Happy Baseball Day
I like holidays for the most part but I think there are a few that are missing from the calendar. I truly believe that Major League Baseball opening day should be a national holiday. Luckily for me, it’s spring break here and I have the day off. Happy Baseball Opening Day day!
My Braves open the season today against the Mets. An NL East rivalry that has been in play for a long time. The Braves had had the winning end of most meetings with the Mets and it would seem likely they would win today, but the Braves have a lot of unanswered questions to start the season.
The biggest question is Tyler Pastornicky, the Braves new shortstop. Pastornicky’s spring totals went like this: 25 games, 68 AB, 9 runs, 15 hits, 2 doubles, 3 RBI, 5 BB, 6 SO, 2 stolen bases, 3 caught stealing for a .221 average. He also committed 3 errors in spring training in 146.1 innings played. The Braves have him batting 8th in the lineup today. He has a lot of questions to answer yet.
Another question is how things will play out at 3rd base with Chipper having surgery, announcing this is his last year, and playing probably only sparingly this season. Martin Prado will be playing 3rd today for the Braves. Chipper will be out for a while yet. Prado had an outstanding Spring and will bat second for the Braves today.
Still another question is the performance of Jason Heyward. Having worked on his swing and rehabbing his injuries of last year through the off-season, Heyward’s spring was encouraging but not overwhelmingly convincing. He did have 4 homeruns in the spring but carried an average of .227 in 25 games. The Braves have him batting seventh today to open the season.
Braves pitching also has a few questions with Hudson on the DL still and some shifting of starters and relief pitchers. Today, Tommy Hanson will open the season for the team. He had 1 win and 1 loss in Spring Training in 3 games. A 2.77 ERA giving up a total of 11 hits and 5 runs in 13 innings pitched.
The Braves line up for opening day is as follows: : Bourn cf, Prado 3b, McCann c, Uggla 2b, Freeman 1b, Diaz lf, Heyward rf, Pastornicky ss, Hanson rhp. To start the season, the Braves are counting on McCann, Uggla, Freeman to be the power of the lineup. Against the Mets, this may be good enough. Against the Phillies, well that remains to be seen.
It’s a very long season and this is the first day of many, but it’s opening day and for me it’s Happy Baseball Day.
Braves Spring Update
The Braves Spring Training has been filled with more not so good news than good. There are some little things you can pay attention to, but I wouldn’t look too closely at their 5-11 record.
Jason Heyward hit a grand slam in a game this week and for Braves fans everywhere that is nothing but good news. Heyward continues to struggle at the plate batting just over .200 for the Spring so far, but he has made strides after his injuries of last year.
Chipper Jones had a firestorm of controversy erupt when Twitter posts claimed he might retire mid-season if his knee were to keep giving him trouble. Jones later he said he was just kidding around, but a lot of Braves fans didn’t find it that funny.
Mike Minor has pushed his scoreless inning streak to 14 in the Spring season all but securing a spot in the starting rotation.
The Braves projected shortstop rookie Tyler Pastornicky has had anything but a good spring but started to show some signs of life this past Saturday.
Pitcher Kris Medlen is likely to begin the season in the bullpen in a relief role despite having a strong spring.
Martin Prado is having a great start to spring with a .392 batting average and many Braves fans are happy he did not get traded in the off season.
Freddie Freeman’s right knee appears to be completely healed as he has played multiple games this Spring back to back and without pain.
There are fans who are already throwing in the towel based on the Spring training win/loss numbers. These people are short-sighted and will also be the first to jump on the postseason bandwagon should there be one.
The Braves will get the Mets to open the regular season on April 5, which is just a little over 2 weeks away. Hopefully, all parts of the Braves game will be ready to go by the time that in-division matchup kicks off.
Braves Beat
The Braves have already had an interesting spring and they have only played three games so far.
The first game was a pitchers duel for the Braves and Tigers with the Tigers coming out on top 2-0. A tight game all the way through the pitching ruled the day and held the hitters at bay.
The second game was a total beatdown of the Braves by the Tigers to the tune of 18-3. Basically the Tigers second string took the Braves second string to the woodshed. Very few of the Braves regulars played the whole game, but some notable rookies did and they did not perform well at all. Braves pitcher of the future, maybe even the future of this season, Julio Teheran was shellacked and even gave up 6 homers in the game. It was horrifically bad.
The third game turned out a little better for the Braves who won 10-5 over the Astros. Some key Braves hitters like McCann, Uggla and even Heyward had very good days for the team today. Atlanta pitching gave up 11 hits overall but Jurrjens did fairly well for his2 innings of work.
