Macon Telegraph | 03/21/2006 | OFFENSE AWAKENS
This just in: the Royals and Devil Rays are kinda dumb.
Upon arriving to spring camp, Diaz learned that his depth perception was “virtually non-existent” after he was administered a test by an optometrist visiting Atlanta’s clubhouse.
To correct that, Diaz, who came over from Kansas City in a December trade and is competing for the fourth outfield spot, began wearing a contact lens in his left eye to balance his vision.
Since then, he said he’s noticed a marked improvement – in both his offense and defense – because of the improved sight.
Diaz flunked a similar depth test after high school, but no team – neither the Royals nor Tampa Bay Rays, his first club – bothered to have his eyes checked out until Atlanta did at age 28.
Definitely Mac, they are the Royals and the Rays…so, we can’t expect “so much” out of them!
I was watching the Braves-Cardinals spring training game the other day, and I was surprised by how good Diaz was in handling Reyes, who is a righthander. He also made couples very good defensive plays. The guy may be good enough to be an everyday outfielder/first baseman.
The thing is that if a guy adapts to being a .320 hitter when he can’t see, it’s possible that this is like giving steroids to Barry Bonds and he’ll really be something. Or not. A lot of the time it seems that these stories never work out. That being said, Diaz was already a MLB caliber player when he was blind as a bat.
Bonus story: Elvis Andrus from yesterday.
As long as I don’t hear any reference to the likes of Andres Thomas and Rafael Belliard, I am happy.
Perhaps it’s a bit unfair to characterize the Devil Rays and Royals as dumb for this. What about Diaz himself? I mean, if you have no depth perception, shouldn’t you notice? How did he get his driver’s license? I took a vision test when I got mine. When he gets in his car, how does he know when to put on the brakes to stop in time for the red light? Did he notice that he couldn’t see? Maybe he subconsciously learned how to compensate or something, but if he really had “virtually non-existent” depth perception, you figure he would have done something about it when he flunked that first test or rear-ended somebody or something…
Having poor depth perception is hard to understand because you don’t know what the world is supposed to look like. You still understand distances and can react to different distances, but not as fast as other people. I think about all you can’t do is become a fighter pilot or an artist. I have poor depth perception, and it only bothers me at night and in the fog, yet I have 20/20 vision. Weird stuff.
It must not be very important for playing baseball, because the AJC as a story up about a kid playing baseball who is blind in one eye.
More great news, Mac. Maybe Diaz actually will be the real deal, and our Craig Wilson-type fifth outfielder/power off the bench. Now let’s concentrate on getting Villarreal (and his beautiful, beautiful arm) in shape to pitch 50 innings.
Funny, I didn’t think much of it at the time, but Diaz lost a fly ball in the sun on Saturday. Maybe he should wear contacts and shades.
Maybe we should check LaRoche’s eyes too
I’m pretty sure that LaRoche’s problem is brain-related.
Jenny, a person having poor depth perception does not mean he/she can’t see. It’s like the difference between watching movie on flat TV and a 3D movie.
Mac, do I smell a sequel to the Dan Kolb Bolg for Adam LaRoche?
I don’t know. Kolb deserved it for his “Leadoff walks don’t bother me” comment. I don’t think LaRoche has done anything to quite deserve that yet.
Yeah, the rule goes that they only get that treatment if they say or do something profoundly stupid, like Kolb did, or like Lockhart whining to the papers about Bobby not playing him enough during a season in which he got 296 AB in which he hit .216/.282/.331.
Speaking as a person who’s never needed glasses or contacts, I’ll admit I don’t know much about vision problems, so sorry if I’m misinformed. I just looked it up, which I should have done earlier, and some of my initial conceptions were correct: it can affect your ability to judge distances. This doesn’t bode well for playing baseball, and given that I found this information on a driving safety website, I figure it would also spill over to other areas. Which is why I’m surprised he didn’t do anything about this earlier, when a test after high school indicated he had lousy depth perception! I feel like if they told him then, he should have been looking out for it, and this can’t be blamed all on the stupidity of the D-Rays and Royals. If my doctor says, “Hey, your depth perception sucks,” or “Hey, you have 20/300 vision in your left eye,” I’m not just going to leave it, I would go get it fixed!
