*Official 2009 Atlanta Braves Thread*

and pick fights with semi truck drivers

 

2 Walks?!?!?! Crazy. If I were Jeff, I would take a few AB's this spring and not swing until I get two strikes, just to see some pitches and learn how to work the count. Maybe he's already taking my advice.

Good to hear about Kawakami. The knock on Asian pitchers is that they tend to start off great but wear down as the season progresses (see: Hideki Irabu, Kaz Ishii, Jung Bong, Dice-K, etc. etc. so forth)

 

Some news about a former Brave, Kyle Davies has started the spring like he ended last season. He was 4-1 with a 2.27 ERA, 0.98 WHIP, and a .198 BAA in September last season. He threw 2 scoreless innings yesterday. My feeling on this guy was that the Braves gave up on him entirely too early, but I have to admit that I'm not sure he would have ever realized his potential with Atlanta. I don't think he would have ever materialized with Roger McDowell coaching him.

 

Yep. He struck out the first two hitters he faced one 7 pitches, and then struck out Carlos Lee to end the first inning. He has reportedly been clocked as high as 99 mph this spring and consistently around 96 mph on his fastball.

The guy is a stud young pitcher. If he stays injury free, I will be shocked if he isn't the #1 starter on this staff soon.

Also, Jason Heyward homered today as well.

 

sweet! the future is starting to look very bright for this franchise once again.

on another note; i just ordered tickets to see the Braves play the Tigers on March 19, at Disney.

i am going to take my dad to the game. we convinced him and my mom to come to Disney with us and the kids for the first time.

i'm pretty jazzed, in a Kevin Costner, "hey dad, wanna have a catch" (from Field of Dreams) kinda way.

it'll be the first Braves game dad and i will have gone to together since the infamous 1982 game when Braves pitcher Pascal Perez missed his start because he got lost on I-285 and circled Atlanta til he ran out of gas, unable to find the right exit to the stadium. i was 13 at the time.

good times.

 

some info on some of the guys in camp:

link

and an article about some of the prospects/ up and comers:

link

 

thanks for the update rocky.

 

Kawakami is used to high pitch counts, but he isn't used to being part of a 5 man rotation. I think he has been part of a 6 or 7 man rotation. There will be an adjustment period for him, and I wonder if he will have arm fatigue at some point like some of the other notable Japanese pitchers.

 

two wins over the Yankees now! held them to 1 run. pitching staff seems to be faring well this spring.

 

heres what ive read:
garret anderson is hurt with a calf strain.
schafer is hurt with a shoulder problem, but he has taken some bp.
moylan pitched again and did a pretty good job.
the other aussie is hurt.
chipper jones got hurt last night..............

 

Chipper looked horrible yesterday. You half-expect him to have at least a few nagging injuries this year though.

 

read that before the oblique strain, that Chipper was 0-7 with 5 Ks in the two WBC games. that's enough to make him want to sit out a couple!

 

Chipper definitely doesn't look right. Maybe he should take it easy for a little bit.

 

I wonder what the Braves are thinking in terms of the future of the third base position in Atlanta. At some point, they have to develop someone that can take over for Chipper. It would be nice if they had someone that could step in within the next two years. They had high hopes for Van Pope, but I've always doubted whether he would be able to hit enough to make it past AAA ball. Pope would have probably been a better relief pitching prospect with his arm.

Eric Campbell can hit the ball, but he's proven to be an unreliable player to date.

Do they move Yunel Escobar to third base and play Brandon Hicks at short stop in the future, or do they look at Brandon Hicks as a third base prospect long term? I just don't think they have a guy in the system right now that can step up and take the spot soon.

In the short term, we will probably seen Martin Prado playing third base.

 

man the Braves are tearing up the Grapefruit league... hitting has been very good lately, from what i can tell.

 

I read the postgame summaries every day in the sports section. I can't recall the last day they've lost.

 

i've never understood the postgame summaries for spring training games, at least as they are posted in my local paper. usually they list a players name followed by several numbers separated by a comma. not an actual boxscore.

and i don't know how to decipher it.

 

Javier Vasquez looked really good shutting down team USA tonite in the WBC. and Kawakimi was good in a 2-1 loss to the Cardinals.

Go Braves!

 

Braves fans, Jordan Schafer is the real deal. The Braves have four outstanding young prospects in camp right now: Jordan Schafer, Tommy Hanson, Jason Heyward, and Freddie Freeman. Heyward and Freeman are 19 years old, and none of these guys look overmatched in the spring games thus far.

