^^ Thank God!! Its sad when you would rather see Hudson batting than the team's CF. Blanco was playing pretty well when he was in the line up.

[Edited on July 28, 2010 at 10:20 AM. Reason : .]

7/28/2010 9:58:36 AM

Quote :

"McClouth still had an option year left? Wow..."

This is only his fourth year up.

I didn't realize he was signed through next year ($6.5m, $10.5m club option in 2012 ), so we're probably stuck with him until next year. Oh well, see you on September 1.

7/28/2010 5:14:49 PM

McLouth's career track is almost as bad as Angel Berroa's. McLouth got better from year 1 to year 2, but then disappeared when he arrived in Atlanta in the middle of year 3. Berroa was good his first year, horrible the rest of his career. Jerome Walton needs to give McLouth a call.

7/28/2010 5:32:10 PM

Mark Redman, Todd Hollandsworth, Mike Hampton and Raul Mondesi think McClouth was a horrible acquisition

7/28/2010 5:54:20 PM

Double post

Heyward just scored from third during a rundown

Dude's the smartest baserunner I've seen in a long time

[Edited on July 28, 2010 at 7:22 PM. Reason : Scored as a steal of home, nice]

7/28/2010 7:18:26 PM

cant wait to see the highlights

7/28/2010 7:22:18 PM

Hudson was stout last night. Defense was good too which saved atleast one run. Offense continues to be anemic, but at least Prado got going last night. Glaus is in a real funk again (just 5 RBIs the entire month of July ).

7/29/2010 8:12:13 AM

I am sure his sore knee is causing him more problems than he is letting on.

I say let Hinske play first for a few days and put diaz/infante in LF just to let Glaus rest.

7/29/2010 10:30:03 AM

agreed.


i wish we could skip over Hanson's next several starts so we wouldn't have to leave the first two innings already down 3 runs

7/29/2010 10:32:05 AM

Nothing to really talk about but the braves made a trade today:

The Braves acquired second baseman Michael Noboa from the Diamondbacks for a player to be named later or cash

7/29/2010 11:31:43 AM

http://blogs.ajc.com/atlanta-braves-blog/2010/07/28/heyward-could-play-center-field-if-need-be/

Quote :

"Heyward could play center field, if need be 7:33 pm July 28, 2010, by Carroll Rogers The Braves don’t have a clear answer yet at center field, between Nate McLouth’s demotion to Triple-A Gwinnett Tuesday and with the trade deadline approaching on Saturday. Melky Cabrera has started in center for the past two games. Omar Infante can play there. Brent Clevlen was activated from a rehabilitation stint to help in center, and Gregor Blanco would be eligible to return Saturday, if the Braves choose to go that route. But if need be, Jason Heyward could play center, something general manager Frank Wren, manager Bobby Cox and Jason Heyward all agreed they were are comfortable with when asked about it. “Jason could go there,” Wren said. “There’s a variety of people who could play center field if we get in a pinch.” Heyward, who’s played nothing but right field this season, said he’d have no problem playing some center field. “Center field is the first outfield position I ever played,” said Heyward who played first base until age 10. Heyward said he played 20 games in center field last year in the minors. That would seemingly give the Braves more flexibility to add a corner outfielder at the trade deadline. Wren said nothing was imminent with the Braves on Wednesday but he expected activity to increase around baseball. “We know what’s out there,” Wren said. “Whether the price will come down where it makes it reasonable and things fit for us, I don’t know. It’s hard to know until that last day almost.” "

7/29/2010 12:55:50 PM

Quote :

"i wish we could skip over Hanson's next several starts so we wouldn't have to leave the first two innings already down 3 runs"

You obviously haven't been watching Hanson's last three starts. He had two very good starts and then on Tuesday, the Braves defense was beyond bad causing two unearned runs to score. He only allowed the one earned run on Monday.

He had that awful two game stretch where he gave up like 13 runs in two starts which made his stats look like shit, but overall he is still very valuable to the Braves pennant run. Who would you want, fucking KK and his 1-8 record?? Hanson is going to be a guy that is solid for 3-4 starts and then will have a terrible start. Curt Schilling was the same way. He'd be lights out for a couple of weeks and then throw in an stinker before getting back on track. Not sure why this is, maybe his conditioning has something to do with it.