I wear glasses, as you’ve seen, though my eyesight isn’t that bad; it is borderline to drive but not really necessary for other activities. Wear ’em anyway because I’d just lose them if I took them off. Anyway, I started in 1995 but probably needed them for several years before.
Anyway, the reasons for not getting them checked were basically a combination of laziness, cheapness, and the general dislike of people touching and otherwise manipulating my eyeballs. (Eyes are really the seat of identity for people, when you think about it, at least most people; “You” are located at the eyes, which are most people’s primary sense organs.) Throw in vanity (which is why my sister won’t wear her glasses) and that’s most of the reason why most people don’t get their eyes worked on.
Jenny, I doubt the high school eyes doctor will tell Diaz that poor depth perception will effect his baseball skills. Seriously, the guy has hit well in high school, college, and minor league. It’s not like he can’t see or anything. So, what’s the problem that he has to fix? Basically, having poor depth perception has not affected Diaz at all until now when a Braves doctor told me so.
I meant “told him so” in the last sentence. Sorry, my fingers don’t listen to my brain’s instruction well, which is the same problem Adam has.
Below is a link to Shanks’ reporting on HoRo outing against the minor leaguers:
http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news;_ylt=AnSFktncG9OThMqEuSDGsGoR0bYF?slug=citadel-2_511735_248&prov=citadel&type=story
Strange quote #1 from HoRo: “I felt good out there,” Ramirez said. “I was really trying to focus on my curveball today. I threw some good ones. I was happy with the way I threw over here.” Felt good about allowing four runs in five innings against minor leaguers? The boy really has low expectation on himself, does he?
Strange quote #2 from HoRo: “I’m right where I want to be,” he said. “I’m happy I was able to go six innings. I’m happy with the way things are going.” Allowing four runs in five innings is where he wants to be? That’s very strange. Also, he didn’t go six innings, he left the game with one out in the fifth inning. I have no clue how he did his counting.
Strange fact about the game: “Braves Manager Bobby Cox was at the minor league complex watching Ramirez pitch, along with his entire coaching staff: pitching coach Roger McDowell, bench coach Pat Corrales, bullpen coach Bobby Dews, third base coach Fredi Gonzalez, and first base coach Glenn Hubbard.” The whole coaching staff went to the game to watch HoRo pitched? I hope they are either 1) watching the plays of the other minor leaguers or 2) discussing among themselves if it’s worth the time to keep HoRo on the major league roster.
Thanks for that link to the Shanks article! Now that’s the kind of minor league information I’ve been looking for!!
From his article, he says:
“Ivan Terrazas , a natural outfielder, is also seeing some time at first base.”
No news there….Terrazas played a lot of first last year at Rome. Given the recent news of Burrus and Esquivel trying out first and the never-ending speculation about Salty, the Terrazas news shouldn’t add to that speculation.
Hey Jenny, I didn’t think there was anything wrong with your comment. Sorry if that’s how I came off. 🙂 I was just tying to point out from my own experience how difficult it is to learn you have poor depth perception and what that means. I’ve never spent the time or effort to try and have it fixed, because it’s such a minor annoyance. I never noticed it hindering my athletic ability growing up at all. The main problem is when I’m driving in fog and have to travel 4 mph. My wife just says to me, “pull over grandpa, I’m driving.” I think Diaz probably assumed it’s something your learn to live with. And, I don’t expect he’ll be much better this year because of the change.
That was an interesting spin on HoRam’s performance. Pravda would be proud.
Dear jenny;
There’s plenty of room for your cow here in Indiana. We taxpayers have coughed up for a new Colts stadium for Adam to kick in. We can give your cow a home.
Colin; I’m in New Castle, home of Steve Alford and Kent “the Glacier” Benson.”
I think it entirely possible that Brian Jordan is our point man in the breakout mission for Ugueth Urbina.
