I am having a hard time deciding what to do. As documented ITT, the Braves are 0-8 or something stupid in games I have been in attendance. But now there are some honest to god exciting and meaningful games next week that I want to go to.

But I want the Braves to make the playoffs. What do I dooooo?

Go to a game that Tommy Hanson is pitching obv.

We've temporarily gained a half game with a 10-inning victory

StL up 3-2 in the 4th!

every win is big obviously but today was HUGE to not drop one to Nationals!

2 games back, could drop to 1.5 if Cardinals can hold on to a 1 run lead for another 5 innings

trying to make me believe here....cmon Braves

What a sick run to at least give us all a sick sweat next week.

2.5 back turning to the last full week of baseball....ugh

Braves Remaining Games
3 vs. Florida
4 vs. Washington

Rockies Remaining Schedule
3 vs. Milwaukee
3 @ LA Dodgers

Braves go 6-1
Rockies go 3-3
Tied up one day playoff


Need Brew crew and Dodgers to care this last week

That schedule looks good for ATL, except LA will prolly be resting starters - esp pitchers.

Up 3-0 so far tonight let's gogogogo Braves.

bump

I knew this team was just stringing me along to rip my heart out.

gogogo Milwaukee and LAD

That's just fawking brilliant baserunning Diaz with the season on the line. Oh well, until next year. With Hanson playing a full year and no more half of a season spent wasted waiting on Francouer and Kelly to come around, Braves will be tough to beat next year if the pitching performs like it did this year.

Been ranting in the MLB season thread.

I am not as optimistic about next year.

Positions I feel good about: C, SS, CF. And the pitching obv.

Positions I don't feel good about:

1B: Who are we going to run out there? Freeman? Resign LaRoche? Norton (lol)?
2B: Prado played over his head this year, right? Love if he keeps that up, but not optimistic.
3B: Chipper really struggled the last few months.
LF/RF: Schafer back up? Heyward? Platoon with Anderson/Diaz?

I just don't see the Braves scoring many runs next year although the pitching should be fantastic.

Lf/Rf: Heyward plz! Finally some power from the outfield

I think this could be a great team next year, if a few thing go their way and they can patch a few holes.

LaRoche, Church(?), Hudson, Soriano, and Gonzalez are all free agents, Hudson has a $12M team option. The bullpen would be taking a pretty huge hit losing Soriano and Gonzalez, I'd love to keep one of them.

I'd like to see LaRoche back next year for a reasonable price on a short-term contract, Freemon is a good prospect but may not be ready for 2 years. I don't see how this team picks up Hudson's option, they have a good bit of money invested in a very deep rotation, and I'd hate to see Kawakami making 7M+ pitching out of the bullpen.

There's probably enough money coming off the books to pick up a guy like Jermaine Dye at 5-7M, give LaRoche something in the 3 year 24 million range, and resign one of the closers for around $7M a year.

I won't re-hash all the moves we've made in this offseason to make this bump flow with the thread better...

but I'm about this close to fire-bombing Frank Wren's car

I don't think he's done that bad. The bullpens a wash. The Javy trade seems meh but we won't really know for years. The chances of him regressing next year are pretty high as well as the chances of Lowe being a lot better. In return we shored up the OF with Cabrera and we got Vizcaino who people think is a huge stud in the making. In addition to clearing Javy's contract.

If Glaus can stay healthy he seems like the perfect fit at first.

I'm a little uncomfortable with all the injury risks on this team though. We could very easily finish 1st or 4th in the division depending on who stays healthy. It should make for another interesting year for sure.

So.....is Heyward going to make the team this year or what? Would another year in the minors do him good?

I for one don't want to have like the 5th best record in the NL again. Bring in Heyward plz

Definitely will be called up early this year. Only question is whether it is out of camp, or around June 1 to keep him out of arbitration/free agency for another year. With how the FO is reluctant to hand out big contracts, my brain tells me I want him called up June 1st to get another year out of him before he leaves when he is a superstar.

I think (hope?) that Heyward will make the opening day roster and will play every-day RF, with all the glowing praise I'm reading from Bobby and others

I've read that Hinske is acting as a mentor for Heyward, like he supposedly mentored Evan Longoria. Longoria signed a big extension that's friendly enough for the team, and his prime is now locked up in Tampa.

I think playing games with the absurd arbitration clock rules is unnecessary.

It's almost a given that Strasburg will start in the minors, which is ludicrous to me

Fangraphs: Say Heyward in May

I think this Fangraphs article is exactly right. The marginal value of Heyward>Diaz for three weeks isn't worth losing him for that last year.

450 ft bomb today off Scherzer

I can hardly contain my enthusiasm

Totally agree. Even Heyward is ready, and Cox really wants him to start the season in Atlanta, the smart business thing to do is keep him in AAA just like they did with Tommy Hanson. That way they keep them for longer before they can no longer afford them and then they sign with the Yankees.

It's official, welcome JayHey

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/spring...ory?id=5030458

JeyHey just worked a 12 pitch at bat vs Verlander after only throwing 9 pitches in the 1st inning. Thank God for the antithesis of Francouer.