Atlanta Braves : Official Info : Press Release
If you can explain why Adam Bernero made the roster over Buddy Hernandez, you’re smarter than I. Twelve pitchers, at least two of which (Bernero and Jorge Sosa) look to be useless, even if Gryboski can pitch. Orr, Langerhans, and Betemit all made it — there’s your bench, essentially.
Bernero must have found “The Pictures” in his Spring Training locker. Either that, or he has “The Good Face.” Beyond those possibilities, we’ll just have to have faith that he’s got something Leo can work with in a hurry.
If it doesn’t work out, he can always sell jeans.
“Peter Gammons reported that Tampa Bay is considering trading Scott Kazmir and Bobby Seay to Atlanta for Andy Marte and Ryan Langerhans, and our NL scout said, ‘When Kazmir calms down and learns how to pitch, he’s going to be nasty. If they do that deal, it must be that they’re not happy with his makeup.’
That’s an April Fool’s joke.
Looks like JS may be dangling Marte to assess his value. I doubt he would make that deal.
No, literally, that’s a joke. A guy at a Mets site made that up. I don’t think that the Braves would trade Marte for a rookie pitcher anyway, but it has no basis in reality.
Dude, you just got Punk’d!
As much as I think that Bobby Cox is the best manager in the majors the one thing that drives me crazy about him is his penchant for following what ever conventional wisdom abounds. 12 pitchers is an example. Poor Hernandez must be looking up Rafael Belliard and Keith Lockhart’s number right now to see how he can get a copy of ‘The Pictures’.
Smitty jump over to No Pepper and see the link to how that guy tried to punk everyone.
We’ll see how much Spring Training counts very soon too. If Jordan starts against the first right hander we see then his ST was good enough for him to be the everyday LF in Bobby’s eyes.
[We’ll see how much Spring Training counts very soon too. If Jordan starts against the first right hander we see then his ST was good enough for him to be the everyday LF in Bobby’s eyes. ]
He may well have won the job, but I think Bobby would give him the opening day start regardless. A respect thing.
Actually, I think that was me on the previous topic here, “Was Brian Jordan Really…”, tha ponted it out.
Now YOU just got Punk’d!
Rosenthal calls the Sosa deal one of the best trades this spring. Of course that’s not saying a hell of a lot.
All this obsessing over who the sixth righty out of the pen is interesting, but I’m more concerned with our first three righties being Kolb, Reitsma, and Gryboski. Yikes!
Sosa will be just fine in the Juan Cruz role.
It’s rediculous how you all question Cox’s decisions. There’s a reason he’s produced 13 consecutive titles, and you’re dabbing up drool stains off your couch.
Help me! I’ve been personally attacked!
Anonymous-
Of course we all trust in Bobby, but isn’t it the fan’s perogative to question coaches and managers?
Every fan is at times a manager, bench coach, GM, or even commissioner. Isn’t that part of the fun.
Why else do they publicize trades? One of the only cogent and inspiring moments during the Congressional hearings last month came from Sen. Jim Bunning (a great pitcher,a terrible politician). To paraphrase, he said that the owners, union and players were behaving as if this problem was none of our buissiness, but it is; because at the end of the day the game doesn’t belong to them, it belongs to us, the fans.
ASG, well said. What the heck would the fun be if we didn’t question the Brave’s decisions and either crow when we are right or eat crow when Bobby and his staff prove (as they have done over and over) that they are smarter than we are.
I’m ticked that opening game on TBS is at 4:00pm. I had better flex in tomorrow so I can see the first pitch.
Actually Anonymous, its 14 consecutive … Bobby Cox won the AL East crown in his last year as skipper of the Blue Jays.
But this team hasn’t won the WS in 9 years and has fallen flat time and again in the playoffs. The team has squandered resources in terms of both time and money and has made questionable personnel decisions.
Great does not equal perfect. And until Cox and crew walk on water, they are due for reasoned criticism and questioning.
“But this team hasn’t won the WS in 9 years and has fallen flat time and again in the playoffs. The team has squandered resources in terms of both time and money and has made questionable personnel decisions.”
If this bothers you, then question postseason strategies. You can’t possibly argue that the Braves would have more regular season success with less pitchers on the roster.