Spring can be hard to assess much but there are some things you can gain by watching performances in spring. Things like are Chipper’s knees healthy, has Heyward’s work on his swing paid off, is Pastornicky ready for the big time, are the pitcher’s velocities holding up? These are the kinds of things you can look for in spring training games.
You can’t take much from wins and losses unless your starting rotation is giving up a lot of hits and runs or the meat of your batting order is totally cold. Spring training is good for picking up information in bites.
The Braves will be featuring their relief corps tomorrow in Kimbrel, Venters and O’Flaherty in relief of Kris Medlin against the Nationals. Again, an opportunity to see in bites velocity, location, that sort of thing.
The week ahead holds the Tigers, Orioles and Yankees. It should be some great spring training baseball for the Braves.
Spring
The first MLB spring training game is just 19 days away and the best time of the year will start for me. I love sports, all sports, but baseball is something more than love. It is an obsession.
Fields of green touched by sparkling sun
filled with hopes and dreams anew
Games to be lost games to be won
nothing so beautiful ’tis true
Baseball is beautiful. It’s a ballet of talent and statistics. It’s a game of heroes and scapegoats. It’s a game of mortals and those beyond mortality. It’s a game of history and changing history.
On the first day of spring training in the beautiful Florida or Arizona sun as the rays of light stream across the green manicured fields, sparkling clean uniforms and fans who have waited through the winter, the feeling of all is right with the world sweeps over all those in attendance. It becomes a sort of hushed church of sports for the briefest of moments as the sights and sounds of it sweep over for the first time of the season. There is nothing like it in sports…the first spring training game.
It is the epitome of optimism. When the losses and short comings of the past season are wiped clean. Where the memories of almost and so close become faded and distant. It’s a rebirth just like spring. Where the brown and seemingly lifelessness of winter turns into the new green, leaves, flowers, birds of spring. The colors of the teams blend with the colors of the sunny fields of dreams once again open to the possibilities of the season.
Baseball is beautiful in every sense. In the colors, the smell, the joy, the sorrows. It’s beautiful in the numbers and the managerial schemes. It’s beautiful in the wins and in the losses. The first game of spring training is quite possibly the most beautiful of all sports events. A complex ballet of color, numbers, smells and sounds….and only 19 days away.
Standing Pat
The rumors have flow fast and furious. The trade scenarios have been numerous. It looks like though, in the end, the Braves will be standing pat.
Martin Prado, the subject of about a million trade rumors and scenarios, has now signed a new deal with the Braves for 1 year and a little over 4 million dollars. That puts an end to any and all trade rumors and scenarios that have been talked about for weeks now regarding Prado. He is officially with the Braves for another year.
The Braves have also made no moves whatsoever to suggest that any rumors regarding Jair Jurrjens are going to come to pass either. Almost every rumor that has surfaced has involved a scenario that involves trading Jurrjens and Prado as a package deal in order to get more return. That is now no longer possible. With arbitration now firmly underway, a deal with Jurrjens seems ever more likely as teams and players like to work to avoid hearings if at all possible.
The Braves have three players still in the arbitration process including Jurrjens, Eric O’Flaherty and Michael Bourn. If things work as they have in the past, all three will end up agreeing to some kind of arbitration deal and avoiding a hearing.
Braves GM Frank Wren has said in recent days that he does not see the team making any trades before Spring Training and each day that passes lessens that likelihood. I think with the signing of Prado it almost surely guarantees that the Braves will be making no further trade moves.
It looks like they are definitely standing pat going into the season and hoping for the best. It remains to be seen if that gamble pays off.
Players For Sale
The Braves are said to be shopping 2 players in hopes of saving some more money and perhaps spending it on things they think they need.
In looking at who they are shopping arguments can be made for both letting them go and for keeping them. There are those who see the possible loss of Jair Jurrjens and Martin Prado as a good thing. It would free up salary and open up options for the Braves in possibly obtaining more power for their lineup. The Braves are said to be in the market for a shortstop and some power hitting for the outfield.
But what of their pitching should they get rid of Jurrjens? Yes, he has had some health issues and that may make it even harder to unload him, but what if Tommy Hanson’s recovery is not completely successful? And what about the fact that the Braves rotation that is projected to include at least 2 pitchers with less than 2 full years of experience?
In the outfield scenario, Michael Bourn’s contract expires the end of the 2012 season and the Braves are already looking for a replacement. Giving up Prado, removes a reliable replacement for Chipper Jones on the days he needs to rest and next year he is sure to need that rest just as he did this year.
