jhay610

This is the first trade in a long time by the Braves that has got me feeling excited. Bourn is not the big bopper that this team could still really use but he fills another huge need which is a legit leadoff hitter WHO CAN FREAKING STEAL BASES! My god how long has this team gone without a guy leading off who can draw attention from the pitcher when he gets on base and help this offense manufacture some much needed runs. If there is a minus it's that his career batting average isn't as good as you would like it to be and he strikes out a bit but he's not Mclouth up there either. Great trade Wren.

I am very happy to see that Wren was able to pull this deal off without giving any of the farm's top tier pitching prospects.

I think it's safe to say we have a true lead off hitter. :kingchris:

:kingchris:

Link.

This will certainly help Fredi move closer to putting together an optimal lineup. Big assist for him and negates some of his impact on the games.

Acquisition of Bourn helps mask Fredi's inability to choose an appropriate leadoff hitter -- I'm sure everyone 'feels' Bourn should bat first.

How does a guy (Jose Constanza) go from not good enough to be on the roster to your leadoff hitter??

Fredi doesn't really stand up for his players with the umps and, though he doesn't necessarily throw them under the bus in the media, he certainly doesn't deflect any criticism and often directs it himself.

Bobby often used sub-optimal strategy but his players would take a bullet for him. I was expecting Fredi to be an upgrade at managing in-game but it turns out he is actually worse than Cox in this regard, and he can't touch Cox in the intangible areas mentioned above.

I think the skills Fredi has shown has been his ability to put a winning team on the field.

Frank Wren is the GM. With this pitching staff any major league manager worth his salt could manage to post a winning record.

Here's Fredi's defense, which I'm sure we'll all agree is beyond reproach:

“It’s not an easy matchup to bring Gonzalez to the plate, but you feel O’Flaherty will get him out. You don’t lose with the (runner) at first base anyhow. He got him this time.”

Don't accuse Fredi of going by silly numbers -- he's got to feel it, baby, and O'Flaherty felt good. Tip your cap.

:doh:

This should be noted, however:

Wigginton came in batting .306 with a .597 slugging percentage against lefties and was 2-for-3 with a homer off O'Flaherty. Carlos Gonzalez had hit .239 with a .358 slugging percentage against lefties.

Sometimes you just have to tip your cap.

Love that the background is of McCann bunting. Also, the flow chart is amazing.

His album title was just released as well:

Marvin's Room: The Land of Spongebob and Cheesy Puffs

I think when you're still saying "when they get that offense going" 78 games into the season it's wishful thinking. There's a good chance the offense is what it will be. I think the only way the offense improves at all is for Larry Parrish to be fired post haste. He was a horrifyingly bad hire, and the only reason he still has his job is that people don't like to admit they were wrong. Hiring a "roving minor league hitting instructor" for a major league job was incomprehensible in the first place. Then, you had a team that led baseball in OBP last year dropping to 27th this year after they adopted Parrish's "aggressive" approach at the plate. You have the biggest acquisition putting up the worst numbers for a regular in the MLB and seemingly unable to make even the slightest adjustment to his approach at the plate.

I waited 20 years for the Braves to finally realize how important it is to be patient at the plate as an organization. What happened last year at the plate was too good to be true, and I couldn't conceive of the possibility this thick-headed organization would manage to scuttle that progress as quickly as they have in favor of "aggression". Aggression? Does that mean swinging at the first pitch no matter where it is? Then I'm not a fan.

Alex. Gonzalez.

The blocks excite me. We could really use that on defense.

Solomon Jones was also a shot-blocker...just sayin'.

He looks like he has a decent scoring touch around the basket but I've only seen one move -- the jump hook going left or right. Maybe he has a + handle and jump shot for a 5 but it is hard to tell from a highlight tape.

He looks extremely raw in the post and will obviously need to add some weight and work on developing his footwork/post game.

Beachy struck out 11 yesterday. Nice work in his first start back.

Jerry Jones has quite a note on that stadium. He wants to have a full season and four pre-season games, I would assume.

