McLouth, Hanson, and a 6 man rotation

Well it has been a few weeks since I last posted something probably because there has been nothing good to talk about. But I believe that has all changed. The Braves have done a lot lately to improve their productivity, some things we all like and some things that some of us may not have liked so much. We shall start with . . . .

THE MCLOUTH TRADE - I am a HUGE fan of this trade for many reasons. One we have got a solid CF locked up for a few years (CF - takin care of). I just love all that McLouth brings to the table that the Braves haven't had this year. He is fast really fast. I think he has a 92.6 (if i remember correctly) success rating in the stolen base department over the last few years. GOOD LORD! I loved it last night: two out single by Nate, sb, rbi by Escobar. Would not have happened if Kelly was leading off. He leads our team in SB and HR. Great OBP. Natural leadoff hitter. (leadoff hitter - taken care of for years). Not to mention he was an all star last year and won a gold glove. Also we did not have to give up alot. We gave up Charlie Morton (we've seen what he can do), Gorkys Hernandez (great prospect, but Schafer has a step up on him), and Jeff Locke (who has been pitching worse and worse as the season has gone). With this trade we got speed, a gold glove centerfielder, and power for 3 years. Please keep batting him leadoff.

TOMMY HANSON - Through the first three innings of sundays game, we all thought "holy crap this guy is better than I thought." Then reality set in and he let a few leave the park. But what we saw was a guy that, in the words of Jordan Holt "is sick". He has got some amazing pitches. He just can't rely on his fastball as much as he could in the minors. I was salivating the first few innings watching him. Personally, I think McCann calls a better game than Ross. So I was a little upset, not suprised, that Ross was behind the plate for Hanson. I just wonder what McCann would have called for in those same situations. We will never know. Anyway, although he gave up some blasts Tommy never lost his composure out there. I am very excited to watch him pitch and can't wait until his next start.

When I found out that we released Glavine, just like everybody else it was bitter sweet. In our heart of hearts we know that bringing Hanson up will be better for the team than having Glavine pitching for us. I don't think anybody like how it was handled except for maybe Chris Burdeshaw. Chris sent me a text saying that "they released him just to get him back for going to the mets." I do believe that the Braves made that deal with him never thinking that he would make it through rehab and the minor leauge starts. I also blieve that is was for financial reasons more than for productivity reasons. Because of this though not one person can question that Frank Wren wants to win, and will hurt some feelings if he has too. I think that everybody's confidence in Wren and the Braves organization has gone up this past week. And I like everything he has done, just may not the way he has done it. We just replaced one Tommy with another. PEACE OUT TOMMY!

Ok, we have all heard of a 6 MAN ROTATION. Japan does it, and their was talk of Boston doing it. Mitch Greer I believe is in favor of the Braves jumping to a six man rotation. I never have really liked the idea, because that is one more pitcher you need, and your ace would pitch less, etc. etc. But let look at this more closely . . . . . . just from a Braves point of view. . . . .

Our starters average what? 100-115 pitches a game, get 4-5 days off then pitch another 100-115 pitches. What Mitch was saying, and I agree, that bullpens in general are horrible. Like every bullpen the Braves have 2-3 very good relievers and the rest we put in there when the game is out of reach, extra innings, or our starter gets rocked early. (buddy c, jeff b). If we had a 6 man rotation (we will just say next year) it would look like this.

Lowe

Tim H.

Jair J

Javier V.

Tommy H.

Kenshin K.

The theory behind the 6 man rotation is this: Your starters pitch 150-160 pitches a game. Sounds like a lot but then they get a week off. You cut your bullpen down to 4 maybe 5 guys. Your pitchers go deeper into games and you have your best relievers come in and finish the job. Their are definetly some positives and negatives to this idea. Lets look at the positive's first.

Positives

- For the Braves, they would have good if not great starters 1-6. We have an enormous wealth of starting pitching depth. The Braves are truly one of the only teams that could even consider this next year.

- The bullpen. If we put this strategy in play this is what I would like the bullpen to look like. Kris Medlen, the guy has great stuff and can pitch up to 7-8 innings. He would be used if starter got rocked early or in extra inning games. Gonzalez, you will see why I chose him in a minute. Acosta, if he continues to not walk people he will do great. Eric O' Flaherty, doesn't walk anybody and he is a lefty. Moylan/Campillio, keep one of them Moylan is still not 100% (at least I hope he isn't) and Campillio when healty is a very solid pitcher. That gives you five guys. I chose Gonzo over Soriano for a couple of reasons; one is that Gonzo is a lefty ( this is why I chose O'Flaherty too) they are our only two lefties in the pen. The other reason is Soriano's salary is 6.3 million, thats almost twice as much as Gonzo. Getting rid of Bennett, Soriano, and others would free up some money for our offense. Gonzo would be our only expensive relief pitcher.

