Heyward will be that big bat in the future. Dude is going to be a .300+, 30+ HR, 100+ RBI guy for years. Braves need to get another power hitter behind him and McCann in the lineup. Chipper will be back next year and assuming they decide to proceed with Prado and Infante at 2B and SS, then the top 5 in the order are set.

1B is the Braves biggest opportunity and Dunn would fit there well, but Freeman is the future so it'll be interesting to see what way they go. Glaus is gone and I assume Lee as well. McLouth, Ankiel, and Melky are all worthless. Diaz still has value as a LF pitcher killer and I like the role Hinske fills. Braves need to try and find a good 25 HR OF bat. It be nice if Jordan Schaefer could catch up to the hype. Maybe they can target someone like a Nick Markakis or Cody Ross, guys who would not be overly hard to trade for, but would be big upgrades over Nate, Melky, and Ankiel.

9/23/2010 2:41:05 PM

I think Freeman slots in next year at 1B because their is really not much else for him to prove in the minors. I wish we could teach him to play 3B so he could take over for Chipper but I think he's too big and his defense would take a hit.

I also think they will probably use the 2.5M/3.0M option on Alex Gonzalez next year and move Omar back to the utility role where he has the most value.

Would love to have Markakis even though his HR and OPS have been decreasing the past few years. I could see us trading one of our minor league arms or possibly even JJ since he is a Boras client and will be a FA soon, for a bat hopefully during Winter Meetings.

Some names that would be interesting and could possibly slot in the outfield somewhere. Colby Rasmus (even though the Cards said they wouldn't trade him), Matt Kemp (could use change of scenery), Hunter Pence, Kelly Johnson . Sure their are a few more out there

9/23/2010 2:57:08 PM

^Matt Kemp would be great. The trade with the Yankees didn't really work out too well for either team. Melky Cabrera sucks, I still get pissed thinking about that play in Cincinnati. Vasquez has sucked it up for the Yankees again. I guess Mike Dunn has been alright. I really wish we could get rid of McClouth and his $5M price tag. I'm sure there is a major market for OF who hit .190

[Edited on September 23, 2010 at 3:10 PM. Reason : :]

9/23/2010 3:09:51 PM

and Vizcaino, the primary piece of the trade for us, is very highly regarded and could be used as a trade piece if he can come back from that injury.

As well as he did here last year, I wouldn't mind trading one of our SP, likely JJ, for a bat and bringing Vazquez back as a FA to fill in until the kids from the minors are ready. He had mentioned retiring soon but we may could just get him on a 1 yr. deal

9/23/2010 3:20:13 PM

I think Mike Dunn is going to be solid reliever for us. Despite Melky's overall shitty play, the Braves will still make out better in that trade once Vizcaino is ready.

If the Braves do keep Alex Gonzalez, then they should let Omar go play LF in the winter leagues to get him ready to be the full time LF. Cody Ross, Rasmus, Kemp, etc would all be good pickups to become the regular CF.

The SP is pretty much set for next year if they are ready to proceed with Minor as the #5. The bullpen will have some question marks depending on what Wagner does, but between Kimbrel, Dunn, Venters, and O'Flaherty, not to mention Moylan and Saito, the Braves will still have a solid pen.

The Phillies will still be the team to beat as all of their key players are in their prime or at the end of their prime at the same time (Halladay, Oswalt, Hamels, Howard, Utley, Werth, Victorino, Polanco, Madsen, and Lidge). Some of those guys are starting to regress, but as a whole that is a powerful nucleus.




[Edited on September 23, 2010 at 4:52 PM. Reason : io]

9/23/2010 4:51:48 PM

hey at least we didn't lose last night!

9/24/2010 12:23:38 PM

Hudson going tonight. I am confident he'll throw a gem and get the team's confidence back. Honestly the Braves could have just as easily swept the Phillies as they swept the Braves. We were right there in each game. Heyward's error lost game 1, Werth's one swing won game 2, and then one damn lucky ball hitting the chaulk by Ibanez won game 3. It was not like the Phillies just straight crushed the Braves.

The bad thing is that if the Braves do make the playoffs, they've got to get some clutch hits off good pitching and they still fail to do that 90% of the time. They were simply awful with runners on in the last 3 games. Braves may catch a break when they play the Marlins next week as Hanley may be done for the season.

9/24/2010 1:50:06 PM

this is just reaching a new level of sad. it's like we don't even give a shit

9/24/2010 8:26:55 PM

^we had to know it was going to happen sometime

9/24/2010 8:33:04 PM

hopefully colorado sweeps, cincy realizes they can still play for at least home field in the nlds, and the braves can win a game to stay in first in the wild card

9/24/2010 8:51:56 PM

GODDAMNIT.


So fucking frustrating. Im heading to DC tomorrow to see the Sunday game. Not exactly sure why

9/24/2010 10:13:36 PM

just pathetic. now we can't even hit against shitty pitching. 14 fucking strikeouts against the nationals. put us out of our god damn misery already

9/24/2010 10:15:40 PM

Why won't Livan Hernandez just have a heart attack and die already? Dude has been torturing the Braves for 14 years now. God we suck ass. Cox made some really poor managerial moves yesterday that doomed the Braves. Maybe it is just time to hang it up and say the fuck with October. They'll be 3 and out anyway.

