29 Mar
As expected
Braves relief pitcher Bennett gets final roster spot | ajc.com
Buddy Carlyle has played in Princeton, Charleston (WV), Mobile, Chattanooga, Las Vegas, Wichita, Omaha, Trenton, Colorado Springs, Albuquerque, and Richmond. So another stint in Richmond won’t do him any harm, and he probably already knows where the Olive Garden is in every AAA city in the country. He’ll be fine, and the odds are he’ll be back. Bennett will start out as a long man or swing man, but shouldn’t start if everything goes okay. Which it won’t.
I liked Carlyle, but it was the right move.
My roommate in college is from LA and is a dodgers freak. He was pissed when we got teixeira last season, and earlier we were talking about what the Dodgers would have to give up to get him.
I told him: a) that would never happen, but b) if it did it would probably be centered around Loney, Kemp, and Kershaw. He said he was fine with that.
I think he is retarded; he says it’s Mark Teixeira.
Which one of us is stupider?
March 29th, 2008 at 5:04 pmTex for Loney, Kemp, and Kershaw?
I don’t know how I could resist that trade. Maybe, we could get them to throw in Andy LaRoche, too.
March 29th, 2008 at 5:32 pmTo be more clear, I think your friend is stupider (more stupid). I think Loney, Kemp, and Kershaw is a better prospect haul than what we gave up for an extra two months of Tex, and I think we overpaid.
March 29th, 2008 at 5:36 pmI would take Loney, Kemp and Kershaw for Tex in a minute.
March 29th, 2008 at 6:12 pmI would too. But his arguement is that:
1. He is confident the Dodgers would be able to sign him long term
2. If you have Teixeira, you don’t need Loney
3. Kershaw looks really good, but the odds he wins 100 games are ridiculously slanted against him.
4. Kemp is good, but the team is better with Teixeira than it is with Kemp and Loney, especially with their clogged outfield situation.
March 29th, 2008 at 6:26 pmThe argument against from the Braves side is that they are contenders with Tex, but probably not without him. Although we are unlikely to re-sign him, Tex may give us the best hope for a championship in the latter days of the Cox / Chipper / Smoltz era.
I would still take that deal.
March 29th, 2008 at 6:33 pmAnyone want to have a pool for when Hampton is out for the season? Winner will have the date that Hampton is placed on the DL with a season ending injury. The only thing at stake is glory. Three guesses a person, first come first serve.
http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=pV5nmFVplLUoCkICBrWeQfQ
March 29th, 2008 at 6:50 pmWhat’s up with Chuck James again?
March 29th, 2008 at 7:29 pmThat bench we have right now looks paper-thin because it has a bunch of singles hitters. Is that going to have any huge effect?
March 29th, 2008 at 7:32 pmChuck’s shoulder is still not as strong as it would ideally be, and he’s going to start out on the DL in extended spring training. If Smoltz can’t come back in time or when Hampton inevitably gets hurt, he’ll be called up, otherwise he’ll start in Richmond.
As I mentioned in one of yesterday’s threads, I prefer singles hitters/OBP guys on the bench to power hitters. If you want a rally, you have get people on base; if you want to get a runner home from second, you want high-average guys, not low-average sluggers.
March 29th, 2008 at 7:45 pmThe bench isn’t great but it isn’t Orr, Woodward, Thorman, and Harris. There’s also reason–a few million in cash to spend and some decent prospects seasoning on the farm–to expect it to improve as the season progresses.
March 29th, 2008 at 8:48 pm#9 – I’ll take a bunch of singles hitters over the crap heap that we’ve had there the past few seasons.
Pena, Prado, Infante, Gotay, Miller
is a lot better than
Orr, Woodward, Thorman, Pratt, Harris, Miller, Langerhans, Jordan, T Pena, Wilson, Hollandsworth, Perez.
Our only decent PH have been Ward, Diaz, Harris at times, and Betemit
March 29th, 2008 at 9:51 pmRemember that Infante’s coming back around the end of April, so that will improve the bench somewhat. As csg notes, they’re better than Orr, Woodward, or the post-June Harris.
