The Braves in 2009: Is a wild card such a wild notion?

ProfFish- let me try an answer some of these for you.

1. No. He will have to have a career year by astronomical proportions to do that. So far his career highs for power are 12/68 (not in same year). He’s young though and doesn’t strike out a lot, hardly ever.

2. You get .280/20/90 out of KJ then he’s given you a solid year.

3. Realisically no, to make it to the post season he’ll have to. Might need to schedule him off days to get ready for the big series.

4. Most likely. You need 30/100 minimum from LF. Asking each of them to give you 15/50 should not be too much to ask.

5. In the field he should be ok. At the plate I would look for a hotter first half than second. Think 04 when Jeff came up. When they start learning how to pitch him …then again he might ball out like Longoria.

6. We’ll have to wait and see. If he doesn’t don’t expect to see him in a Braves uniform next year. If he does then look for him to sign a 5 year deal.

7. Workhorses on the mound are good but I need studs up there too. If Derrick Lowe is your ace, your staff isn’t that good. He’s a good pitcher but he’s no ace. Other aces to consider: Brandon Webb, Roy Oswalt, Tim Lincecum, Johan Santana, Cole Hamels, CC, Beckett. He needs to have a year like 02 to be considered an ace (21-8, 2.72 ERA) not a year like he’s had in the last 5. Vasquez is a career .500 pitcher, nuff said.

8. Not always true.

The Braves are solid behind the plate and at SS. Yunel has to give you .290/20-25/90-100. Another question to think about. Chipper in the 3 McCann in the 4. Brian protects Chipper, who protects Brian. Who bats 5th and protects him? The Braves are most likely trying to keep afloat till Heyward and Freeman are ready. To have Schaeffer, hopefully Francouer, McCann, Heyward, Freeman, hopefully a producing Yunel and KJ…now you’re talking about nice mix of righties, lefties, veterans and young studs. Look for them to keep drafting pitching and power.

All for now.

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The problem is they don’t have anyone after Hamels, Ryan. Their offense is very impressive, but they don’t have the rotation, on paper at least, to be all that great. Who knows, though. I’ll take the Braves rotation over just about anyone else’s in the NL, with the exception of the Cubs and the Diamondbacks.

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Here we go baseball fans, bottom of the 9th, the “too many yrs to remember” vet., Mark “baseball” Bradley steps to the plate. Heres the wind and the pitch, he swings and misses, strike one. Next pitch, he swings….. and misses. Wow this baseball version of Hugh Heffner, still around after many years in the bizz, has one more pitch to prove he can predict a winner. Many people remember his predictions of the past… most recently UGA winning the National Championship…not coming to pass. But better yet passing away, now watch with little hope of him even making contact, yet he has one more pitch/prediction… and here goes, the wind up and the pitch, here it comes…swung on.. he hit it, and not just a “chopper to chipper”, a high drive, deep center field, way back, this ball is….
Well Braves fans we’ll have to wait til the end of the season to see what happens with MB prediction for the Bravos. But rest asured, we have a better team than last year, we will be in it for the long haul, and we should provide this city with something to cheer about. And after last year thats all we can ask for.
On a final note on my post today I just want to say how much I will miss Skip Carey this year. I still have that sick feeling in the pit of my stomach, when thinking of Braves baseball without Skip. We all miss you Skip, and your family is still in my prayers.
Now lets get ready to play ball!

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Unless they have suddenly learned to play the game “the right way”, I believe the Braves will be finish closer to the bottom of the division than the top.

Looking back at last year, aside from the flukish rash of injuries suffered by the pitching staff and Frenchy’s fall from grace, the most disappointing thing about the Braves was their inability (or unwillingness) to do “the little things” that it takes to win baseball games.

I’m talking about consistently making routine plays plays in the field, being smart on the basepaths, and moving runners up at the plate.

To be blunt, in terms of baseball fundamentals, the Braves of 2008 were shockingly unsound. As far as I’m concerned, these shortcomings reflected upon Bobby Cox and his coaching staff as much as any strategic blunders that may have been made during the course of the season.

