So, uh, this guy came up in 1987. In 1991, he… Look, normally I do a bio for new signings, but I think I can skip it in this case.
Glavine won 61 games for the Mets over the last five years. Because they’re the Mets, that makes him eleventh on their all-time list, five behind Steve Trachsel; he must have a certain disappointment that he couldn’t get one more year there for the thirteen wins it would take to catch Bobby Jones for ninth. He was shaky in his first year there, and in the last part of his last season, but pitched well in the middle three years, not always with the best support.
Last season, he was 13-8 with an ERA just worse than the league. For most of the season, he pitched well, and on Sept. 14 he pitched well against the Phillies, though the Mets blew the game as they did the season, at the end; he stood at 13-6 with a 3.88 ERA. He didn’t pitch too well in his next start, and got blasted in his last two, capping it with his infamous 1/3 inning, seven run performance in the season finale.
The severe warning sign for Tom is that his strikeout rate dipped precipitously last year, to 89 in 200 1/3 innings (3.998 per nine). As a rule of thumb, four strikeouts per nine is the limit below which you simply can’t be an effective pitcher. In 2003, it dipped like this, but he was able to correct and get it back up to 4.5/9 the next two years, a little better in 2006. At any rate, it’s hard to see him as much more than a slightly above-average innings eater. Still, he’s Tom Glavine, and the Braves probably would have won the division last year if they’d replaced Bud-Jo Redavier with a slightly above-average innings eater. (Define these numbers: 82, 74, 69, 60, 37. Give up? These are the ERA+ of the five men who were the primary #4 and #5 starters in 2007.)
Glavine has 242 wins in a Braves uniform. He’s 24 behind Niekro for third on the franchise list, and I don’t think he’s going to last long enough to make it. However, he’s probably secured fourth from Smoltz, who’s 35 behind. He’s fourth in strikeouts, third in starts, tied for eighth in shutouts, and unlikely to move up or down in any of these categories. Like Smoltz, is only likely to move up in negative categories; will certainly, if he pitches at all, move up the home runs allowed and walks allowed lists. He has two fewer career losses with the team than Smoltz. Given that Smoltz is certainly a better pitcher now… 21st on the all-time wins list with 303, and could move up several places in that this year. Only fifteen behind Niekro in overall wins, and Niekro is 16th. Third-most wins, all-time, by a lefthander; can’t catch Spahn, but 21 behind Carlton.
Interestingly, Glavine’s similar players list (career, not through age) is headed by Seaver and Wynn, but after that has several guys who either struggled to make the Hall (Ruffing and Grimes, who had to wait for the Veterans, and Jenkins, who was out for several years) or haven’t at all (John, Morris, Kaat), plus a bunch of old-timers. I would not at all be surprised if, despite 300 wins and two Cy Young Awards, Glavine is made to wait a couple of years. There have always been some people who have thought that he was too team-dependent, or that he got unfair breaks from the umpires, and those people will argue that he wasn’t as good as some guys who are left out.
Actually my favorite tennis player is Maria Sharapova. Not sure why but she is.
Mac,
That would be pretty stunning if Glavine had to wait at all to get in the Hall. I know I am a homer, but I cannot see any way that you can look at his career objectively, and say that he is not one of the best left-handed starting pitchers of all time.
I am excited that he is back in Atlanta, and still believe he can be an above average pitcher. I seem to remember that he had something like 23 quality starts last year, without looking it up. Of course, I guess that would mean he was terrible in his other starts to end up with the numbers he had.
Pish posh – Tommy is a 1st ballot HOFer.
Nah, Mac. Glavine will be an easy 1st ballot HOF unless the votes are cast on Diebold machines.
Add up those that never vote for a guy on the first ballot and those that would nitpick in areas that mac suggested, and depending on who else is on the ballot that year, and it’s possible that Glavine wouldn’t be in on the 1st ballot. I think he most likely will be, though.
300 wins is a magic number.
@4 Ha!
