I am getting worried about the Braves’ continued affection for AAA outfielders who can run but who can’t hit; apparently, Gwinnett is less a baseball team than a track club. The latest came yesterday:
To compensate for the lack of outfielders in Gwinnett, the Braves have signed Josh Anderson to a Minor League deal. Anderson hit .294 with three homers in the 40 games he played for Atlanta in 2008. The speedy outfielder has spent the past two years within the Tigers and Royals organizations.
Apparently, they’re not worried about the lack of outfielders who can hit in Gwinnett. Anderson can join a group that includes Matt Young (10 SB, 2 HR, .338 SLG) and is missing the huge impact bats of Brent Clevlen (3 SB, 1 HR, .376 SLG) and Gregor Blanco (8 SB, 1 HR, .375 SLG). Okay, they have Mitch Jones, who compensates for his 10 homers by never getting on base (.290 OBP).
This is nothing new; Jones already has more homers than any Gwinnett outfielder did last year. (Reid Gorecki hit nine, the same number as all-glove, no-hit catcher Clint “The Guinea Pig” Sammons.) That outfield did feature the Crab Man, Brian Barton (17 SB, .390 SLG) as well as Blanco, and Brandon “Peaked in AA” Jones (.419 SLG). The last Richmond team had Anderson, who stole 42 bases and hit four whole homers, and the legendary Carl Loadenthal, who stole nineteen bases and hit no homers. I could go on.
But I’ll stop. Hopefully, the Braves will stop too.
LOL! You, sir, are on a roll.
Going back to 2008, Gregor Blanco is probably my favorite bad player in the major leagues. He plays good defense but has a noodle arm; has a good batting eye but strikes out a ton; has decent speed but isn’t a great base stealer; and he probably doesn’t even have warning track power. But he’s a classic pesky hitter who always looks like he’s trying hard on both sides of the ball, and there are few things more fun than watching him work a pitcher for a 10-pitch walk.
He isn’t good, but he’s a useful bench player/5th outfielder, and I’m so happy to see him succeed to the best of his abilities.
Ah, another member of the Gregor Blanco (not really FAN, more like APPRECIATION) Club.
Always thought he’d max out his ability on an AstroTurf field.
Glad he’s a Brave right now.
always looks like he’s trying hard on both sides of the ball
This summarizes why I love Blanco. Yes, the walks and speed are nice, but it’s the visible giveacrap that I really love.
what would anyone think about a trade for Jose Bautista? He’s RH, but has killed RH pitching.
The thing that is so weird about the braves organization is that the major league club is one of the slowest in baseball.
Chris Resop AND Josh Anderson?? Our problems are solved!
Jose Bautista is having a massive, massive fluke season. He has some power, but he is nowhere near this good. Because they need to build for the long haul and they’re not a playoff team this year, the Jays might be looking to move some of their overachieving hitters — John Buck, Alex Gonzalez, and Bautista all might be available. But they’re all pretty certain to regress to the mean. None of them is remotely as good as they’ve been hitting this year.
re: moving Prado to 3B
Prado loses all his value if he goes to 3B. His numbers are really good for a 2B, but well below average for a third baseman.
I’m also a member of the Gregor Blanco Appreciation Club
Be nice if Hanson could get a little deeper into the game tonight. Just checked and he hasn’t gone 7 since the 15th of May.
Is it just me, or do guys seem to foul off an inordinate number of balls off the him?
I think he’s still trying to figure out how to put MLB hitters away after 0-2, 1-2 counts. Seems like he let’s them stick around far too often. Once he gets it, though…
@9 – I agree. I would rather keep him at 2nd. But a if it’s 2011 and Chipper is gone it might be best to move him to 3rd depending on the circumstances. I would rather have Orlando Hudson at 2nd and Prado at 3rd than Prado at 2nd and Conrad or Infante at 3rd. But yeah, the best case scenario is you find a power hitting 3rd baseman and keep Prado at 2nd.
I’m also in the Gregor Blanco appreciation club.
F*ck the Mets.
I have seen one Chipper at bat this entire month (stupid tv…), and it was last night when he homered to center. Guys, I don’t get why you’re mad at him. 🙂
Oh lord, we’re about to talk ourselves into having Gregor Blanco be a major part of this team again. Because this went so well last time.
