

omigosh, so they could be off by a number of DAYS??!?

We’ll probably never get to see Game 7 of the WS.

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We ranked 16th in his pre-season 2012 rankings.

Back third, especially after the trades we’re about to make. Oh well. Maybe we’ll get a World Series ring out of it.

In all fairness, the Braves have graduated a TON of guys who no longer will count as “prospects” in the past few years:

Heyward
Freeman
Kimbrel
Simmons
Beachy
Venters
Delgado
Minor
Pastornicky

Even though they haven’t all been great, to even have that many players developed from your minor league system in a 3 year span is pretty remarkable (and if I go back one more year, Hanson and Medlen can be added to that list).

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But I’d hope that Wren doesn’t work like he thinks the Mayans are right, either.

Hah! No, I don’t think that will happen.

But let’s just say 2013 will be a big year for this organization.

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Dave Alvin played with X????

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In all fairness, the Braves have graduated a TON of guys who no longer will count as “prospects” in the past few years:

Agreed. However, if the last 3 drafts were better, we would still not be a back third system. No way. 3 drafts is quite a lot of players coming into the organization. Minor as our 1st rounder in 2009. Simmons as a great 2nd round selection in 2010. Lots of “meh” from 2009-2011. Stronger drafts would of been very helpful + added to a 2012 draft that was probably our best since 2008.

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nolie

July 17th, 2012
3:45 pm

I have no trouble with you phil, was just saying….
*********
I know.

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omigosh, so they could be off by a number of DAYS??!?

Taken literally with the calculating, the end happened last year, right around September 2011… Coincidence? I think not.

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In all fairness, the Braves have graduated a TON of guys who no longer will count as “prospects” in the past few years:

Sometimes, we lose sight of the fact that BP rankings aren’t a trophy, and we forget the actual purpose of minor league development.

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Agreed. However, if the last 3 drafts were better, we would still not be a back third system.

I agree. But I don’t think the Braves have necessarily done worse in the draft than other teams, they just haven’t done appreciably better. Like Law said, the Braves probably hold their spot at 16 due to the overall degradation of the systems around them. And those other systems haven’t graduated the players the Braves have.

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Welcome back DOB….thanks for the new blog. They’re more fun to read during winning streaks

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the end happened last year, right around September 2011

Well, then, this is obviously Heaven (since I’m here), and a Braves’ WS win is a foregone conclusion.

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I’m ready for Chipper to call off this retirement bull and reup for another run next year….

Play as long as you possibly can. There’s no going back.

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Good to have CB watching my back…lol

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Our drafting approach seems to be all about money. Will pass up a potential stud who wants more money and pick someone with a low ceiling but high chance to be a MLB player.

With the new draft rules, that’s no longer really a concern. No team is able to give too much money to their picks, unless they “borrow” that money from other picks. The Blue Jays draft was a very interesting study in this. They “overdrafted” a bunch of guys with picks 6-10, signed them well below slot, then used the extra money to go overslot on rounds 1-5. What’s interesting about this is that had they not signed those guys (6-10), then the money allocated to them wouldn’t have been allowed to be spent on other players. So in order to execute this strategy, they HAD to be able to sign the guys in rounds 6-10, or else they would have lost that draft money.

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Now if our starters could start hitting 7-8 innings to spell a remarkable bullpen – w/o Venters – and get them the rest they need for a forward-leaning September run…

The next two Minor starts will speak to whether the Braves ultimately pull the trigger on a trade… or not. I hope he does well and no trade is made b/c I don’t see Hudson back next year, as well as JJ, so the young arms will have to step into the breach in 2013, a good year to rebuild on the young core of Freeman, Heyward, Simmons, Beachy, Hanson, Minor, Venters, & Kimbrel.

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