Remember Diebold is now doing business as Premier Election Solutions, kind of like ValuJet becoming AirTran.
The names have changed to protect the guilty.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diebold
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valujet
Glavine in HoF, whether first ballot or later. Whatever.
My new favorite tennis player is Jelena Jankovic–she has a great, uh, forehand. 🙂 How did the eastern Europeans start producing so many attractive female tennis players?
I can’t see Glavine not making it in on the first ballot. As Murph said, 300 wins is magic, especially with people saying it will never happen again. Yes, some people think he got breaks on the strike zone but they said the same for Maddux. Generally, I think Glavine is considered one of the dominant pitchers of his generation. I do hope he hangs it up after this year because I’m afraid he is close to moving into Steve Carlton territory. But I agree with Mac, he should still be serviceable this year and certainly better than what we had last year.
This has to be one of the pitchers the steroids era has helped. His stats look a hell of a lot better when you know that most of the players he was facing were juicing on PEDS.
I’ll take Glavine’s year minus September. But Mac is right. Average innings eater now. And in the future a sure fire first ballot HOFer. 300 wins is bigger now than 600 homers.
How did the eastern Europeans start producing so many attractive female tennis players?
The same way they started producing so much Olympic Gold: genetic engineering.
Marc, I have to agree, Jankovic has a nice pair of forehands.
Is anyone complaining? There’s not an unattractive woman left in the Australian Open. I was going to watch anyway, but at least now I’ll enjoy the repetitive baseline to baseline flat groundstroke feral grunting matches a lot more than I did when every final featured Hingis, Seles, a Williams or Davenport.
An absolute first ballot Hall of Famer.
Unlike hitting 600 home runs, it’s even harder to get to 300 wins. He’s in.
But I am obviously biased because I was one of those Braves fans who refused to rip him even ONCE when he signed with the Mets and I STILL blame some of that on JS.
I know Tommy isn’t nearly as good as he was from 1992-2002, but he’s still a solid, middle of the rotation innings eater and this staff needs that for sure. Especially if Chuck James becomes a pumpkin again after the 5th inning every start.
re: Tim Hudson
I didn’t get in on the act yesterday, just too slammed, but my 2 cents is that he was excellent in 2007, but considering what he did in 2005 and 2006, I would only say that 1 of his 3 years in ATLANTA have lived up to billing.
re: Heath Ledger
Obviously very tragic, and I do NOT want to re-open the war of words I got into with most on here about taking drugs & personal responsibility, but the other large tragedy of his death is that a 2 year old little girl no longer has her father.
How did the eastern Europeans start producing so many attractive female tennis players?
By being Eastern European. Slavic women are kind of ridiculous that way. Life in Russia is pretty terrible, so most attractive Russian women look dolled-up and hot till about age 30, after which (having been married twice with three children) they basically fall off a cliff and look middle-aged till they outlive their spouses by 10 years. But man, they’re hot till then.
Incidentally, in re: the previous thread, Rafael Nadal is not the second-best tennis player ever any more than Albert Pujols is the second-best right handed hitter ever. He’s a great player, but remember that he’s a fiery player in a sport when emotions have derailed a number of guys who would have otherwise inched up the greatest list. To be in the conversation, you more or less need a decade of dominant tennis. Here’s the wreckage of the ’90s pretenders: Kafelnikov, Kuerten, Moya, Rios, Hewitt, Safin (whose sister is actually a lot more consistent), etc.
If Nadal puts together a decade of greatness, then we’ll talk. Till then, I’m waiting for Rafa’s meltdown.
I don’t think Rafa is going to meltdown. I think he will mature. Federer was a fiery player when he was younger, and it kept him from reaching his potential until he matured and calmed down. There’s no reason Nadal can’t do the same thing. On the other hand, Federer’s emotions caused him to lose, Nadal’s help him win. If Nadal loses that energy and fire he doesn’t really have the skill set Federer has/had.
But I agree, he’s not even close to accomplished enough for a discussion about his place on the all time list to be meaningful.
