Was Francoeur the one who Schafer took the fall for?

Offense needs to get better. The players themselves aren’t going to do it. Ball’s in your court Wren…

Oh, and I was trying to think of offensive players I would trade Tommy Hanson for. (Taking service time/salary/need into account) Ryan Braun is it so far…

The OF could be improved (not made good, but better) right away, but it just doesn’t seem like Bobby’s going to sit or platoon anyone. The OF might not get better unless Wren makes it better.

Rob also suggested a little better bullpen management would cover some of the concerns there. Again, I just don’t see Bobby managing it better.

On a more positive note, the pitching has been really good and this was a great series win. If Kawakami can step up too, then that’s a very solid rotation.

It gives us a true leadoff hitter which will have a positive ripple throughout the rest of the lineup.

He’s a decent CF and just might steal us a base. What a concept.

Oh, and if Diaz doesn’t play, Bobby should be instituionalized.

To be sure, each case is unique, but Schafer had never played in AAA (nor to this day as Frenchy) and had about half a season at AA and the experience of the Arizona Fall League. In any event, I hope that he adapts quickly….

And while Anderson would look great platooning in LF instead of ACHE and spotting Schafer in CF from time to time, that notion was dead the moment we signed Garret Anderson. The problem with signing Garret Anderson isn’t that he looked a whole lot worse than our other OF options at the time. Rather, it’s that his signing basically precludes us doing anything else there even when he sucks as much as he has lately. Cox/Wren are going to keep him around for a while longer just because we went out and signed him and don’t want to eat the salary, etc.

The Braves have to get some more offense to be a legitimate contender. As good as the pitching is, I don’t think it’s good enough to carry this pathetic offense. (It would help, of course, if the mainstays could stay on the field. How come Chipper and Yunel and so on can seemingly get hurt sitting on the bench while Frenchy could apparently be run over by a truck and not get a scratch?)

I am not going to get excited about Hanson until I actually see him succeed in the major leagues. In any event, even if he does well, they still need to score some runs once in a while.

The games in SF next week could set some sort of record for fewest runs and hits by both teams in a series. If you like offense, don’t watch those games.

Andruw, Smoltz, Glavine, Avery, McCann, Furcal — all these guys were given positions or rotation slots at ages 19-21 (in Furcal’s case, so we thought), and most were allowed to play through significant struggles. If a few others did not succeed — well, not everybody was going to succeed. But the ratio of successes to failures has justified the approach IMO.