The Braves rotation is very good, Hanson is a stud but he has his issues and can get roughed up. Everytime I watch him pitch he seems to get himself into way too many deep counts and gets visably frustrated which is annoying, but that should improve over time.

JJ is out, when is he back?

Dont concern your self with Moyer, or #5 starters at all for that matter. That being said you gotta give the old man some credit he has been good of late. But come the post-season if we make it, he wont start a game...


Pelfry has been good but he has been running a little good this season, his HR rate doesnt look like it can be sustainable, but its starting to look to me that he is just coming into his own and this is what he is.

Dont go throwing around the name Hisanori Takahashi, the sample size is entirely too small to really judge him but I doubt he will sustain a 10+K/9 and a 2.3HR/FB.

He is a sinker ball pitcher with a ridic gb/fb ratio and plays in the biggest ballpark in baseball, of course his HR rate is sutstainable.

I think Blanton is considerably better than he's shown so far. His K-rate has been ticking upwards each of the last few seasons, and he might not be all-the-way back from being hurt to start the year.

The Braves are awesome right now though!

I think we clearly have the best bullpen in the East, from long relief to closer.

Halladay's peak is off the charts, but I think our 1-5 rotation (assuming Jurrjens is ok) has the most area-under-the-curve, if you will

Kinda worried about Tommy, he's looked like a really young pitcher lately

yeah speaking of someone who needs to come back to earth, Jamie Moyer needs to stop looking like Tom Seaver when he pitches against us!

It may be sustainable, if so itll be his career low. Its hard to use "of course he can" when talking about setting a personal best as if its something he has done year in and year out.

Obv I agree, the ballpark he pitches in will help but he pitches in other stadiums as well obv.

Yea he's been having trouble finding a groove in the early innings...but once he settles down he's been his usual self. Also he's been through some pretty fluky **** so far this season. The 8 run inning against Cincy which I think was when McLouth lost the ball in the lights was ridiculous.

Anyway I'm not worried.

Don't remember McLouth losing a ball in the lights that game, Hanson just rocked. I mean he was obv getting BABIPed to death as it should be nearly impossible to give up that many hits in a row no matter how hard the balls are hit but he would have had an ugly line that game just a question of whether it was going to be 2 innings or 5 innings before he got knocked out.

Sorry, almost no chance the Mets take the NL East. 5:1 is very optimistic. I'm not saying the Mets can't pass the Braves, but if they do, that just means that the Braves weren't that good and fell back to the pack.

Seriously comparing their rotation with the Braves when you have RA Dickey and Nieves as your 4th and 5th starters? Sorry bro, they count too, just as much as the rest. Hanson is just a smidge behind Johan, and Pelfrey is not better than Hudson. Love people are throwing out 5th starters, yeah they don't matter in the postseason, but as far as I can tell they still make ~30 starts in the regular season, and that is pretty important, in fact those starts will go a long way towards determining whether you make the postseason, no? And if you want to talk about getting Maine back then lets talk Jurrjens.

The Nationals rotation, for real? Severely overrating Lannan, he is not better than any of the Braves starters, even LOLowe. I mean yeah Lannan has the potential to turn in some good starts and even a pretty good season, but so does Lowe. I don't care if Strasburg is better than Doc, their rotation stinks.

The Marlins best case scenario could be better than the Braves, but then again the Braves best case scenario could be best in the NL.

Btw, sabotaging the Mets with Failcore was a stroke of genius by Wren. Best to keep him in the division

Firrrrrrrrrrrrrrst place. What a pleasant surprise from coming back to civilization after being in the woods all weekend.

ha, i was at the beach since Thursday morning and really couldn't reallly follow anything until yesterday. Maybe I shouldn't watch them.

Sigh @ rain delay, can't argue with a 3 run 1st tho

We play so good, I love this team!

At the risk of being shunned forever:

Does anyone else think that Heyward is a bit too patient?

Hes had 3 called Ks in the past 5 games. Its obviously better than swinging at everything like Francoeur did when he came up, but some of these pitches have made him look like he was looking for something else and couldnt pull the trigger.

It's hard to say he's doing anything wrong when he's basically looking like a .400/.600 hitter.

Could he be even better if he took fewer pitches, especially with 2 strikes? Maybe, but also maybe not. He's 20 years old, and hell, maybe that will be one source of him improving as he ages. It's exciting.

Edit: And it isn't as if he hasn't gotten some hits, even at least one walk-off game winner if I remember correctly, that were with 2 strikes. Who knows, maybe if he swung at more 2-strike pitches, that game winner would have been a ground out or pop up, and overall he'd have fewer K's but still have a higher out percentage.

Just got back from the game. Sat 2nd row behind the Braves dugout which was obv awesome. I got completely soaked but it's all good.

There was such a great vibe in the stadium. Really exciting stuff going on right now.

Cox said he takes too many pitches, especially first pitch strikes.

Disagree about Heyward, well at least if the implication is that anything should be done about it. It's not like he knows the ball is going to be a strike. You have a fraction of a second to determine whether the pitch is worth swinging at. He doesn't knows exactly where the ball is going. It's more like the pitch is going within a one foot radius on the outside that is going to be tough to hit, I'm not going to swing and if it catches the plate, oh well he got me.

By all indications, Heyward is already one of the best in the league at making this crucial determimation. Yeah he may naturally get better with time at pitch recognition, but there is nothing that can or should be done now. Like he said, he is not up there taking pitches to try and get a walk, though of course that is a great side effect, he is up there trying to get a pitch he thinks he can hit. Any "correction" would have to involve him swinging at pitches he doesn't think he can hit, which doesn't make any sense. As he gets even better, he may get even better at recognizing pitches he can hit, but it will be naturally.

Bout that Cox quote, people have been bitching at Mauer for years because he almost always takes the first pitch, to the point that pitchers can almost just throw it right down the middle, seems to have worked out for him.

The kid is remarkable. Maybe there have been a couple instances where he should of fought off some 2 strike pitches instead of taking them but I don't remember him taking any down the middle or anything. Just some on the corners or outside that were called strikes.

Honestly I was surprised that Cox called him out like that when he did. I mean it had been a fuggin month give the kid some time imo.

Also he's facing all these pitchers for the first time it's only natural to try and see as many pitches as possible.

keep in mind, teams are not as good as their hot streaks. The Mets won 10 out of 11 too.

Well obviously. But the Braves are a helluva lot closer to the 20-8 team of May than the 9-14 team of April.

pls philly to be slumping like this for the next 4 months

We look awesome and they look terrible... I hope we really are this good but I know they aren't really this bad

Whew, the run goot was seriously starting to turn in the Phillies favor before the Utley double play.

Sweeps are good.

<3 this team!!!!!!!

We have very few glaring weaknesses if any for a change

What an epic series!

This team's enthusiasm is contagious, I was suspicious before, but I was also always drunk and emotional when I was watching the games.

I went ballistic in the 8th inning today stone sober, I'm a believer, this is our year!