I have closed the poll that I opened three weeks ago to find a date for Bravesjournal to attend a Braves game. The winning home weekend was July 26-28th, against the Cardinals. As we get closer to the date, we’ll figure out whether we want to target the Friday, Saturday, or Sunday game that weekend, but please see if you can make plans on your calendar to be in Atlanta that weekend.
Looking forward!
We’re saved.
Stay healthy Heyward, we don’t need another Summer of Jorge.
@1,
Can he play second or catch?
@djshort
Per the Braves’ telecast, Terry Collins indicated this morning that David Wright could miss a month. Still waiting on the diagnosis, though.
Oh, now I remember why I’m glad we didn’t get David Wright.
Yeah, who would want an injury-prone 3B?
Pseudopoll:
Sore Back + Mets doctors =
(a) Quadriplegia?
(b) 36 Months bed rest?
(c) Immediate OK to play followed by quadriplegia in next game?
(d) Mistaken use of old misfiled Jose Reyes X Rays?
(e)Use two new vertabrae in place of Wright’s old one once they get suckers…err…donors to invest…err…donate to the Madoff Repla…err…Wright Replacement Fund.
Perhaps the best meaningless spring stats for Braves fans thus far are Dan Haren’s. He has looked like the 2012 version. Hopefully the Nats don’t panic and sigh Lohse.
Good interview just now with Greg Walker on the MLB.TV broadcast. He is 100% sold on Evan Gattis.
@9
Positive news keeps rolling in for Gattis. Can’t wait to see him in live action in Atlanta.
LOLOL.
Ugh…kind of a crappy sports day. I guess the Hawks won, so that’s good.
@12, Didn’t Duke and Kentucky lose in their respective tournaments? Wonderful day!
Incidentally, if Marshall Henderson were on fire, I wouldn’t piss on him to put it out. To bean him right between the eyes with a Coke bottle might, in fact, be worth the repercussions.
Congrats to the Dores. I’m actually grateful they put us out of our misery.
If Alex Poythress is a Lottery pick, I’m a cross-dressing astronaut.
@15, Never understood how Poythress is considered a lottery pick and KCP is not. Besides the team colors they wear.
I’d pay to see justhank as a cross-drfessing astro
LOLOL.
Kentucky. What a disaster. Season should’ve been over after getting stomped in Athens, but bracketologists of all stripes threw the Kittens a lifeline after the win over a clearly dogging-it Florida. And what does UK do?
At least UK still has footb…basketball recruiting season.
I need Vandy to win again today to keep the Vols faint hopes alive.
Yep, UT and UK fans should be pulling fo us to win today and lose tomorrow.
Also, if one of your players could punch Marshall Henderson square in the nose, all the better. And yes, I am just gonna make my next 10 posts about how much I hate Marshall Henderson.
Cole Hamels is starting for the Phillies against us on opening day.
Marshall Henderson is a tool
Juan can hit a baseball a long, long way. Today Chip did his usual “there is a drive, it’s belted, it has a chance” on a missile that hit about two-thirds of the way up the giant video screen beyond center field. And he made some nice plays at third while Johnson was kicking balls around over at first. If Cole Hamels is the opening day starter that should make the decision tougher, but I think I’d pencil in Juan even against the lefty.
If we used all of our extra money to send Chip on a one way space cruise to another dimension and hire another announcer, I would be okay with that.
I would probably even chip in $10 to help out.
@26
A standard Carnival Cruise would work
Fransisco shouldn’t ever start against a left handed starter, ever. I still hope that one of these two guys can have a productive 2013 season for us, but it wouldn’t surprise me one bit if we are looking for someone else to man that position before the trade deadline.
@14
I am totally with you on that.
Gattis sure looks like he belongs – at the plate AND behind the plate.
What a pleasant surprise.
I think I’m going to like this Steven Jackson fellow.
Greetings from Miami…
#14
Does that mean I have to root for Florida tomorrow.
Dunno if I have it in me. What a choice.
Graham throws nothing but strikes.
@28, sure, but if that’s the worst problem we are looking at, and they can platoon in the meantime to maximize their value, then things are ok. Starting to think that assuming McCann comes back, this is the best group of position starters we’ve had in a while.
I’m less sanguine about the lineup than others, as I’m concerned about not only 3B but C and 2B as well. But if McCann comes back healthy, and/or Uggla rebounds even a little, then the lineup will be fine. Just remember, though: this was a below average offense last season, so they’re going to have to be considerably better than they were in order to be “good.”