- An extra day of rest. I have no idea, but I would imagine to a pitcher that an extra day of rest is more valuable than 40 more pitches.

- In general our pitchers are very efficient. They have been going 7 innings or so with under 120 pitches. Why not let them go until they reach 150 pitches or get in some trouble.

Now let's look at some negatives . . .

Negatives

- Less starts. Our pitchers would on average be making 27 starts instead of 32. This would be a bigger deal for most teams since they only have 2-3 good quality pitchers. It is less of an issue with the Braves, but it still would mean we would have to wait an extra day for our hottest pitcher too pitch. This could hurt too if a couple of guys have been struggling.

- An extra day of rest. I know I have that as a positive too, but some pitchers to worse on longer rest. All, except Kawakami and maybe Hanson, have gotten into a 5 man routine. They do the same things the whole week leading up to a start. I am sure that the extra day would hurt some pitchers and help others.

- The bullpen. For example, last nights game. 15 innings, wouldn't be bad if you knew your were going to go 15 because Medlen can go a while. But when you, use 3 other relievers before Medlen then you run out of pitchers FAST! If the braves starters got tore up in like 3 consecutive games, then your bullpen is spent.

- The pitch count. I like the idea of pitching longer and deeper into games. But as we all know, pitchers who get stronger as the game goes on is very very rare. Once starters hit that 110 pitch mark than the fastball drops a couple mph, the breaking ball doesn't break as much, and location starts to get away from them.

There are so many positive and negatives to a 6 man rotation. My final analysis is that I like the 5 man rotation better. I know the bullpen isn't that great, but I would rather have my couple of studs going 5-6 more times a year than going and inning or so deeper into games. The Braves could pull of a six man rotation next year, but I really just don't see the point our bullpen is fairly solid, and getting healthier. I do think that Cox isn't doing Moylan a service by pitching him every freakin day, the man just had TOMMY JOHN SURGERY for crying out loud. I think that if Acosta continues to prove himself this year like he has been than we need to get rid of Soriano. I love Soriano, and I have more faith in him than any other person in the bullpen. But I think we could get us a very good Frenchy replacement for that. And I think that is more important right now for the Braves because our starters have been going fairly deep into games, Acosta and Medlen both look good, and Gonzo said he isn't 100% yet. He will be ridiculous when he is.

Well thats about all I got right now. Chipper is ridiculous, McLouth is fast, McCann is going to bat .329 by the end of the year, Frenchy is . . . well Frenchy, and Hanson is a big man. Let's go Bravos and I am feeling confident in the sweep of the Bucs. I really am, I'm not just saying that because I am a Braves fan, go look at the matchups.

KaWOWkami

What a game, what a game, what a game! I am in the minority when it comes to baseball and what I like.  I would rather watch a 1-0 game (as long as the braves win) than a 14-12 game. So this game was AMAZING!!!! Kawakami pitched poetically.  I am not too artsy, but his pitching was art in motion.  Kawakami's line: 8.0 innings, 3H, 0R, 7K, 0BB.  Yeah I will take that.  The big deal with Kenshin, when he came over, was his control.  They said he had Glavine like control, and for the first month and a half of this season I did not see it.  Tonight he had, in my opinion, the best pitching night for the Braves this year.  He handed the high powered Blue Jay's their first shutout of the season.  It was beautiful.  It's not everyday that someone can say that they out-pitched Roy Halladay.  (lebron just hit an un-freakin-believable shot) Everybody was saying, me included, give this guy till mid June to get his stuff going.  Well tonight we saw what he is capable of, and hopefully that we will see many more of these performances from this artist in the future.

That last play! Oh my gosh that last play.  I went from excitement to disappointment/irate to thrilled to laughing to myself to thinking "wait what just happened".  This all happened in about half a second.  

I believe this is will give the Braves more confidence than a 10-3 win.  They just won a 1-0 game at home.  The first time since 2004.  That's right 2004.  They won a game that nobody expected them to win, and they have Lowe and Jurrjens going these next two games.  I honestly think that we can sweep this series now.  That would be a huge boost to this club.  

That's about all I got about tonight, but I will throw out some notes:

- Chipper might be back in the lineup tomorrow; he will probably get a cortisone shot in his foot tomorrow and be good to go.