Seriously bad case of spring fever this morning. Play Ball!
From the information presented in the article, I’m also not sure how much blame should be laid at the feet of the Royals and Rays. First, it’s not clear that the test was administered by a high school doctor, especially since the test was administered “after high school”. If Diaz was informed about his poor depth perception during an exam he took on his own, then it’s on him to get it fixed.
On the other hand: Since there’s no scouting combine for potential baseball draftees, I can understand a team not knowing about a possible vision problem before a player is drafted. But why wouldn’t an eye test be just about the first thing you’d do with a player once he’s your property? It seems mind-numbingly obvious, but I have no idea how many organizations actually do this.
Lastly, I’m amused at the suggestions that depth perception doesn’t matter in playing baseball. Is there any assertion that won’t be made in the rush to lecture Jenny? Doesn’t she pay a lot of money to get lectured all day?
If you want to experience poor depth perception, just close one of your eyes. The illusion of depth comes from each eye having a slightly different angle and producing a slightly different image, which the brain interprets as depth. With only one eye, your brain only has one image to work with. Tv is usually “dimensionless” – 3d glasses “work” by forcing your eyes to see two different things in one image (using one red and one blue filter on a separate eye).
—
I just finished The Book’s chapter on handedness. They conclude that handedness as a starter isn’t important. Priority one is pitching talent (low wOBA allowed, in their parlance); priority two is having a small platoon split.
Sadly, Horacio fails both tests; he has a huge platoon split. Using a quick ERA predictor i just created (inputs of WHIP and HR/9), his pERA against lefties has been a respectable 3.11; against righties, a despicable 4.88. Based on that, he probably is suited for LOOGYdom.
I agree; how could depth perception NOT matter in baseball? It would certainly affect your ability to pick up pitches and it would seem to me easier to change speeds on someone with poor depth perception. That’s not even to mention fielding. I suspect people are making too much of how Diaz characterized his eyesight; if he had NO depth perception, it would be pretty apparent. How about making a left turn with no depth perception?
Maybe Diaz has lots of talents in life, but hanging a louie isn’t one of them.
(Yes, I know, I quote things a lot.)
Maybe he can’t hang a louie, but at least he’s really, really, really, ridiculously good loooking.
The answer to our problems is clear. Diaz and Jurries should be the answer at first base. If Diaz can hit .320, to heck with the platoon.
As for LaDouche, lets send him down and let him earn his way back to the majors as a bullpen lefty. Afterall, thats the reason he refused to play hurt a few years back. I’m not sure how good his high school stuff was, but putting another warm body between Damian Moss and the Ted is never a bad idea.
If you have poor depth perception, you learn how to compensate. It’s not that big of a deal. You still underdstand depth, just differently than most. When you watch TV and actors walk backwards and forward, do you confuse the person as getting smaller and bigger? People with one eye do just fine.
JC, I don’t doubt that people with poor depth perception compensate and adapt. But most people don’t go through the day facing 90 MPH fastballs, constantly being faced with a choice they have approximately .3 seconds to decide upon. They’re not judged on whether they get that extra half-step on a ball hit to them. Here’s what we know:
1) Diaz has a poor defensive reputation.
2) He had poor depth perception.
3) According to him, the adjustment has made a positive difference.
What should we expect Diaz to say? “I’m as bad a defender as I ever was.” Maybe he is better, but I suspect it’s a tiny difference, at best.
The level of perception/sight necessary to hit major league pitching as oppossed to our own dailey lives is greatly disparate. For instance, the late Kirby Puckett was an all-star batsman, yet his career quickly ended due to his loss of depth perception.
I think the story is legit and hopefully indicates Diaz could finally make a splash.
As a vision impaired former baseball player, I have to say that the most likely result of the problem with Diaz’s depth perception would be struggling to hit right handed pitching, since the release would most likely be seen from only the left eye, and vice versa for a lefties. Against lefties, his vision field changes, and he has a better view of the release point. That maybe the reason that he hasn’t gotten to the big leagues sooner.
