If you don’t want to push Marte to left, or move Chipper there, how about Kelly Johnson? Sure, he’s hitting .235, but (a) that’s about a hundred points better than Mondesi and Jordan, and (b) his OBP is .435. Or let James Jurries blunder around out there. Sure, he can’t play defense, but he’ll hit and you can bring Langerhans or whoever in for him late. Same goes for Wes Timmons in AA. They’re organizational players basically, so who cares if they hurt themselves? Hell, Esix Snead is starting to look good at this stage.
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I think Marte will be up by early May if he continues to hit like he has been. Let him don the tools of ignorance behind the plate, or use him as a left handed reliever. Just get him some ABs. Sheesh.
At this stage I’d like to see Langerhans at least get a couple of starts each week. It can’t hurt to sit Jordan and Mondesi once a week each, to give Langerhans some AB’s. When they were setting the roster I wondered about keeping Johnson, since he can also play some infield.
Preaching to the choir Mac. Looking at Johnson’s stats game by game, I have been impressed with him so far this season, despite the low BA. We all know he can hit. He hit a laser HR off of Scott Erickson (I know, not saying much) at one of the spring games I was at. I certainly don’t think he would be overmatched more so than Jordan or Mondesi right now.
Ain’t that the truth Brad.
Hell, Langerhans went 1 for 3 today with a walk. I don’t know how solid the hit was, but hey, you gotta find good things to say somewhere! Let him play more often.
Langerhans’ hit was a solid one-hopper to right. And as poor as Jordan has been this season, Mondesi’s been twice as bad. At least Jordan’s been able to hit a mediocre breaking ball.
I really doubt the Braves will call up Marte unless one of Jordan, Mondesi or Langerhans is dropped or released because there is simply no roster space. There are basically two options are calling up Marte without dropping one of the three: 1) demoting Pete Orr as he still has option left; or 2) demoting one of the relievers. However, Cox will carry 12 pitchers no matter what, and seems like Betemit and Orr are not going anywhere. So, it would probably takes two months to convince JS and Cox that one of Jordan / Mondesi is a complete failure, and it takes Langerhans another month to prove he is not an everyday major leaguer before considering calling up Marte. I would say we will see Marte in August if not July the earliest…
Let’s face it, the Braves hit in some very tough luck today. They hit a number of line drives right at people. And if Mondesi’s ball in the 7th is another foot to the left, it might be a different game. The next pitch was a helluva pitch that almost anyone would have struck out on. It’s not clear to me yet that he can’t hit, but obviously he’s off to a slow start. The bullpen of course is a different story–it’s a total disaster. But two weeks into the season is too soon to jump to conclusions, although I have thought all along that the Braves are short in both offense and bullpen.
Agreed MWS- Solve the pen problem, then worry about the offense. Even with any combination of options available to us in the organization (Marte, Johnson, Jurries, Timmons, Francouer) replacing our sorry parts (Jordan, Mondesi) we aren’t going to outscore teams, especially with Giles on the Trainer’s Table. Till we start giving up fewer runs we gonna ‘ave a hard time winnin’!
Given my druthers, I’d find out what McCarty and Langerhans could do given two weeks worth of starts…