@16 Rob, his swing last night looked pretty good, which wasn’t the case before last night.
@9 David, Prado is actually a much better defensive third baseman than a second baseman. If he indeed can maintain his current productivity, I don’t see how moving him to third base will mean much. Your logic is just conventional wisdom that a third baseman has to be a power hitter.
But I would ask one question before moving Prado to third base (if that is ever needed), can Glaus still play third base?
@17 Nick, I thought everybody is saying we are fine with Blanco as long as he is our fourth outfielder…I don’t know about you, but that doesn’t sound like a huge role for me.
Honestly, I think Blanco is a very useful bench player, quite similar to Conrad actually.
Watching Glaus play catch with Chipper last night, it’s clear he can throw a baseball 90 feet and on standard plays, I don’t think his shoulder would give him a problem. Glaus appeared a little tepid on his release of the ball and his throwing motion seemed a bit mechanical and not really fluid. The problems may come when he’s got to unload and fire the ball across the diamond.
Of course, this is just my observation of a game of catch, so it could be nothing.
If I remember, Carl Loadenthal was all set to win the caddy scholarship prior to his sudden anxiety attack.
Chipper hit two balls harder last night than he has all season, hopefully he can get his timing down now
Well, that was a quick experiment. From DOB’s twitter:
Braves disabled Chris Resop with a strained left oblique. Called Jesse Chavez back up from Gwinnett.
Prado would still be above-average at 3B, and the best we can tell is that his glove is a lot better there, too. So if you add a good-fielding 2B who is decent with the bat, you end up with an above-average bat at 3B, an average bat at 2B, and two good fielders there vs. a top 10 bat at 2B and whatever you can get a 3B, which probably won’t be both above-average at hitting and fielding. So, sure, maybe some loss in value. But given the relative glut of decent 2Bs and the relative scarcity of decent 3B, I don’t think it would be awful to move Prado. I say, find the best value at 3B or 2B you can and have Prado play the other.
@23- LOL?
well….thats something
I know he’s sucked lately. I was being sarcastic. Perhaps I should watch more of his ABs though…
Chipper talking retirement:
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=5289293
BS he strained an oblique.
Welcome back Jesse! All is forgiven!
Enjoy it while it lasts Jesse. JJ and Saito are on the way.
17 — Who is giving Blanco a major role? I think we’re just happy he isn’t Chris Woodward or Corky Miller off the bench.
GOD did I miss Jesse Chavez…
Resop must have sprained it watching all those hits go past him.
Doesn’t really seem like an Ollie Perez-type injury to me. Something had to have been wrong for anyone to pitch as poorly as he did last night. But wow.
Michael Dunn needs to find Pete Orr’s pictures as soon as possible. Or are we afraid of having 4 lefties in the pen?
What happened to the Effin’ Mets?
@36: The Orioles and the Indians.
I think we found Coach.
Resop must have sprained it watching all those hits go past him.
Hey, it’s hard work backing up third!
Yeah! It’s officially the 100th time I’ve used the pitcher injury-backing up third joke on this site! Next round is on me!
Honestly, I think Blanco is a very useful bench player, quite similar to Conrad actually.
I’m fine with Blanco on the bench. As long as he hardly ever plays, if that makes sense.
Couldn’t they have, like, tried someone different? Michael Dunn or Stephen Marek or somebody? Anybody? Is there not another reliever left on the 40-man roster other than Chavez? That Saito’s coming back at the end of the week is the only possible explanation for this.
Isn’t there somebody down in the minors who would inspire more confidence than Jesse Chavez?
Lineup, if you haven’t seen: Prado, Heyward, Chipper, McCann, Glaus, Hinske, Escobar, Melky, Hanson.
So if Bill Hohn is the first base ump tonight, he’ll be behind the plate tomorrow. That’s pretty cool.
Seriously Poser?
Did he shake hands with Mike Hampton or something?
I don’t want to overreact; but if Chipper’s actually back then we are freaking awesome.
Oh good, we’ve got them where we want them.. We’re working the old ‘swing at ball-four up at your eyes’ trick.
AND the old Third baseman throws it into right field trick!