As a bonus you suddenly can judge the flight and speed of balls in the air.
oops I meant you could judge them better.
Then in the battle of his assertions versus yours and kc’s, I guess I’ll have to go with those of the person who is actually going through the before-and-after experience. Read up on Greg Vaughn if you need another example of someone who was already a major-league caliber ballplayer whose career was enhanced by vision adjustment.
I’m an idiot. I just had a mental image of Ladouche throwing right handed and quickly confirmed this to be true. oh well, you know what they say about “‘o mice ‘an men”…..
Funny story, I used to have a pet cow. Her (its?) name was Rachel, which was also the name of my preschool “girlfriend” (Rachel the girl came first, btw). I named a cow after a girlfriend and I meant it to be nice. I was so awesome back then.
This is what Rachel told me she “herd”. (I’m sorry, I’m so, so sorry).
Braves to Natspos: HoRam, KJ
Natspos to Mets: Soriano
Mets to Natspos: Mike Jacobs
Mets to Braves: Heilman
There’ll probably have to be money involved too, and I’m not sure KJ is enough to keep the Nats and Mets from dealing with just each other (really why they would take Horam over Heilman I don’t know, but Bowden is kinda dumb).
Also it’s a little too inter-divisional, but if the Mets are gonna improve at 2B they might as well lose valuable pitching depth.
Again, sorry, it was either this or whatever they pay me for.
About that Andrus story, this cracked me up (emphasis mine):
I admit it’s an obvious line to use, but I still laughed.
Unfortunately, the Mets don’t have Mike Jacobs anymore–he’s now a Marlin (along with every other prospect traded this offseason other than Andy Marte).
Maybe the Mets can get the Natspos to take Victor Diaz, since if there’s one thing Bowden likes, it’s overloading his outfield.
Great sansho!
I read in the paper here that there was a mighty wind blowing yesterday during Horam’s outting that may have hurt his stats.
ermore,
Isn’t Mike Jacobs on the Marlins? I thought the Mets got Delgado for him.
Yeah, yeah, Victor Diaz not Mike Jacobs. My bad. Whatever. If yall hadn’t pointed it out Bowden might have fallen for it. Way to go, now we’ll never get rid of HoRam.
Smitty: the thing that blew yesterday wasn’t the wind, it was HoRam.
Concerning Elvis Andrus from milb.com:
“He’s scheduled to start the season at Myrtle Beach, marking the first time the Braves have sent a 17-year-old to High-A since another Andru(w) — Jones — hit 25 home runs at Macon in 1995.”
I hope this is wrong….I was hoping to see him in Rome this year. milb.com also talks of Yunel Escobar’s stats last year from Myrtle Beach, and he never played there….he was in Rome all year. So I guess we’ll see….
Scouting report on HoRam:
1) fastball that is not fast;
2) cutter that doesn’t cut;
3) curveball that doesn’t curve; and
4) changeup that changes nothing.
Pitching philosophy: throw the ball at somewhere in the strike zone and pray for luck.
Mark Bowman said he would start in Rome on braves.com – I tend to believe that. I hope he does get called up to the Beach at some point; there is a Carolina league park about 15 miles from our house (in Woodbridge, home of the Potomac Nationals). I would love to catch a Pelicans-Nats game and see him there.
second bass – make sure to take pics of the Rome guys! You should have a heck of a left side of the infield with both Eric Campbell and Andrus, plus Max Ramirez, maybe Ovandy Suero, Beau Jones, Jordan Schafer, Jeff Lyman… should be a fun team to watch!
Anyone know how Lance Cormier’s been looking this spring?
By the way, I just saw this on ESPN, and I couldn’t help but quote the whole headline:
Ponson beats out prospect for Cards rotation spot
I think there’s probably irony in there for you to find, but the important thing is that this could make the Central division a little more competitive. Plus, if we ever get to face the pasty-white Knight, I have complete confidence that we can smack him from here to St. Louis.