It would never happen but my OD lineup would have Gattis in it.
It was also a playoff team last year, so even the smallest improvement matters.
So long into the season before Gattis goes from savior to bum? I give it till mid-May, assuming he’s there and getting frequent at-bats from the beginning.
I’ll take that bet.
Thinking about Mac today. My calendar says that today would have been his birthday. I’m thankful for being able to celebrate his birthday by enjoying his work.
Forgot about that. Today would have been Mac’s 42nd birthday. Site just is not the same without him.
I know Mac wasn’t a drinker, but I’m headed out to raise a pint to him anyway. Good call, Rob.
Teheran is dominating today.
I’ve been skeptical about Teheran, but its good that Wren held onto him this winter. Another good outing so far today.
6IP 3H 1ER 2BB 7K
Pitchers should still be ahead of hitters right now, but the kid is missing a lot of bats.
Teheran was incredible today. If he’s not a top-10 prospect in all of baseball justhank is a cross-dressing astronaut.
I predict that by the end of this season Frank Wren’s managing to get Upton without giving up Teheran will be viewed as his most noteworthy achievement.
Matt Diaz has been released. How long before he’s back in Atlanta?
I was definitely skeptical about Teheran and I’ll be glad to eat all of those words if he’s the real deal.
Has it ever been mentioned on here that Uggla is a surname meaning “owl” in the Swedish nobility? We have Jason’s Jasons and Freddie’s Freddys (and had Francoeur’s Franks), so will we have Uggla’s Owls if he gets hot this year?
DG, I don’t give a hoot.
Dan, probably only until Gattis his first 0-4… but he deserves the right to have us turn on him, dammit!
@48, and Uggla’s Strugglers if not.
4 things:
1) You have to make open shots if you want to win. Florida missed way too many open shots.
2) You can’t turn the ball over if you want to win. Florida turned the ball over a TON in that game.
3) You have to make your free throws if you want to win. Florida shot under 50% from the line that game.
4) There was a 1-minute sequence in which a goal tend wasn’t called, a charge wasn’t called, and a push on a rebound wasn’t called, with the net result being a 7-point swing for Ole Miss. That game was officiated horribly. It was inconsistent front to back. And I’ll grant that the contact on Murphy’s last shot wasn’t likely to be called, but that exact call had been made twice earlier, so, you know…. whatever.
justhank is a cross dressing astronaut: hah! Thanks, jh and JCM.
“Matt Diaz has been released. How long before he’s back in Atlanta?”
Wren is meeting with his staff right now, to see if they think Diaz can play third base.
Julio Teheran is pitching awfully well right now.
Well, nothing beats an astronaut.
Good riddance to a disappointing basketball season. Now I can turn my sports attention to the Braves. Teheran is really silencing his critics.
In space, no one can see you accessorize.
I actually wish Diaz could play 3B. Pretty sure he can still hit lefties.
@57 – Very nice.
So, this Braves Journal weekend — are we doing group tickets, or are we on our own? Definitely interested in coming down, at least for one game.
The cardinals weekend sounds great.
By the way, if any of you happen to go over to the Phillies SB nation site it is comical how bad they Phillies could be this year.
If any of you are feeling down, it is worth a read for a laugh.
justhank rocks.
justhank rocks…the space pumps and meteor bag set by Prada.
For Bowie fans — or just people who might remember this exchange — if you ever stood a chance of being sentimental about Bowie’s oncoming demise, his latest album, which I just picked up, will get you there. I was sort of surprised, myself.
Has anyone else noticed how atrocious the catchers have been this spring (outside of Gattis)?
65 — Were we expecting them to hit? All we’re asking is for Laird not to embarrass himself too bad until McCann gets back.
I don’t think Betancourt is ever going to hit, which is a concern going forward.
I agree that Bethancourt has not looked good at the plate. I notice that he moves his feet around a lot. And he seems not to have any kind of consistent approach. One at bat he watches a first pitch strike. The next at bat he dives after a first pitch out of the zone. But it is way, way too early to say he is never going to hit (at least relative to his position). He is athletic and he has plenty of bat speed. And from what I have seen of his defense this spring he looks like a valuable asset regardless of how long it takes him to mature at the plate.
The thing with Bethancourt is that he just doesn’t seem to have much of an approach. There’s a lot of miss in his swing. So while he’s certainly got power, he doesn’t seem to be able to translate it into good ABs. Scouts are becoming increasingly skeptical that he’ll ever do it. But who knows. Maybe Gattis is the answer long-term.
