Tim Hudson is an excellent pitcher.  Despite never putting together an extended run of dominance that he was starting to assemble before his injury, which I know he is capable of, his career numbers are very good.  In a 10 year career he has a 3.48 ERA and a 126 ERA+.  That’s not easy to do.  Keep in mind he was in the AL for a large portion of his career.  Hudson has won 146 games and lost only 77.  I don’t put very much stock in winning percentage, but wow,  he has won almost twice as many as he lost.  He’s always relied on getting ground balls, but he’s still managed to strike out twice as many batters as he walks.  Overall, he is a player that any team would like to have.  However, this isn’t the only reason he’s the ultimate Billy Bean draft choice.

After the ST game.

Stocks Up:

Jordan Schafer- 2/4 with a double, walk and 3 runs scored.  He did strike out twice though.

I really haven’t the foggiest idea. He apparently looked good yesterday, but (a) it’s spring training, and (b) I didn’t actually see it and am relying upon secondhand reports of dubious value. According to Wikipedia, he throws a 90 MPH fastball, a curveball, and a cutter, and he apparently has good control. Keith Law, I think, says that his fastball is straight and that major league hitters will tee off on it, though it seems to me that while Japanese hitters probably aren’t as good as major leaguers, they also probably aren’t totally stupid.

With the 2-month beast known as the NBA playoffs approaching pretty soon, we have a clear look at who can contend for the title.  While it is universally accepted that there are only 3 real threats to win the title, Lakers, Celtics, and Cavaliers, 8 teams could realistically make a run at the title if they get hot at the right time.  I’d like to take this opportunity to explain these 8 teams 2008 MLB Playoffs style.

Here’s how the Braves’ stocks are looking:

Stocks Up:

Omar Infante - 2 out RBI double

Boxscore: Atlanta vs. Pittsburgh - February 27, 2009 | MLB.com: News

Spring Training is a great time of the year.  Exciting for the players and management, exciting for fans, and universally optomistic.  The club uses spring training to a) get the team in game condition and b) answer any roster questions.  With the slate of ehxibition games underway, lets take a look at some of the questions that the Braves and their management will try to answer over the next 5 weeks.

Ya, I couldn’t believe it either.  With the world watching on ESPN, the Braves’ kicked their habbit of dropping the 1-run game by coming back from a 7-2 defecit to win 8-7.  Well, the score of the game doesn’t really matter becuase it was pointless.  Anyway, thoughts on the game:

Boxscore: Houston vs. Atlanta - February 26, 2009 | MLB.com: News

Boxscore: Atlanta vs. Detroit - February 25, 2009 | MLB.com: News

1:26

I turned the game on with the Braves’ still batting in the 1st.  Verlander retired the first 2 batters, Josh Anderson and Yunel Escobar, with groundouts before McCann drew a walk and Kotchman reached on an infield single. Francoeur steeped up with 2 out and 2 on and rolled one to the first baseman to end the inning.  Bad omen?  Hopefully not.  In the bottom half Jurrjens gave up a single past KJ to start the inning, a blooper to right, and walked the 3rd batter of the inning.  Cabrera hit a SF to right and Schafer nearly threw out the speedy Granderson at home, 1-0 Tigers.  Jurrjens then got a DP ball to get out of the jam.  In the top of the second Verlander retired Kelly Johnson then walked Matt Diaz, an encouraging sign.  Prado hit a ball to 2nd base that resulted in an inning-ending double play.  Here we are.  Live Blogging continues.

Well, it’s here. No, not the home opener, or even the season opener at Citizens’ Bank Park. I’m talking about pre-season Baseball. The Grapefruit League. The League, which like the Braves’ own National League has 2 more teams than the other league, begins its schedule today with a full slate of games, 8 that is. The Braves’ will open their Grapefruit League season against the Tigers. Ironically, Jair Jurrjens will get the ball to face his previous organization against another young pitcher, Justin Verlander, whom he personally knows from their days together in Detroit. After Jurrjens tosses his set number of 2 innings, Jo Jo Reyes will follow with the same number. Manny Acosta, Stephen Marek, Eric O’Flaherty, and Juan Perez are all expected to make relief appearances at some point in the game. If I were watching the game I’d be most excited to see Marek and Acosta. Marek I’ve never seen before and Acosta only made 5 appearances in August-September of last year after straining some sort of leg muscle last year during the 17-inning marathon game against the Astros. Speaking of the Astros, tomorrow the Braves play the Astros, and that one’s on TV, ESPN. Check your local listings. Anyway, let’s get started.