- I have never seen anyone get so owned in an at bat than Kelly Johnson in his first 2 at bats. Halladay abused him.  It was hilarious.  

- McCann went 2-2 tonight raising his average to .284 on the year.  He also had a SB and now is tied for first on the team with a total of 2.

- I gained alot of respect for Medlan after hearing him talk about his performance last night.  He took complete blame for everything and just said that he panicked and was overwhelmed.  Not great to hear, but I think this says alot about this kid.  Another year in triple A and I think he will be a great asset in the bullpen.

Question:  Who were the last 2 Braves players to win rookie of the year?

Rafael Furcal 2000 and Dave Justice 1990.

A couple good wins and one big loss

The Braves bats have looked good these past couple of games against a horrible Rockies rotation. But thats O.K it will get our confidence up going into a big weekend. Finally Jurrjens got some run support, and once again J.J. shined only giving up one run and three hits in 7 innings. Yesterday a 9 run 4th inning gave Vazquez his first win at Turner Field this year. It was great to see all of these two out hits from our boys. Tonight we have Kris Medlen making his major leauge debut against Aaron Cook who gave up 4 run in only 1.2 innings his last start. But we have to talk about the great loss that the Braves had last night.

Omar Infante looks to be out 6-8 weeks after that S.O.B. Manny Corpas hit him with a fastball that fractured a bone in his left hand. This is a brutal injury for a couple reasons.

Reason 1: Omar has been tearing it up this year from the plate batting .349. His OBP is over .400 when he hits leadoff, and he has been our only player that has done consistently well in this spot.

Reason 2: Infante can literally play every position on the field. He was our only player that could back up Schafer if he needed a day off. Now, if need be, Frenchy might have to play center and we would stick Diaz in right.

Reason 3: Omar Infante is better than Kelly Johnson in my opinion, maybe not in the field but his bat makes up for it. I fully believe that the reason Infante has been playing more and Kelly less is too see if Infante can handle everyday second base. I think the Wren was thinking about making a move for another bat by trading Johnson. Now we will just have to wait and see.

Let's look at some positives though.

Positive 1: The Braves are planning on calling up prospect Diory Hernandez from Gwinett. He is batting .355 and is considered by many to be a top 5 prospect. I hope we get to see what he can do.

Positive 2: Kelly Johnson has been coming around in the 6th spot. This is where he is most comfortable; he knows it, cox knows it, we know it. I really do have faith and confidence in Kelly at that spot in the lineup. And I really think we will be O.K. with our lineup right now.

Positive 3: This is a big weekend for the Braves. The Phils are playing in New York against a red hot Yankees team. The Mets are playing in Boston against a "Papi finally homered" Red Sox team. And the Bravos get a Toronto that may be cooling off a little. I am hoping, but not expecting the Braves to win the first game of this series (Halladay vs. Kawakami). But I really believe we can take two out of three from the Jay's ( Lowe and J.J. pitching the next two games).

I do not see either the Phils or the Mets winning their series, so the Braves could be sitting on top come Monday.

Positive 4: I like what Cox is doing with the lineup. We put up 12 runs yesterday without McCann, Kotchman, or a hot Garret Anderson starting. I like the lineup that Cox put out there Tuesday night:

Yunel Escobar

Casey Kotchman

Chipper Jones

Brian McCann

Garret Anderson

Kelly Johnson

Jeff Francoeur

Jordan Schafer

This lineup gave us 13 hits. Of course only two were extra basehits (both Kotchman doubles.) Kotchman is a doubles machine and I like him in the two hole because he is a contact hitter and does hit a lot of doubles. This means runners in scoring position for Chipper. I am not crazy about Yunel leading off, but who else are you going to put there, not . . . Kelly Johnson is very comfortable hitting 6th and always hits better when there are runners on base. With this lineup I take back my statement about wanting to move Jeff F. up in the order. I still wish he had more protection and pitchers had to throw him strikes. Maybe this will start happening because Schafer has 4 RBI the last two games, he had 4 total RBI before these two games. He still struck out 3 times last night, but he has been cutting down on the K's lately.

All in all, I think this is a solid lineup that can put up 4+ runs consistently; and that is really all we need.

Positive 5: Jo Jo got hurt last night. (thats mean but it is a positive)

Hear is something to think about. The starting rotation in general is getting into the 7th inning right? right. So I don't think we need 7 relievers in the bullpen. We use Soriano, Moylan, and Gonzo in general. The others get used like twice a week. I think we need to send Parr down and bring up Gregor Blanco or somebody that can be another utility player at least until Infante gets back. Just a thought.

