Braves

[msstate7]

Finally lose to Nats this year. Jordan Zimmerman was good, but the braves offense was lousy. Zimmerman had over 40 pitches after 2 innings and ended up pitching 8 complete. On to tomorrow...

[War Machine Dawg]

Gotta give Zim a lot of credit for putting it together after the first 2 innings. He made us look bad. BJ HAS to figure it out soon. We can't bench him, but he's a black hole right now. It'll be interesting to see what happens when J-Hey comes back if he still isn't producing. We might continue to see a lot of Schafer.

Maholm was pretty sharp tonight, but a walk and one hanger cost him. As a certain old coach used to say "that's baseball." It was good to see him bounce back from the rough outing in Detroit, regardless.

We weren't going to keep sweeping every division series, especially against the Nats. They're too good for that. Still, if we win tomorrow and take 3 of 4, we extend our lead by 3 games. I'll take that any day of the week. We just gotta make sure we bury the Marlins & Mets every time we play them. No slip-ups against the bottom of the division goes a long way.

[msstate7]

I like medlen vs haren tomorrow. I really don't like putting bj and uggla back-to-back in lineup either. No one was good at plate tonight, but those two were just horrible. We'll get em tomorrow

[FISHDAWG]

spot-on .... I loved the way Maholm bounced back and pitched a dandy .... I guess that is the price you pay when you load up the line up with HR type hitters ... gonna have a few more shut-outs than you would with base hitters but it seems to be working so far ... can it continue is the question

[dickiedawg]

BJ HAS to figure it out soon. We can't bench him, but he's a black hole right now.

**Racist.

[War Machine Dawg]

I think it can continue, Fish. As I've said before, we're plenty capable of manufacturing runs. This team has a lot of speed. The two slowest starters are probably Mac & Freddie. Francisco is pretty slow, too. But everyone else has at least average to above average speed. We can play some small ball and scratch out close games.

What we really need is someone other than Schafer to solidify the leadoff spot. Andrelton is starting to swing it a little better, so maybe he's the answer there. BJ is capable, but he's been awful so far. I'd love to see Pastornicky get a shot, but unless by some miracle we can move Uggla, that isn't happening. We gotta have guys at the top of the lineup get on base. I know that sounds overly simple, but it's true. More baserunners means more chances to score, higher opposing pitcher pitch counts, and an opportunity to get into the other teams 'pen earlier.

Like I said above, if BJ doesn't start hitting soon, it'll be really interesting to see what happens when J-Hey comes back. We won't bench him long term, but I wouldn't be surprised at all to see Schafer get some regular PT in CF. He's been great so far. Fredi has to see what we see there. The question is does he have the guts to possibly platoon BJ for a while and let Schafer keep playing?

[msstate7]

I think it can continue, Fish. As I've said before, we're plenty capable of manufacturing runs. This team has a lot of speed. The two slowest starters are probably Mac & Freddie. Francisco is pretty slow, too. But everyone else has at least average to above average speed. We can play some small ball and scratch out close games.

What we really need is someone other than Schafer to solidify the leadoff spot. Andrelton is starting to swing it a little better, so maybe he's the answer there. BJ is capable, but he's been awful so far. I'd love to see Pastornicky get a shot, but unless by some miracle we can move Uggla, that isn't happening. We gotta have guys at the top of the lineup get on base. I know that sounds overly simple, but it's true. More baserunners means more chances to score, higher opposing pitcher pitch counts, and an opportunity to get into the other teams 'pen earlier.

Like I said above, if BJ doesn't start hitting soon, it'll be really interesting to see what happens when J-Hey comes back. We won't bench him long term, but I wouldn't be surprised at all to see Schafer get some regular PT in CF. He's been great so far. Fredi has to see what we see there. The question is does he have the guts to possibly platoon BJ for a while and let Schafer keep playing?

I'm really concerned that we signed bj long term. Uggla and bj's contracts are really quite ugly if you're a braves fan.

[FISHDAWG]

I have always believed in going with the hot hand ... that would include Schafer and exclude Uggla .... Uggla didn't come around at all last year and only had a decent half season the year before that... time to sit him, as for BJ Upton- yeah give him a little while longer but not half a season

[War Machine Dawg]

7, I agree. As I've said 18 million times, I hated the Uggla trade then and I really ****ing hate it now. Honestly, I'm more done with him than I was with French. And I was DONE with French. Uggla's contract is so bad I don't know if we'll ever be able to move him. We just gotta hope he gets hot and we can sucker some team into taking him. As for BJ, I'm not concerned yet. His track record speaks for itself. And it's not unusual at all for a guy to have a bad Year 1 with a new team after signing a big contract. I'll say this: He's been hitting the ball hard lately. Just lots of "at 'em" balls. If he keeps hitting it hard, that has to change at some point. So I at least see some reason for hope with BJ. Plus, unlike Uggla, he plays great D and has speed, so he has value besides HRs.

Fish, I'm with you on the hot hand. Schafer is proving he's ready to play and be a legit #1 hitter. As for Uggla, we're paying him too much to bench him. It sucks, but that's the reality of pro baseball. Guys with big contracts play, no matter how awful they are. See Soriano in Chicago. They'd love to bench the guy, but won't. We're in the same quandry with Uggla. Thankfully, he hasn't been awful as long as Soriano, so if by some miracle he gets hot, we *might* be able to flip him. We won't get much, but I'd consider a box of balls an upgrade. Unfortunately, I'm not the GM.