Happy Braves got BJ Upton, though a bit more than Phillies were willing to pay. Hope our 2 hitting coaches can help him work out some of his strikeouts and lack of walks.

Now, Braves need a leadoff/LF.

Glad T Hanson's gone to Angels.

Who signs Jurjens?

Your thoughts on your team's moves?

sir, you are crazy. Upton is a dog and always has been. He K's as much as anyone not named Dunn, although Bourn did too. Difference is Bourn could hit for average while Upton is .250 at best. He plays a good CF, but not as good as Bourn. That contract is insane and a good example of overpayment. He was a mediocre hitter in Tampa, what's he gonna do in the cavern that is Turner Field?

Giants resigned affeldt for 3 yrs. I love affeldt, but 3 years for any reliever over 30 is absolutely insane. I wouldnt have gone over 2, but whatever. Also word is we resigned Pagan for 4/40, which is also crazy. The dollars are great, but 4 years is a lot for a guy like Pagan. Lastly, we're apparently looking at Scott Hairston which would be an awesome pickup as a platoon with blanco in left.

Yes. I can see your points.

I'll just say that Braves needed another righthanded bat badly, as one of their major weaknesses the last few years has been their over lefthandedness.

Upton has definite issues, but he was going to cast around the same as Bourne probably will, and he is two years younger and perhaps still reachable by the hitting coaches (Braves have 2 now) to reach his potential.

Braves weren't going to go for Hamilton, and he is a time bomb anyway and not worth the investment. Pagan was going to resign with Giants barring something otheworldly. Span was difficult for Braves to pry away (though DC overpaid as well) Fowler was not worth what Colorado was dreaming of for him, Jus Upton was not worht giving up Andy Simmons for, etc... and Braves have little in farm system rgiht now and needed to sopend on at least one addition with the loss of Chipper (could still hit, but bad knees meant half of season lost at 3rd.)

The Giants have an admittedly tough team and are set up well for the next few years, esp. if they can get some similar performances from Zito to the playoffs this year.

Braves weakness systemwise is lack of big hitting in the minors. Need to rectify that. Upton was as good a gamble as they could take at this point, especially in our increasingly brutal division (Your division is simpler with SF and LA way above the rest.)

Would you have other suggestions on what move would have been better for Braves at this juncture?

honestly, i think the best move for the Braves would've been to stand pat and not make a 5 year commitment to a slightly above average player. Let's be real, Jason Heyward was mediocre in Atlanta, what's Upton going to do in that park?

I'm curious as to why you think the Nats gave up too much for Span. According to fangraphs, Span was worth 3.9 WAR and he'll probably be even better now that he's in a better lineup and an easier hitter's park. I understand Meyer was probably their top pitching prospect, but A) they have a ton of pitching and B) Meyer was extremely far away from doing anything and as we know, most prospects don't pan out. Considering what the Nats have at the ML level, i feel like they made out pretty well here.

Well, swoosh, you may be right on Span as far at the Nationals go. The braves are in a somewhat different situation. We here in Atlanta remember the Ted Turner days where the Braves would copmpete financially with the Yankees, RedSox and the bigger spenders. But since Turner sold the team, Atlanta has settled into a mid-market team. (In fact, I read something last year that said that Atlanta was exactly at the mid-point in spending and other considerations definition of the typical MLB mid-market team.) As such, what mighyt work for Wash DC, is a bit more difficult for the Braves these days.

I think the Nats are heading towards being among the big spenders for a while, now that they've got it going. Time will tell. You out in "frisco" are also among the upper echelon, at least in potential capability to spend, am I right? Once you get Zito off the books (is this his last year?) you'll be spendiong on FA's even more.

As for Heyward, yes, the juryt is still out on him, but two things: he's got a mparticular marketing angle to him that is important to Atlanta considering its location in the deep south, the history of the franchise with Aaron et. al, and the fact that he's still relatively young. Time will tell over the next few seasons how he'll pan out, but one thing you are forgetting for all the Atlanta hitters is just how much our lefty-heavy lineup has skewed our results over the last few years. Visiting teams have regularly thrown at least one and many times two lefty starters (and all their lefty relievers) at Atlanta all season, and that makes our hitters look worse than perhaps they would if the opposition was more typical in their pitching choices against us.

