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Reputation:97
Level:Superstar
Since:Oct 22, 2006
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Ok Time for the 1/2 way report card.
How have the Bravos fared.
Well on the negative side of things we are tied for 4th in the division.
On the positive side we are only 3 games back of the division leading Phillies and closing fairly quickly.
Ok, so on to the evaluation.
Negatives -
1. the play vs the Pirates and Nats is still the same, but now we can throw in the Reds, and Brewers. Not that the Brewers are necessarily in the same class, but our play against them hasn't been the greatest.
2. Injuries. The amount of injuries is unbelievable. I mean Chipper, Kotsay, Hampton, and even perhaps Glavine or Smoltz we would expect to see on the DL a bit, but Moylan, Diaz, Sorian, Infante, Pena, Prado, even Reyes, Campillo, and Jurrjens have missed some time I believe. I looked at tonights lineup and of the 9 hitters we had Blanco, B. Jones, Gotay, Lillibridge, and Norton (DH). Only Tex, McCaan, Francoeur, and Johnson were starters at the beginning of the year and in some of those cases such as lillibridge and B. Jones, we aren't just into our backup players, but 3 or 4 deep into the depth chart.
3. June. I'm beginning to hate the month. It seems like every year we have a bad June that puts us into a hole that is hard to dig out of.
4. 1 run losses though its getting better recently.(overrated stat, but it is still kind of annoying to look back on these games and play the "what if" scenarios.
5. Road record - getting better, but still not great.
6. Francoeur - 14straight plug your ears, or close your eyes or whatever. While I"m not going to say its his fault or put the blame on him like I've seen others doing, I do think he is playing below his abilities, and is kind of pulling an Andruw Jones on us. For those of you saying the Braves haven't signed him because they see these tendencies I disagree. The Braves have tried to sign him, but he has declined their offers because he believes he will play into a better contract down the road. I have seen some balls land in front of him that might have been caught with a bit more effort, and if you check out his zone rating, I think he is close to last for RF who qualify. He has a gun for an arm, but you can't use it if you don't come up with the ball cleanly. I think he would benefit greatly from a night off every now and then. Hopefully when the rosters expand we can bring up Anderson to spell him, or if Kotsay feels better we can slide Blaco into right every now and then.
7 defense. I've been very disappointed in our defense. From the dropped ball by Kelly in the 9th to Escobars back to back errors the other night. We're better than that. It shows a lack of concentration.
Positives -
1. We're still in it. 3 back at this time is not too much at all. Granted I'd like to see us put together a nice 7 or 8 game win streak and jump into first, but 3 back is closer than the Phillies were in September last year.
2. Pitching. Wow. If I had a time machine, I'd go back right now, and bet some of you that we'd be leading the league in ERA with Smoltz gone for the season, Glavine out for a couple of months, James in the minors, and Hampton never throwing a pitch yet. I mean who could have predicted that a rotation of Hudson, Jurrjens, Reyes, Campillo, and Morton would be doing this well. Some of the youngsters stumble from time to time, but overall they've been solid.
3. Rest for the players who are injured right now. We're winning without Escobar and Chipper which means they are only going to have 130 - 140 games and should be fresher. On the flip side of this, we may be running McCaan into the ground.
4. Experience. We are going to have a ton of trade offers at the deadline or next offseason. Players like Blanco, Norton, Gotay, Prado, Brandon Jones, and many of our starters will be sought after because of the experience they are getting and the skills they are showcasing.
5. Norton and Gotay. Nice pickups by Wren. Neither are going to replace the starters, but they are better than Woodward and even Orr imho.
6. Bullpen. I know they had a bit of a rough stretch toward the beginning of this month, but overall with all their injuries, they've held up. Notice too how their production seems to have picked up since the starters have been going deeper into games. They're not too over worked lately, and its showing. (Acosta still makes me nervous though).
7. Teixeira - he's getting hot.
8. Potential. We've been winning and hanging in there with the scrubs playing (no offense). Just imagine what could happen if we DL chipper dated back to Wednesday when he last appeared so that we only miss him for the next 11 games. When he comes off it will be just prior to the allstar break where he should get some more rest as well. Throw him into a lineup with a hot Tex, a hot McCaan, a revitalized Escobar, and Kotsay returning, and we've got a potent mix. Not to mention throw Glavine back into the starting rotation, and possibly Hampton into the pen or put him in and send Morton back down for more seasoning.