[Edited on July 29, 2010 at 1:34 PM. Reason : x]

7/29/2010 1:33:41 PM

my comment was more in jest than anything. i never said it was all his fault, it just seems to always be him getting the bad end of the stick when our D plays down.

and no...i would not want KK or anyone else in his place. ever.


glad to see Diaz still hitting well and tie up this afternoon game.

spoke too soon.

7/29/2010 1:49:10 PM

last two series' have been terrible. 2-4 against the marlins and Nats??

7/29/2010 4:37:57 PM

Braves are free falling and need a copule of guys in the lineup to get hot otherwise they'll be out of 1st by early next week. Sucks that the team can go cold at the same time the Phillies start playing lights out. Oh well. Still in the race in August is better than not being in the race at all.

Hate the fact that we suck so bad against NL East teams. Reds are going to kick the Braves asses this weekend.

7/29/2010 5:40:22 PM

Missed the game this afternoon, so I'm watching the replay on SS

Rain delay time warp!

7/29/2010 8:48:22 PM

We do not play well on the road, at all. Cincinnati is going to be tough to beat on the road. I see us sitting in 2nd place on Monday.

7/30/2010 7:37:13 AM

Second best road record in the East behind the Marlins. Only three teams in the league are playing over .500 on the road.

7/30/2010 7:50:37 AM

Heck of a game last night, playoff atmosphere, hopefully playoff results. Seems like the Braves and Reds can't help but play epic games against one another.

7/31/2010 7:57:24 AM

traded Collins, Chavez, and Blanco for Ankiel and Farnsworth today. thoughts??

7/31/2010 5:19:24 PM

I'm good as long as Ankiel doesn't pitch

7/31/2010 5:55:31 PM

Nice throw, hahahaha.

7/31/2010 6:14:18 PM

WTF Milky.

7/31/2010 6:14:28 PM

The Melk-man just delivered... an epic throw from the outfield that went about 50 feet to his left.

The only thing that play was missing was a diving Manny Ramirez to cut it off.

[Edited on July 31, 2010 at 6:14 PM. Reason : x]

7/31/2010 6:14:29 PM

Kevin Millar likes to drop the soap in the shower.

7/31/2010 6:33:08 PM

the last time kyle farnsworth pitched for the braves they made the playoffs... and now almost everybody in the pen (sans moylan) throws about 98. i can dig that.

7/31/2010 8:10:36 PM

Farnsworth is having a great year, but he's had a lot of bad years since leaving Atlanta. He's definitely an improvement over Chavez, though. Blanco was never going to be a starter, we only lose some speed off the bench. I don't know if Ankiel is healthy now, but I'm guessing CF is his to lose. As long as he doesn't turn the wrong way on every single fly ball hit his direction, he's immediately a defensive improvement over Melky.

7/31/2010 10:52:02 PM

Looking at Ankiel's splits, it looks like he can't hit lefties at all, so I guess he'll probably be platooning with Melky.

Quote :

"I'm good as long as Ankiel doesn't pitch "

I had forgotten that it was against the Braves in the postseason that he went Mark Wholers... four walks and five wild pitches in an inning.

[Edited on August 1, 2010 at 9:45 AM. Reason : Probably gets the start today against Volquez]

8/1/2010 9:45:01 AM

He followed that up with a sweet .2 IP, 3 BB, 2 WP outing in the NLCS. Also almost took off Piazza's head.

8/1/2010 10:00:11 AM

This road trip was horrible, I'm glad its over. Hopefully we can get things started tonight against the Mets.

Anybody else wish Cox would just sit Melky for the rest of the year? He can't hit and he's lazy in the field.

Pretty good game yesterday for Hanson, I felt bad for the guy 8IP, 2ER and still gets the loss

8/2/2010 6:35:38 AM

If we sit Melky, there's no one else to play center. Ankiel can't hit left handed pitching and McClouth can't hit baseballs. Heyward might be able to slide over defensively and not be any worse than Melky, but we're still short an outfielder.

