Braves relief pitcher Bennett gets final roster spot | ajc.com
Buddy Carlyle has played in Princeton, Charleston (WV), Mobile, Chattanooga, Las Vegas, Wichita, Omaha, Trenton, Colorado Springs, Albuquerque, and Richmond. So another stint in Richmond won’t do him any harm, and he probably already knows where the Olive Garden is in every AAA city in the country. He’ll be fine, and the odds are he’ll be back. Bennett will start out as a long man or swing man, but shouldn’t start if everything goes okay. Which it won’t.
I liked Carlyle, but it was the right move.
My roommate in college is from LA and is a dodgers freak. He was pissed when we got teixeira last season, and earlier we were talking about what the Dodgers would have to give up to get him.
I told him: a) that would never happen, but b) if it did it would probably be centered around Loney, Kemp, and Kershaw. He said he was fine with that.
I think he is retarded; he says it’s Mark Teixeira.
Which one of us is stupider?
Tex for Loney, Kemp, and Kershaw?
I don’t know how I could resist that trade. Maybe, we could get them to throw in Andy LaRoche, too.
To be more clear, I think your friend is stupider (more stupid). I think Loney, Kemp, and Kershaw is a better prospect haul than what we gave up for an extra two months of Tex, and I think we overpaid.
I would take Loney, Kemp and Kershaw for Tex in a minute.
I would too. But his arguement is that:
1. He is confident the Dodgers would be able to sign him long term
2. If you have Teixeira, you don’t need Loney
3. Kershaw looks really good, but the odds he wins 100 games are ridiculously slanted against him.
4. Kemp is good, but the team is better with Teixeira than it is with Kemp and Loney, especially with their clogged outfield situation.
The argument against from the Braves side is that they are contenders with Tex, but probably not without him. Although we are unlikely to re-sign him, Tex may give us the best hope for a championship in the latter days of the Cox / Chipper / Smoltz era.
I would still take that deal.
Anyone want to have a pool for when Hampton is out for the season? Winner will have the date that Hampton is placed on the DL with a season ending injury. The only thing at stake is glory. Three guesses a person, first come first serve.
http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pV5nmFVplLUoCkICBrWeQfQ
What’s up with Chuck James again?
That bench we have right now looks paper-thin because it has a bunch of singles hitters. Is that going to have any huge effect?
Chuck’s shoulder is still not as strong as it would ideally be, and he’s going to start out on the DL in extended spring training. If Smoltz can’t come back in time or when Hampton inevitably gets hurt, he’ll be called up, otherwise he’ll start in Richmond.
As I mentioned in one of yesterday’s threads, I prefer singles hitters/OBP guys on the bench to power hitters. If you want a rally, you have get people on base; if you want to get a runner home from second, you want high-average guys, not low-average sluggers.
The bench isn’t great but it isn’t Orr, Woodward, Thorman, and Harris. There’s also reason–a few million in cash to spend and some decent prospects seasoning on the farm–to expect it to improve as the season progresses.
#9 – I’ll take a bunch of singles hitters over the crap heap that we’ve had there the past few seasons.
Pena, Prado, Infante, Gotay, Miller
is a lot better than
Orr, Woodward, Thorman, Pratt, Harris, Miller, Langerhans, Jordan, T Pena, Wilson, Hollandsworth, Perez.
Our only decent PH have been Ward, Diaz, Harris at times, and Betemit
Remember that Infante’s coming back around the end of April, so that will improve the bench somewhat. As csg notes, they’re better than Orr, Woodward, or the post-June Harris.
Actually, the scary thing is that Julio Franco might look good on this bench…
Baseball is hereeeeee
Brayan Pena as a “utility” player is absurd. You can absorb his empty offensive contribution as a backup catcher, but not as a PH and corner IF/OF fill-in. I’m assuming (and hoping) this is temporary.
with power from 7 positions player it is more important that pinch hitter get on base
Thank God, we finally get a game thread tonight!
THERE’S GOING TO BE BASEBALL TODAY!!!!!! WAAAHHHHOOOOO!!!
Sorry… I’m so excited…
As for the bench, the only person I can see being a really strong PH candidate (average and power) would be Brandon Jones. And obviously, he’s better off getting regular work in the minors. That’s the thing about finding solid PH: if they were really good hitters, they’d be playing full-time. The only exceptions are ones that are really bad defensively (Darryl Ward?) or a prospect, and you’d rather have a prospect getting regular ABs.
Braves Opening Day is finally here!
Go Bravos…kill the Natties.
I’m gonna head out to the park today with a buddy and try to get some cheap grandstand seats. Wish me luck, and I hope I’ll see some of you there!
Oh-o-o, Mexico.
If you were wondering about Julio Franco’s whereabouts.
Stark is picking Atlanta to take it all this year:
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/preview08/columns/story?columnist=stark_jayson&id=3320120
Rob,
That’s Gammons, Rosenthal, and Stark.
Do you reckon that they are getting together trying to jinx us?
I hope not, but Stark make some goods points: we’re younger, deeper, and as long as we stay healthy, we’re truly better I hadn’t realized that our lineup is so young, but with Escobar, Johnson, Tex, Francouer, and McCann, we’re pretty young. Diaz and Kotsay aren’t exaclty old either. It’ll come down to the old guys in the rotation and at third. I’m excited about this year.
T-minus 5 hours 22 minutes!
Cliff – it makes me a little nervous. I could not understand why the Mets were suddenly the unanimous choice as NL East champ. Now that that is no longer the case, I am not sure I like it.
My 10month old son wore his Braves jersey to church today. heh heh. I can’t quite get away with that. Can’t wait for tonight.
Eric Young also picked the Braves on Baseball Tonight, which I kinda wish hadn’t happened.
If I had a son, he would have worn his Braves jersey to church too. God bless you, c. shorter. God bless you…
Parrish,
I’m a Mets fan, and what I’ve seen indicates that no one is really willing to concede the East to the Mets this year. I think I’ve glanced at half a dozen predictions by the ‘experts’ today, and it seems to be pretty evenly split among the Braves, Phils, and Mets. Maybe that was the sentiment right after the Santana trade, but I don’t think any thinking baseball fan wouldn’t see the serious problems the Mets potentially have.
Lineups for tonight:
Atlanta
Johnson 4
Escobar 6
Jones 5
Teixeira 3
Francoeur 9
McCann 2
Diaz 7
Kotsay 8
Hudson 1
Washington
Guzman 6
Milledge 8
Zimmerman 5
Johnson 3
Kearns 9
Lo Duca 2
Dukes 7
Belliard 4
Perez 1
Mike Reilly at HP