I’m sure you’ve noticed that there have been some changes to the look of the blog in the past few days. In essence, there’s a lot of the blog that has looked the same going on 15 years. Just to stay with the times, there was needed tweaking, not overriding. Longtime commenter, Hap Wheeler stepped in to aid in small improvements to provide a little eye candy. With the help of another longtime commenter, Davy Godfrey, and his pal, Bruce Bishop from Fleas Tees, we created a new logo that represents the atmosphere that we’ve come to know and love these past 10-15 years. The new cream color represents the nostalgia of Braves Journal that coincides with the classic look of the Braves alternate home jerseys. The blue stays true to the blue that was present in 1979 when Phil Niekro started 44 games and pitched 342 innings (not a typo) of 3.39 ERA baseball. For me, it was important for the blog to stay true to its roots of being the original by looking the part and I hoped that thought translated to the design.
There’s also been some content changes as we try to grow the blog a bit and attract new regulars. The recaps are wonderful to create content and conversation with the regulars, but it’s not what’s going to keep people coming back. We’ve seen an influx of interest in Braves Journal these past few weeks as our numbers are up and people are most definitely noticing. Also, some people that were regulars on the site a few years ago are back and are regular commenters again and that should make us all happy. However in order to attract new people to the site, we need added content. Don’t freak out. We promise to keep the same bar-like atmosphere and won’t water-log the place with article overload. The idea is to have anywhere between 12-14 posts a week. The game recaps will not change and will stay in place each day until around 2 PM eastern time. At that point, we want to provide some added content that has a wide range of available topics:
- Player Preview
- Player Review
- Player Breakdown (Struggling or Soaring)
- Braves History
- Top Prospect Performers
- Prospect Lists
- Minor League Updates
- Player Breakdowns
- Draft Reflection
- Draft Breakdown
- Braves News of the Day
Rob and I both have full-time jobs (and I’m sure most of you do as well), and while we can likely get 2-4 pieces done between us per week, we need some help with creating content. If you are someone that could have some expertise in some of the areas above, please let us know. We’d like to keep the writing in-house a bit, but if we don’t have any in-house bites, I’ll ask some buddies for a little help.
From there, we’ve wanted to expand Braves Journal into the world of podcasting by doing precise 30-minute recordings that someone could consume during a commute to work and/or during a lunch break. We aren’t there yet as it requires some extra time that neither of us have, but if anyone is interested in helping out with this area, please let us know. It is the next aspect of Braves Journal that is on my checklist to get going.
BIG NEWS FOR BRAVES JOURNAL REGULARS!!!
But the big news! WE HAVE APPAREL! We didn’t go full steam ahead with the idea quite yet, but we worked with Bruce again, owner of Fleas Tees, to make another logo that represents the history of this place and this is what was produced:
The shirts are “Canvas†which is a high quality shirt and the sizes run true but are fitted. If you’re a person that likes your tees baggy, it might be beneficial to upsize your order. As of now, we only have men’s sizes ranging from Medium (6), Large (10), XL (12) and XXL (6). If they go fast, I can re-order through Bruce and likely have another shipment in within a week. The cost is $25 per shirt.
Contact for Purchases and/or Interest in Writing
Email me, Ryan Cothran, at cothrjr at hotmail dot com if you are interested in purchasing a tee-shirt (I’ll be collecting payments via Venmo this time but want something a little more professional if the idea takes off) to help support Braves Journal or if you are interested in helping write a piece or 2 per week on some of the topics mentioned above.
JC’d life is short.
John R
‘Don’t go changing to try and please me’
‘I’m taking a Greyhound down the Hudson River Line’
‘I’ll meet you any time you want, in our Italian Restaurant’.
‘You may be right but you may be wrong’.
Great job and thank you to Ryan, Hap, Davy et al.
Loving the subtle changes but keeping the touch and feel of Braves Journal. Go Braves!
Well done, all. Long live Braves Journal.
Go Braves!
Wonderful job, everyone! I wish I was swole enough to accommodate a size M shirt, but if you ever do a run of smalls, I will be happy to snag one.
Ryan…
Please don’t over regiment this board. We are first and foremost a bar you will remember. Clubby as we used to say. Fun posts such as @1 above are our essence, not more rigid, organized duty rosters.
We already have enough of that with our excellent recappers. That provides enough of a framework to hang a week’s posts on. I used to recap myself, I quit when i realized how good they all were, much better than I could do.
But I do know a good bar when i see one. And will continue to battle for its informalities/nonsenses/pleasures. Not its rosters. My Service days are happily behind me, this is where I want to be, the way we are.
But, as Billy Joel used to say, ‘Don’t go changing to try and please me’ – there are a couple hundred others i believe!
PS a fixed time each day to change threads is a perfect example of regimentation!
