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.