 

Frenchie is 11 for his last 17 and Jurrjens had a solid outing in a win vs. the Mets yesterday. The Braves are now 13-3 this Spring.

 

The battle for centerfield is coming down to Jordan Schafer and Gregor Blanco. Jordan obviously has a higher upside and offers more as a slugger. Gregor is hitting the ball very well in the WBC though. He's doing enough that the Braves may not feel needed to rush Jordan at this point. However, Jordan is hitting .419 with a .680 SLG right now. He leads the team in doubles and stolen bases in 31 at bats. He's making it difficult to send him to Gwinnett.

 

Make it 14-3 with yesterday's win. I hope some of this translates to the regular season. Hanson's spring ERA is now in the 2.50 neighborhood. It seems like most of the pitching staff has done pretty well so far.

 

Jo Jo Reyes has pitched well so far this spring as well. I expect him to start at Gwinnett, who will have an amazing pitching staff for the AAA level. He may be in position to be the first pitcher called up to take a spot start in case Glavine cannot go in April.

The Gwinnett pitching staff may have Jorge Campillo, Jo Jo Reyes, Tommy Hanson, Todd Redmond, and James Parr in it, and Charlie Morton will likely be there when he returns from his injury.

 

I wonder though if Hanson might end up getting called up ahead of Reyes. Reyes is an enigma who has good stuff but always seems to struggle. Campillo was better than Reyes last season. He's another potential callup IMO. We'll see I guess.

 

Any idea on when timmy might be ready to go? has anyone heard anything? I saw he is listed as on the 60 day dl list.

 

It will probably be more like August before Tim's ready to go. He could possibly be back by July, but I would rule him out for June.

Also, I wanted to post a little bit about the sad story of Andruw Jones. Andruw was a great prospect when coming up through the minors. He made his major league debut at 18 years of age and played in the world series that season, hitting two home runs in his first two at bats. The guy went from A ball to the majors in one season. He was the best defensive centerfielder in the past 25 years.

He's only 32 years old now. He should still be in his prime. However, this is where the story turns sad. Andruw Jones is an individual that has become too stubborn to listen to a hitting coach and to take the appropriate measures to get himself out of his hitting funk. He still thinks he should try to pull everything and hit the ball out of the park down the left field line. He still falls off everything thrown to the outside corner. He still cannot hit a well located slider at all, and it is all on him at this point. Not only is he too stubborn to listen to his hitting coach, but he is also too stubborn to accept the fact that he needs to spend a season in the minors to correct this.

 

Campillo was excellent last year. He's a late bloomer who has probably already peaked but I dont know why he wouldnt be kept on a MLB roster as a long reliever at the very least.

This is where it gets sadder still: Andruw went to Texas because he wanted to work with Jamarillo who is widely considered the best hitting coach in baseball. Now he's too dumb to listen and still feels he should hit clean up behind Hamilton. Nelson Cruz and Chris Davis are making a much better case for the job then Andruw is.

I would agree that late July/early august is about when Hudson should be ready. He had his surgery a little before Billy Wagner had his if I remember right so they should be back about the same time.

 

Heck, he's had one of the best hitters in baseball in Chipper Jones constantly tell him to get a more balanced stance and to stop trying to pull the ball all the time. Andruw doesn't seem to realize that he has the power to drive the ball to the opposite field.

 

The sports section today says that Glavine pitched three pain free innings yesterday in a 12-1 win over the Mets. He thinks he'll be ready to go in about a month.

 

saw Javier Vazquez pitch against Detroit on Thursday night at Disney. i am by no means a major league evaluator of pitching talent but i came away impressed, much as i did watching him in the WBC.

he was changing speeds very well, and totally fooling the Tigers hitters. just making them look bad. i am trying to recall who the hitter was, but in one at bat i paid attention to, his pitch speeds ranged from 91 down to 66 miles per hour, according to the score board.

he kept them guessing all night long. or at least for the 6 innings he worked.

and since we were sitting down the right field line, i got to see Francouer's cannon gun down a runner at home as well. plus he had a couple hits. good outing for him. he took a walk as well i believe.

and finally, i saw Freddie Freeman hit an absolute rocket shot that the Tiger's right fielder caught backhanded, and if he hadn't, i am pretty sure it would have embedded itself in the outfield wall.