Re: Glavine and HoF
He hit the magic 300 win mark for starters, and won two Cy Youngs to quiet the “stat-compiler” detractors. He pitched one of the greatest world series games of all time and was part of probably the greatest starting pitching rotation of all time. Also a significant cog in a machine that won over a decade’s worth of division titles in a row. He seems like an obvious HoFer to me.
And was a significant cog in the greatest baseball-related commercial of all time:
That catapults him over the top easily.
This has to be the best blog ever. The ability to speak about baseball, college football, tennis, or whatever.
AAR,
I think we can agree that Roger Federer is definitely in the conversation for greatest ever.
Don’t forget that we’re also allowed to do it in different languages.
If tennis had conferences, Federer would be the SEC.
Mac, have you ever done the ink test thing for Glavine?
from previous thread
“I am not sure I can name many more active pro tennis players right now.
Andy Roddick, obviously. And the aforementioned Casey Blake.”
Casey Blake just shaved his beard, changed sports, and turned black. Just kidding, but its James Blake
Glavine scores at 29 on the Black Ink Test. That’s 52nd all-time, and below the average HOF pitcher. He scores at 199 in Grey Ink, which is 40th all-time.
Smoltz is a little better on Black Ink (34/45th) a little worse on Grey (193/47th) but will probably move up on at least the latter this year.
23 — I too chuckled when I saw the typo yesterday.
Yeah, Federer’s the G.O.A.T., but as Marc pointed out, he can do what he’s doing thanks at least in part to the current generation of racket technology. Before, he was a petulant serve-and-volleyer; now, serve-and-volley, the traditional counterpoint to a baseline hitter like Federer’s become, literally does not exist within the game. Still, he’s the Tiger Woods of tennis, clearly the greatest player ever and still within his prime.
But the title of second-best is still very much up for grabs, and IMHO no one gets to even think about it without at least 7 major titles and 7 years as a pro.
Also, thanks for posting the Chicks Dig the Long Ball commercial — I never expected it would hold up that well. What an incredibly good commercial.
@8 Marc, you wanna take a trip to Prague, Riga or Budapest and you’ll find that the eastern Europeans don’t only have the hottest female tennis players. Trust me, it’s unreal, man!
AAR,
Wouldn’t Pete Sampras have to be at no worse number 2?
Casey Blake = James Blake
Yeah, I saw that this morning. Not sure if it was the time of my post or the antibiotics I’m on, but that further illustrates how little I know about the current cast in pro tennis.
Regarding Glavine, I am a little concerned that he will become our number 5 starter this year. That’s not totally a bad thing, but I think he is much less likely to improve on 2007 than is Chuck James. I also think we may get something better out of JJ or even (don’t laugh) Mike Hampton by the end of the year.
Ana Ivanovic is smoking hot.
Both women in that semifinal are. Tennis players have better bodies than most models IMO (not VS ones, obv).
300+ wins, five 20 win seasons, and two Cy Youngs. I can’t imagine the voters not letting him right in. They eat stuff like that up.
Regarding Glavine, I am a little concerned that he will become our number 5 starter this year.
I would consider it good news if Glavine was our fifth best starter this year. If he’s our third best, things are probably not going well.
Kenny, as far as I’m concerned, Sampras is the other Greatest Tennis Player Ever. But I’m having trouble calculating his WARP-3 and EqA to prove it to myself.
On tennis,
I would say Borg was the greatest until his crown falls to Federer. (which probably has already happened). If Borg had not retired and then unretired, he probably would have tremendous career length too.
This actually gets into some of the same arguments as HOF (peak v good length; higher quality to compete against because of racial inclusion and world wide talent).
Robert,
If Glavine is actually our 5th starter in terms of where he pitches, that is a real problem. That will mean that Bobby has no confidence in him and would mean he not only fell off the turnip truck but fell in an abandoned mine shaft.
