Because it's impossible to know what the playoffs hold. I'm one of those who believe that the baseball postseason is a series of coin flips. I know that's not what any fan wants to hear, but I keep thinking the Braves are overdue to get lucky in October.
I don't think Heyward is an ideal leadoff hitter, but no Brave is. And I do think he has the plate discipline to get on base, which is the point of being a leadoff hitter. He walked his first three times up yesterday against Clay Buchholz. Then again, Buchholz pretty much walked the ballpark.
Ben Reiter of SI.com quoted an unnamed scout at the end of April saying Heyward has a hole -- against hard stuff inside -- in his swing. The same scout said that Heyward will still hit the ball a long way if he can extend his arms to hit a pitch over the plate. But he has only three home runs this year, and his slugging percentage is .326, or 101 percentage points down from last year.
Can't see the Braves trading any young pitcher, for this reason: Santana, Harang and Floyd are all on one-year contracts. There's no guarantee Medlen or Beachy will ever make it back as starting pitchers. They're going to need Minor and Wood and probably Hale just to fill out a rotation for next season and beyond.
I'm sure they'd be willing to listen to anything at this point, Mark, and that's the position in need of most help. Just not sure there's a match to be made involving Uggla. I think the Braves are going to have to eat the remaining years of that contract sooner or later.
Hope that helps, Ray. Not sure it did, though.
The rain delay did the Braves no favors. They surely would have brought Alex Wood -- the other lefty reliever -- back to start the seventh, but you really don't want to have a young pitcher go back into a game after not throwing a pitch for 90 minutes. That said, the Braves had to know the rain was coming. They have radar and computers and TVs and stuff. Also it was getting really dark.
We asked the same. Never got a great answer. I know Fredi was reluctant to bring a different lefty reliever in to face Ortiz -- had he done so, he'd have been out of lefty relievers -- but I think the big move was in using Thomas to start the inning with the game tied, as opposed to Avilan.
Hello. It's Mark Bradley, here to entertain Braves-related questions and perhaps even answer one or two.
That's all for now folks. Heading to the stadium soon. Thanks.
@SLC10: I tend to agree on Pastornicky and Pena but I don't see Wren investing heavily in 2B.
@CraZy: Yes. I've got huge biceps.
@BooBooBear: Football. Also relatively isolated situation.
@DubyaCubed: Agree that city dropped the ball not developing around Turner Field.
@Hugo: Yes but not sure how long term it is off hand.
@ChipperJoneswannabe: No.
@BatMasterson: Haha. ... on Twitter ... lately ... yes.
@Loren: Certainly better than Gwinnett merely because of population/traffic around 285/75. But not sure it will be smashing success they project.
@ChipperJoneswannabe: He's probably next option.
@Jeremy: As far as starters go: anybody but Teheran.
I'll take a few more folks.
@Google: At least Frank Wren never signed Damian Rhodes to be his backstop.
@wanderboyd: Correct -- when Braves considering keeping him Boras/Bourne were asking for the moon. His price only came down later.
@Robert: If there is a lingering health issue, it's a secret.
