There's a lot of frustration. And deservedly so. This team should not be under .500. Not with this pitching.
You mean in moving to Cobb County?
I don't think Pastornicky is a big-league starter. I think the competition will be among Gosselin, La Stella and Peraza.
I think Gattis needs to be traded because he won't really have a position here and could bring something useful in return. He's a good hitter, yes. If the Braves were in the American League, there'd be no thought of dealing him.
That was Santana. And he spoke the truth. Look at last night. Another 1-0 loss.
I doubt it. He might be a trade chip.
I think scouts look at both pitchers and position players. Double duty.
No. That's not his job. Or wasn't his job.
Heyward is an intriguing case. He's a great defender. He's a great baserunner. He's a good guy. He plays really hard. He's only an OK hitter, though, and more and more baseball people are doubting that he'll ever be much more than that because of his swing. It's hard to know what his real value is -- and will be.
Well, yes. They're not next-to-last in runs for nothing.
I'm puzzled by how fast the Braves seemed to sour on La Stella. Not sure what that's about.
Other teams pursued Upton. Wren was the guy who signed him for $75 million, though.
Not to my knowledge. He's making $14.5 million this year.
There was a little Jedi/Yoda in it.
Go back and look at some of the sabermetric estimates of what B.J. would get as a free agent. They were right around $75 million over five years. Dan Szymborski, who's the go-to guy on such matters, has told me he had no problem with Upton's contract. The problem has been the subsequent performance. Nobody could have foreseen that he'd get this much worse at age 28.
Bethancourt. That has to happen.
I understand the frustration. But I'll say this: When a baseball team can't score, there can be no enthusiasm. Nobody celebrates grounding into a DP.
I assume he continues to play B.J. because he believes he has nobody better. Which could be true. The bench on this team was terrible.