The Thrashers were failed by the ASG, Don Waddell and Bettman. ASG for saying it was committed to the city while it was trying to offload the team behind closed doors. Waddell for running the team into the ground for a decade and ASG again for refusing to pay its top players market value. Bettman for being a sleazebag -- saying the NHL was committed to the Atlanta market and then shifting blame to the fans when it became clear that a $60m check was due to the league.

For all of the fans around the continent that are taking up this opportunity to blame this on the city: go back and look at the initially sterling attendance figures and their steady decline over a decade. The facts are that this was one of the most poorly run, if not the most poorly run, franchise in the league for its entire existence.

Atlanta fans are duly discriminating when it comes to supporting professional sports franchises. This is professional sports – everyone is in it for the money and as a fan, if something is wrong, the only way to lodge your dissent is by withholding your investment in the team.

Atlanta provides an electric atmosphere that would rival any when there is a superior product on offer or a compelling storyline – see Hawks vs Celtics in 2008, the Braves of the early 90’s and the Falcons during the Vick era and to a lesser degree of late with the emergence of Matt Ryan.

Atlanta provides unconditional support for its amateur athletes, the most salient example being college football. For fans of other cities that take a measure of pride in blowing thousands of dollars a year on inferior teams year-in and year-out, I see only fools that are easily parted with their money.

I will miss the Thrashers but refuse to put the blame on the city. If you can’t drum up enough support to fill the seats of a state-of-the-art 20,000 seat arena when you are drawing from a population of 5.5 million people, that’s a ‘YOU’ problem.

Could be worse -- you could be a Seattle Supersonics fan.

I will echo the concerns raised by others -- a change could easily be a downgrade.

The Spirit has managed to bury itself in bad PR and most of Atlanta is ready to run them out of town, but the bottom line is they have spent money EVERY time on this team (many times at the expense of the Thrashers, but I digress). When Marvin, Josh, Joe, Bibby and Al were due, they re-upped. They added payroll in the JC, Bibby, and Kaptain deals.

There is plenty of room to criticize them on their personnel decisions, both on the floor and in management, but there is NO debating that they have flashed the cash in every instance for the players.

This team has, overall, underperformed its payroll. You get a new guy in here and (s)he may not be willing to stomach that. You're just as likely to get a Donald Sterling as you are an Arthur Blank.

Be careful what you wish for.

Great post.

Let me also applaud Fredi for moving Heyward up in the lineup. With his OPS compared to McLouth, it was hard to believe we were giving McLouth so many more at bats over the season.

Sorry I am late to this thread. I think CBA should get his own custom title on this board like others have -- I nominate "Resident Baseball Expert" or similar.

At least A. Gonzalez has been phenomenal on defense this year, from what I've seen.

Fredi G. has been ok but he has made some bone-headed mistakes in managing the pen that have cost a couple of games. The Braves should cut Linebrink; he is a disaster.

I still think this should be a 90 win team and it looks as though they are starting to get hot. Starting pitching has been consistently amazing and that has been the basis of the blueprint since '91. It is now nearly June, however, and we are still talking about waiting for the bats to heat up.

he's quick as crap and can definitely be that skat back guy

Continuing the bathroom metaphors, hopefully he's not also soft as Charmin.

It's Brandon Beachy, but I wouldn't have guessed it. He has had 2 9-strikeout games. His first 10 starts as a pro have been phenomenal, really. If the Braves didn't have an inept offense which gets even worse when he pitches, he'd have 5-6 wins over the last 2 seasons. Instead he has 1. I really think Brandon Beachy could be a Roy Oswalt type pitcher. His composure is better than any rookie I've seen come through Atlanta, and that includes Glavine, Avery, Smoltz, Schmidt, Millwood, Hanson, Jurrjens.

and now he goes on the DL with an oblique....ugh

Squawker puts words in Teague's mouth, in his[/her] own little way.