Not saying opponenets shouldn't try to use every edge they have against the Braves, but I think what Atlantans see in BJ Upton is the right handed hitter Uggla was supposed to be for us. (Uggla avg has been down, but his OBP is not as bad since he walks a lot. Still, we'd like him to slug mopre than he has, and we're stuck with his contract for a few more years, so we'll ahve to make the best of him for a while longer.

If you look, you'll find that Upton struck out only 12 more times than Michael Bourn did last year, so that's a wash for us, Upton is 2 years younger, so perhaps more "reachable" as a potential star, Upton has speed as did Bourn, and maybe a change of scenery will help him. We do have two hitting coaches in Atlanta, and most importantly, Upton is Right-handed. Even with Uggla in our lineup, Upton will help balance things out better, and the whole might be greater team-wise than the individual parts.

We'll see.

Tell me, how do you like what the Giants are doing out there this and the next few yeras? Details, please!

Maybe we'll get some comments from other teams' fans as well on here (someone must like baseball other than us, right? It's my favorite sport. Thank goodness Rice University has a great baseball team at least, with several major league alumni (look for Anthony Rendon at 3rd for Washington this year or next. Rice also has/had Jeff Nieman, David Aardsma (now a Yankee), Lance Berkman, Jose Cruz, Jr., Joe Savery )Phillies), Phil Humber (hey, a perfect game is still a perfect game, right?) Paul Janish (for my Braves), and back in the day, Norm Charlton from the nasty boys! (Also Matt Anderson #1 for the Tigers, but I think it was more Detroit's fault misfortune, rather than anything Rice did that led to his downfall.)

Whither Michael Bourne, now that Wash, Philly, Atl have effectively shut him out? Maybe Boras loses this one?

Also, Hamilton to the Angels- LA(Anaheim) will not let the Dodgers get all the spotlight. Those interleague games out there should be entertaining: Pujols, Hamilton, Trout vs. Gonzales, Kemp, Ethier.et al.

Don't know if the Pirates signing Russell Martin is a big deal or not, but is def an upgrade over Barajas... I think

(12-17-2012 01:51 AM)ClairtonPanther Wrote:  Don't know if the Pirates signing Russell Martin is a big deal or not, but is def an upgrade over Barajas... I think

Since that happened, I've been wondering what happens to McKenry. At worst he's a platoon catcher, and I think he's an upgrade as a starter for 1/4 of the teams.

I wish Martin would have happened earlier, because I think he'd have had a nice position in Atlanta with McCann missing the beginning of the season, and ATL losing Ross to the Red Sox. But we had already solved our catcher issues by then.

I'm loving what my Jays are doing. Hope this turns out better than the Marlins mess.

I'm still disturbed by what the Royals did to aquire Shields and Davis.

Will look forward to see how the Jays do this year. Hope the Yanks are down for a while as I need a break from them (maybe for 10 years? one can hope? probably not.)

Was a bit confused by the Royals giving up what is perceived as so much. But I guess they felt this is the time to go for it the next two years. It's gotta be tough to be a BB fan in KC, but also should be worth watching how their moves play out.

As for my home team, the Braves will be good to watch, though they will have imperfections as usual. Guess we'll wait on our LF situation, and lead-off will be by committee. Still looking forward to pitchers and catchers reporting now that we finally got football out of the way.

PS I think Theo will have the Cubs making some noise next year and 2015 will be their renewal year.

I'm sure the Braves will once again be good enough to put themselves in position to choke.

The Royals still have a major hole in RF and 2B and a question mark in CF. Shields is obviously the best pitcher on the staff, but I'm not sure he warrants two top prospects that would have been in KC this season along with a promising bat and a pitcher with tremendous stuff but control issues. Davis is already slotted as the #4 for KC, but he's not much different than 10 other pitchers they've been using and have in AA and AAA.

Many still feel they sold out the future for the next two years. They're not going to get it done this year so really it all hinges on 2014. I'm not optomistic but who knows in the the Central.

