****2012 Official Atlanta Braves Thread*******

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I dont like this whole Dempster position....he is screwing over two franchises, and setting himself up for negative mojo if he gets his wish to go to LAD (and I would have preferred him land in LA in the first place, but now.....).

He hurts Cubs leverage, he pisses off Braves and hurts them with Delgado, etc.....and again, dont like the mojo one bit.

I get the 10/5 power, but dont shout from the mountain top how you just want to help Cubs if they feel a trade gets them prospects, and dont list Braves on a suitor list, to then claim you are blindsided, and now second guessing if Braves are on the ok list.

 

"..continue to talk to the Braves and Cubs.."?

Uhm, what?

 

Cubs continue to talk to Braves and DODGERS....just a typo I am sure over what he copied and pasted, etc.

 

bet you love this then....ohh this is rich...Theo must be going batsh$t.....

 

I hope Atlanta withdraws its offer. I don't want to see him in a Braves uniform. Great favor he's doing the Cubs as they won't be able to get crap from the Dodgers now if they are still even interested. If they want a half season rental maybe they should throw something reasonable at Philly for Cole Hamels and see if they're interested. I know Philly is under the delusion that they will resign him but...

 

The Braves are apparently done with Ryan Dempster. Braves’ GM Frank Wren was on 680 The Fan in Atlanta this morning, and he told Sandra Golden that a deal with Dempster is “highly unlikely,” and that the Braves “had paramaters that expired yesterday.” He added “we’ve moved on.”

 

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They have no choice but to keep him. Their only potential trade partner is the Dodgers who would now have the Cubs by the balls in any potential trade scenario. If I was a Cubs fan I'd hate Ryan Dempster right now.

 

Sheets was signed to Minor League contract back in July...so figure its just a 1yr deal with Vet Minimum now that he is in Major Leagues.

anyway...more important news:

very surprised that A. Vizcaino (currently injured) was flipped...such upside back in his Yankees days, and ready to go this season it seemed prior to injury...if he does get healthy, its another nice young arm still that Theo acquired for Cubs.

 

P.S. That’s six straight wins and — for the first time all year — a Monday win for Atlanta.

 

I couldnt believe when they said on MLBN yesterday that Houston has 10 total road wins.....wtf!?!? I know they are bad but 10!!!!

 

Im a big Reed Johnson fan.

 

Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports recaps the unusual story of how Ben Sheets wound up hooking on with the Braves. The 34-year-old, who had interest from a number of clubs, told Rosenthal that the situation in Atlanta fit him perfectly even though the offer wasn't necessarily the best. The veteran prefers the National League, likes the pitcher's advantage in Turner Field, and enjoys the humidity of the Southeast. Sheets' deal is for the prorated portion of $2.25MM and includes up to $1.4MM in incentives.

 

I'm really hoping Medlen isn't pulled out of the rotation for any reason. At this point I think he's better than Tommy Hanson and probably will continue to be. I didn't see it last night but apparently Maholm pitched a three hit complete game shutout. This is poetic justice after Dempster's BS.

 

Medlen is the "fantasy experts" favorite red-headed stepchild...they all love him, but GM or Manager or both dont love him as starter and keep giving him nibbles (where he produces) but then toss him back into the pen. I too wish he would get a consistent shot at the rotation.

Then again, its working on what they are doing and pen is stronger with Medlen in it. Although he has pitched best out of the rotation as far as numbers go.

 

I don't think there has been a big drop off between his work in long relief and his work as a starter. All the guy does is win. You know you're going to get a good outing from him every time and possibly a very good outing. He's got a lot of guts out there and fits a Tim Hudson kind of mold IMO. Not flashy but he'll go out there, pound the zone, get guys out, and help you win a lot of games. This is more than I can say for Tommy Hanson who has been a huge disappointment so far. I may be imagining this but it also seems like Tommy's fastball velocity has declined a little. He also can't seem to get guys out without throwing a ton of pitches.

 

Oh, it wasnt a knock, nor was I implying he hasnt pitched good out of pen.....but his ERA is lower, and his K-rate is way up as starter.

 

Very little downside to the move.

 

I was thinking you were saying that his numbers out of the pen had been better than as a starter. My mistake.

 

ESPN [shockingly] also has an article up today on how Ben Sheets ended up in Atlanta.

http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/8254490/ben-sheets-accidental-savior-atlanta-braves

 

Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez said Monday that he will use a six-man rotation through August 29. In other words, nobody is getting booted from the rotation when Tommy Hanson (lower back strain) returns from the disabled list Friday. At least not yet. The Braves will go two turns with six starters before going with the five healthiest and most effective pitchers from August 31 on.

 

I like the 6 man rotation for now, Sheets is a good story but you have to take it easy on him with his comeback.

 

I'm OK with this for now. As I've said earlier I fully expect Medlen to outperform some of the others and will be extremely irritated if he ends up getting booted from the rotation. Sheets had his first bad outing last night. What a shame too because the Nats finally lost. I love the fight in this team though, they nearly made a huge comeback in the ninth. They'll need this to avoid being like last year's team next month.

Something else I've been thinking about. Unless the Nats cool off we will have a tough time catching them. It seems more likely right now that we will be involved in the one game wildcard playoff. What pitcher does Atlanta send out for that game? Is it Tim Hudson by default, do we go with a hot hand at that particular time, or maybe we have a pitcher that has matched up well against the opposing lineup and he goes in there?

 

http://espn.go.com/blog/sweetspot/post/_/id/28017/tim-hudson-remains-underrated-star

 

Medlen is a machine. Tommy Hanson has a lot of pressure to be a better pitcher than he's been this season. If he can't get that fastball velocity back up to where it needs to be he'll be in trouble.

 

I have a bad feeling we may never see the "old" Tommy Hanson again. I think between his violent delivery and that shoulder injury he might not ever get back that fastball velocity. I hope I'm wrong though.

 

Yeah I fear that as well. His stuff hasn't really been good for a while and even when he has a 'good' outing he's laboring to get guys out. I can't remember the last time I saw him eat up some innings without raising his pitch count. It's very concerning for a guy that we hoped would be an ace for us.

 

I feel like this series will determine whether we have any real shot at the division. It may be slightly premature to say that but I believe they only have one series with the Nats left after this one.

 

These numbers are from before the eight shutout innings Medlen pitched last night.

http://espn.go.com/blog/tmi-mlb/post/_/id/49890/medlen-controlling-lefties-with-changeup

 

Kris Medlen is a beast.

 

We now know who's going to get us past the one game wild card playoff and into the division series. All he does is win. I could see him being a legit Cy Young candidate next season.

 

If he started more games this year he probably would have a good chance to win it in 2012. He's been unreal.

 

If the Braves get past the first game against the second WC team, they will be a pretty dangerous team with Medlen in the rotation and Mike Minor suddenly pitching well.

 

Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez said his team would send either Kris Medlen or Tim Hudson in the one-game wild card round of the playoffs.
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would be hard to pass up on Medlen.

 

You go Medlen. Easy choice.