If Glavine is our 5th best starter, then that IS almost certainly a good sign. Unlikely he would be worse than a league average 5 and that would also mean two more guys were better.
@32 Just looked her up. You are correct sir! Dang. It is un freaking real. I’m of the generation where the image of the Eastern Bloc woman was like the old Wendy’s commercial a couple of decades ago.
Speaking of hot athletes, Natalie Gulbis is very hot. Sorry to switch sports, but she is considered the Anna Kournikova of golf.
How about the italian golfer Sophie Santolo?
Wait a second, Casey Blake plays baseball AND tennis? Amazing…
you gotta love january when the talk turns to tennis. i had no idea anyone even cared about tennis anymore since pete sampras bored the sport into a coma. but when the soccer talk starts, i’m outta here.
Did anyone see Djokovic dismantle Ferrer last night? That could be a great semifinal between him and Federer. I actually think Djokovic could be the second-best player in the world right now.
re: Chicks Dig the Long Ball. Love that ad. In the post-Mitchell Report era, it gets ever funnier.
@40 French golfer Sophie Sandolo – yesssss
Glavine in the HoF? Fuggetaboutit.
He’s in for the reasons Robert mentioned & more (let’s not forget that ’95 WS MVP). When you line ’em up, his career accomplishments are pretty dazzling.
I’ll always remember his performance in the ’91 season. He was an anchor.
Dix,
If tennis had football conferences, Federer would be the NFL’s AFC.
NFL’s AFC > MLB’s AL?
So the Falcons are about to hire Jaguars Defensive Coordinator Mike Smith as their new coach, after considering the guy who just became Dolphins’ new head coach, Tony Sparano.
If Smith had a lot to do with the Jags unexpectedly being great this year, he’ll be a good hire. And a guy with a name like Tony Sparano ought to be a good fit in Miami. I’m expecting a reality show about him in about two months or so called The Sparanos.
IMO, MLB > NFL
Here is a list of the remaining FA’s… Quite interesting who’s still in there. Odalis Perez, Jaret Wright among others.
http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2008/01/2008-mlb-free-a.html
I sort of meant which league is more superior to its counterpart.
Is the AFC vs NFC more lopsided than the AL vs NL?
Lately it seems every sport has had one dominant conference/division. The AFC, the AL, NHL Western Conference, and until this season the Western Conference in the NBA.
“The Sparanos” would be a great Reality series version of “The Sopranos” except taking place inside the Miami Dolphins HQ – Bill Parcells in the Jackie Aprile role and Tony Sparano as Tony Saprano.
Beclichick would be the Phil Leotardo character.
Smith is a solid but underwhelming hire. I was hoping the Falcons would hire Mike Singletary. Great coach and he could kill offensive players in his day.
Also:
Natalie Gulbis > Ana Ivanovic
Re: Current Free Agent Starters
Tony Armas Jr. (30)
Kris Benson (32)
Shawn Chacon (30)
Roger Clemens (45)
Bartolo Colon (35)
Josh Fogg (31)
Casey Fossum (30)
Freddy Garcia (32) – Type B
Livan Hernandez (33) – Type B
Byung-Hyun Kim (29)
Kyle Lohse (29)
Rodrigo Lopez (32)
Mike Maroth (30)
Eric Milton (32)
Tomo Ohka (32)
Russ Ortiz (34)
Odalis Perez (31)
John Thomson (34)
Steve Trachsel (37)
Jeff Weaver (31)
David Wells (45)
Jaret Wright (32)
Interestting to me to see several recent ex-Mets on this list. I imagine, once the Johann Santana thing dies down (because the Mets likely won’t budge on Jose Reyes) you may see a couple of these guys go back to NY such as Traschel.
There was no good hire for the Falcons.
If Wren were a Braves Journal reader he would trade Jeff Francouer and Brian McCann straight up for Rocco Baldelli just to get us back on track.
Re: The Sopranos
Everyday, I drive past the gas station near Oyster Bay where Phil Leotardo got his head crushed.
