Another Year of Hope
The smell of grass is the scent of the spring. The days of hot dogs, sunflower seeds and beer is upon us. Baseball bats and gloves being broke in, uniforms getting dirty, and so it begins. Spring training is now over and the regular season for baseball has begun. It has been a few years since the glory years of the Atlanta Braves, but like every year, this could be the year. With a group of new durable pitchers, mixed with a lineup that consists of plenty of young talent and a couple proven veterans, there is no saying at how well, or awful this team will do. It has been a few years since the glory days of the Braves winning division title after division title, 14 to be exact, but this may be the year it all comes together.
The offseason proved successful with a pair of work horse right handers in Derek Lowe and Javier Vasquez. Nothing better than having two guys who consistently put up 200+ innings a season to help keep a bullpen fresh. Even with the performances in their first appearence, you can tell
Derek Lowe introduced as the newest Braves pitcher.
that the signings re just what the braves needed. Coming off an impressive opening day win over the defending world Champion Phillies, nothing excited me more than watching D-Lowe toss a 1 run 2 hit gem to get the nod over the Phills. Next day Jurrjens starts what will be a season that proves to have no sophmore slump by shutting out the Phillies high powered offense. Vasquez took the bump the next day, and although they lost the game late due to bullpen issues, he pitched another gem. There is nothing more exciting then having good pitching to take your season deep into October. Mix in the pitching of Kawakami, who has had good reviews out of Spring Training especially with the type of control has with his pitches, and a healthy Tom Glavine, and you have what could be a great staff to lead the team into a postseason run. Don’t forget about one Timmy Hudson who will be back hopefully in August, just enough time to provide an extra pitcher when the team just might need it the most. The only concern I have is going to obviously be with the bullpen. They have the back end of the bullpen set to go with Rafael Soriano setting up closer Mike Gonzalez, but with the exception of Peter Moylan and Jorge Campillo, I don’t not have full faith in the middle relief guys. Good thing about baseball is that there is always a guy who can sep into the 7th inning role, or always a guy who is on the trading block. Time will prove how well this bullpen does in the latter part of the year, but if we get even one guy to step up his game, watch out. Although, the best case scenario would be for the work horses we signed in the offseason to go deep into games and take the pressure off the pen. The Braves, for the first time in a long time, have not only a rotation filled with talented pitchers, but one that has proven healthy pitchers. This is the recipe of success the Braves used to win so many division titles in the 90’s and early part of this decade.
Another integral part of the offseason, came with a mixture of veteran and young sticks that should help the lineup. While we went out and got Garret Anderson, we took the farm route to find the starting centerfielder for the team. I was quite pleased to see the team go with the battle it out mentality to find their guy. While i had expected Josh Anderson to win the job, I was quite pleased to see how quickly 5 tool CF Jordan Schaffer adjusted to the majors and won the role. Gregor Blanco had a decent spring, but he 2 HR’s that Schaffer has already provided seems to justify the
Will Jones be able to lead the team back to the postseason?
decision to give him the starting nod. Mix the new weapons with the proven sticks of Chipper Jones and Brian Mcann, and the Braves lineup seems like it can do some damage. Casey Kotchman gets a full year with the team, and a rejuvenated Jeff Francour and this is a team that can drive in a lot of runs. Yunel Escobar and Kelly Johnson should keep up the on base percentage and provide plenty of RBI opportunities for the meat of the order. In a division that contains the defending World Champions Phillies, and the team that most are picking to represent the National League this year in the Mets, he Braves have their work cut out for them to make this year a successful one. All eyes will be on Chipper Jones to see if he can be the leader of the team. The only guy left who was a part of the bulk of the successful years where division titles were expected. It has already shown as word has come out that he has already held a team meeting in which he told the guys what is expected of them when they put on their Atlanta Braves uniform. If he can control the locker room and keep the younger guys motivated, the veteran pitching staff should be fine with Tom Glavine keeping those guys mentally strong. With a team that always had a bunch of veterans to look up too, Jones is the one guy I feel needs to hold the team together and keep them going. There is no room for falter in this division, as we found out last year, and if you fall behind early, it will be very tough to climb out of that hole. Even a young team like the Marlins proved last year that they are around to compete, no matter how little their list of big names may be. It will be an interesting year of baseball this season and I look forward to all the excitement the season always brings. This is the year that the Braves come back to where they belong, atop the standings of the NL East. Sound off if you feel otherwise.