When you can longer “out-talent” the opposition, you must do “the little things” on a daily/nightly basis to give yourself a chance. Whether or not these olds dogs are capable of learning any new tricks remains to be seen.

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Let’s not forget – Tim Hudson will probably be joining the team by the end of the summer, just in time for a whiz-bang pennant race. To know that we have that caliber of pitching waiting in the wings has to improve our chances of picking up a wild card berth in the playoffs.

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Offense reality — Braves have no power or speed. Rookies at leadoff do not historically fare very well. Wren says the team will hit a lot of doubles — good luck with that. I’d trade offensive lineups with a dozen other teams without hesitation, and that’s not a good sign.

Pitching reality — the key to the game. Three teams IN THE DIVISION have better starting/bullpen pitching. Lowe is solid, but he has not been an ACE for years (what is Freshmaker smoking?). Nobody but Hanson could put fear in the minds of opposing hitters. We had one dominant pitcher, who could have made the 5-8 game difference that might have squeaked us into wildcard contention (even without the first month or two), but he’s in Boston now.

Independent perspective — a situational lefthanded reliever just turned down two years and millions more guaranteed dollars in a crumbling economy to play for the Dodgers because he is so sure that the Braves will be bottom feeder for years. Hanson, Shaeffer and Heyward might change that in a few years, but for now you need to drive north to have any real hope of watching winning baseball.

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Bradley, that is a lot of banking and not much cash. Third or fourth, best case.

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Well, I’ll be happy with anything above 85 wins this year. Whilst that isn’t playoff bound, I think this year will be good rebound with next year being our best in a long time (Hudson back and Tommy Hanson ready to breakout in his first full season). It’s the offense that worries me, can they consistently score enough runs, or will they be streaky.

Go Braves!

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You are a blind homer. I am a huge Braves fan and I dont see them making it past the Phillies and Mets in the East. We don’t have a dominant #1 starter and I dont feel that good about trusting an old Lowe to carry the torch. Our bullpen arms have bad injury history and we won’t be surprised if one of Gonzo, Soriano or Moylan gets hurt. We dont have any power in our lineup…our top hr hitter might break 25 homers. We won’t make the playoffs unless we add a power bat or a power pitcher. Hanson can be that power pitcher, but what about the bat? Until then, I predict 82-80, third place.

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MB, When you take a “leap of faith” don’t pull up short. My faith is strong enough to predict that the Braves will win 92 and the Division. This year’s team is a plethora of young players ready to have “break out” years to establish themselves as true professional ball players. It might not be “91″ but it will have some of the same feel.

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Brian McCann MVP? Believe me, I’m a big fan of his work but he is still far from that calliber. The very few other catchers that have won MVP have had really strong offensive numbers. Brian’s stats are good and compared to other catchers I’d say we have one the best in the game but please don’t put that kind of hope on our second best player.

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It seems to me that there is one factor that everyone is overlooking. (Jair Jurgens) He had an unbelievable rookie year, and I don’t see any sophmore woes in his future. This is going to be the key to an absolute dominate year. The question marks will remain on the rest of the rotation, but so will everyone’s focus. I think Jair is a 16 game winner at least, and will anchor the starting rotation. If Hanson comes in mid season and we can get a little extra help from one of the other young pitchers like Logan, then I foresee a Young Guns 2 doming into play. Not to mention that Hudson will be back just in time to lead the team through the playoffs. So early predictions here is a 95 win season, and the Braves shock the world by winning the series over the Yanks in 7 insane games. Also, I know Chipper is getting old, but after last years batting title I think he will lead the team as the MVP.

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However deserving Mac is, he’ll likely never win the MVP. He will miss too many games to put up numbers to compete with Albert. Also, if the Braves make the playoffs, Chipper will surely get some votes too, maybe more than Mac. I expect both to have fine years again though. I’ll settle for makes the playoffs and both on the all-star team again.

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I’m still concerned about the near-constant injuries to our pitchers. I know the strength and conditioning coach was replaced late last season, but isn’t this a pitching coach issue? We had very few injuries under Mazzone but have been much less fortunate since he left. I think the wild card is in reach if our staff doesn’t break down (never mind suffer serious injuries like we’ve had) but the sheer volume of problems seems too high to be a coincidence and that makes me nervous.

