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Atlanta Braves Thread: Championship Edition (1 Viewer)

pollardsvision

pollardsvision

Footballguy
Let's see if we can't go ahead take over 1st place while the Nats tangle with the Reds.

Another bomb from the good Upton. I'm sure another K from the other one is soon to follow.

ETA: Well, Feldman tried to do the impossible (walk him), but popped up a 3-0 fastball in the IF.

 
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Boy, Minor was dealin' last night. Obviously, he's got a chance for a big year, though many, many LHP's will look like Cy Young candidates against the Cubs.

II really like Heyward in the 2-hole the way this lineup is constructed. It's a little unconventional, but I think it makes a ton of sense. Kenny/Reynolds were having a very similar argument about Mauer in the 2-hole the other day.

Now, they just need Andrelton to get on base at some point.

 
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Lets see if JT can keep up his strong spring! I agree, I am liking Jason in the 2 spot.

In other news, I would rather see Gattis get more time at catcher over Laird. When McCann gets back we dont need 3 catchers on the roster, so might as well give Gattis as much playing time as possible as he young and Laird is 32 and not the future.

 
Ughh... I was gonna say a better team would've hung 8 on Teheran tonight, but I sold the Cubs short. They still might.

He looked good much of the time, but lost his command at times and then floated a few too many lazy sliders over the heart of the plate. Slider just wasn't sliding much.

That Castro AB really hurt him though. He'd held things together despite not having his best stuff, but he just couldn't put Castro away in a long AB. Castro beats out a dribbler on a good pitch. Rizzo yanks the next pitch out of the park.

 
Well, for the next 15 days, ATL might have the worst offensive IF in baseball.

What a blow. Until the 8th/9th inning last night, the offense has pretty much just been J. Upton and Freeman with a little Gattis mixed in every other game.

 
If Upton wasn't the best hitter in.the game over the first week and a half, the Braves would be sitting down with Miami in the standings. I'm not sure how much more I can take of Heyward and Uggla. They're pathetic. Heyward is like Francouer 2.0. All the tools and promise, but strikeout after strikeout after strikeout. And there was so much talk when he came up about how he had one of the best eyes anyone had seen and almost never struck out.

 
GroveDiesel said:
If Upton wasn't the best hitter in.the game over the first week and a half, the Braves would be sitting down with Miami in the standings. I'm not sure how much more I can take of Heyward and Uggla. They're pathetic. Heyward is like Francouer 2.0. All the tools and promise, but strikeout after strikeout after strikeout. And there was so much talk when he came up about how he had one of the best eyes anyone had seen and almost never struck out.
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I can't really argue with you on any of that.

Maybe Heyward's the next Frenchy, but he's still too young to think like that yet. He's continued his increased K-rate from last year, but at least he's taking walks again during this tiny sample size.

It's certainly there though. He had 6.4 and 5.8 WAR season before the age of 23. The best hitter on the planet right now didn't do that. Still hasn't done the former.

He's obviously tough to figure, except that like most young players, he's inconsistent and clearly experiencing some growing pains.

 
I guess BJ will stay in the leadoff slot.

Not real fired up about that, but Michael Bourn ain't walkin' though that door. Somebody's got to lead off.

 
pollardsvision said:
7 runs and counting with a hitless (so far) Upton. :towelwave: Boy they needed this.
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Agreed. They did what they needed to do. Hopefully they can continue against teams better than the Marlins. Having 6 of your first 9 games against an embarrassment of an organization like the Marlins is definitely a good way to get on track early.
 
GroveDiesel said:
pollardsvision said:
7 runs and counting with a hitless (so far) Upton. :towelwave: Boy they needed this.
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Agreed. They did what they needed to do. Hopefully they can continue against teams better than the Marlins. Having 6 of your first 9 games against an embarrassment of an organization like the Marlins is definitely a good way to get on track early.
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It looks like Gattis is playing out of that Laird platoon you feared earlier. 4 straight starts and I can't imagine he'll see too much pine until McCann and Freeman both get back.

Bravos will have a great problem when that happens.

Getting enough AB's for Gattis, then both of Francisco and Johnson could be tough. Gattis played a little OF in the minors. I'll do a little prejudging, as I've never seen Gattis play the OF, but it seems safe to assume that there'd be a bit of a defensive downgrade if they let Gattis spell Heyward (and maybe BJ with Heyward sliding to center, but that'd make 2 OF defensive downgrades). Wonder if any Gattis OF action would happen.

Heck, I'm all for finding ways to keep BJ out of the lineup, no matter how much money he makes.

Either way, it's exciting to have a great way to help keep McCann rested coming off injury without losing much offensively.

 
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GroveDiesel said:
pollardsvision said:
7 runs and counting with a hitless (so far) Upton. :towelwave: Boy they needed this.
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Agreed. They did what they needed to do. Hopefully they can continue against teams better than the Marlins. Having 6 of your first 9 games against an embarrassment of an organization like the Marlins is definitely a good way to get on track early.
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Guess we're about to find out. Stras and Gio should both get 10Ks.