He’d also get lambasted for reading the blog when he should be working the phones.
Johnny,
You read my mind. Most of the people on this blog are probably too young to remember the Cold War stereotypes of Eastern European women. When I was in college, the Soviet Union’s women’s basketball team came to my school to play an American All-Star team or something. This was rather early in the women’s liberation movement and women’s basketball in the US was rather weak. I saw the team in person when they came into the parking lot at school. The center was 6’11” and the rest were on that order. They were scary; they could have conquered Western Europe bythemselves. 🙂 Of course, they slaughtered the American team. Things have changed a lot in 30 years.
I don’t care what Glavine’s Black Ink score is; he will get in. He has what the HOF voters look for: lots of wins, big-game victories, Cy Young awards, and reputation.
As for tennis, while it’s difficult to compare eras, I would put Rod Laver above Borg (although I loved watching Borg play). Borg never won the US Open, while Laver won the Grand Slam twice, I believe, and might have won it more often if pros hadn’t been banned from Wimbledon for many years. Most of the modern players now are specialists, ie, they are either grass players, hard court, or clay. Nadal really hasn’t won anything important except on Clay although he pushed Federer. Until Federer wins on clay, I don’t think he can be the greatest ever. But I do think Federer would be just as good in a different era; he would be a good serve and volleyer if that still existed.
When I was working for the college newspaper at UGA, I covered the NCAA mens tennis championships a couple times. (Mikael Pernfors, anyone?) They used to be played in Athens.
It was always amusing to see the West Coast teams get so unhinged by the UGA crowd, which treated the matches almost like football games. A ball from the UCLA guy goes wide and you’d think a Bruin wide-receiver had gotten lit up on a crossing route.
Federer does win on clay, more than almost any other top player ever did. He won 3 clay titles last year, and has been to the French Open finals 2 years in a row and the semi before that. He is basically the best player in the world by far on every surface but clay, and the second best player in the world on clay. Sampras for example was never even in the final.
Really the only thing that makes Federer’s place as greatest all time arguable is that he has lost in the finals of the French Open twice and never won it and that Sampras has more total Grand Slam titles.
I remember Pernfors, ububba, he played Boris Becker a couple of times! One of those pesky swedes
And, ububba, as of May 2007, they still don’t quite know what to make of an Athens tennis crowd. Although, school being out and the attempt to slow the alcohol down leave the grandstand much depleted from the glory days of the early 80’s.
Great experience at 07 tournament. About 40 Illinois students came for the two weeks in Athens and rooted much harder (per person) than the Georgia crowd. Their match on Saturday was with Ohio State and the cheering section was probably the difference as Illinois won after three earlier losses against Ohio State.
#58
ububba-
You may have said this in the past, but I didn’t realize you once worked for The Red & Black. I too once walked those hallowed halls – as did my older brother. 🙂
I think the farthest Pernfors ever went in a major was the finals of the French Open. Lendl beat him—crushed him, actually.
Cliff,
So they still play the thing in Athens? Is it on a rotating basis? I don’t even know anymore.
Alex,
I was the longtime entertainment editor, but also had stints as sports editor, copy editor, columnist, etc. My favorite gig was the “Afterhours” column.
ububba-
Great stuff. I was never a full time staffer, but wrote sports pieces and had a sporadic TV and Movie Review column over a 2 year period.
Since I was at UGA from 94-97, I still distinctly remember working on those “old school” small MAC computers from back in the day.
Even weirder is I didn’t start “regularly” doing email as a form of daily communication with people until my senior year.
Speaking of free agents, one of the weirdest and most randomly annoying things about Schuerholz’s book was that he (I mean, his ghostwriter) persistently spelled Jaret Wright’s name “Jared Wright.”
I have no idea why he did this.
That free agent list is really, really pathetic. I would take a flier on any of those guys (except for Fogg) for $1 million and just see how he did, but I bet they’re all looking for Jeff Weaver-style $8 million contracts. Ugh.