Any unless I’m mistaken, Piazza was the most recent MVP catcher.

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“And unless…” Not “Any” You know what I mean.

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MB, this is really scary for me to say, but i actually agree with you…and yes, that is a first! i’m telling ya, there’s nothing like flying under the radar in sports, it gives one a silent sense of determination and that does go along way…i still say our biggest question is with Frenchy. now i know one player doesn’t usually make ya or break ya, but in this case…..

i just hope bobby doesn’t give him too long to see if he can produce. i’m thinking bobby is too old to wait on players and he knows this, so look for him to make a move by the end of may if he is not “GETTIN ER DONE”.

my prediction..4 of the Bravos starters will win 14+ games this year..and we’ll not have to make a trade come july with huddy coming back

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I actually agree Mark… I think this team will challenge for a wild card (unfortunately the freespending Yankee Jrs. have too much not to take this division). Some nice moves by Wren despite some missteps with Burnett and Furcal.

But there is still something Wren did that I just can’t get over, and don’t think I can move forward and enjoy the season until someone can explain to me… WHY did he offer Mike Hampton a contract at all? And the part that makes it worse… WHY did he offer Hampton MORE than he offered Smoltz?

I just cannot get my head around either move… it’s keeping me up at night, PLEASE, somebody explain so I can move on.

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I know it’s a Braves column, but Oliver Purnell and Frank Haith? Really? Haith would be okay, since he’s kind of just getting started in his career, and has done reasonably well at a football school, but Purnell is 56 and hasn’t done too much with Clemson. I mean, Tubby is 58… at least give him a call. I don’t get this search. i really do not. Grant would have been better than all of them.

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ProfFish and Scout

I think that what the Braves are hoping for regarding the rotation is that even though Derek Lowe isn’t a true ace, the rotation is much deeper than most others, especially the Mets and Phillies. If Francoeur can prove that last year was a fluke then that will take a lot of pressure off of everyone else in the line up. He is very capable of playing 160 games hitting about .280 with 20 HRs and 110 RBIs. The Braves are going to have to rely on stringing hits together and more aggressive base running in order to score runs though because they lack a true power hitter. The bullpen is a huge question mark though. Hopefully Medlin will be a sleeper and maybe be a Paplebon type rookie for us. If nothing else they should be able to compete with any team any night.

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Jesus Christ Mark – can’t you just keep anything to yourself and for once in your life not jinx a team that has a chance to go far into their respective seasons? What a buffoon you are. How is it that people who are actually good at their jobs are losing them every day while we have complete idiots like you still working.

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I think people are missing the point with the offense and the bullpen. Oh course the success of the bullpen is dictated by the health and/or the effectiveness of Moylan, Soriano and Gonzalez. All teams count on a few key guess at the back end to be healthy and effective. Obviously, history give us more reason to worry, but even with 2 of the 3 healthy and others such as Boyer, Bennett, and Campillo pitching in, they can do a good enough job.
As for the offense. People are concerned about power, but the more pointed complaint is about the lack of doing the “little things.” Not moving runners over or having good situational AB’s throughout the lineup really hampered our run production the last few seasons. In that respect, that is where a pickup like Garret Anderson really comes in handy. He is the consummate pro when it comes to having those type of AB’s. Hopefully he continues that, and guys like Kelly Johnson and Francoeur learn from Anderson and their experience about how to handle the bat in those situations. I think that if we do a better job of manufacturing runs we will be fine offensively, not because we will score an astronomical amount of runs, but simply because we will be better at getting important runs (late game, one-run game scenarios) and better at getting runs off of difficult pitching match ups (like scratching 2 or 3 against a Santana or Hamels). I am hopeful that we will improve in this manner and will be able to be serious contenders in the NL East and hopefully into the playoffs.
GO BRAVES!

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I love what Wren has done this offseason. The Wild Card is a definite possibility. We lack power and the bullpen injuries scare the heck out of me but starting pitching is where it’s at and with Hanson coming up (sooner than later) we are going to be STACKED.

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