Justin Upton, on the other hand, is an absolute stud at the plate. Incredible swing. That ball cleared the berm in left.
I know that technically Justin’s swing is better, but man, I love the high follow through that BJ has.
Juan couldn’t believe he was getting waived home.
Pagnozzi’s hitting .375 (6-for-16, but still), so we don’t have a total void behind the plate this spring.
“Juan couldn’t believe he was getting waived”
Darn, wrong “waived.”
I really hope these versions of Medlen and Kimbrel stay in Florida.
Hah, yeah, that is quite the slip.
LOL. Ruf just turned an easy catch at the wall into a two run homer for Freeman. That was priceless.
Goddamn. Justin Upton is incredible.
Spring training don’t count, or matter. That means I don’t have to worry about Heyward, Uggla, Medlen, Minor, Kimbrel, and Hudson (his peripherals), who have had pretty bleak springs. But then I also don’t get to be excited about Teheran, Freeman, Francisco, Johnson, or the Uptons, who are all doing quite well.
Torn.
Medlen looks like he’s going through a dead arm period. Just hope he gets through it soon.
Solved: feel excited about Upton, don’t worry about Medlen.
Gameday says “Humberto Quintero flies out to left fielder Craig Kimbrel.” I guess it’s spring training for the Internet as well.
How do you all feel about VCU over Michigan and Kanasas? Michigan is playing poorly and Kansas’s point guard is suspect.
Constanza’s slash line of .000/.000/.00 is troubling.
“don’t worry about Medlen.”
But do realize that he’s not going to be as good as that post-All Star game 0.94 ERA last season.
I think everyone has realized that.
To be honest, I wouldn’t be surprised if Minor was better than Medlen this year.
Edit: I mean that in a good way.
If spring training is any indication (it usually isn’t), Teheran may be better than everyone.
I’m as dubious of spring stats as anyone, but Gattis’ give me great hope. He’s done nothing but hit the entire time since his return to the sport. I think there’s a real chance that he is pretty good at this hitting business
He just needs to be able to catch or play 3b
If that bat really plays, all I require is that he can keep the ball from going to the backstop.
As I said, Gattis may be our McCann replacement in 2014.
#40
I’m way late to the party, but I’m currently at a (dive) bar, so it makes sense for me to concur: here’s to Mac & here’s to his bringing us all together.
Had a good night with Rob Broad4th & I’m psyched for the season.
Cheers, Mac.
I want to get excited over Gattis, but I feel I’ve seen this exact same scenario play out a dozen times now.
Obscure player comes out of nowhere and starts hitting well. Team and their media allies begin hyping him up. Player hits well in winter ball, hype builds more. Player then hits well in spring training, hype hits its apex. Then, finally, the player gets into real games against real major league level competition, and promptly collapses like a house of cards.
93-Walker addressed that same point in his interview the other day, noting that in his career there has never been a season where a big slugger wasn’t way overhyped, usually due to a guy coming to camp with good timing and hitting home runs against pitchers working on getting in shape rather than getting guys out. He then went on to say that Gattis is different, both athletically (claimed he’d never seen so big and strong a guy with such quickness) and mentally, noting that he has a sound approach in every situation, and especially with two strikes. Another interesting thing he said was that he was a bit skeptical at first of Gattis’ swing and stance because they are unlike anything that he would ever teach and yet it is fundamentally sound: everything is balanced, bat stays in the zone a long time and goes directly to the ball etc.
Gattis will definitely struggle a bit, but that will have more to do with having to face guys like Cole Hamels for the first time than being overhyped. But I predict that after a couple hundred at bats he is going to start raking at this level just like he has everywhere else.
@93-
Weird. I can’t think of a single case in recent history that’s similar to Gattis. The only places I’ve heard anyone talk about him are here and on prospect chats/things. He had a really impressive season last year. No one thinks he’s a sure thing. Contra your point, most folks talk about uncertainty around him because he’s such a unique case.
Either way, I remain optimistic on the bat and somewhat skeptical on the glove, particularly behind the plate.
@95
Josh Hamilton
Well, let’s see. I’d love nothing more than if Gattis is the 2013 NL Rookie of the Year.
@96 Josh Hamilton had a more troubled history. Nothing in life is certain, but Gattis deserves a chance.
