Hopefully this year will be better than the last.
St. Patrick’s Day All McTeam:
C Brian McCann
1B Willie McCovey
2B Bid McPhee
3B John McGraw
SS Roy McMillan
OF Hal McRae
OF Willie McGee
OF Tommy McCarthy
UT Gil McDougald
SP Joe McGinnity
SP Denny McClain
SP Sam McDowell
RP Tug McGraw
You’re supposed to make predictions, I guess. I really have no idea what’s going to happen, and neither does anyone else.
Read the rest of this entry »This is always a tough bit, and I’m sure I’ll miss somebody. Anyway, the best-known reliever I haven’t covered yet is certainly Scott Proctor, who had two good years of bullpen workhorse work with the Yankees and Dodgers (traded for Wilson Betemit!) after two years Jeff Dedmon wouldn’t sign for, and who went down with an arm injury and missed most of 2008 and all of 2009. He had Tommy John surgery in May, and I wouldn’t expect him to be ready to start the season, though the Braves are optimistic. I also am a bit dubious that he’s a good fit for the type of bullpen Bobby is running, which is based upon short outings. He’s not a shutdown guy, he’s a former starter who is useful for a couple of innings to keep a game under control.
Read the rest of this entry »I’ve gone through the bullpen mainstays, and I’m really not up to tackling Manny Acosta right now. So let’s talk bullpen management. Last year (this stat is from the Bill James Handbook) Bobby was the manager most likely to use a pitcher on consecutive days. I think we all knew that, instinctively, but it’s been confirmed.
Read the rest of this entry »I am going to be allegorical here, because it’s basically the only way I know how to put this.
Read the rest of this entry »Two other outfielders are on the 40-man, these being Gregor Blanco and Jordan Schafer, both of whom had 2009 seasons they would rather forget. Blanco, who spent all of 2008 with the Braves, wound up spending most of 2009 in the suburbs, and did not hit either there or in his major league action. You’re all familiar with Blanco, a player who has identifiable strengths, mostly his walk rate and ability to work pitchers, plus some speed, but whose complete lack of power and high strikeout rates keep him from being a really valuable player.
Read the rest of this entry »The Braves can’t really afford for Infante to go down again, because the second utility infielder position does not look like a strong point. Brooks Conrad and Diory Hernandez return from last year’s team. Conrad showed the same problems that have kept him in the minors for so long, an inability to make regular contact and defensive movement resembling Keith Lockhart riding on a Galapagos tortoise. Conrad’s defensive statistics were not actually too bad, and in 58 plate appearances he had two homers, two triples, and a double. Unfortunately, he had only six singles, and he can’t survive hitting .204. Hernandez, meanwhile, hit very well in AAA but upon promotion in no way resembled a major league ballplayer, hitting .141/.198/.212 and looking awkward defensively, though again his defensive stats are pretty good.
Read the rest of this entry »One of the most underrated players in baseball. Even his own team doesn’t seem to hold him in that high regard, though that appears to be because he’s a bit of a punk. But what we have here is a gold glove-level shortstop who hit .300 (okay, .299) with medium-range walks (.377 OBP) and power (.436 SLG). He’s entering his prime, assuming his age (27 in 2010) is correct. If he could get through the season without an injury, we’d really be talking.
Read the rest of this entry »
This page is a printout of part of The Tomahawk.
URL of this printout: http://the-tomahawk.com/category/braves-journal/
The Tomahawk runs on
WordPress.
This Web site may require a highly standards compliant Web browser.
Tested on Mozilla, Firefox, Konqueror and Microsoft Internet Explorer 7.
Contact The Tomahawk @ webmaster@the-tomahawk.com
Subscribe to this site's (RSS).