From ESpN.com and from Jim Callis at Baseball America
Chad (Rochester NY): Hey Jim, I just got a subscription to BA and love it!! Could you tell me where you would rank the Braves farm system? Bill Ballew says it should be in the top 12. Do you agree? Thanks Jim!
Jim Callis: (2:24 PM ET ) We ranked them No. 8 in the Handbook. They have restocked quickly after slipping to No. 16 last year.
I can’t believe we are rated 8. That makes me feel a lot better about our trades.
Ububba,
NCAA men’s tournament moves around. It makes it to Athens about every 4th year. Georgia won it last year and is seeded second after Virginia with indoor season just getting under way.
National individual rankings will have 4 Georgia players in the top 40.
Based on his ratings, I would guess that John Sickels would have our farm system ranked about the same place. It might have been higher before we ditched Devine, Richmond, and Fontaine, all of whom were in his top 20 (Braves).
@59
Dix, you nailed it. Federer is actually a great clay player, only he’s 2nd best in the world on it. On every other surface he is dominant. Among individual stars who excel in their sports, only Tiger Woods compares.
Also, note that we were ranked 16th when we still had Salty, Andrus, Harrison, Feliz, and Jones. So, we were down and then traded, supposedly 5 of our 20 or so best prospects (including our top 2 or 3 at the time)…and our system ranking went up dramatically.
(1) Great job, scouts!
(2) These minor league system rankings should at all times be taken with a grain or 20 of salt.
Incidentally, I started a diary on Sickels’ site about Hanson, Rohrbough, and Locke. Please chime in with your thoughts.
Jim Callis, University of Georgia grad. Worked with him at The Red & Black. Huge Red Sox fan. Really good guy, too.
I seem to recall that he missed the Buckner WS game because he was on a flight back from Lexington, where he was covering a UGA/Kentucky football game. He pretended not to be devastated.
Stu,
Well, I can understand the minor league system fluctuations. Prospects can get better or worse, and some publications don’t consider some players prospects anymore (for instance, is Jarrod Saltalamacchia still a prospect?).
I’m sure Salty’s no longer a prospect. You think a farm system generally gets better when its best prospect is promoted to the big club?
I understand there are fluctuations, but it’s sort of laughable that the system could go up after such a mass exodus of talent. What it indicates to me is that either last year’s version wasn’t giving the system enough credit, or this year’s version is giving too much credit, or, most probably, some combination of both.
Like I said, grains of salt.
But, clearly having a highly rated system helps if for no other reason that it allows the team to make trades. Whether or not the players actually end up making the Braves, the fact that they are apparently highly rated makes them better trading material. And, I assume that the fact that the Braves have had success at the major league level with a lot of their players (albeit not pitchers) makes teams more willing to trade for our minor leaguers.
You can add me to the Red & Black alum roster — I was an occasional columnist in the early ’90s while pursuing my M.M.C. I don’t think I ever wrote a sports column, though — I was more on the “frat boys suck” beat. Every once in a while I’ll pull a few of them out of the mothballs and reread them. Uniformly smug and awful. Not like now.
Those tennis tournaments were a blast, ububba. The Pernfors vs. Rick Leach match was one of the best times I’ve ever had at a sporting event. We yelled ourselves hoarse, because Leach’s father (who was the Southern Cal coach) had already complained about the crowd. Bad idea.
Two years later we beat the Patrick McEnroe-led Cardinal of Stanford behind the long-forgotten George Bezecny.
sansho1,
I don’t read my old R&B clips. Don’t wanna see ’em. As they say, college is a time for learning.
Stu,
The top prospects that are not traded usually get better, so it is possible for the farm system to improve overall. Probable? No.
But I do agree with you, don’t misunderstand me.
More red meat for Yankee haters…
http://www.ajc.com/sports/content/shared-gen/ap/General_Baseball_News/BBO_Payrolls.html
Kind of amazing that we’re only 2 places ahead of Oakland, though there was a large gap between us and them…
(Yes, I just posted about this on CnC.)