Actually, the scary thing is that Julio Franco might look good on this bench…
March 29th, 2008 at 10:42 pmBaseball is hereeeeee
March 30th, 2008 at 8:52 amBrayan Pena as a “utility” player is absurd. You can absorb his empty offensive contribution as a backup catcher, but not as a PH and corner IF/OF fill-in. I’m assuming (and hoping) this is temporary.
March 30th, 2008 at 8:59 amwith power from 7 positions player it is more important that pinch hitter get on base
March 30th, 2008 at 9:52 amThank God, we finally get a game thread tonight!
March 30th, 2008 at 10:26 amTHERE’S GOING TO BE BASEBALL TODAY!!!!!! WAAAHHHHOOOOO!!!
Sorry… I’m so excited…
March 30th, 2008 at 10:49 amAs for the bench, the only person I can see being a really strong PH candidate (average and power) would be Brandon Jones. And obviously, he’s better off getting regular work in the minors. That’s the thing about finding solid PH: if they were really good hitters, they’d be playing full-time. The only exceptions are ones that are really bad defensively (Darryl Ward?) or a prospect, and you’d rather have a prospect getting regular ABs.
March 30th, 2008 at 10:51 amBraves Opening Day is finally here!
Go Bravos…kill the Natties.
March 30th, 2008 at 10:57 amI’m gonna head out to the park today with a buddy and try to get some cheap grandstand seats. Wish me luck, and I hope I’ll see some of you there!
March 30th, 2008 at 11:19 amOh-o-o, Mexico.
If you were wondering about Julio Franco’s whereabouts.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/30/sports/baseball/30chass.html?_r=1&ref=sports&oref=slogin
March 30th, 2008 at 11:44 amStark is picking Atlanta to take it all this year:
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/preview08/columns/story?columnist=stark_jayson&id=3320120
March 30th, 2008 at 12:15 pmRob,
That’s Gammons, Rosenthal, and Stark.
Do you reckon that they are getting together trying to jinx us?
March 30th, 2008 at 12:31 pmI hope not, but Stark make some goods points: we’re younger, deeper, and as long as we stay healthy, we’re truly better I hadn’t realized that our lineup is so young, but with Escobar, Johnson, Tex, Francouer, and McCann, we’re pretty young. Diaz and Kotsay aren’t exaclty old either. It’ll come down to the old guys in the rotation and at third. I’m excited about this year.
March 30th, 2008 at 12:38 pmT-minus 5 hours 22 minutes!
March 30th, 2008 at 12:46 pmCliff – it makes me a little nervous. I could not understand why the Mets were suddenly the unanimous choice as NL East champ. Now that that is no longer the case, I am not sure I like it.
March 30th, 2008 at 12:48 pmMy 10month old son wore his Braves jersey to church today. heh heh. I can’t quite get away with that. Can’t wait for tonight.
March 30th, 2008 at 12:50 pmEric Young also picked the Braves on Baseball Tonight, which I kinda wish hadn’t happened.
March 30th, 2008 at 12:50 pmIf I had a son, he would have worn his Braves jersey to church too. God bless you, c. shorter. God bless you…
March 30th, 2008 at 1:07 pmParrish,
I’m a Mets fan, and what I’ve seen indicates that no one is really willing to concede the East to the Mets this year. I think I’ve glanced at half a dozen predictions by the ‘experts’ today, and it seems to be pretty evenly split among the Braves, Phils, and Mets. Maybe that was the sentiment right after the Santana trade, but I don’t think any thinking baseball fan wouldn’t see the serious problems the Mets potentially have.
March 30th, 2008 at 1:09 pmLineups for tonight:
Atlanta
Johnson 4
Escobar 6
Jones 5
Teixeira 3
Francoeur 9
McCann 2
Diaz 7
Kotsay 8
Hudson 1
Washington
Guzman 6
Milledge 8
Zimmerman 5
Johnson 3
Kearns 9
Lo Duca 2
Dukes 7
Belliard 4
Perez 1
Mike Reilly at HP
March 30th, 2008 at 1:46 pm