8/2/2010 6:50:53 AM

^ Agreed. Everyone knew going into the season that OF was going to be a sore spot and it is now biting the Braves in the ass with most of the IF hurt (Chipper, Prado, Gonazalez recovering from gastritis, Glaus). Imagine how bad it would be if Heyward hadn't been ready for the bigs.

The Braves OF, besides Heyward, is just a rag tag bunch of role players (Hinske, Cabrera, Diaz, Ankiel). None of them are legit starters or do anything exceptionally well, but all are serviceable players.




[Edited on August 2, 2010 at 9:01 AM. Reason : df]

8/2/2010 9:00:26 AM

Also, Melky isn't lazy, he just sucks

Our best bet is that one or two of these guys can stay hot (like Diaz) or lukewarm (like Hinske) for the rest of the season. If Bobby can keep them on the field while they're producing and the matchups are favorable, we'll be OK. But if Cabrera and Glaus continue to suck and Prado doesn't come back strong and we get hit another injury to anyone, we're probably toast.

8/2/2010 9:14:20 AM

The thing about this terrible road trip that is encouraging is that the Braves really could have won every game (they could have also gone 0-9 too). The pitching is still excellent and keeping them in games. The offense is just in a funk and now without Prado to set the table, the Braves are going to struggle to get any runs unless they hit some HRs. The defense sucks ass and is not going to get any better unfortunately.

As long as the pitching keeps it up, the Braves should atleast be able to stay in the race. I'll be shocked if the Phillies don't overtake the Braves for first within 5-10 days, but if they can stay within a few games and get some guys fully healthy, then hopefully they can pull another hot streak. I do not want to even think about the wild card as there are too many teams involved.

What worries me is that the Phillies will get Utley back eventually and I don't think Lidge can blow enough games to keep them out of the playoffs.

8/2/2010 10:48:58 AM

can't let the Mets thread remain at the top

8/2/2010 4:06:10 PM

Did they paint over the huge Suntrust ad behind home plate

Looks weird

[Edited on August 2, 2010 at 7:20 PM. Reason : Prado on the 15 day DL ]

8/2/2010 7:19:51 PM

BOOM HR Chipper. Da mess killer

8/2/2010 9:35:16 PM

chipper really needs to learn how to slide

8/2/2010 11:55:54 PM

Good way to start the series beating Santana and Ankiel had the big hit. It'll be interesting to see how the Braves deal with Dickey and that knuckleball. Hopefully it'll be flat tonight and the Braves can pound out some runs.

8/3/2010 8:35:06 AM

^ we hit that knuckle ball pretty well last time right?

8/3/2010 10:56:12 AM

6.2 innings last game giving up 4 runs on 9 hits. Hopefully we can jump on them early again.

8/3/2010 11:48:29 AM

bobby is sitting glaus tonight and letting hinske bat 5th.

8/3/2010 4:31:44 PM

got to love my boy Mccann

8/3/2010 9:19:20 PM

goddamn frenchy

8/3/2010 9:57:11 PM

heyward needs some work.

8/3/2010 10:06:53 PM

^Yeah looks like he's trying to pull every pitch and pitchers are going to pitch him outside until he makes some adjustments

8/4/2010 8:17:52 AM

Heyward has looked pretty good since the break. K rate is down BB rate is up, line numbers are all up. He's been the second best offensive player behind McCann, just no homers in almost two months.

8/4/2010 10:09:57 AM

the errors and left on base are brutal

8/4/2010 10:12:20 AM

The bats woke up last night.

I am hoping that Medlin's elbow is only strained. The Braves have only lost 1 game that he has started. I don't want KK back in the rotation. Has KK even pitched since he got moved to the bullpen?

8/5/2010 6:13:57 AM

It won't be Kawikami. Most likely they'll call someone up. KK hasn't pitched, save 1 inning, since his demotion from the rotation in late June.

8/5/2010 8:12:05 AM