Scott Proctor woeful

[CBAreject]

Anybody following the Braves this spring? Are the Braves serious about Scott Proctor taking a bullpen spot? They sure are pitching him a lot and he sure is getting tagged every time out. If Bobby were still manager, he'd make the team for sure, as a *veteran*. Bobby would stick with him through mid-June when finally, after he'd logged 8 blown saves and 6 losses as a set-up man, he'd ask Wren to cut him.

Braves will go with 7 relievers. These are the sure spots:

Kimbrel

Venters

O'Flaherty

Kawakami (ugh)

Linebrink

Moylan

The remaining spot is between Sherill, Beachy, Martinez, Proctor, and Marek. Beachy (or Minor) will be sent down to AAA to start full-time and not waste in the bullpen, though Beachy could be extremely effective there. I'm betting the last spot goes to Sherill, because he's a lefty and under contract, even though he was awful last year and has been awful this spring. If it were based on performance, the last spot would go to Marek or Martinez. Marek has been excellent at AAA and this spring. Ditto for Martinez, except he performed very well last year in the MLB, even pitching very well in long relief more than once when a starter got shelled. I believe he ate up 3 innings in that game where Hanson got smoked against the Reds and Conrad hit the granny to win in the 9th. Sadly, we will probably be looking at Sherill and Kawakami instead of Marek and Martinez, for a much, much weaker overall pen. Too bad performing better than your peers never guarantees you a spot in baseball.

[frosgrim]

I'll wait on kvetching about the make up of the pen until I see it.

There are a lot of good stories in ST right now as well. Chipper looks good. Prado looks fine in LF. McClout- wow- of course he could revert to bad Nate come April. The starting pitching has looked pretty good.

--- just after I posted above, I saw your thread on good news out of Spring Training--

Edited March 18, 2011 by frosgrim

[CBAreject]

I'll wait on kvetching about the make up of the pen until I see it.

There are a lot of good stories in ST right now as well. Chipper looks good. Prado looks fine in LF. McClout- wow- of course he could revert to bad Nate come April. The starting pitching has looked pretty good.

--- just after I posted above, I saw your thread on good news out of Spring Training--

Hey, no prob with posting good news twice, as much as we complain on here about the bad. Just about the only bad news of spring has been Heyward's back soreness, which may or may not be a problem. Everything else has looked rosy. We know the pitching has a good chance to be one of the top 4 staffs in the NL (Phils, Pads, Giants), but it looks like the offense might be in the top 3 or so (Rockies, Reds) if these storylines pan out. If that's the case, we could be the top all-around team in the NL. As always in baseball, depends on a lot of "ifs".

[frosgrim]

Good news, Proctor was released. Looks like the pen will be:

Martinez

Linebrink

Sherril

O'Flaherty

Venters

Moylan

Kimbral

Fredi is already showing he is different from Cox. I just hope that the differences mean we play up to our potential. I saw an interview with Fredi last night and the thing that really stuck out was that he won't tolerate mental errors. I really like that approach. Get fundamentally sound and the rest should follow.

[CBAreject]

Good news, Proctor was released. Looks like the pen will be:

Martinez

Linebrink

Sherril

O'Flaherty

Venters

Moylan

Kimbral

Fredi is already showing he is different from Cox. I just hope that the differences mean we play up to our potential. I saw an interview with Fredi last night and the thing that really stuck out was that he won't tolerate mental errors. I really like that approach. Get fundamentally sound and the rest should follow.

I like Fredi more than Cox, but I don't know how smart he is. Granted, there's more to being a good manager than being smart. You have to command the respect of grown men, motivate, encourage, and inspire, and perhaps all that is a whole lot more valuable than understanding facts and data. But when Fredi says he will bat Jason Heyward 6th in the order, I feel nauseous. Why don't managers get statistics? Batting Heyward 6th and McLouth 2nd means that Heyward will get 60 or so fewer at-bats than McLouth over the course of the year. That will cost the Braves runs. You don't have to be Bill James to know that a 1.000 OPS needs more plate appearances than a .750 OPS. Heyward should be hit 2nd, 3rd, 1st, 4th, and then 5th before he's hit 6th. There are 5 better options. Heyward, when healthy was one of the top 10 offensive players in baseball last year. He needs AB's and lots of 'em.

Cox used to say "I don't believe in statistics", and it made me downright furious. It's hard to respect a man who basically says "I got no use for facts and data. It's all hunches for me!".

[frosgrim]

I agree that Heyward should be higher in the order. Frankly, I would like to see him in the 3 hole and Chipper in the 6. That 3 spot is also a run scoring spot and Chipper has no wheels, while Heyward can fly. McClouth in the 2 spot is either going to be a disaster or a great move. If he can hit and run behind Prado then we have something. However, McClouth is a strikeout guy, so I'm not sure about this move.

I guess I would go:

McClouth (assuming he keeps hitting)

Prado

Heyward

Uggla

McCann

Chipper

Gonzales

Freeman

That order can pretty much be day to day because the lefty-righty mix is every other guy. Chipper gets to just drive in runs in the 6 hole.

What would really help this club is to find a leadoff CF. I also wouldn't bring Prado to play 3rd when Chipper is down. Use Hicks there. I think Fredi's thinking is that Hinske can play LF better than he can play 3rd so you keep some punch in the lineup.