My 2010-2011 Post-Mortem

Coming into the ORL series if you were offered this result you would have taken it with a big smile. Was disappointing to get blown out at home again but it felt like the Hawks showed up for every game this postseason save the Game 5 in ORL. (Watch game 3 against CHI and you will see that they hit an incredible amount of shots.)

It felt like we got beat by a better team. Chicago won 60+ games, had an MVP and coach of the year, and they eventually showed that. The difference between the teams' benches was starkly on display all series long and CHI's defense was truly magnificent last night.

The best thing about this postseason was the emergence of Jeff Teague. I really hope the kid can build off his incredible series and can make a career of it now. If he can get his jump shot more consistent he will be tough to deal with.

Josh Smith and Zaza were + players for the better part of the series. When Josh is locked in he is such a difference maker and a very special player.

Horf's rep came down a peg or two (or more) from the lofty place it used to be around here. I will choose to remember him for his 82 game All-NBA contributions and not for the baffling playoff efforts. Shows you that 'the winning spirit' is highly overrated -- it ultimately still comes down to players making plays. Overall the season is a positive for him as he developed a solid mid range J. I hope he can continue to develop a post game because he has lots of room to improve there.

Jamal is a great streak scorer/assassin but he again showed you his limitations. All the JC fanboys hopefully can now see the difference between Jamal and Joe -- Jamal is a hired gun and Joe is a blue chip scorer. When a team gears up to stop Jamal it is easily done and he will shoot you right out of games.

Joe did what he could this series but he is, as we know, not the guy to carry a team to a championship by himself. He gets a lot of hate for that but only a few teams in the league have true superstars (dam you Miami). He has to deal with doubles and guys running at him on a nightly basis and he does a decent job with it.

LD moved way up on my ledger in the playoffs as I thought he handled game management and sub patterns, for the most part, with aplomb.

Ultimately, a fairly satisfying season but it is obvious this team needs a bit of a shake-up/spark. The two starting lineups the Hawks run out there have glaring deficiencies in one spot (either SF or C depending on the group). They do not have the up-and-down talent to hide a hole like this and they do not have the bench to do it either.

So ultimately, we are again in that familiar role (for long-time Hawks fans) of being capped out at that second round ceiling. That leaves us looking to management for the way forward and sadly for many of us we just cannot put much trust in the guys running the show. Sund has for the most part been a caretaker of this group with a couple of notable exceptions where he picked up a nice piece for cheap (Flip, Jamal).

Now we need some real ingenuity and creativity to make that next move forward. Unfortunately we have been here before in decades past and regressed.

Whatever happens, I am a ride-or-die Hawks fan and I will keep watching. Thanks to all the guys for high energy/effort this postseason (shouldn't have to even mention that but with this group it bears shouting from the rooftops!) and some very memorable moments. The A-T-L chants at the end of Game 4 will be seared into the memory banks of the longtime faithful for a long while.

Go Hawks!

Hopefully we'll see you soon. I rarely agree with your views but they are entertaining.

Moreover, I hope I don't see you in the Kobe jersey line at Philips next year.

Didn't Zaza hit Boozer's head and he was bleeding for a while. Oh yeah, that's right he did. Where was the call. They didn't call it. What!!!!!!!!!!!! They didn't call the foul on Zaza??!! That's incredible. You guys still complaining about the refs are ridiculous.

I don't think Zaza's elbow was intentional, or if it was, at least it was in the flow of game action. Zaza was definitely conceding the foul though.

Boozer's elbow was a blatant cheap shot after the play.

At any rate, welcome to playoff basketball.

The Hawks lost in Chicago!

Someone must be blamed for this madness!!

You need a Lebron or a Wade to throw in there and get you some calls in these situations...or both.

As has been said, we don't have that guy who is going to break down his man and explode at the rim and demand a call.

I thought the Hawks got the short end of the ref stick last night at some key points -- particularly the Teague steal and the Rose touch fouls....but JJ, Craw and Teague don't go right at the rim and demand calls on their dribble drives even though they very well do draw contact.