BigD4VT

There was going to be a 7 on 7 today at Richlands but it's been cancelled due to the weather.

A bit of a shakeup for the Braves today. First they called up LHP Alex Wood from AA and designated 3B Juan Francisco for assignment. This means they are back to a seven man bullpen and Chris Johnson is FINALLY the full-time third baseman. Francisco will likely be traded (hopefully for another reliever). They also made a decision to hold Heyward, Bupton, and Uggla out of tonight's lineup. Those three (and Francisco) aren't hitting. Gattis, Schafer, C. Johnson, and Pena are and should be in the lineup as much as possible until they stop, or the other guys start. It looks me to like Fredi Gonzalez just got told what to do.

BJ will come around. He's had streaks like this before, although maybe not this long and at the beginning of the year, but they say he's always been streaky. Personally I think Schafer should play CF as much as possible until BJ does come around. He looks like he's finally becoming the player Atlanta once thought he would be.

He hit a grand slam yesterday giving him 3 HR and 7 RBI in his last 6 AB's. As for where to play him... He's hitting .143 as an outfielder and .274 as a catcher.

He stopped for some iPhone photography.

The following is a tweet from legendary Sports Illustrated photographer Bill Frakes. I'm sure most of you have never heard of him but he's one of the elite sports photographers in the world. Just thought it was kind of cool that he passed through our area.

No place to put him full time. It's a tough situation. The three positions he can play are filled by your 3, 4, 5 hitters. As good as Gattis has been it would still be hard to justify letting him share time with any of those three. He should be catching once a week but since they want Laird catching Teheran it's not going to happen. So at this point he's a RH pinch hitter and IMO would be better off playing every day in AAA.

Very young.

It just keeps getting worse for the best bullpen in baseball. Eric O'Flaherty was placed on the disable list today and the MRI shows a tear in his UCL which could mean Tommy John surgery. They won't know for sure until he meets with Dr. Andrews next week. On top of that Jordan Walden went on the DL yesterday and there is no timetable for the return of Ayala and Martinez. That makes a total of five Braves relievers on the DL. If it's determined that O'Flaherty does need surgery they will probably have to make a trade. I also expect Medlin to move back to the pen when Beachy returns next month.

I hope not. There have been a few guys that came back after having Tommy John twice.

Richlands 6 Marion 5

McCann will be back in the lineup tonight. Gattis (who's 2nd on the team in seven offensive categories) will probably play LF (J. Upton moving to RF) until Heyward comes back. Then he will be relegated to backup and pinch hit duties.

Today's (Tuesday) starting lineup: 1. SS: Andrelton Simmons 2. 3B: Chris Johnson 3. LF: Justin Upton 4. 1B: Freddie Freeman 5. C: Evan Gattis 6. 2B: Dan Uggla 7. CF: B.J. Upton 8. RF: Reed Johnson 9. SP: Tim Hudson

Braves get swept by Detroit and the guy they traded for Uggla (Omar Infante) did most of the damage.

Fredi must have heard me when I said bat Uggla 2nd... but then he struck out four times so forget I said it. Bat Chris Johnson 2nd instead. I makes no sense to have the MLB batting leader batting 5th or 6th with nobody on base. Bat him 2nd so the MLB HR leader can have someone on base when he comes up. I like Fredi but he sucks at making lineups. Do this... Simmons C. Johnson J. Upton Freeman Gattis B. Upton R. Johnson Uggla

Heyward is and his .121 batting average are getting the day off. I think they need to get him out of the #2 spot and use Uggla there (when he comes back from his injury). He's a high walk guy which would put somebody on base for J. Upton (most of his HR's have been solo) and Uggla has performed better in the #2 spot than anywhere else in the lineup during his career. I think Heyward is better suited to bat lower in the lineup where he can drive in runs. I think Fredi like to have speed at the top, and Heyward has it, but speed don't mean much with Atlanta's wall banging A.L style lineup.

A guy like Teheran could be valuable as a long reliever in September. Someone like Varvaro or Martinez will be cut before any one of the starters.

If Teheran pitches well enough to stay in the rotation until Beachy returns he won't be sent down then. A 6-man rotation IS a likely option for a couple of weeks while they see how Beachy does and decide which five they want to take into September. The odd man out (probably Teheran) will go to the bullpen. Luckily Fredi isn't afraid to makes moves that "no sane manager would make" such as batting a rookie 4th and using a 6-man rotation, as he did last August.

In my opinion McCann just got Wally Pipp'd. Sure they will give Gattis some time at 1B and LF but how many days off do you want to give Freeman and J. Upton? It sounds crazy but getting Gattis AB's will take priority over getting McCann AB's.

He should be getting close. He probably will have a rehab stint but I doubt it will be more than a week. The maximum allowed is 20 days.

From Buster Olney... "Strasburg on Gattis: “I threw one at his neck, and he tomahawks it out. You don’t really face a guy like that ever."

The plan coming out of spring training was to keep him as a backup OF, 3rd catcher, and pinch hitter, but the way he's swinging the bat I don't think they can keep him out of the lineup. And I'm not just talking about the first week and a half of this season... He hasn't let up since the Braves signed him. For those who don't know, he gave up baseball after high school then decided to give it another try six years later. The Braves signed him and he's been on a tear ever since. He has the potential to hit .300 with 40 HR's at the major league level. McCann is a great player but in my opinion experience is the only thing he has over Gattis.

It will be interesting to see what happens when McCann comes back. It's going to be hard to keep Evan Gattis out of the lineup.

I haven't seen the football points scale, I don't think it's been released yet, but the non-football scale has no penalty for playing schools in a smaller class. 7 points for each win regardless of class. Zero points for each loss in the same class or lower, and one point for each loss one class higher, two for two classes higher, etc. I don't know what the football scale will be but I assume it will operate on the same principal

This really isn't rocket science... Conferences can't serve the purpose you suggest because they serve an entirely different purpose. A conference has NOTHING to do with the regular season. A district has NOTHING to do with the post-season. Districts are based more on travel and less on school size. Conferences are based more on school size and less on travel. The purpose of having schools of mixed size in the same district is so schools like Abingdon won't have to play half their regular season games in Roanoke. A conference is just a TOURNAMENT! That's all it is! It replaces both the district and region tournaments (although district tournaments can still be held they will be for bragging rights only). The ONLY purpose is to determine who moves on in the post-season. Graham and Grundy didn't ask to be placed in a district with Richlands, Tazewell, and Lebanon, or to be placed in any district other than the one they are in. Marion asked to be placed in the HOGO instead of the SWD. That was "New district 2" until VHS asked to be placed in the SWD instead. Your proposal leaves out Abingdon and defeats the purpose of mixed districts... which is to address travel concerns.