It’s perplexing to me how you can spit out these claims of wasting time and money. To most of the baseball world, it seems that Scheurholtz has been one of the most efficient in baseball in these categories. For every one example you can give me that was a waste of time or money, I can give you 5 to the contrary. For each “questionable” personell decision, I can name multiple brilliant chioces.
Instead of looking for negatives, why not spend some time on the more possitive side?
You say that Cox is due for reasoned criticism. I suggest you look up the word “reasonable” and apply it more appropriately.
Wow, that response reads much like someone who wrote a book on the purported Braves anti-Moneyball approach!
Since our host Mac has requested time and again for posters to avoid personal attacks, I will refrain from responding to those directed at me (“spitting out” … “look up ‘reasonable'”) but will instead ask instead that you provide a justification for employing Adam Bernero that doesn’t merely repeat that the Braves have won X division crowns therefore they are above criticism.
First off, let me say that those are not personal attacks. I don’t understand how they can be percieved as such, considering I used no names, and merely offered a humble suggestion. If a person thinks these are personal attacks, perhaps they’re reading a little too far into my responses.
As for this specific request, I have no reason to justify Bernero’s position on the roster, as I’m not the one questioning it. However, I don’t ignore or avoid questions, and will say that the assumptions made on this site are based purely on statistics. While these are without a doubt a valuable indication of one’s ability, decisions are based on far more. Is it not safe to say that a team of managers around these guys 10 hours a day have a better grasp of other, more intagible, fields? Potential, attitude, clubhouse personality are three of many examples that you can’t simply put a number beside. Not to mention, 4 years of major league experience cannot be overlooked. When looking at numbers, Hernandez seems incomporable, that is agreed. Fortunately, baseball isn’t a game played soley on paper. This isn’t fantasy baseball, where the best compolation of statistics wins. Until it is proved otherwise, why not give this staff the benefit of the doubt?
I give in. Bobby Cox & JS are never wrong and never have been!!! Also, it is not our place to question anyone in authority positions.
While I commend your attempt at using a hyperbole to discredit what I’ve said, I think you’re misinterpreting it by quite a bit.
Sure, question decisions, provide evidence, that is where alot of the fun lies. However, I think it’s taken too far when we discredit Cox based on one decision – a decision that we haven’t even watched play out yet.
I will refrain from personally attacking your creativity in your username.
Pot kettle black. 🙂
what are the odds that you’re going to see a mistaken “o” in both incomparable and compilation, in the same sentence? that’s impressive in and of itself.
I’m sorry. I wasn’t aware that this was a grammatical exercise. In the future, I’ll be sure to run spell check first.
However, since we’ve switched to dissecting grammar, allow me to return the favor.
Neither of your sentences began with the proper capitalization, the comma following “compilation” is unnecessary and actually disrupts the flow of your attempted point. As a matter of fact, the two spelling errors were not even in the same sentence, as you mistakenly alleged.
Next time, check your own grammar before blasting another’s, and be sure that your facts are accurate. Otherwise, it really diminishes your argument.
Okay, stop this right now.
Mac, to the degree that my response can be read to have egged him/her on, I apologize … the drool most have gotten in the way of my typing.
Back on subject, I agree with the original post suggesting that Hernandez over Bernero seems the logical choice. I don’t mind having a project, or even two projects, towards the back end of a pitching staff. Especially a 12 man staff. But here, it seems that we have a lot of question marks. Was Kolb’s first half real, or his second? Can Reitsma’s psyche hold up? Is Gryboski healthy? Can Leo harness Sosa’s powerful but wild arm? Is Martin done? And, after all the over-hyped prospects coming through the Braves system, just who is Roman Colon?
The Braves have done a very good job year in and year out at bringing in scrap heap relief pitchers and building a staff around them. But for every Hammond there have been two or three Travis Smiths, CJ Nitkowskis, or Will Cunnanes and for every Jose Cabrera, there are a handful of Joe Slusarskis, Matt Whitesides, Don Wengerts, or Stan Belindas. This year, the difference is that there is no Smoltz to anchor the staff and the starters have more question marks than in most years.