The good news is we have a very strong pen, and ok rotation (we hope), a Gold Glover in LF and what are soon to be at SS and C. Hosmer has to hit and Moose just needs to keep improving. His D has been a very pleasant surprise and his bat is coming. Would have loved to seen Myers in RF and in the middle of the lineup this year.....oh well. One more year of Frenchy. The million dollar smile and two cent bat.

(01-14-2013 02:07 PM)flyingswoosh Wrote:  I'm sure the Braves will once again be good enough to put themselves in position to choke.

And the Giants will be above average, in a below average division, and get hot at the end of the year...

(01-17-2013 10:30 PM)RaiderATO Wrote:  

(01-14-2013 02:07 PM)flyingswoosh Wrote:  I'm sure the Braves will once again be good enough to put themselves in position to choke.

And the Giants will be above average, in a below average division, and get hot at the end of the year...

sounds good to me

Nats are going to be very interesting. Didn't have many career years at all last year. The highest OPS+ on the team from Baseball-Reference.com was only LaRoche at 128. Catcher won't be a black hole like it was until Suzuki got here. Harper has a full year. Rotation lose Jackson(who was below average) and replace with Dan Haren. Bullpen should be stronger with Soriano.

Phillies should be tough- but one problem for them- they don't see the Nats until Memorial Day.

(01-25-2013 06:46 PM)stever20 Wrote:  Phillies should be tough- but one problem for them- they don't see the Nats until Memorial Day.

The Phillies' arthritis will be acting up by then.

(01-26-2013 08:57 AM)RaiderATO Wrote:  

(01-25-2013 06:46 PM)stever20 Wrote:  Phillies should be tough- but one problem for them- they don't see the Nats until Memorial Day.

The Phillies' arthritis will be acting up by then.

oh i completely agree. that lineup is a joke and either Lee or Halladay are bound to get hurt at some point

(01-25-2013 06:46 PM)stever20 Wrote:  Nats are going to be very interesting. Didn't have many career years at all last year. The highest OPS+ on the team from Baseball-Reference.com was only LaRoche at 128. Catcher won't be a black hole like it was until Suzuki got here. Harper has a full year. Rotation lose Jackson(who was below average) and replace with Dan Haren. Bullpen should be stronger with Soriano.

i agree with your conclusion, but i disagree with your reasoning. For one, I think laroche definitely had a career year. I realize he's had comparable OPS+'s in earlier seasons, but to have your best season at 32 is suspect and i wouldn't be surprised if he regressed. Also, Edwin Jackson was far from average. As a 4th/5th starter, his ERA of 4.03 was solid when you combine it with a 1.22 WHIP and 189 IP in only 31 starts. I'm not saying he was great, but I don't expect much more from Haren, a guy who not only pitched in a pitcher's ballpark, but also started 3 games in SAFECO. That difference is basically a wash, although it doesn't matter because if everything goes to plan, he won't be on the playoff rotation.

(01-26-2013 10:00 AM)flyingswoosh Wrote:  

(01-25-2013 06:46 PM)stever20 Wrote:  Nats are going to be very interesting. Didn't have many career years at all last year. The highest OPS+ on the team from Baseball-Reference.com was only LaRoche at 128. Catcher won't be a black hole like it was until Suzuki got here. Harper has a full year. Rotation lose Jackson(who was below average) and replace with Dan Haren. Bullpen should be stronger with Soriano.

i agree with your conclusion, but i disagree with your reasoning. For one, I think laroche definitely had a career year. I realize he's had comparable OPS+'s in earlier seasons, but to have your best season at 32 is suspect and i wouldn't be surprised if he regressed. Also, Edwin Jackson was far from average. As a 4th/5th starter, his ERA of 4.03 was solid when you combine it with a 1.22 WHIP and 189 IP in only 31 starts. I'm not saying he was great, but I don't expect much more from Haren, a guy who not only pitched in a pitcher's ballpark, but also started 3 games in SAFECO. That difference is basically a wash, although it doesn't matter because if everything goes to plan, he won't be on the playoff rotation.

Jackson was horrible in September, 2-2 6.54 era with a 1.484 WHIP. Haren on the other hand had his best month in September- 3-3 with 3.31 era and 1.019 WHIP.