Blazon, there’s not much worse than when you put a lot of time, effort, and energy to do something because you believe in it, then to have it criticized by the audience you’re trying to hold.
I’ve noticed a trend in your complaints that coincide with my posts. I’m not here to change BJ as I’ve been following the site since I was in my early 20s and now I’m 41. The site has to grow a bit so look past your own needs for the sake of longevity. It’s a fruitless labor for a site to break even and that’s what we’re trying to do here.
If you think 2 posts a day on BJ will cause the site to lose its appeal to the locals, then I can’t help as that is where we need to go…and it isn’t that much of a change as we are already at 10 or so/week.
I’m being as sincere as I can here and no condescension is intended so please don’t read this that way.
I think the site can handle a recap and a content post a day. It does make the linear nature of the comments a little wompy, but when Braves Journal was rocking, you had a recap and a game thread every day. This is no different.
Blazon, Ryan gave 11 different Braves-related, wide-ranging content topics for you to choose from, so if you see anything in there that you feel like you can be of help on, that’s the kind of help we’re looking for.
I think Mac was posting twice a day, single-handedly. That guy was a maniac.
Edit: ok, what Rob said. Except he left out the maniac part.
He was indeed a maniac.
Y’all, make sure to shoot me an email if interested in a Braves Journal shirt.
Mac Maniac – Beloved Founder.
Great work Ryan,Rob,AAR,etc. I stumbled upon this blog probably 15 years ago looking for Braves information and chatter and was blown away by Mac and the regulars around here. Back in those days it wasn’t easy to get the type of in depth information and opinions about the Braves here in Michigan and Braves Journal quickly became my favorite place to go online. I really appreciate the efforts of all of you to keep the site going, and I for one am very excited about the direction of the blog and what you all have done. The expansion on Twitter has been a lot of fun and I feel like we all get a chance to know each other better with that medium in play as well. Thank you and Go Braves!
@Ryan C It’s not specifically you that Blazon is critical of, buddy. I probably aided Rob in making our regulars nervous about changes when we had a short-lived run with Disqus LOL.
I believe I stood all alone in liking that change. 🙂
If having two posts per day somehow causes on-going conversations to be abandoned, I would blame the layout for it. There are ways of featuring two blog posts on the screen at once so people don’t have to scroll to find the previous post.
We do also think that being consistent with the posting will help. Say, at 2pm a post goes up. People can get used to the switch over.
Also, good for Kolby Allard. May he do well.
The reason I mention featuring more than one active post at a time is because it’s not all that common for a sports blog to keep one single active thread of discussion going. This place has a Singleton pattern going in a way that I’ve not ever seen anywhere else. 🙂
https://www.baseballamerica.com/stories/the-new-triple-a-baseball-has-made-2019-a-season-unlike-any-other/
Well, the cat’s definitely out of the bag. Feast your eyes on the crazy statistics that prove that the ball is juiced even more than we probably thought.
Enquiring minds want to know: how many days in a row can mlb teams play?
I would think the master labor agreement would mandate that players get a break other than coast to coast travel days, but what the heck do I know.
@ 17, coop. I think the cba maxes at 20 days of games. Even if you must have doubleheader’s.
Thanks, Cliff. Wives ask embarrassing questions.
Thanks for all the work you guys put into the site! This is one of a small handful of sites I visit on a daily basis, and I appreciate you guys’ keeping the format substantially the same while also looking to improve. I especially like that the site/ content is organic and self-renewing. I don’t think there’s a big need to “farm out” contributions just for numbers’ sake, but I also won’t complain about additional quality content. Cheers!
Culberson getting the start at short tonight, interesting!
RONALD DOING RONALD THINGS!
Anything you can do, I can do better, he says.
¡Arriba y afuera!
Another pitcher who needs to learn you can’t throw a get-me-over FB to Ronald on the first pitch of a game.
Folty – so far so good……. not counting any chickens yet.
BLESS YOU FREDDIE
It is very heartening to see the Braves get a little something going against a pitcher of Berrios’s quality.
Need the shut down inning from Folty. He looks good so far…
Deep breath, Mikey. Get a grip.
Great job Folty!
Well done, Folty.
Even 2018 Folty was not an economical pitcher.
If Folty can get through 5 or 6 I say get him out so he can hopefully take that confidence into his next start. 5 shutout innings is a good jump off point
Got a handful of orders for tees tonight. Thanks, guys and gals!
I hope Duvall isn’t turning back into a pumpkin
Ender… tf.
Wow, what a way to run out of the inning with Acuña coming up. Inciarte wasn’t even close to second when the Twins’ second baseman caught the ball, what the hell?
Can’t make an out at 2nd like that to end the inning
I have a soft spot for Folty. Hopefully he can keep this up. Man do we need him.
