June 4, 2009
· Filed under Braves baseball · Tagged Braves, Nate McLouth
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!
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
April 17, 2008
· Filed under Braves baseball · Tagged Braves
Picked by some to be the N.L. East champs and by a few to go to the World Series(Peter Gammons), the Braves have started the season 5-9 losing their last three. The big surprise thus far has been the Florida Marlins. With a very small payroll to work with, they are currently leading the competitive N.L. East. The Braves are next to last with their 5-9 record.
In fairness to the Braves, they have had to overcome some early season obstacles:
Mike Hampton’s injury (again…)
Tom Glavine’s injury (which rarely ever happens)
Mike Gonzo gone until mid-summer (this was a last season injury)
Rafael Soriano’s injury(our closer)
Peter Moylan’s injury(our main set-up guy)
Jordan Schafer and HGH (our future star center fielder)
It has been a tough month for the Braves. However, once we get these guys back we should be back in the hunt. We have lost nine games, but the majority of them were lost by only one run. I also don’t expect the Marlins to continue in their success. At the end, it will be a Mets, Phillies, and Braves race. Whoever stays healthy will win. Let’s hope that we got our injuries over with early.
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