? OFF THE MARK: While most Braves were off Tuesday, Horacio Ramirez pitched in a minor league game for Class-A Myrtle Beach against an Astros affiliate. Results weren’t good: 5 1/3 innings, six hits, four earned runs, three walks, four strikeouts.
4 ER’s against Class-A. How bad can you be, its time to put James in the rotation.
CSG, check JC’s post from the previous thread, around 5 PM.
my bad!
Giles and McCann are not doing so well in ST, anyone worried?
I read that Adam Bernero was in Royals ST camp, but has now been sent down to their AAA affiliate (forget where that is). Well, he’s not a quitter, I guess.
The only things I look for in Spring training is injuries & who makes the team. The ST numbers generally mean nothing. Wake me when the season starts.
andruw and francoeur both have gone yard against the phillies.
jeff’s was a bomb to center. for those of you not near a tv, you can watch the game for free on mlb.tv. davies looks good, too.
Random Trivia Question!!
With 30,000 students, what’s the largest state university in Virginia?
Va Tech I’d guess.
George Mason.
George Mason it is. Good job Mac.
Go GMU!
First rule of economics,
there’s no such thing as “free” MLB TV
I didn’t realize GMU was that big. I bet they beat WSU. I wonder if they can take UConn, nah!
does anyone have a report on when giles will be back to spring training, or has he already returned?
Giles was playing today.
Hmm, Tech needs to update their website:
“25,000+ full-time students, making it the largest in the commonwealth”
http://www.vt.edu/aboutvt/universityataglance.html
I would guess that, being in DC/Northern VA, GMU has a whole lot of part-time students. So it just depends on what the criteria are.
IMO, GMU is the Colonial Athletic Association (or some other little league) and VaTech is in the ACC, so I consider VaTech the biggest (no matter how much I despise them).
Tech has a beautiful campus
W&M’s campus is more beautiful. Woohoo!
And UVA’s is even more beautiful than that. But still not as beautiful as Vanderbilt’s, located in Nashville, TN.
Vandy does have a nice campus, but it isn’t UT Chattanooga!
gimme a break stu, vandy’s campus doesn’t hold a candle to uva 🙂
I like my school’s campus just fine, but the weather up here in Connecticut blows.
Bah to UVA! Without W&M there would be no UVA.
Without GMU there would be no Nobel Laureates teaching at colleges in Virginia. Oh wait there is one at VCU.
Kyle S-
Yeah, I’ve actually been trying to learn the nuances of my camera….shutter speed, zoom, etc. I’ve got some great pictures of my kids, but the trick is to remember what I did to get them. I got the rapid fire 2.5 frames per second deal for action shots, plus it’s got a sports setting. Should be cool. I’ll definitely post them to flickr when I get something.
I already bought my Rome tickets for opening night and for May 27th (Francoeur bobblehead night….got to have one of those!)
I’ll be going to Myrtle beach this summer for the family vacation (thank goodness we’re all baseball fans….). My daughter LOVES Will Startup, so we’re hoping to see him in MB.
I’m ready to see a Rome roster. Any guess when the minor league rosters will be posted?
vandy has all those weird little lodges that make a large part of their campus resemble public housing. Which differs from UGA, where actual public housing abuts campus. Otherwise, its got some nice quads. Not to mention, its only a cab ride from Robert’s, one of the best bars in the southeast. You can drink and enjoy live music played by professionals, all while ordering a cheeseburger and being fitted for a pair of boots. What a grand place?
however, I’m taking a more holistic approach, and proclaiming my love for Athens (ignoring south campus). something about a college town that cant be duplicated at urban campuses.
Which reminds me. We may need to trade the Nobel Laureate in Chemistry at VCU for one of those economics Laureates to keep the R-Braves in Richmond.
I’ll take UGA’s North Campus over just about anything.
UGA north is great. Athens is a beautiful town.
I live in Athens. It’s nice. I attend UGA grad school. North Campus is very nice. But it doesn’t even compare to Vandy’s campus, which is essentially a forest in the middle of a city. And that’s awesome.