Gattis has hit at every level and against some of the games top pitching prospects. His bat will be able to play, I just want to see how his glove/game calling will be. Who would you rather see behind the plate next year? Bethancourt or Gattis? I’ll take the offensive guy.
To me, pulling for Gattis is one of the perks of being a fan. I keep up with (and enjoy) discussions of numbers, WAR, VORP, fIP, you name it – but there are always times when you pull for guys, just because they are “your” guys (and they have a great story, etc). And I think that is what it is for Gattis. He doesn’t fall into one of the nice neat boxes, due to his history away (and the comments & points made by JCM in post 94). But I am glad and excited to have a guy like this to cheer for.
Don’t get me wrong – I’m pulling for the Uptons, Heyward (he was the impetus for my one & only jersey purchase in my life, to date), and the whole team. But there is a potential (a sense of the unknown) with Gattis, that you just don’t (and can’t) have with any of the other ‘known’ players – and in my mind, that makes it a whole lot more fun!
98–It seems to me that the whole ‘troubled past’ thing with Gattis is really misunderstood even by lots of Braves fans, thanks in part to the media making it sound like he was somehow a drug addict in the same sense that Hamilton was. Reading Gattis’ account that clearly is not the case. To me as far as character goes I have more faith in him–a guy that made a certain amount of peace with himself outside of baseball and then came back to the sport with a unique kind of maturity and real perspective–than I do in just about anybody else on the team, including guys like Freeman and Heyward, both of whom seem incredibly well-raised and dedicated, but do we really know what will happen when either of them start dating J-Lo?
94,
It’s funny how when a pitcher does well in spring training, we say that it’s because pitchers are ahead of hitters this time of year. If a hitter does well in spring training, it’s because the pitchers are ‘working on their stuff’ rather than attempting to get the hitter out.
95,
He’ll never make it in the bigs. Been away from the game for too long, too old for his current level, has to battle personal demons, and won’t hit a lick when faced with real pitching.
Yep, if its a player we like then we are willing to write off bad starts or we will be amazed at their accomplishments so farl. If its a scrub then we want them to be crucified with no questions asked. That’s what’s great about Spring training.
Also great is that three of our top four offensive BA guys are Pastornicky, Fransisco, and Johnson. All scrubs
What does the Braves Journal community think of Alt-J? I have the one song I’ve heard on the radio, “Breezeblocks,” stuck in my head, and I like it a lot, but I’m wondering whether the rest of their work is this good.
@100 – well said. It’s the romance of baseball that keeps it fresh for me after all these years.
The VORP Troopers have added a lot to the understanding of the game, but give me the sloppy wet kiss of an unprobable underdog every time.
I plan to see Sister Sparrow and the Dirty Birds in Raleigh May 10. Is that a good idea? Cousins of a friend down there.
He’ll never make it in the bigs. Been away from the game for too long, too old for his current level, has to battle personal demons, and won’t hit a lick when faced with real pitching.
Surely this would have manifested itself at AA, traditionally the level of separation of prospect from suspect. And you’re “too old for your league” when you have actual prior experience against that level of pitching, or go to rookie league after participating in a college program for 4 years, not when you just show up after a few years of not playing at all. He may well fail, but it seems to me you are explaining away his current success because he is too good for AA pitching, and while asserting he won’t be any good against higher level pitching. That’s a bit counterintuitive.
For me, the appeal of Gattis is that we simply need to strike it rich with someone like him if we’re going to contend into the future. Just imagine if he’s the real deal — particularly his power — and we can control his prime years…
Maybe I’m just jaded, but his backstory is, itself, something of a cliche. If he were on any other team, I’d be rolling my eyes.
104, Thanks Stu for making me listen to this song. Loving it. Never heard it before until now…then again, I am living in Switzerland…
On hoops:
This is interesting and awesome.
This is funny.
@107, I was facetiously applying the Gattis logic to Josh Hamilton.
my apologies then.
This makes my little heart pound with joy…
“The message from Heyward and Gonzalez is not cliche, but the expression of a philosophy prevalent throughout the organization. Clubhouse chemistry is a nebulous, controversial, chicken-and-egg concept; some teams, like Arizona in its hunt for “gritty” players, actively seek to build it, while others, like the Braves, downplay it.
“We like talent,” is how one Braves person put it.
http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/baseballinsider/2013/03/the-rebranding-of-the-atlanta-braves-yankees-rivera-orioles-bundy-the-gary-s
@104 – The only other Alt-J song I’ve heard before is Tessellate (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qg6BwvDcANg); personally, I enjoy Tessellate more than Breezeblocker.