LET'S GO BRAVES!

So I'm getting a little annoyed

What I am about to say is so manly and so testosterone filled that you might want to check me for Human Chorionic Gonadotropin. While watching the Braves last night put the Rockies pitchers to shame, by massing a whopping five singles, I found myself utterly bored. The manly statement is as follows: In the 8th inning, I was relieved when Laura said that The Bachlorette was starting (I DVR 24 so don't freak out); I was more entertained watching 25 tools with gelled hair fight for the attention of a chick. I had almost forgotten about the Braves lack of production, and baseball all together until faux hawk tossed Jillian a baseball and then responded "I knew you were a great catch." Ok thats enough of that, so if you are still reading this by now then I assume you are really bored. Time to talk about the Braves . . . .

Ok so what is wrong with this offense of ours? To quote Chip Carey last night he is "worred about the Jekyl and Hyde offense." I still think it is a little too early to really be worried, but the time is drawing near quickly. What I am going to do with the short time I have with you today tell some problems we are having and maybe, in my opinion, give some solutions to these problems and point out the positives.




Problems:

- The braves are not getting extra base hits: The braves rank 13th in the NL with a .395 SLG%; 13th in HR (28); we rank 8th in hits and 8th in BA and 6th in OBP; this means we are getting to first alot and thats it.

- We are putting absolutely zero pressure on opponents defense. The braves are ranked last in the leauge in SB with 7 (the mets have 42), and Chip Carey said that we have hit into 32 double plays in only 36 games.

- Jeff Francouer is still bad. Stats 36 games in: .252 BA, 3HR, .272 OBP, .371 SLG ; lets compare that to 36 games in last year: .262 BA, 3HR, .310 OBP, .421 SLG. Yeah he his doing worse than last year

- Schafer continues to strugle; it's not worth even backing this up with stats.


Ok I think that is enough problems to look at right now. So how can we solve these or at least deal with them. There really is only so many things the coaches can do, but lets look at a couple of things they might could do just to mix things up.


- The Braves in general are a great contact hitting team ( we are 4th in terms of not striking out ). We have to hit and run regardless of the count. In general you want to hit and run on you know a 3-1, 2-0 count. We have to start doing this on the first pitch, on 1-0 counts shoot on 1-1 counts. I don't care we just have to start trying to move the defense, make the catcher make a throw, leave a gap at short.



- Let's continue to ride Infante out. When he gets on let him take a shot at second if he feels comfortable.


- Jeff? Ok I have been reading some and I agree with a thought I read. We need to move Jeff up in the lineup maybe even to 5th. We know that he swings at balls and pitchers give him nothing to hit, and why should they? You have him followed by the strikeout kid and then the pitcher. Where is the incentive to throw him a strike, even if he walks you still have got two pretty automatic outs following him. You move him up in the lineup follow him up with Anderson (who is looking really good lately) and Kotchman (puts the ball in play constantly). You force the pitcher to throw him good pitches. He isn't striking out as much he had been, and he is hitting pitches that are balls. Honestly I would put him 5th and tell him to take until he gets the first strike. If he hits pitches that are strikes he normally hits pretty well. I really like this idea.



- Someone needs to teach Schafer how to bunt, the dude is fast. He could bunt for a basehit every now and then. Then the infield will have to be ready for that, which opens up more holes. He isn't swinging and missing as much as he was, he is now hitting lazy pop flys that a little leauge right fielder could catch. A couple of bunt hits would get his confidence up, but a little pressure on the defense, and cause him to have to follow pitches all the way to his bat.

- Runs lately for the Braves have been at a premium, we all know this. We also know that if the Braves get 4 runs in a game we feel pretty good that our pitching will be able to hold them under that. We are hitting into so many double plays that we have got to be playing small ball. Runner on, bunt him over, got two shots at getting him in. I am not a huge fan of this philosophy, because I feel like it knocks out a chance at a big inning, but I wouldn't mind seeing the Braves start doing this earlier in the game. Because like I said all the Braves are doing is getting singles. What's easier for the Braves to do right now? Get 1 single with 2 outs left? or 2 singles with all 3 outs? Take the runs when we can get them.


OK thats about all I got right now. Just some thoughts of mine, and just letting out a little frustration. Thanks for understanding.



Notes



Glavine pitched well in his simulated game. And is supposed to start a couple of rehab starts beginning this Saturday in Gwinett. He hopes to be back the first week of June.

Hudson said he is on pace to come back by the end of August.



Kris Medlen will be making his major leauge debut Thursday night. I am really excited to watch this guy.