Now, you may prefer a college town to a city (I generally would, but Nashville is a beautiful exception to that rule), but that’s outside campus. If we’re simply looking at campuses, again, UGA–any part of it–can’t hold a candle to Vanderbilt.
doubledawg, when was the last time you saw Vanderbilt’s campus? They’re actually doing away with a lot of the residence-y areas as they used to sit.
awb, in addition, if not for W&M, UVA would have one fewer Virginia school to which it is superior in virtually every respect.
I kid! Sort of.
PS: See, Kyle? I came to your defense. Now acknowledge Vandy’s campus supremacy.
Thats about as succinct a summary as to why people find UVA fans/grads/students to be extremely conceited. Woohoo!
I don’t think Stu falls into any of those categories (uva fan/grad/student). I fall into two of them (fan and grad) and people probably think I’m extremely conceited. I work with a bunch of folks from WMU – it’s a great school, no doubt about it. I don’t think I would have enjoyed college had I gone there instead of UVA, but YMMV.
Stu, I like Vandy’s campus. Nashville is a neat city, Vandy has a neat setting. I consider “campus” to be the “school environment”, i.e. the class buildings, bars, fraternities, etc. What I love about UVA is not just the buildings, the Lawn, the Rotunda, etc. but also the integration with the city of Charlottesville. FWIW, UGA/Athens and UNC/Chapel Hill are phenomenal in this respect. I have heard good things about UT/Austin. I love Dartmouth (during ~4 months of the year, at least). So of course I’m biased, but I’ll take UVA 🙂
GMU does have a pretty sizable commuter class, but it has decresed significantly in the last few years.
New revelation from that Shadows book that detailed Bonds’ steroid use, it says that Sheffield was also a big user of steroids and HGH, and not just accidentally like he claims. It’s up on ESPN.com.
Well, my campus is small and architecturally chaotic and during the winter it is constantly covered in a vaguely gray layer of snow and mud. Plus, we get excited when it gets up to a high of 20, the happenin’ place to be on Friday nights is Target and the grocery store, and for off-campus fun, we walk around a town that looks like it was taken straight off the set of a low-budget Western movie (Jesse James pulled off a bank heist here) or drive into a city that has low crime and pleasant people in exchange for having no nightlife, few nice restaurants, and the ugliest stadium in baseball, plus crappy shopping outside the Mall of America. Until you have been to the Metrodome, you do not know what an ugly building is.
But the drivers are nice and the speed limits are high! Come to Minnesota!
Kyle,
I don’t think you or Stu are conceited, just comments about the vast superiority of UVA. I completely understand your personal preference for UVA and have mine for W&M (I assume you mean W&M when you type WMU, but its called “the college of william and mary”, so WMU threw me off).
For what its worth, William and Mary is integrated seemlessly into Williamsburg, its just that Williamsburg is boring and colonial.
Jenny, I’ve never been to the Metrodome, but I have visited the campus of Brandeis University, and lemme tell ya–I know what an ugly building is. Faugh.
Oh, and, Gary Sheffield’s a dick. Not as big an asshole as Barry Bonds, who continues on a daily basis to redefine the term, but a dick nonetheless.
But seriously, does anyone know if Lance Cormier’s doing well this spring?
The following article on ESPN is quite funny. I wonder if the Mets fans are thinking about developing a “Braves hater” logo. Jenny, I guess you will get buy your own Yankees hater hat?
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2379891
I went to law school at UVA. The campus is nice (law school is separate), but I hated Charlottesville. It was too crowded during the school year.
Here, see for yourself…
Atlanta Braves : Sortable Player Stats
I was fortunate to spend part of my childhood in Nashville (my Dad taught at Vandy) and I can understand why people have affection for the Vanderbilt campus.
UVA does have a great campus–with many imitations. It is well known that the quad at the Yale Divinity School follows UVA. However, just this weekend I was struck by its unexpected influence.
My wife and I visited the American University of Sharjah (United Arab Emirates) and we were impressed with the campus. It is at once spacious and stately. Naturally, the architecture reflects Islamic traditions, but to my great surprise the layout of the main quad finds its precedents in UVA and the Yale Divinity School.
