The Blue Board

one thing the Braves do well is adapt. im not a Real Braves fan, but i like the team and respect the dynasty they have. they will be fine. plus they have some of the new bloods out there learning right now. "you will see them in the post season".

I just wish someone could get it through their thick skulls to work pitchers like the Phillies. When they have their full line up going, there aren't many teams in the past 10-15 years better at only swinging at good pitches to hit and getting starters out of the game early.

I don't disagree with playing Diaz last night, but dear god, he swung at like 8 of the first 10 pitches he saw. Freeman always swings at the first pitch.

When they do actually try to work counts they end up taking fastballs down the pipe, swinging at junk for the 2nd strike, and handcuffing themselves into bad at bats. Prado can do it effectively, but if he gets behind in the count he has a tendency to "protect the plate" on just about everything within the same zip code of the strike zone.

Yup.

And only the Braves would do nothing to their roster after one of the great choke jobs in baseball, especially when the rest of the division went out and made moves to make themselves better. It's not "fine" like they think.

There are just way too many holes in the everyday lineup.

100% correct

Whatever you don't count cause you want them to fail cause then you will be right

I'm not basing Pastornicky's evaluation off yesterday, the first four games of the year, or even Spring Training. Scouts are in agreement that this kid's ceiling is limited, half of them think he's strictly a utility player.

He may slap some hits here and there, but are we expecting an OPS north of .700 from a 22-year old rookie that has shown little power in his career? And defensively, the guy had a ton of errors last year in the minors, mostly throwing...scouts also feel he might not have the arm to play there full time.

I think expecting him to be a league average SS is awfully ambitious.

You're talking about them like they are talented players that are going through early struggles. Pastornicky is not an everyday MLB SS and probably never will be. Francisco is a strikeout machine that is lazy. This team has major holes everywhere and this isn't just an overreaction after 4 games. I thought the team overachieved greatly last year and fell back to Earth, by not making the playoffs. This years team is almost the same team and I don't think it is a very good team. Combine that with Fredi, and I don't see us even contending for the wild card. We will probably finish over .500, because we have a good pitching staff, but that's it.

F*** the Yankees, but you are completely right about Freddi. Worst pickup for the Braves since Mike Hampton.

That is FANTASTIC

Read my earlier post regarding TV contracts. They're handcuffed for the foreseeable future unless they take a beating on a trade for players they can't re-sign.

They don't have teams throwing a Hunter Pence at them and can't get involved with big time FAs.

It sucks, believe me, the Falcons are doing the same thing essentially. Both my favorite pro teams are standing pat with obviously flawed rosters, but I'm gonna still hope for the best.

BTW, that last post was mostly RE: gamecockguy12. Prob should have quoted.

Bravo

They're essentially owned by a stock price robot that wants to hold serve as long as the checks keep coming in and unload at a profit if it looks like they may start losing money. They made it clear before the season they have no intention of selling in the immediate future. Might as well hold on to one of your winners as long as the economy is unpredictable.

They basically say "Here's your payroll, we don't care what you do with it" and if there are increases it's enough for some bats and a bucket of balls...or Livan Hernandez, whatever's worth more.