goddamn Simmons have a game

i'm scared someone hold me

WHEW!

Assume Votto was up in 9th when you posted this

It was Votto who hit a grand slam against Tommy Hanson to ignite the Reds before the Braves scored 9 in the 9th or whatever it was when Brooksie finished it with the glove bounce walkoff hr

Was right behind home plate, nothing I've seen has come close to witnessing from that angle that Votto oppo grand slam, I just couldn't believe how much opposite field power was generated. I'm pretty sure I heard myself say **** before I heard the crack of the bat

I've got a weird feeling that Gattis will be sent down once Heyward is back.

I just don't see it happening. There's no way Wren takes that much stock in Schafer's 48 PA's this season to choose him over Gattis...especially when we have similar players in AAA like Constanza and Cunningham ready to go if needed. I wish Schafer had options but oh well..he got to go yo imo

The thing is he can wait Schafer out. If/when he does start to suck he can trade/DFA him. I just don't see Wren wanting to lose a cheap asset who will very likely be on the MLB roster in 2014 and 2015 all to get Gattis 8-10 AB's a week at the ML level.

Then Gattis becomes the first guy you call up if/when one of Upton, Upton, Heyward, Reed, Schafer, Freeman, Laird, McCann, Francisco, Chris Johnson hit the DL - which seems pretty likely you'll have at least 30 unique days of DL time between that crew.

Then Sept. 1st he's back.

It will be interesting. If I was sure he'd get 3-4 starts a week I think it's a no-brainer, but now that I think about it I just don't see him spelling Upton, Heyward, or Freeman very often and once McCann gets going he will play all but one game a week.

And it's not that I think Schafer is all that great, I just think he's somewhat valuable as a 4th OFer going forward and don't really want to lose him at this point for nothing.

It's really a function of how much those 10 Gattis AB's a week are worth.

Him spelling Justin Upton, Jason Heyward, or Freddie Freeman just for the sake of getting AB's is more than likely a net-negative for us.

So you take the 4 AB's he gets a week over Laird on the days BMac sits and the 3-4 PH's a week he takes over Reed/Juan/CJ.

I just don't see him being that valuable to us in that kind of part-time role right now.

Good points. I'm also unsure how much value Gattis really has in LF or 1B at this point given his defensive issues so maybe Gattis over Schafer isn't such a no brainer production-wise. Plus Gattis having options while Schafer does not. Meh I dunno.

Another factor to consider: Gattis is on billboards and they can't keep his jersey-shirt in stock as hard as they try. Schafer ain't adding any of that kind of revenue.

That won't be overlooked.

I wouldn't want to be Wren. If I was I am still not sure I pull the trigger on demoting Gattis even if I think it's the right move. He's a national story. Every baseball fan would be pissed.

Attendance numbers at Gwinnett would go up, though.

He'd also be spelling BJ though, with Heyward moving to CF and Justin to RF. You would think he'd be able to find 1-2 starts a week in those spots...especially if BJ continues to suck it up royally. I'm not sure those are net-negative starts either, as he'd be starting over those in slumps/non-serious injuries etc. Plus having 1 start/week at catcher and PH'ing...you're looking at 13-15+ AB's/week.

There is something to be said for taking AB's away from the other backups...especially Reed. Juan/CJ will be fine sharing 3rd. Reed though is gonna lose AB's. edit- I guess we could just drop Reed and keep Gattis and Schafer? or is that insane?

Reed is an awesome luxury and it would suck to throw him away but that roster configuration actually makes a lot of sense

I'd be really disappointed in the front office if Gattis got sent down.

I don't see Gattis getting 1-2 starts/wk over BJ. Most prominent 2 reasons in my mind are:

1. They are paying BJ a ridic amt to sit that much (even if econ 101 says that doesn't matter bc they will be paying him anyway)
2. Even though BJ is struggling, we have an idea of who he is and what we can expect from him the rest of the year. Like it or not, that has to be of higher expectation than Gattis, even tho Gattis currently has over 360 pts in OPS LOL

Gattis won't be getting starts over BJ, Justin, or Heyward. If they are banged up or need a day off, then yeah he'd play, but he certainly won't be getting starts over any of them on a regular basis. Just the way it's going to be for now at least.

There is a decent chance Gattis replacing any of them for a single game is a net-negative no matter how badly BJ and/or Heyward is doing at the plate. Just depends on how bad Gattis is in LF which I have no idea, but the eye test from last night tells me he's probably horrible defensively out there.

If he truly is that bad in the OF (which he probably is) then yea I agree that he shouldn't be starting over any of the regs on a regular basis. Also, a lot of his offensive value comes from just playing catcher. When we put him in LF or at 1B his value offensively kinda plummets in addition to his awful defensive skills.

So maybe the optimal move would be to send Gattis down so he can develop at catcher in preparation for starting next season...while this season we rely on Schafer/Reed/CJ/Pena to back up OF/1B. Then we can call up Gattis in September obv.

Will definitely be interesting to see what Wren does in a few weeks.

mccannnnn

Is it pretty much assured we can't afford McCann next season? How much is he going to ask for? I always thought he would be like Chipper and retire a Brave.

We could afford him, but it would be tight. It'd also mean we probably couldn't afford something else - whether it be an extension for a younger guy, or signing a SP, or resigning Huddy. I'm not sure it'd be the wisest allocation of resources especially with the emergence of Gattis who will be 1/25th of the cost of BMac next year.

BTW, not sure how many of you are watching the local FSS feed, but they just had a graphic promoting a "Meet Evan Gattis" day on May 19th where if you buy a certain ticket you get to meet and greet with Gattis before the game.

Heyward will most likely be back before May 19th. Could be awkward.

lol awesome

Wow. Seriously?

So ****ing ridiculous.

lololololololololololololol