I put up a new poll which is almost completely pointless even for the polls around here.
AAR,
Interesting, too, that 5 of the playoff teams were in the top 8 & the remaining 3 (Cle, Ariz, Col) were close to the bottom.
We’re right in the middle, and certainly a long way from the Fred McGriff Era.
Arizona, at least, is probably near the bottom because they had so many kids on the team last year. A year or two ago they were considered the best system in the game.
Small sample size and all, but it’s funny that the first 3 votes split EXACTLY down the middle: one for the Jays, one for the Cards, and one for the O’s.
I guess they’re all pretty bad.
The worst systems are easily the Astros and the White Sox. Probably the Phillies and Pirates next.
The O’s have a pretty decent system actually, and the Jays picked up some decent prospects this draft.
Cards are pretty baaaad, but then , they have Colby Rasmus. Damn, about time his brother started showing off his pedigree too!
I once linked to an article speculating that the Braves would take Colby Rasmus. Instead, they took Joey Devine; Rasmus went one pick later. Oh yeah, with a sandwich pick they took Beau Jones one pick ahead of Clay Buchholz.
Maybe it’s the Washington contingent that’s voting for the Orioles. I was pretty sure this would be between the Cards (a long history with that club, plus LaRussa) and the Jays (’92).
I voted for the Jays because I could never stand any of their logos.
Cards always look good, but I prefer the early-70s cartoon Oriole.
Angelos trumps LaRussa and, umm, Mike Timlin?
Buster Olney has a blog entry today going over the question marks for teams going into the season. He rightly wonders how many starts Smoltz, Glavine, and Hampton can give. But says nothing about CF. hmmm…
and by the way — Dan Kolb signed with the Red Sox.
That’s downright bizzare.
Well now he can update his bolg.
http://www.dankolb.blogspot.com
Dan,
*laughs* Good one.
Minor league system rankings are fun to look at, but the relative position of any team’s farm is highly volatile.
Most of the rankings are heavily dependent on top end talent – the Jay Bruce’s and Joba’s. One or two guys graduating or being traded may drastically alter the ranking of their farm. Like anything, the ranking of a farm system is only a piece of information. Kind of like ERA, you have to look at what’s behind that number. Is it two uber prospects, or a deep, balanced system?
I think consistency is something worth considering as well. The Braves have been rated among the best farm systems for quite a few years now despite poor draft position in the first round. This speaks volumes for their scouts and player develpoment.
I would say the Braves were underrated last year. Salty sure was. We had just emptied out the upper minors with all of the promotions, but we had the next wave already on the way.
Now we might need a little more to look forward to at the corner infield positions…
Well, I know I’d like to see Ka’aihue improve. 🙂
Sharapova gets hotter by the day. Just completely dominated Jankovic, who is also hot.
Change of subject, does anyone know anyone who has had or has a Ford Five Hundred. I just bought one because my Nissan Altima has turned into a piece of junk…
JARET, not Jared, Wright just signed a minor league deal with the Orioles
sorry, thats the Pirates
I like Altimas and I’m thinking about getting one, csg. What happened to yours?
easiest way to describe it…no problems until 75,000 miles, but then the engine started losing oil (but with no leaks, no smoke in the exhaust). Engine then blew a head gasket, then the whole motor needed to get replaced ($3600). Warranty wouldnt cover it becuase of some clause in the policy. Now I have a new engine, but this one is also losing oil. The excess oil loss is causing me to have to replace the catalytic converter ($900.00) and Nissan is recommending me to replace the transmission (2600.00) because the transmission cant keep up with the new engine. All of these problems should’ve been avoided, but Nissan didnt properly fix my vehicle…
check this out…
http://townhall-talk.edmunds.com/direct/view/.f0da999/0
here is basically another 169 people all with the same problem
my car has been in the shop 9 times during the last 25,000 miles…hopefully the new models have been fixed, but alot of technicians seem to be down on Nissan vehicles right now
Man, I had to get a rebuilt transmission into my manual tranny ’95 Explorer. $1900, probably couldve gotten a better deal somewhere else but I didnt have the time to look around. Its at 130,000 miles, and surprisingly is holding up pretty well after the transmission. Knock on wood…
just had to get rid of it today, I actually loved the car until these problems. Hope this Ford doesnt fall apart
Holy crap. Peanut says that Josh F. Anderson is a candidate to platoon with Diaz.