Otherwise, I hope that Andrus is not rushed too quickly through the Braves system…
Mac, thanks for the link. I honestly had no idea those stats were there.
By the way, for all you fantasy owners of Andy Marte, here’s something to give you pause. Aaron Boone’s current line, in 31 spring at-bats: .452/.500/.839, for an OPS of 1.339. (By comparison, Travis Hafner’s line, in 28 at-bats, is .429/.556/.893.)
So, Aaron’s outslugging his entire OPS from last year… sounds like he’s on a bit of a mission to keep his job, eh?
I was at vandy this past fall for the UGA game, but saw precious little of the campus. The last time I spent any quality time there, was my freshman year of college when I dated a commodore chick. she transfered to emory to be closer, so I never went back until this past year. I’m pretty sure her suffering through 3 years of the crappiest college experience every, Emory, otherwise known as SUNY Atlanta, eventually ruined the relationship. such is love. I just remember her sorority had those little houses and it seemed strange. also, we had to decend into the depths of hell beneath the dormatory to do her laundry once. Otherwise, the rest of the campus gets an A+ for the greenskeeping department. lots of squirrels.
All I know of UVA, is what I’ve been told. However, two very alarming allegations have surfaced, (1) that the football fans wear sweaters around their necks like michigan fans, (2) they have multiple banners on display for Carquest Bowls (which I dont even think they one). Being more a student of football than landscape archetecture and such, I find both of those traits to be pretty damning. Thus, I give the nod to vandy.
W&M cant be any fun, williamsburg sucked pretty bad when I was 7, I cant imagine I would like it much more now.
Escobar and Andrus seem to be on a crash course. Lets hope one of them learns 2nd, otherwise its going to be Jon Jr. in Atlanta once Giles learns baseball is a lot less fun without the greenies.
is there no way to incorporate spellcheck into this board. I really get embarassed when I read my posts.
You misspelled “embarrassed.”
😉
Most of you may have already seen this, but apparently the World Series-favorite Mets won’t have Pedro on opening day.
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2380500
Looks like Tommy will get the start.
I didn’t realize there has been rumors about the Braves being interested in Scott Williamson…
charlottesville is too crowded, especially if you live somewhere (North Grounds, e.g.) that isn’t walking distance to the Corner and other fun spots. I’m not a big fan of North Grounds myself; would have been more fun to go to UVA law when it was in the current environmental science building right in the center of Grounds…
“You misspelled “embarrassed.”
🙁
may this “sad” emoticon express the feelings I’d likely mispess.
“You misspelled “embarrassed.”
🙁
may this “sad” emoticon express the feelings I’d likely mispell
Here is an excellent spell-check Firefox plug-in that will work for all of your internet posting needs.
SpellBound
PS — Interestingly, it suggests “Firebox” for “Firefox” and does not recognize its own name. But I promise that it is very good. Does anyone know what “Internet” is capitalized? I hate capitalizing it.
According to atlantabraves.com, Davies has basically locked up a spot in the rotation. My immediate thought was, finally we can get rid of HORO. However according to the article, they say that either Thomson or Sosa will be moved. So if this is true and we must endure HoRo, then who would you think we should move?
I assume HoRo is staying because he has less value and is a lefty. So, my vote would be for Thomson. I think he has the most value to get us the help we need. Sosa can pitch in the rotation or in the bullpen so I would want to keep him.
Smitty,
Since it seems like everybody agrees we will make a move, can you tell me what some of your ‘famous’ sources are saying about trade rumors?
Well Josh I heard the following
ATL- get Brandon Inge, Jamie Walker(from DET) and Ted Lilly
DET- Get LaRoche,HoRam and Eric Hinske
TOR-get Justin Verlander, Brian Pena and John Thomson
I’d like to get Verlander instead of Lilly. Ask your ‘sources’ to make that happen. 🙂
Shoot why don’t we just fleece the Tigers and get Rodney for our bullpen as well. They can keep Walker.