Thoughts on WBC:

Ladies and gentlemen, the Common North American Has-Been. Anderson, who was never as good as his press clippings to begin with, has shown little evidence that he can still play major league baseball since 2004. In the large collection of evidence that baseball players are not all that bright, see the Google News result for “Garret Anderson”:

The Braves have acquired that run-producing outfielder they have been seeking all off-season. Eh, sort of. On Monday, it will be announced that Garret Anderson has signed a 1 year, 2.5 million dollar deal to play for the Braves. This will be Anderson’s first trip to the Senior Circuit, he had spent the past 15 seasons with 3 American League teams, the California Angels, the Anaheim Angels, and the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim (for those of you that don’t speak Spanish, that translates to “The The Angels Angels of Anaheim”). Oh wait, they’re all the same team. So he’s spent 15 years with the Angels and in his career he has batted .296/.327/.469. Unlike the other outfield targets the Braves had in mind (Edmonds, Griffey, Gonzalez, others), Garret Anderson plays above-average defense, even at 37. Last year he rated +1 on the plus/minus system, meaning he made 1 play more than the average Left Fielder. Griffey, for example, was -17 last year. Anderson will likely join Matt Diaz as the big part of a left field platoon in 2009. Anderson’s splits against right-handed pitchers, who he’ll likely get most of his at-bats against, are .299/.334/.481. The story with him is that he hits for a little bit of power, especially against RHP, but doesn’t draw NEARLY enough walks. His career high number of walks is 38 in 2006. There is reason to believe he may improve because he is switching from the AL to the NL (the AL is a tougher environment to hit) and the Angels have always been an organization that encourages their hitters to be aggressive. Hopefully he’ll learn to draw a walk or two and have a good year hitting for power, that’s the Braves’ biggest need right now. I’m not sure about this one. We’ll see. Your thoughts?

It’s seemingly happened. The Braves have acquired an outfielder that has some power. The AJC is reporting that Garret Anderson has agreed to a one-year deal with the Braves:

Braves sign Garret Anderson to one-year deal | ajc.com

In 2008, much like every previous season since 1992, the Braves went to camp feeling confident about their team. The group they had included a rotation of 4 former 20-game winners with what seemed like a ton of depth behind them, a bullpen anchored by a flamethrower with relief-ace stuff and a much improved side-armed Aussie, and one of the most prolific offenses in the National League with 2 of the game’s best switch-hitters and the game’s best catcher as mainstays in the middle of the line-up. Can you blame the Braves’ for feeling optimistic about their chances in 2008? In addition to feeling good about their mainstays, Blaine Boyer was coming back from surgery, they brought in one of the most consistent center fielders in the game, Mark Kotsay, another key bullpen piece, Mike Gonzalez, would return after the all-star break to help the pen down the stretch, and 2008 was supposed to be the year that fan favorite, Jeff Francoeur, put it all together.

Let it go, Tom.

Tommy is now 42 years old. He will turn 43 on opening day. I don’t normally call for players to retire, and in general I am of the school that if they can get someone to pay them, they might as well give it a try. But he’s hurting the team. Someone’s going to get released to make room for him. He’s going to make starts that could have gone to someone who might actually help the team going forward.

Glavine, Braves reportedly reach deal | ajc.com

Sources: Ken Griffey chooses to return to Seattle Mariners - ESPN

Update #3: According to seattlepi.com, Griffey has chosen the Mariners over the Braves. A disappointing end, to be sure, that only adds to the list of the players that the Braves have been unable to sign.

Griffey picks Braves over Mariners | ajc.com

Griffey picks Braves over Mariners | ajc.com

Norton was a sensational pinch-hitter last year; in 72 tries, he hit .316 .473 .526. In the lineup… not so much, though when he started he did pretty well. There’s a lot of value in a guy who hits like that in pinch situations, but there’s little evidence that it’s a repeatable skill. Norton is nominally a switch-hitter, and nominally a guy who can play all four corner positions. But he hit just .192 from the right side (a problem for a bench player on the heavily lefthanded Braves) and looked shaky in left, though his stats aren’t too bad, better than Infante’s.

I’m not sure. Infante had career highs (not counting a 72-AB callup in 2002) in batting average and on-base percentage. Most of that would appear to be making more contact, as Infante was much harder to strike out than he was in Detroit. (The Braves as a whole were one of the hardest teams to strike out in the majors in 2008.) But even hitting .293, he wasn’t a big offensive plus, as he has very little power (three homers last year) and doesn’t walk. If he starts hitting in the .270 range again and doesn’t recover the power he’s only shown once (16 homers in 2004) he’s hard to keep around — especially if he’s mostly playing positions other than short.

Last season, I made fun of Prado — a lot — but he was an awfully good bench player. His batting line of .320 .377 .461 was pretty much what we would have expected of Matt Diaz, very close to Diaz’s 2006-07 lines. I was more upset that the Braves were benching their third-best regular hitter, Johnson, in order to play Prado, while the outfield was setting records for incompetence.

Sucks.

How bad was Jeff Francoeur last year? By one measure, he was the worst outfielder that the Braves — who, mind you, have been playing since before the National League was founded — have ever had. Lowest offensive winning percentages by Braves outfielders, min. 500 PA:

Soriano was limited to 14 innings in 2008, though he pitched well (16 K, 7 H, 2.57 ERA, 3 saves — but 9 walks) when he did pitch. He had three stretches of activity, one at the beginning of the season, one in May and June, and one in July and August. What would happen is that he would pitch, and then tell the Braves that his elbow hurt. They would shut him down, and send him to see the doctor. The doctor would give him an MRI and say that there was no structural damage. With rest, his elbow would stop hurting, and the Braves would start using him again. Rinse and repeat.

Mike Gonzalez Statistics - Baseball-Reference.com

The last thread is getting full. I hope to have new actual content in a couple of days. Here’s a video.