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Official 2014 Atlanta Braves Thread

Discussion in 'Other Sports Forum' started by muscle979, Mar 28, 2014.

  1. muscle979

    muscle979 Season Ticket Holder

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    The season starts Monday and the Braves will look to defend their NL East title despite big injuries to Kris Medlen and Brandon Beachy. Here's a quick look at their competition:

    Washington Nationals - according to the media the best team in the universe. If Bryce Harper avoids wall collisions and making clown pitchers want to hit him he should have a pretty good season. That and less knee problems.

    New York Mets - Matt Harvey is out for the year. In the meantime a fat 40 year old righty will hold down the fort.

    Miami Marlins - With McCann gone burly ex-janitor Evan Gattis will now be relied on to police up Jose Fernandez if he hits anymore homers against the Braves and acts like a big jerkface.

    [​IMG]

    Philadelphia Phillies - thinking of this tired, aging team brings to mind the Springsteen song "Glory Days." Ryan Howard may be moved out of the cleanup spot because my left handed daughter could probably strike him out.

    [​IMG]

    Anyway, back to the good guys. Coming out of the first couple of weeks with a decent record despite using a patchwork rotation will be key. It sure would be nice to have Tim Hudson right about now. I know I'd feel better about that than counting on Harang to be decent. If Mike Minor doesn't get going and Ervin Santana doesn't match or exceed last year's success we could be in for a long season. Jonny Venters is trying to come back from a second Tommy John. His odds are better than a starter's would be but... we'll see. As usual it should be fun watching Craig Kimbrel be the best closer on the planet and watching Andrelton Simmons be the best shortstop in the game.

    On the offensive side, if Uggla and BJ Upton even become average players with any kind of positive WAR value it will be a boost. I really hope to see JHey finally become the top player we've all thought he was capable of becoming. Hopefully this bad luck injury/getting hit in the face thing will ease off. I'm curious to see if he'll continue the kind of production in the leadoff spot he had last year before his jaw was broken.

    My homer prediction:

    The Braves win the East again in a tight race winning 95 games to the Nationals 92. After that they finally win a division series and then lose in the NLCS to [you guessed it] the Cardinals. Hopefully I'm right about all of that except the last part...
     
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  2. unluckyluciano

    unluckyluciano For My Hero JetsSuck

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    [video=youtube;Idn7ODPMhFY]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Idn7ODPMhFY[/video]
    I'm worried about our pitching rotation a little.
    Having said that supposedly both bj upton and uggla fixed their swings. In preseason bj hasn't really impressed but uggla seems a little bit better to me. He still K's a lot though.
    Here's to hoping we don't collapse finally and make a run at the series this year.
     
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  3. muscle979

    muscle979 Season Ticket Holder

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    Uggla had a really nice spring but I'm not getting my hopes up until I see something in the regular season. I'd be ecstatic if he batted .250. The Ks are definitely not going to go away. Isn't this the last year on his contract [or is that wishful thinking?] Fredi Gonzales needs to significantly improve in the category of postseason managing if we're going to advance past an NLDS anytime soon. I still can't believe Kimbrel didn't go into game 4 last October....
     
  4. unluckyluciano

    unluckyluciano For My Hero JetsSuck

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    seems he's signed till 2015. Maybe its an option? Not sure.
    Yeah freddy pulls some head scratchers some time. It's wearing thin on me.
     
  5. muscle979

    muscle979 Season Ticket Holder

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    So a lineup with BJ Upton batting 2nd, Chris Johnson at cleanup [???], and Uggla all the way up at 6th didn't produce any runs yesterday. Imagine that. I want to give BJ a chance but it was funny because Joe Simpson and Chip Caray were so desperate for improvement that they were commenting on the fact that he popped out to opposite field...
     
  6. muscle979

    muscle979 Season Ticket Holder

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    It's hard to describe how much I enjoy watching the Braves beat up on the overhyped Nationals. Strasberg chased after 4 and 1/3 and Harper throwing a clown tantrum in the dugout late in the game. Classic.
     
  7. muscle979

    muscle979 Season Ticket Holder

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    As if that wasn't good enough we get a second helping of Bryce Harper fail with some defensive and baserunning mistakes. J. Upton had a monster series this weekend, good to see him come to life even though he'll probably cool back off in a week or so. Our pedestrian first baseman had a pretty good series too. I wonder how this upcoming Philly series will go. Rollins is playing like a man on a mission.
     
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  8. unluckyluciano

    unluckyluciano For My Hero JetsSuck

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    Jheys playing pretty ****ty at the moment.But yeah, freeman's beasting at the moment
     
  9. muscle979

    muscle979 Season Ticket Holder

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    Yeah, I wouldn't have him in leadoff right now. I'd use this lineup:

    Simmons
    C. Johnson
    Freeman
    J. Upton
    Gattis
    Heyward
    BJ Upton
    Uggla
    pitcher
     
  10. unluckyluciano

    unluckyluciano For My Hero JetsSuck

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  11. unluckyluciano

    unluckyluciano For My Hero JetsSuck

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    so Aaron Harang pitched excellent last night. Had a no hitter till he was pulled. Although he did have 121 pitches I believe it was.
     

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