May 26, 2009
· Filed under Braves baseball · Tagged Atlanta Braves, baseball, Braves, Braves prospects, pitching
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
May 20, 2009
· Filed under Movies · Tagged Movies, New Moon, twilight
New Moon, the second installment of the Twilight Saga, comes out in November.
May 20, 2009
· Filed under Books I like:, book review · Tagged Adam Hamilton, book review, church growth, church leadership
I recently finished Adam Hamilton’s book, Selling Swimsuits in the Arctic. It is a church leadership book discussing how to share Christ with others and how to grow a church. If anyone knows about growing a church numerically, it is Hamilton. He is the pastor of a 10,000+ member church in Kansas City. He has a blog that I visit on a regular basis.
Overall, I like the information in the book, though it was very basic. He basically talks about how church growth (or sharing the gospel) is very similar to marketing. We have something (a product) and we want others to have it. So we have to sell it to the person. Throughout the book he uses an example of Bob. Bob is a swimsuit salesman who goes with his wife to the Arctic. He goes with the intent of selling swimsuits only to find out that no one needs them there. So Bob has to adapt to make the sell. Throughout the book we follow Bob’s adventure and learn from him about how to reach the unchurched.
Adam shares with us that we must know our product well and make it intriguing so that others will be interested. He talks about how we live in a culture that is constantly being “sold” something and the church must use that mentality to reach the lost with the gospel. We must advertise well, preach well, sing well, among other things, all with the intent to reach the unchurched. (now obviously this isn’t the only reason we do these with excellence)
In regard to church leadership, I think that Adam’s book is helpful. However, I do have a problem with the whole church marketing idea. I tend to see evangelism as building relationships with people and letting them see Christ in you naturally. I don’t think it’s honest to meet with people, build relationships with them, and spend time with them only for the purpose of a hidden agenda of “selling” them Christ. I don’t look at Christ as a “product” to sell but as a way of life to join.
That said, Adam does make this point in his book. He tries to live in both worlds as he tries to explain this. To the world, we are selling a product. However, the “product” is not a product at all but a way of life that invite people in.