9/27/2010 7:40:10 AM

Just looked up Livan's stats to back my claim that he should win the Cy Young

I was really surprised at how awful his splits are against the Braves throughout his career

Maybe him running train this season brought back memories of fatass Eric Gregg and I've just forgotten that he hasn't done well at all versus Atlanta over the past 13 years

9/27/2010 8:00:59 AM

I guess it would be nice to squeak by and make it into the playoffs as a wildcard, but no matter who we play (cinci, sf, or sd) we will almost certainly be swept or win just one game. what a fucking shame, just a month ago we were on top of the world

9/27/2010 8:18:00 AM

If the offense can manage to get hot this last week (they won't) and we get in with any momentum, I like our chances with Hudson and Hanson at the front of the rotation. After that it gets real dicey. Doubtful to make it out of the first round, and no way we could win a seven game series. And of course there's the possibility that Hudson pitches this week on three days rest and is completely gassed come playoff time.

Either way, we're probably dead in the water and have some serious rotation and middle of the lineup questions for next season.

9/27/2010 8:22:03 AM

Sucks how fast the wheels fell off this season. Rolling along, then we lose Chipper and Medlen. JJ comes back, pitches well for a few weeks, gets hurt again. Then we make some awful moves picking up Farnsworth, Ankiel and Derrek Lee which have only made matters worse. Bullpen starts showing fatigue and now is just another liability. Team is a complete mess right now. I guess all of those miracle wins were going to even out eventually.

Braves never should have been in contention anyway especially considering how horrid they were in April. Way to boomark the seaon with two shitastic months Braves!

9/27/2010 9:10:37 AM

Lee's actually been great the past few weeks

And it's either him or Glaus, who is wrecked

9/27/2010 9:20:52 AM

^ Yeah he has been better, but we need a #4 or #5 hitter who is coming through in the clutch. Lee has not done that outside of a couple of games. I almost rather give Freeman the chance to play full time just to give him some experience in a pennant race.

Cannot believe Bobby let Venters face Ian Desmond yesterday with the bases loaded and two outs. Kimbrel would have come in and made Desmond look like a fool. Venters fell behind like always and then grooved a high pitch allowing the winning runs. Also how do the Braves make Desmond look like A-Rod? Dude is terrible, but had 4 HRs and 10 RBIs against the Braves this year

9/27/2010 10:24:49 AM

I mean, he's a rookie hitting .277, 10 HR, 64 RBI, 16 SB.. he's certainly not terrible, but yeah i guess only 6 HR in his other ~130ish games.

But hey, the Braves aren't losing! yet..

9/27/2010 8:40:21 PM

fuck, bases loaded bottom of the ninth and j-hey hits a scribbler back to the pitcher to end the inning. ughhhhhh

9/27/2010 10:48:24 PM

I know it's not all his fault, but we gotta fire terry pendleton. It is unbearable to watch us look like a little league team in the batters box recently, and he obviously isn't helping when it's the most desperate time of the year.

9/27/2010 10:50:38 PM

Bullpen was clutch last night in basically a must win situation. Cannot believe how horrible the Braves hitters were with runners on last night. Gotta start getting some hits when they count.

Hudson and Lowe both going on 3 days rest which still has me shaking my head. I'd rather have a rested Hudson going Wed, a well rested Lowe going Friday and let Minor face the Marlins on Tues. Who the fuck is going to pitch against the damn red hot Phillies? Those games count as much as these next two and while the Philly starters may not go more than 5-6 innings, you can bet fatass Ryan Howard and Utley, Werth, Polanco, etc will all still be in the lineup. Just seems pretty desperate.

As for Pendleton, it has been a roller coaster year. Losing Chipper really hurt the lineup because Chipper was still a nearly .400 OBP guy. Watching the Braves last night, we just cannot get anybody on base so the opposing pitchers have no pressure. Gonzalez is HR or nothing (dude has a .300 OBP) and Ankiel does not understand that you are allowed to take a pitch.

Hopefully Prado's injury is not serious, but it looked bad.




[Edited on September 28, 2010 at 8:18 AM. Reason : h]

9/28/2010 8:17:25 AM

Heard on the radio this morning it's a hip pointer and he's out for the rest of (our short) season.

9/28/2010 9:34:25 AM

yep, just saw a blurb on FSCarolinas about it.

9/28/2010 9:46:00 AM

^^ That sucks. Prado was already playing hurt and you could see it in the decline in his stats. Looks like Conrad will be playing full time again unless they actually give Glaus some games at 3B

9/28/2010 9:49:34 AM

Just announced Prado is done for the year (not surprising)

9/28/2010 8:02:52 PM

Someone needs to pick up a bat. Hudson is pitching a hell of a game

9/28/2010 8:45:11 PM

Why on earth would you send mcann like that.

9/28/2010 8:55:13 PM

Maybin just died.

9/28/2010 9:10:55 PM

Brooksie with the RBI triple!