The top candidates to platoon in left field with Diaz are Josh Anderson and Brandon Jones. Before Kotsay’s acquisition, Anderson was seemingly the favorite to be the Opening Day starting center fielder and Jones was targeted to play left field on days when the opposing starting pitcher is right-handed.
There’s definitely still a chance the Braves will go with this same arrangement. But because Jones isn’t viewed as a legitimate center fielder, the club may choose to keep Anderson as the fourth outfielder. Also providing some assistance as backup outfielder will be Omar Infante, who was acquired in December to serve as a super utility player.
http://atlanta.braves.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20080122&content_id=2352854&vkey=news_atl&fext=.jsp&c_id=atl
If Josh Anderson platoons with Matt Diaz, then Bobby Cox has gone senile.
braves14,
Well, DUH, of course he’d say that. It’s just a puff piece. He’s Peanut, for God’s sake.
He’s called Peanut because he’s a “puppet”, Sam. It’s a legitimate concern.
I don’t expect any less than the utmost idiocy from him, I should say. 🙂
Well, we know that Brandon Jones is the better player, right? So shouldn’t it be a foregone conclusion that he would look better in spring? You’d think he’d be able to sub in center for a day or two. Or a week.
I still think the best thing to do would be to go with Jones, and I also think spring traning will do away with this silly notion.
I hope you’re right, but this is the same team that has carried 13 pitchers at times with a couple of them sitting and rotting.
Stupid things are done, yes, but this is the stupidest of the stupid. Surely our team is not that stupid.
Keith Lockhart, Raul Mondesi, Brian Jordan, and Rico Brogna (among others) have opened the season as everyday players.
This team has made plenty of stupid roster decisions in the past. Really stupid roster decisions.
It’s not Peanut’s job to create idiocy, just relay it. Let’s not shoot the messenger, when Cox and Wren are so much more deserving.
Anderson actually makes for a decent fifth outfielder, in that he has skills that will come in handy in limited doses. But he shouldn’t play at the expense of Brandon Jones, Lillibridge, Schafer, or anyone else with a future. (Note Kotsay’s absence from this list.)
The complaints I have made about Bobby’s decision making over the years, and why I think on so many levels he’s an overrated manager, seeing news about possible plaayer personnel decisions like forcing matt Diaz to sit most days for Josh Anderson, is why I personally wouldn’t mind seeing a younger manager take over already.
That is downright shameful. And yes – Cox’s bewildering overuse over the years of godawful players like Chris Reitsma, Dan Kolbb, Keith Lockhart, Raul Mondesi – or worse, waiting WAY TOO LONG to remove said players from a lineup or regular pitching use – has gotten the Braves heaps of regular season games that ultimately have worn at the psyche of this team.
And while I still stand behind not hating the trade for Mark Kotsay, the reason we dealt Joey Devine is because Bobby had decided he wasn’t a “Cox guy”. Devine has 2 awful post season appearances in his career and Bobby’s done with him.
But Woodward or Lockhart can go out day after day after day and stink the joint up, and Cox will continually find ways to work stiffs like them into a lineup.
Sorry for the early morning “rant” but seeing the Josh Anderson for Diaz platoon makes my head and my heart – angry.
i’m fairly new around here so please excuse my ignorance, but who the hell is Peanut?
MLB.com’s Braves beat writer Mark Bowman.
ahhhhhh…………. thx for clearing up another mystery i’ve managed to read him a few time without being offended but then, i wasnt really trying.