While I can see the trade of Prado more readily than I can Jurrjens, both leaves the Braves with some holes to fill and it seems they are not looking to fill the pitching hole. They traded away Derek Lowe earlier this month to free up money and now they are looking to trade Jurrjens to do the same, but nowhere have I seen that they are looking for pitching, something they definitely need.
Yes, it would be nice to get a good outfield power hitter, but what of Chipper’s rest? What of the fact that the pitching needs some help? What of the loss of a utility man like Prado? Saving money is all well and good if you use that money for what you really need to compete next year. It looks like the Braves are shopping for pieces to use down the road and not the upcoming season. That’s always a bad sign and generally leads to a team not seeing the post season when they overlook the immediate needs.
Players for sale shouldn’t turn into throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
Lowered Expectations
I have been an Atlanta Braves fan for a long time. And by that I mean on the order of 39 years. I have seen it all with this team and I am still a fan. This week though, I have lowered my expectations considerably.
I have been through the Hank Aaron era. I have been through the years of drought where the Braves were the worst team in all of baseball. I have been through the 90s where they were one of the best teams in baseball. I have been through the great players like Glavine and Maddox. I have been through the not so great players and those whose names you can’t remember or wish you could forget. I have been through the pennant and world series highs. I have been through the finishing last in all of baseball, not just the division or the league.
I have stuck by them through all the 1 run wins and extra inning heroics. I have been there for all the 1 run losses (the Braves may hold this record and if they don’t they should) and the extra inning devastation. I have stuck with them through 90+ win seasons and 106 loss seasons like 1988. I have seen them do it all. I am still here.
After all the Braves have put me through, I continue every spring training to come back. To have hope. To be optimistic. To be excited for the start of a new season. And then it starts and then the bipolar team that the Braves are begins their season dance of good and bad, win and lose, up and down. The inconsistency is the only thing that a Braves fan can count on to happen year in and year out over the last several years. They almost make it to the postseason, but then lose on the last day of the regular season. They make it to the postseason and get blown out in straight games in a matter of days. They build up your hopes only to dash them to bits.
Perhaps being Braves fan makes a person stronger. Weathering the storms of inconsistency. I doubt it though. I think it makes a person cynical and that’s a sad turn of events for someone like myself who loves baseball more than any other sport. This last performance and extra inning loss to the Phillies, of all teams, has caused me to look forward to next season with lowered expectations. I don’t think when spring training rolls around I will be as excited. I don’t think I will be as hopeful. I think that my optimism will be much less.
Yes, I will still be a Braves fan. I have been through seasons much worse than the one just completed and I will be again and for probably all of my life. But will I be hopeful that they can win 90+ games? Will I be optimistic that they can get into the postseason? Will I be hopeful that they can win the World Series? No, that won’t happen. My expectations are severely lowered going forward. Perhaps it’s a form of protection of my own emotions. Perhaps it’s just reality finally setting in. Whatever the reason, I can tell you this, it’s sad and it makes me sad…..and perhaps that’s the saddest thing of all.
Let Me Clarify
My last write on the Braves has generated a lot of comments sent to me that make it clear that the meaning of the article was completely misunderstood. I obviously wrote it wrong. But I am not here to set the record straight.
Firstly, I am not bipolar, nor have I ever been. The Braves, the team, is bipolar. They play bipolar baseball, win, lose, good, bad. They are completely inconsistent. It has nothing to do with my mental state, which as I said does not include being bipolar.
Secondly, I am not in any way responsible nor do I feel responsible in any way for the Braves performance on the field. The wins, losses, good, bad belongs solely and entirely to the Braves team. They alone are responsible for how they perform on the baseball field. I certainly have no responsibility in it whatsoever nor do I feel that I do.
Now those two things said, let me point out that being a Braves fan is difficult. In fact, sometimes it is near to impossible. They have the team with which to play well, very well. They have the team with which to win games, many games. They have the team with which they should be in the post season every year. But they don’t do those things. They play baseball up and down like a rollercoaster and as a fan it is very hard to ride it with them a lot of times. It is disappointing and it can make a Braves fan feel very worn out.
That was the only point of my last write on the Braves. That the TEAM makes it hard to be a fan. The TEAM is very disappointing at times and of late, a lot of the time. They have now put themselves in a position to completely miss the post season. There are 6 games left in the regular season. The first 3, the Braves get the Nationals who are now on a 5 game win streak thanks mostly to a Phillies team that has decided to stop playing baseball. Then, the Braves get the Phillies for the last 3 games of the year and their only hope is that the Phillies continue to not care whether they win or lose games.