Anyway here are my grades for the year so far.
Pitching A : a solid A. I would give it an A+ except for that rough patch for the pen.
Offense B- : Its hard to count spells without Chipper, Escobar, Diaz, and Kotsay against them. On the other hand they were mostly present when we got swept by the Reds and Cubs earlier. We are better than the 4 runs we displayed tonight, but with the guys that we had in the lineup, I'll take 4.
Defense C : Possibly a C-. If you're going to run these more inexperienced arms out there, and your lineup consists of 5 non starters you'd better not give the other team 30 outs.
Front office B+ : Lets face it Glavine and Kotsay have done well when they've played, but overall their offseason pickups weren't that good. On the other hand nabbing Gotay and Norton, and then having enough pitching in the minors in Morton, Reyes, and Campillo AND pulling off the Jurrjens/Hernandez for Renteria deal have proven to be good and even great moves.
Strength and Conditioning F: Perhaps an I for Incomplete would be better. Do the Braves even have anyone in Strength and conditioning, because its looking like a MASH unit out there.
overall grade : B. I think we can do better, but with the guys we are running out there I think it's unfair to expect 7 runs from the offense and a 2.5 era from the pitching every night.
Hang in there Bravos!!! Watch out for them Mets. I'm sure they'd love to do the opposite of last year and snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. Though their tendency in the past has been to fade in the later months. The Phillies on the other hand have had the tendency to get hot in July and August which is a bit worrisome. I'm not sure that their pitching can keep this up (though if I'm honest, I have to wonder if ours can as well so . . .)
Go Braves!!
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Reputation:96
Level:Superstar
Since:May 8, 2008
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Good post Redchip
I agree with most of your grades. The grades could actually be worse with the injuries we've suffered.
II was curious what your your grade of the coaching staff would be. I have been very pleased with Roger McDowell and the jobs he's done with the young staff. I don't think he gets enough praise or credit.
What's your grade for them?
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Reputation:96
Level:Superstar
Since:Jan 29, 2008
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6. Francoeur - 14straight plug your ears, or close your eyes or whatever. LOL. I don't think Francoeur is immune to criticisms or anything, I just get tired of having all the Braves woes blamed on him when he's not doing that badly. Not well, but not nearly as badly as some have made it out to be. Quite honestly, Frenchy deserves some criticisms, but you are the first to post some that are half way reasonable. I don't know about zone rating, but using revised zone rating, or RZR, an updated stat created by the same person, Francoeur ranks 8th among rightfielders with enough playing time to qualify, and 5th in the NL. Not bad at all. I can agree with you that it has looked like he let a few balls drop that he could've caught, but it's hard to know what would've happened if he's gone after them. Would he have dove and had them go past for a triple? We'll never know. It wouldn't hurt him to be a little more aggressive in the field, but he's doing OK, IMO. I do have a big issue with him dropping balls when he's about to make a throw. You have to catch it first. That's an issue. A pretty easily correctable issue, but an issue nonetheless. I think Frenchy looks a lot better at the plate since doing the whole contact lens thing, so hopefully that side of things will get going. He hasn't done what he should be doing at the plate, and I hope that changes soon.
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Reputation:96
Level:Superstar
Since:Jan 29, 2008
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Oh, and I believe it was Infante that made the back-to-back errors a few days back. The dude has to keep sharp at a ton of positions, so it's hard to fault him too much.
75,
I know your post was adressed to RedChip, but I'll offer a quick opinion.
McDowell has done a great job. He did a really good job last year too. He's a good coach, but some fans have a tendency to assume that if Leo Mazzone was still the PC, everything would be better and the Braves would have a pitching staff like they did in the 90's. Not so. McDowell has done an impressive job with what he's been given.
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Reputation:96
Level:Superstar
Since:May 8, 2008
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Not bad at all. I can agree with you that it has looked like he let a few balls drop that he could've caught, but it's hard to know what would've happened if he's gone after them. Would he have dove and had them go past for a triple? We'll never know
14,
That's a point I can agree with and if you think about it it's the negative plays we seem to remember when a players struggling like Jeff. I always remember Andruws one handed catches- especially when one popped out of his glove. Day in and day out play leads to botches.
It's a shame he's playing this bad now but I haven't given up on him. He's way to young and has to much up side to get down on him for me. I also think if he heats up all will be forgotten-- much like Tex is now.
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