And of course Ronald gets a hit that would have scored a run
The Twinkie announcers (MLBN) seemed to think that Inciarte’s hit was normally a double except for the fantastic throw by their guy (Sano). Maybe. Seems to me like I’d rather take one less base and keep the inning going. Of course, Acuna singled on the first pitch next inning. Another lost run.
The young’uns are having a great night!
They better get Berrios out of their before he completely destroys his ERA. LOL
Hope we have enough Folty Fringe now.
“The Twinkie announcers (MLBN) seemed to think that Inciarte’s hit was normally a double except for the fantastic throw by their guy (Sano).”
Makes little sense to me. Inciarte wasn’t even close to second when their second baseman caught the ball. It didn’t take a “fantastic throw” to get him at all. Just a plain adequate throw would have sufficed.
Wow, wow, wow, Folty looked dominant in the 5th. He was amped up too. I agree with Frenchy that he and McCann seem to really be in sync.
What an inning by Folty. If he can keep doing this it would be huge
I’m a bit verklept at seeing Folty looking like his best self tonight. Keep it up, big guy, you deserve to be here.
Looky, looky at old Mike pitching real good against a very good lineup. I am delighted. Keep it up, Folty. I’ll gladly eat crow.
There was a pic on Twitter that showed Foltynewicz wearing a bracelet that said “Don’t be a little bitch.” I’m assuming that was a message of affirmation to himself to inspire him while getting into trouble on the mound.
RONAAAAAALD!
Goodness this is fun.
I need to see more than one good major league start to declare him “back” (see Gausman’s first start) but this is certainly encouraging.
And Josh gets in on the fun!
And so does Brian!
11-1. No biggie, Mike. Eyes on the prize.
That was a long inning he sat in the dugout.
Eleven runs wasn’t enough, I guess.
Close enough. Get him, Snit.
So now it’s a 2 homer night off Folty. The long inning obviously Played a role. Still a good new beginning for him
Cheers for the updates! I’ve been mostly a lurker for over a decade, but had not been visiting as much during the last few years (more about the team than the page–I just wasn’t dealing well with the lack of success having endured the crap years of the late 70s and late 80s). But, I’m glad to see some minor updates that stay within the classic Braves Journal format. And Long live Braves Journal!
Tighten up, Luke.
Jeez. Enough with the drama already.
Luke is still pissed he didn’t get the call on a pitch that was clearly a ball.
@62 – Maybe Folty can lend him his “Don’t be a little bitch” bracelet.
Oh crapbaskets.
Good Lord, eleven really wasn’t enough.
Newcomb’s fastball feels very flat tonight.
Bonds treatment for Nelson Cruz until he becomes human again. WALK HIM!
Rob and Ryan are both GREAT guys. I’m probably going to buy a shirt. Hell, I may even pick a category to write something about…
All of us in here are different people. Have different world views and different backgrounds. But we all love the Braves.
Go Braves!
If Duvall K’s here, I think it’s safe to say he’s fully pumpkin’d.
A groundout! He dodges the label for another AB.
“A hitter receives a platinum sombrero if he strikes out five times in a single game, and this dishonor is also known as the Olympic Rings.”
@68
Chief, I’d love it if you chose to write about one of the topics mentioned. And the tee shirts are awesome! I rocked mine teaching school today and the kids loved that I was representing my passion through clothing which is a a very popular topic among young ones these days!
Let’s chat when you get a chance.
Wow, what a play by Charlie!
I’m currently hoping to see Swarzak for the 9th, too. The General looks like he’s back. He has officially stopped the bleeding tonight.
Charlie is good at SS and should’ve been receiving more PT while Dansby was on the shelf and Camargo was laying eggs.
Goodness. They try to give Greene a feel-good appearance and he still can’t get a clean inning.
Does Michigan have lemon laws?
Time to rattle off a few. Win the day game tomorrow then take Miami by storm for 4. Night, y’all.
Safe to say Charlie can handle backup shortstop duties. Looking more and more like Riley will stay when Dansby returns.
@75 Greene looked a lot better tonight. With the exception of the solo shot, he got a lot of swings and misses. He’s going to take some getting used to. It looks like he does best when he throws his slider at the top of the zone as opposed to Luke who has to throw his slider at the bottom of the zone. In his last outing they had him throwing the slider low and it was getting smashed.
Luke may have more tools than Greene – a high octane FB. But I’ll bet Greene’s control will be better. They may be interchangeable and best used as co-closers.
@78 But Charlie didn’t hit any better than Camargo tonight. I’ll admit he looked better at the plate but still – 3 Ks. He just does not hit when he starts.
recapped
I’m not expecting much from Riley or Camargo between now and September. It may be best to send them both to AAA to straighten things out. I can live with 3 weeks of Lucas Duda making cameo appearances.
nm