Let me clarify again, I am not bipolar. I am not responsible nor do I feel responsible for the Braves losing. I am however disappointed once again in their on the field performance and I am not exactly hopeful that they will make it to the post season. But this is the life of a Braves fan where the TEAM is bipolar and completely responsible for the mess they find themselves in.
That said, I am STILL a Braves fan and I will likely be so for the rest of my life, win or lose. It’s just not an easy thing to be.
Killing Me Slowly
The Braves are killing me slowly. The torture of a bipolar existence that in the end leads to death of dreams and the slow realization that another post season has passed me by. It’s like the slow drip of a leaky faucet or the tick tock of the clock as the hours and days pass by counting down to the end of the regular season as I watch the team I love slowly, inexorably keep killing me slowly.
The Braves are a team of bipolar ups and downs, wins and losses. It has always been so, it will always be so. It seems ingrained in their very psyche. They do not know how to function in another manner. I have become accustomed to it. It is an existence of normal. They always play well enough. Any team with over 90 wins on a season, is not something to look down one’s nose at. It’s the slow death of missing the post season that is the proverbial dirt on the grave…..and they seem determined to make it so.
The Braves were not very long ago more than 13 games up in the wildcard race in the National League. They looked to have things well in hand. I could make it through the inevitable losses knowing that they would make the wildcard. But slowly, surely, the march towards doom started. A trickle at first. Like the first drop of water torture. Nothing to worry about. Then it became more drops. They started losing series to much inferior teams. The drops became steady. A heartbeat of badness.
The journey continued on. The Braves would win a game and lose 2. Win a game and lose 3. Not win any games. Slowly but surely, the Cardinals began the march to overtake them. Closer and closer they came. Like an evil wind chilling you to the bone. They moved ever closer. The Braves allowing them to move closer until the breath from their mouths was on their necks.
Now, there are 8 games remaining for the Braves. Eight games. The Marlins, the Nationals and then the dreaded Phillies. The Braves are 2.5 games ahead of the Cardinals in the wildcard race. That’s 2.5 games. And let’s not forget the Giants. The Braves are only 3.5 games ahead of them and the Giants have won 8 games in a row. Time is running short. It’s become dire. The coffin is laid out. The flowers of remembrance are ordered. The death notice is written. Killing me slowly.
There is still hope, but it is becoming hard to see. There is still belief, though it is hard to muster some days. The Braves must win. The Cardinals get the Mets, Cubs and Astros. It’s like cake. The Giants get the Pirates, D-Backs and Rockies. A little harder than cake, but not the Phillies. The Braves must win.
Time keeps moving forward. The regular season clock is almost at zero. The Braves are on the precipice of the end…..killing me slowly.
Righting The Ship
The Braves have 15 games left in the regular season and the way they have played of late they need every single one of them. They were swept by the Cardinals this weekend, which moved them the Cards to only 4.5 games back of the Braves for the wildcard.
The Braves are now a full 12 games behind the Phillies and have just about zero hope of making up any ground on that score. They do however have to fight to keep the Cards at bay and to not play their way right out of the playoffs. It would be travesty to win 90 games, which the Braves most likely will and to miss the playoffs by losing at the end. That would be taking bipolar to the next level.
This week the Braves have the Marlins and the Mets, two teams they SHOULD be able to beat. The Cards will get the Pirates and then the Phillies. Their prospects don’t look so bright especially for the weekend. After this week, the Braves get the Marlins AGAIN and the Cards get the Cubs. And then the Braves get the Nationals and the Cards get the Mets. Outside of the Phillies, these two teams look to have an easy two weeks of things.
Then the Braves get the Phillies for the last series of the year and the Cards get the Astros. That is a set of games most definitely in the Astros favor.
All things being equal, the teams could end up in that last series of the year still very close and as we all know, the Braves have a very, very hard time with the Phillies. It could turn very ugly for them if that’s the case. The Braves need to win. They need to sweep series leading up the Phillies matchup. They need to sweep the Marlins twice. They need to sweep the Mets and the Nationals. The odds of that I know are high, but there is no reason they shouldn’t win most of those games. No reason. But then I thought they wouldn’t get swept by the Cards either.
The Braves have played themselves perilously close to missing the post season. They have 15 games in which to get the ship righted and they need to start today with the Marlins.
Deborah Horton
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