9/28/2010 9:13:55 PM

3-1! NOW COL, SF AND SD LOOOOSE!!!

9/28/2010 9:31:09 PM

Great game last night. Braves offense is still , but Conrad and Hinske finally came through with clutch hits. Braves were very lucky that Hinske delivered because fucking Ankiel struck out right before him in a 1-1 game with a runner on 3rd and 1 out. Piece of shit, get the damn ball in play. Hinske bailed him out.

Hudson got out of a few jams and Heyward made a big play in the field. Bullpen was good again outside of the HR allowed to Uggla (dude owns the Braves like Chipper owns the Mets). Kimbrel is just flithy with his stuff.

Lowe going tonight hopefully to complete the sweep. He has been on fire since altering his delivery 4 starts ago.

9/29/2010 8:53:30 AM

So SF and SD play in the weekend series, IF we can pull ahead of both of them before then we would all but clinch the wild card right?

Scenarios IF Atl is up 1 game on SF and SD and worst case Atl is swept by the Phails.

SD or SF sweep, Atl still wins the wildcard by 1
SD or SF win 2, Atl is tied with the series loser. Does the tiebreaker go to H2H? (4-2 vs SD and 4-3 vs SF).

Yeah Yeah a lot of "IF"s

[Edited on September 29, 2010 at 9:08 AM. Reason : of]

9/29/2010 9:07:46 AM

yeah, that sounds right.

if the braves get to 91 wins, they're in. they can still get in other ways, but a win tonight, and one vs the phils would clinch it.

the padres and giants also play on thursday, while the braves are off, so i hope we'll know before our series even starts with the phils

[Edited on September 29, 2010 at 9:35 AM. Reason : ~]

9/29/2010 9:34:04 AM

Quote :

" Does the tiebreaker go to H2H? "

One-game playoff

9/29/2010 9:37:59 AM

I hate prado is out for the season. If heyward wants to help his chances at mvp ROTY he's gonna need to do work at the plate.

9/29/2010 10:12:51 AM

mvp ROTY

9/29/2010 10:56:46 AM

Yeah Heyward is going to Ichiro it and sweep the MVP and ROY

Heyward has been in a funk since the road trip, but was on a tear there at the start of the month. It'll be close between him and Posey although there are a lot of good candidates with strong rookie stats (Jamie Garcia, Chris Johnson, Venters, Ike Davis, Starlin Castro, Mike Stanton, Gaby Sanchez, and Mike Leake).

Johnson has actually been killing it for the Astros without any fanfare. Venters stats are still amazing and while Garcia is done for the season, he finished the year with a sub 3 era. Honestly I think Heyward will win it assuming the Braves make the playoffs. If the Braves fail to make the postseason, then that means the Giants did and Posey will win. If both make it, Heyward wins with the East Coast bias.




[Edited on September 29, 2010 at 11:18 AM. Reason : xdvc]

9/29/2010 11:16:00 AM

Nice to see Tar Heel Andrew Miller sucking

[Edited on September 29, 2010 at 6:04 PM. Reason : as usual]

[Edited on September 29, 2010 at 6:07 PM. Reason : and Lowe!]

9/29/2010 6:04:26 PM

Conrads first HR before the 7th inning.

9/29/2010 6:14:29 PM

You can tell Joe Simpson is off suicide watch

Dude is upbeat today

9/29/2010 6:20:23 PM

agreed

9/29/2010 6:43:21 PM

Freeman looks like Chippers inbred cousin.

9/29/2010 7:11:59 PM

weee

9/29/2010 7:33:35 PM

Magic numero es tres! Go Chicago cubbies and Diamonbacks tonight yeah!

9/29/2010 11:14:38 PM

what would happen if the braves win one from the phils finishing at 91-71

AND the Padres win 3 of 4 from the Giants putting both of them at 91-71?

hmm...according to this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Major_League_Baseball_tie-breaking_procedures the Braves would end up playing the loser of a playoff between the Giants and Padres for the wildcard, if I am reading this correctly

[Edited on September 30, 2010 at 3:16 AM. Reason : wiki]

9/30/2010 3:08:45 AM

that would really suck for them, but yeah they'd play for the NL West first. i'd hate to play back to back one game playoffs.

9/30/2010 8:54:31 AM

While I'd rather see the Padres make the playoffs than the Giants, I think I am just going to root for the Padres to lose to clinch the Braves playoff spot. I assume that will mean the Braves will play the Reds in the 1st round which, outside of the Padres, would probably be the Braves best matchup. I'd hate to face the Giants starting pitching in a 5 game series.

I hope the Giants match up with the Phillies and are able to eliminate them. Lord knows the Reds and Braves have little chance of taking down the Phillies right now. Is Derek Lowe going to be our game 1 starter if we make it? He's pitching like a #1.

9/30/2010 11:56:33 AM

If the Giants win the west and have a better record than the reds at the end of the season and the braves win the wild card then we will be playing the giants first round. I would much rather play the reds because we match up better, i feel like san fran's pitching will mostly dominate our offense, but I also believe our pitching can hold them down too, so it might be a real good series

9/30/2010 2:37:39 PM