***THE Official Atlanta (chop chop) Braves (chop chop) 2013 Thread *********

I think it cost them the series, they hold on there they go to game 5 with a lot of confidence from beating the Dodgers ace and knowing they've beaten Greinke once already. And all Freddi had to say about it afterwards was "Carpenter was good all year it was the right situation" or something to that effect. They have a closer who is dominant and has missed bats at a historic rate and they don't bring him in. It's mind boggling. It's as if he didn't know that was an elimination game.

 

I mentioned earlier something about the Braves making the playoffs and being blasse' about the whole thing, stuff like this M979, there is just no intensity

 

I think he needs to realize that the postseason isn't the regular season. Why even have a guy like Kimbrel on the roster if you're not going to ride him to postseason success? A lead going into the eighth should = game over. They didn't lose the NLDS because of the slow September. The Dodgers were even worse in September. I see the Nats getting their act together and the division getting a lot tougher next season. It will not be as easy to take the East in 2014. Baseball season is a grind and these NLDS opportunities aren't guaranteed for anybody as the 2013 Nats I'm sure would happily tell you.

 

Andrelton Simmons wins a Gold Glove [no surprise there...]. Also voted as the best defender overall by the ESPN people.

http://espn.go.com/blog/sweetspot/p...-2013-andrelton-simmons?ex_cid=espnapi_public

Who was the Defensive Player of the Year in 2013?

 

Braves are leaving the Ted in 2017 for a new stadium in Cobb county. Apparently they're going to demolish Turner Field afterwards. Crazy considering the place was only built less than two decades ago.

 

Never been to Turner Field but is it nice? It doesn't seem like anything special on TV when you compare it to other stadiums built around the same time.

 

It's much nicer then what it looks like on TV IMO. But I've had a small sample size of pro stadiums to compare it to.

 

Yeah, I wasn't trying to knock the park by any means but on TV it just looks like a regular baseball park, nothing really stands out with it.

 

That's probably a fair assessment. I've been to the Ted many times. It is IMO a nice ballpark but fairly run of the mill. Outside of the big Chick-Fil-A cow and the Coca Cola bottle it doesn't really have any signature features. The location isn't great which is probably the main reason for this upcoming move. It's a shame something else can't be done with it. Twenty years is a short life for a stadium that hosted the Olympics. The only other ballparks I've been to for comparison are Nationals Park and Orioles Park. Nationals Park is similar to the Ted in that it's a nice park but nothing really stands out about it to me. I really like Orioles park, to me it has a lot of character.

 

Thanks for the info. Nationals Park is another one I was surprised at how little character it has, especially since it's even newer then Turner Field. Hopefully the next Braves park is "nicer".

 

Huddy signed with the Giants. Very disappointing. It shouldn't have been very difficult for Wren to keep him in Atlanta.

Edit: After reading what the Giants are paying him it's not that surprising he's gone. $23M in two years. He only made $36M in his last four years in Atlanta.

 

Yep, we have a hole in the rotation now, though I do think we can plug it with all of time Huddy missed last season.

Also have to think the Upton's will have better yrs

 

I miss the old Launching Pad at Fulton County Stadium tbh

 

Nice article if you want to read a little about the amazing careers of Glavine and Maddux.

http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/10227380/put-greg-maddux-tom-glavine-hall-fame-together

 

http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/10259259/greg-maddux-unanimous-hall-selection

You knew there'd be at least one idiot. The suggestion that Maddux may have used PEDs because his career included a certain timeframe is asinine. He wasn't even a power pitcher for crying out loud. If one voter just said, "Nobody should get 100 percent so I didn't vote for him" I could almost get behind that. This reason is idiotic.

 

It is idiotic and he should have his voting rights revoked. Though I disagree about the 100% thing. For some people...they deserve it.

 

The problem with his "argument" is that he fails to recognize that Morris pitched in the PED era himself. So he's basically a hypocrite. Also failing to recognize that we don't know who was on what and when (anabolic steroids were first introduced in the 1930s) plus everyone in the 60 to mid 2000s were on greenies. Also more than half of Morris "wins" came after 1986 (Jose Canseco's rookie year).

Whatever, the best thing that came from this is Gurnick said he won't ever vote on the HOF again. Which is great because this has nothing to do with Maddux or the HOF or even Morris, this is clearly a "oh hey look at me my name is Ken Gurnick". This is the main problem I have with the these types of voting because you're always going to get a few voters who want to make it about them and not the player.

At the end of the day though who cares if a player gets 100% of the votes. All that matters is if he gets in or not.

 

Amen. It turns out there were 16 people who didn't vote for Greg Maddux. I'd love to know how someone sits down and says, "Greg Maddux? Naah, he's not a Hall of Famer." It's great that Glavine's going in with him.

 

One of the arguments I've heard is that because there were so many legit HOF players on the ballot that some writers figured Maddux was a lock anyway so they voted for others instead. Not sure if or how true it is but it would at least make sense and really the only defensible logic.

 

Apparently you shouldn't have.

http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/1...ny-la-russa-enshrined-hall-fame-logos-plaques

He made his career what it was in Atlanta. It's not as if he was there 2 or 3 years. I wonder if Pedro Martinez will be unable to choose his HOF team because he loved the Expos so much. This is mind boggling, he's disrespecting Glavine and Smoltz by not going in with them as Braves. [Smoltz later of course]

 

http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/10403089/freddie-freeman-atlanta-braves-agree-contract-extension

Jason Heyward got a two year deal with a lot of incentives for him if he can stay healthy.

 

It seems like they're pretty concerned that JHey can't stay healthy. If he explodes over the next two seasons and realizes his potential it could be tougher [and more expensive] to lock him up long term than it would be now. They must really be concerned that he can't stay on the field. It's a little bit of a gamble but he is a Georgia guy so they'll have that working for them in future contract negotiations.

Freeman is the best hitter on the team so it's smart to lock him up through his prime. I'm glad to see somebody who can actually hit getting paid in Atlanta for once.

 

In a way yes. Of course it would probably be easy to get a Kimbrel deal done if not for all the money tied up in Uggla and B.J. Upton.

 

Hmm, I like Freeman more then the stats guys tended to like his game, just think this is a big risk on him.

No surprise with JHey, all the talent in the world, has to keep it out on the field

 

Agreed especially how giving 1B big money contracts historically haven't worked out so well. Freeman strikes me as the type of player that you'd want to go year by year with or at least see if he could duplicate his 2013 season first. I guess we'll see though.

 

It's an investment but this isn't exactly the Mark Texeira deal here. In the end it's just them locking up a player who they think will be pretty good and who is a fan favorite. With Chipper retired and McCann and Hudson moving on they felt they needed to lock up someone like Freeman.

 

Stats guys are too hung up on the balls in play average from last season. When you watch him play every day you can see he's a good hitter and probably a player on the rise. I'm not saying his average won't possibly drop a bit this season but he's going to continue to have good offensive production.

 

The Braves obviously think he's going to continue to improve. It's not a terrible deal by any means but I would have just gone another year or so to see if the 2013 was the real Freeman or not.

 

McCann's getting old [for catchers] and they knew the Yankees would overpay for him. Maybe they try to get in the mix if Gattis isn't on the roster and they don't have a good prospect coming up.

 

They were possibly afraid that if he proved last season was the real Freddie Freeman he'd become too expensive for them to sign long term. I imagine Wren felt it was in their best interest to take a little leap of faith now rather than wait.

 

I'd take that risk. Worst case is Freeman refuses to sign an extension and the Braves let him walk after 2017 when he's 27.