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Bryce Harper is a 16 year old baseball phenom. Some scouts say that he would be taken in the top five of this year’s draft if he were eligible. Could he be the Lebron James of baseball? Isn’t it a little crazy to put this much pressure on a 16 year old kid?
Yesterday, the Braves sent pitchers Charlie Morton and Jeff Locke and OF Gorkys Hernandez (all three minor leaguers) to the Pirates for All Star Center Fielder Nate McLouth. Frank Wren certainly worked his magic to pull off this trade. Nate is a power bat, base stealing threat, and also a gold glove center fielder. He is under a reasonable contract through 2011 (with a club option for 2012). He is only 27 years old so he is in the prime of his career. This could give the power bat that Braves needed to compete for the NL East. He will likely start his first game as a Brave tonight against the Cubs. Welcome to the family Nate!
On June 23rd, Me, Jade, and the cats will be moving to our new home. As I’ve mentioned before, I’m about to begin seminary at Duke. While I’m going to Duke I’ll be serving a church in Henderson. The church is Rehoboth UMC (above). Duke has a program where certain students serve as pastors of small rural churches while attending school.
We have already visited the congregation and are really looking forward to serving there. I’ve had several conversations with their current pastor, Tony, via email. He has been very helpful in giving me valuable information about the church.
Obviously, we are sad about leaving the current church where I’m serving at in Cordele. We’ve had some great experiences here and will definitely miss the people.
Former Duke Blue Devils point guard Greg Paulus will be playing football at Syracuse this season. Out of high school, Greg chose to play basketball at Duke over football at schools like Notre Dame. Since he recently graduated from Duke, he has a year of eligibility to play football. I’m looking forward to cheering him on this season and wish him the best.
For most people, whenever you think about a pro baseball player you automatically think that they are rich. Sure, a lot of major league stars probably get paid more than they are worth. However, that’s not the case for the majority of minor leagues.
The average salary for a triple-A baseball player (the highest minor league pay scale) is $2,250.00 per month. It should also be mentioned that the players only get paid during the 6 months or so that they are playing. This leaves the wife possibly having to work full time. If children are included, this could be difficult.
To try to offer help, a group called FASFIM, led by Laurel and Steve Sharpe, seeks to help provide financial assistance to minor leagues who are married with children (those who qualify).
With the economy like it is, minor league baseball is taking a hit. If you read my blog you are aware that I’m a huge baseball fan. What makes pro baseball so great is the minor league system. You get to follow so many players and their development. At their website you can donate to their organization to help support these minor leaguers.
More info here: l
Well we are about 1/4 of the way through the 2009 season. Going in, I didn’t have high hopes at all about the team. We lack a power bat in the lineup and I was unsure about our pitching.
As of now, we are 23-21, 1.5 games out of first place. Honestly, that’s not bad at all. Over the last month we have been playing some really good baseball.
Let’s take a look at our starters so far this season:
Derek Lowe has done everything that we could ask for so far. We signed him this offseason and he has outperformed every other pitcher that we were interested in. He has already won 6 games for us and has a 3.45 ERA.
Jair Jurrjens continues to improve as a pitcher. His ERA is a microscopic 2.07. He has won 4 games so far this season.
Javier Vazquez is another guy that the Braves picked up this season. He is a strikeout pitcher and has already K’d 78 batters this season.
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Kenshin Kawakami is also a new Brave. He has pitched fairly consistently but could still stand to improve.
Guys on the DL are Tim Hudson and Tom Glavine. There is hope that both could return this season. Glavine is currently at AAA Gwinnett and is looking to make the jump back, although his last outing wasn’t great. Having both guys back would be huge for our rotation. A rotation of:
Lowe
Hudson
Jurrjens
Vazquez
Glavine
could be very competitive.
Tommy Hanson. Remember the name. He is the best pitching prospect in the minors not named David Price. Look for him to get the call up maybe as early as June.
10 Braves pitching prospects to look out for:
1. Tommy Hanson RHP
2. Kris Medlen RHP
3. Julio Teheran LHP
4. Jeff Locke LHP
5. Cole Rohrbough LHP
6. Craig Kimbrel RHP
7. Brett DeVall LHP (2008 first round draft pick)
8. Todd Redmond RHP
9. Scott Diamond RHP
10. Zeke Spruill RHP
New Moon, the second installment of the Twilight Saga, comes out in November.