Just hoping for one win over the weekend, and it'll likely require a major step forward from Teheran to get that. Though, I don't doubt Huddy's chances of stepping up for his showdown with Strasburg.

 
pollardsvision said:
GroveDiesel said:
pollardsvision said:
7 runs and counting with a hitless (so far) Upton. :towelwave: Boy they needed this.
Click to expand...
Agreed. They did what they needed to do. Hopefully they can continue against teams better than the Marlins. Having 6 of your first 9 games against an embarrassment of an organization like the Marlins is definitely a good way to get on track early.
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Guess we're about to find out. Stras and Gio should both get 10Ks.

Just hoping for one win over the weekend, and it'll likely require a major step forward from Teheran to get that. Though, I don't doubt Huddy's chances of stepping up for his showdown with Strasburg.
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Showing the young buck how it's done so far.

Fantastic catch by Heyward to help him get out of the 7th (Apparently, he's the first SP to get into the 7th against WAS this year).

 
BJ leading off again, and hitting the first pitch for a double.

Gattis demonstrated how he does with high heat yesterday. Gio gave him one low and inside that he almost put in the seats. An RBI double will do though.

 
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A nice sweep for the Bravos that sends notice to the Nats that last year was a nice story and all, but they may have blown their only chance fora ring by shutting Strasburg down.

And Maholm has been quietly excellent in his starts.

They need to move BJ and Heyward way down in the order though. Needs to be Simmons at the top and then Chris Johnson in the 2 spot I think.

 
GroveDiesel said:
A nice sweep for the Bravos that sends notice to the Nats that last year was a nice story and all, but they may have blown their only chance fora ring by shutting Strasburg down.And Maholm has been quietly excellent in his starts.They need to move BJ and Heyward way down in the order though. Needs to be Simmons at the top and then Chris Johnson in the 2 spot I think.
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I couldn't agree more on BJ. They could bat him 9th and I wouldn't see much downside. Terrible signing and they just need to put his bat somewhere he can get his 20 HRs wiith as little negative impact on the rest of the lineup as possible.

I'd like to see Heyward stay in the 2-hole though. Even in his horrible start, he's still a fine #2 hitter. He's making contact, not striking out and he's taking walks.

His problem is that he's playing too much like a more prototypical #2 hitter right now. I'm fine with him doing what he's doing and the power will come.

His BABIP is an insanely unlucky .074.

 
AAABatteries said:
Fantastic weekend. Having a start like this with B. Upton, Heyward and Uggla all starting slow is unbelievable.
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Baseball's such a crazy game. Friday night, in the 7th inning the Braves looked dead with WAS having their 2 aces coming the next couple of days. 36 hours ago, getting swept felt like a decent possibility.

Then Pena comes through twice, Huddy throws a gem, and the floodgates open early on Sunday.

But yeah, great weekend. Braves will need every one of these wins because the Nat bats won't get this cold often, and certainly not at the same time Gio semi-implodes and the Stras isn't sharp.

 
Minor looking sharp so far, except for leaving one over the heart of the plate for Frenchy.

Luckily, Mr. Gattis got Minor out of his first jam by gunning down Cain trying to steal 3rd.

 
As far as April goes, this is a pretty big game tonight. Braves have been playing pretty poorly for over a week now. Nats are heating up.

Getting swept would suck and it'd be nice to get a win before heading to WAS.

Gotta have it from Minor tonight.

 
Ugly win, but they gotta win those.

The previous WAS series started with a rough Teheran outing where he still kept the game close enough for the bats to squeak one out. Hopefully, that's a good omen for the next 2 days. I won't hold my breath though.

Beachy needs to get healthy quickly. I think Teheran needs to head back down to AAA to work some things out.

 
If last night is a sign of things to come from Simmons, that could be huge. Him locking down the lead-off slot so incredibly important for this offense.

Outside of Upton and Freeman, this line-up is going to have some crazy cold streaks all over it. Simmons getting on-base would go a long way to helping the offense be good enough all year long.

Despite the current ugly looking .241/.299/.333 Simmons has going, there are some great signs. He's carried over his really nice K-rate from last year (11.3%), even improved it a little. Walk-rate's up to a pretty solid 8.3% and his LD% has taken a 5% jump up to 21%. If he keeps those trends going and just gets a touch more luck in the BABip dept, he could be exactly who the Braves need leading off.

Heyward's injury sucks because I still think he could be perfect guy in the 2-hole. Luckily, Fredi's got the depth to ride the hot streaks to make up for that loss.

 
Boy, McCann can't get back soon enough. 1.371 OPS in 24 PAs on the rehab assignment.

Not that I'm terribly worried about Gattis, but a healthy, productive McCann would be a wonderful thing to have. A guy who can drive the ball without striking out over 25% of the time is a premium in ATL.

 
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Looking for some local help. Heyward was just dropped in my fantasy league. I have to think he is worth a pickup and stash for a few weeks. It's not like the injury will slow him down once he comes back.

Right???

 
Wooderson said:
Looking for some local help. Heyward was just dropped in my fantasy league. I have to think he is worth a pickup and stash for a few weeks. It's not like the injury will slow him down once he comes back.

Right???
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Should be back around the end of May.

Definitely worth a pick up.

 
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