The Hawks playoff crowds have impressed me in the way they support the team, not in how many fans come out, or how often they show up. Braves crowds have rarely been able to accomplish this, but Turner Field doesn’t facilitate the same level of excitement as a basketball arena.

Yeah, it’s definitely been a while since you lived here.

2008-9 Hawks Attendance: 686,688 (20th of 30)

@93 on Schafer: It isn’t so much that he’ll be scarred, its just clear that there are still things he needs to work on, and he’s not getting the chance to do that when he’s hitting in front of the pitcher. It was a good idea to start, but at some point you’ve got to let him sink or swim.

@92: Atlanta’s a football town? Hmm, its been a while since I lived there, but it never seemed like a one sport kind of town. If anything I’m much more impressed by the basketball fanbase than any other sport. I think Atlanta just doesn’t obsess about things the same way they do in Boston, NY, or Chicago. I also think that 14 straight division titles spoiled us, and wore out the bandwagoners.

Seventeenth is Jeff Francoeur.

Gadfly,

I don’t think it’s fair to use Edmond’s numbers at Turner Field against him; some of those years were facing Smoltz, Glavine, Maddux, et al. There are probably a lot of good hitters with weak numbers at Turner Field. And it’s not like he plays that many games in Atlanta.

The reason the Braves are in a holding pattern is to gauge whether a move is really worth it. While you’re right that a move now impacts an extra 30-40 games than a move after the ASB, it also costs more financially, and if it turns out that it doesn’t make the team a contender then you’ve wasted money and prospects (see: Dotel, Octavio or Teixera, Mark/Mahay, Ron.) Unless a great deal falls into our laps we’ll sit on our laurels until July, and then decide whether we’re buyers or sellers.

Sadly, but honestly, I see this team much more cut out to sell. Soriano could fetch a couple valuable pieces for next year, Francoeur could possibly be moved in a salary dump to pick up a high-risk, low-level prospect, or more likely “future considerations,” and even Norton might fetch a PTBNL for a team that needs another bat off the bench. These moves would help reload for next year, and clear space to give Brandon Jones, Gregor Blanco, Brian Barton, and some of our minor league bullpen arms enough playing time to see if they can fit into our plans for next season.

Money line:

“Out of all the managers I have had, he is the best I have had by far,” Teixeira said.

Reminded he played for future Hall of Famer Bobby Cox in Atlanta and World Series champion Mike Scioscia in Los Angeles, Teixeira said, “[Girardi] is No. 1.”

Gadfly, I’ve seen Dunn in the outfield. He’s no Roberto Clemente but his defense is certainly NOT the reason the Nats are last. I would bet dollars to doughnuts that his offense more than offsets his lack of range in the outfield; he would be a huge upgrade over the Black Hole the Braves have in RF. To say no one cares about it is absurd; they aren’t putting people out there with no chance–oh, that’s only the Braves that put outfielders out there that have no skills whatsoever.

Re Wren: (1) Obviously, he is trying to keep his powder dry. He doesn’t want to look too desperate to make a deal. So I will cut him some slack on these comments. He clearly recognizes that this team can go nowhere unless they pick up some offense.

(2) I think he is also wary of doing another Teixera (although there is no one out there like that. I would imagine there will be a deal eventually but I think he will be very careful not to screw it up this time even if it costs the season this year.

But the problem I see is that there aren’t great options out there right now and Heyward is really not close to being ready unless they do another Jeffy and rush him, which I really don’t think they will do this time.

I don’t really think struggling in the big leagues should really scar Schaefer permanently. It’s not like he is returning from combat with PTSD. If his confidence is so frail that it can’t withstand some adversity, he’s got big problems anyway. But it was a mistake to put a kid in there everyday based on spring training and then ignore his obvious inability to hit. Just waht kind of an organization is this anyway–we are looking like the Pirates a little.