Wtf that wasn’t even a surprise drag bunt.
They had a shift on him. Chipper was playing at shortstop.
Another piddling little fly to right for Esco. This one fell in though. I’d pay money to see him turn on one and drive it to left.
for all the talk about chipper’s lack of power, he’s only 40 points behind McCann’s SLG
Funny that a piddling fly ball is the opposite of hitting the piss out of it.
I hate to bring this up, but the Mets are winning again in Cleveland. Let’s win tonight & stay on top for another day.
C’mon Chipper…
Ok, no excuse if they can’t get in Prado. This is supposed to be the meat of your order.
C”mon Mac, right now baby.
YES!!!! Thank you BMac!
Nice work, Troy!
“Two-out hits are golden.”
Not sure how I feel about Hinske bunting.
@21 – He was a brown nose Hanan; you hated him.
Nuts. Good inning, though!
Unless it’s the pitcher coming up next I’m perfectly happy taking a free base if Hinske can bunt against the shift like that.
So, Tommy’s back. And that sure is nice. 🙂
I don’t hate Hinske’s bunt. More pitches, one spot closer to clearing the pitcher. His baserunner was only on 1st, so it moved a runner in to scoring position. Plus Escobar had doubled his last time up.
That said, it’s just aswell that it all went on with two outs, because Yunel’s grounder was one of his patented 6-4-3’s.
Unless there’s a pitcher due up, you should pretty much always take the free baserunner.
Tommy’s being efficient so far today. That’s a nice change, particularly against this patient Rays lineup.
Is it about to rain? Joe made a comment, and it’s really windy allofasudden.
lol @ 43
I mean, I agree that you take the base if they’re giving it to you. But you’re basically counting on Hinske to get down a decent bunt (3B side, not too soft so the C fields it, not to the pitcher, not popped up, etc.) and risk him getting down two strikes if he’s fouling them off. If it was a 100% chance of a single, I take that. But it’s not. I’m not sure what the percentage is, nor where it would need to be for it to be worthwhile.
62 pitches, five strikeouts, no walks, one (bunt) hit.
heyward gets under everything
Terrible call.
Remember when it was decided that Yunel’s base running antics were no longer cute? McCann’s defensive ineptitude is no longer cute.
So I don’t have the game on tv, but a lot of good arms have given up SBs to Carl Crawford.
Got a little lucky to get out of that with no runs scored, Tommy was leaving a few pitches up that inning.
@74 – I think Bethany is referring to the wild pitch/passed ball play.
there’s no shift for that…
@74, 76 Yes, I was referring to the passed ball, my apologies.
Oh, I’m sorry; I’m just following on Yahoo, and sometimes Yahoo leaves information out. I thought the play at the plate occurred after the double, not a passed ball.
Why the hell would you take Hinske out?
Because Bobby is a member of the Gregor Blanco Appreciation Club.
I, personally, am a member of the “Marry me, Martin Prado!” club.
Because we have a decent lead, a good defensive bench OF, he just batted, and Hinske is terrible in the OF.
The Odarp!
has anyone posted teheran’s line tonight?
7 ip 2h 2bb 12k
that is ridiculously ridiculous.
wow. Yunel pulled one.
If you saw Brandon Hicks at the plate, and didn’t know otherwise, wouldn’t you think he was a pitcher?
how can Prado not be the starting 2B for the All Star game?
so, when’s prado gonna stop hitting?
sit Wagner and let Kimbrel finish this one
Yes Mac, you would. HE was awful.
anyone elses MLB.TV awful tonight as well?
Kelly Johnson has a higher OPS.
Damn every time he hits the ball it is hard.
The pitching talent in our system is amazingly exciting. I wish we could same about our offensive talent.
*COUGH*Cody Johnson’s 94 K’s in 58 games*COUGH*
Prado in MLB
hits – 1st
runs – 6th
BA – 8th (before tonight)
among NL 2B
hits – 1st
runs – 2nd
2B – 2nd
BA – 1st
OBP – 3rd
SLG – 4th
OPS – 4th
over/under on Ks for Cody Johnson at the MLB level (600 AB’s) is 300
Part of me would like to see a player strikeout 300 times.
Sweet.
Recapped.