108–If Gattis’ backstory sounds like a cliche I suspect it is because cliches are how the modern media works. But at least in the sport of baseball, which is so heavily driven by age-relative performance, there are very few analogies for Gattis’ story. Super talented athletes walk away from sports when they are that age all the time, and they do so for all sorts of reasons. Often they go on to do amazing things. But managing to get back into the game of baseball, after giving it up for four whole years, is not typically one of them.
@110
That was funny
Organizations downplay chemistry when they have it, which the Braves have had for a long time. Whether you have a single leader or multiple leaders, a team still needs leaders to run smoothly. I don’t think Heyward or Gonzalez were saying that chemistry doesn’t matter – I think they are trying to make chemistry on a team where there may be more than one leader emerging from the younger player ranks.
Winning environments create chemistry. No one cares if Houston’s clubhouse gets along.
Winning can hide bad chemistry. And when the winning team without good chemistry crashes and the clubhouse sours, everyone knows about it. Take the late 1990s and early 2000s Giants with Bonds and Kent as a classic example. Sure, no one outside of Houston cares about their clubhouse, but that’s a market issue, not a chemistry issue.
I think chemistry is important and it is the manager’s job to control it. Keeping the clubhouse in line is probably the most important thing a manager does.
Short of players not beating each other up, I don’t even know what chemistry means. Clearly, not everyone on a team is going to be best friends with everyone else. Chemistry, to me, is just a way of describing a nebulous phenomenon that occurs when a team starts playing well. It’s more an effect than a cause. It’s probably better that the players don’t despise each other but short of that, I think it’s highly overrated.
Know what’s dumb? There are four MLB teams whose hat logo consists of a capital “A”. That’s just silly.
It is kinda dumb, yeah. But the Cubs, Reds, and Indians all have caps that just consist of a capital “C.”
Well, to be fair, the Cleveland “C” is a step up from what they were previously wearing.
“Know what’s dumb? There are four MLB teams whose hat logo consists of a capital “A”. That’s just silly.”
Well, the Braves did try fixing that with their spring training hat…
Medlen had some very reasonable-sounding comments about getting shelled yesterday. Kid’s got a very good head on his shoulders.
Bowman on Gattis, who sounds like he’d rather not have to keep talking about the backstory.
http://atlanta.braves.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20130319&content_id=42975534&c_id=atl
I guess Lexington’s feeling pretty blue right now.
I’ll tell you, if my team was full of talented freshmen and made the NIT, I’d really be looking forward to watching them grow and improve together….
Most major (read: teams whose bubble popped) teams’ attitudes toward the NIT sucks, in my opinion. Here we have a quality tournament that isn’t for the national championship, but it has a unique tradition all its own and winning it certainly means something (even if no one can quite decide what), and it’s against quality competition, and you get to play in Madison Square Garden if you reach the semifinals, and you can learn something about bouncing back and preparing for next year and all the rest. And most major teams just punt it because they want to go on spring break. It’s really pretty pathetic, frankly.
EDIT: And yes, I’m well aware my team’s about to punt it, as well.
#104
The whole record’s real good, pretty addictive, actually.
@128 – wailing and gnashing of teeth, for sure, but looking forward to next year.
Doubt you’ll see this again for awhile.
Humble, hungry and talented is a good way to play.
Here’s what I wonder, though, hank — because they underachieved this year, do some players who might have left school instead decide they want to stay? And does this jam up Calipari’s recruiting strategy (immediate minutes for incoming freshmen) to the point where he asks returning players to leave instead? If so, that would seem to me to be a bridge too far — scholarship players wash out of college programs all the time, but it’s usually because they can’t play effectively at the major college level, not because they’re not quite ready to go to the NBA.
Hey Ryan, although your message said the draft is being held tomorrow at 8 pm EST, the official message from Yahoo said 6 pm PST, which would be 9 pm EST. So… which one is correct?
UK only had ten guys on scholarship. We lose three to graduation and Noel will likely turn pro, leaving seven spots.
In his first three years, Cal had some upperclassmen that played key roles. This year, there were virtually none.
So, while the freshmen get all the press, it’s the talented older guys (e.g., last year’s Darius Miller, Terrence Jones, Doron Lamb) that provide the needed gravitas to make a Final Four run.