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.
i dont think he's fast enough to play CF daily...BJ hit a HR yesterday though.
time for some Mets.
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.
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.
Bill Frakes @BillFrakes
Interesting drive today w/ @HealdLaura Passed through Fancy Gap. Saw Bland. Drove under Big Walker Mountain. Getting better all the time.
they really need Gattis in the line up full time...not that he did anything today, just saying.
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.
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.
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.
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...
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...
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.
I could see them using one of the guys as a middle man to try to keep the bullpen fresh in the 2nd half if everyone is doing well...but, I'd say someone will get sent packing rather than them cut a roster spot somewhere else...just my opinion...I dont see them carrying another starting pitcher.
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.
0.00% chance the Braves use a 6-man rotation. Starting pitching is arguably the most rhythm-based position in baseball, and potentially in all sports. Going from a 5-man rotation in July to a 6-man rotation in August would be a significant change, one that no sane manager would make.
Expect the weaker of the 2 to be reassigned in August, only to be recalled when the roster expands on September 1st.
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.
McCann is going to be an interesting situation...have to see what happens there. I don't think they should disrupt the line up as long as Gattis stays hot...once he cools off, and he will I think...then you make the move back to McCann and put Gattis in some sort of rotation...maybe use him to pinch hit for pitching changes and stuff like that when McCann plays just to keep a bat in his hand.
I dunno...going to be interesting, but its going to be hard to keep him off the field as long as he's hot.
Beachy is also on the mend and should be back before the break...be interesting to see what kinda stuff he's got after TJ surgery.
As far as the schedule goes, things look good short term, other than 4 games against the Pirates...going to be hard to sweep that one....then 4 more with the Nats to close out April...realistically I think we could be sitting at around 21-5 or so going in to May....that would be pretty amazing.
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.
McCann has had some injuries the past couple of years...I bet they put Gattis in rotation like i was saying in the other post....just to give him a break if nothing else.
The thing is, he's new and sometimes that is a borrowed time sort of thing...you can have a hot streak early on until someone picks apart film and finds your weak spot, and everyone has one, then the scouting reports make the rounds and you come back down to earth.
Be interesting to see how it plays out with him.
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.
The good thing is that it seems each and every night someone new is stepping up to the plate (no pun intended) and delivering. That bodes very well moving forward especially once, as Lance said, guys like Heyward and BJ start swinging the bat better and guys like Freeman and McCann get healthy.
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
Yes, I clearly don't get the point, because I'm only attacking the idiotic format for the same justification you're trying to uphold...
Since you'd argue with Steven Hawking over whether the Earth revolves around the sun, I'm assuredly wasting my time when I say this. But here goes, for what feels like the 17th time:
WHY COULDN'T CONFERENCES SERVE THOSE SAME PURPOSES?!?!
Intelligently designed, of course. I mean, it's not as if we're lumping Abingdon and Yorktown into the same conference (though putting Grayson and Grundy in the same conference is more than just basic idiocy). Like it's that much greater an inconvenience for Lebanon to drive the extra 22 minutes to play Graham.
Here's an idear:
Conference + District A:
Graham
Tazewell
Richlands
Lebanon
Grundy
Marion
Conference + District B:
J.S. Battle
Virginia
Gate City
Lee
Union
Central
Conference + District C:
Grayson
Floyd
Giles
Glenvar
James River
Martinsville
(I know this looks loopy, but the longest trip [Grayson - James River] is 2 hours...45 minutes less than that Grayson-Grundy trip the VHSL wants us to accept)
This should be abundantly clear by now, but again, give me one good reason why this couldn't suffice for (1) travel, (2) scheduling, and (3) playoff formats?
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.
Conference + District A:
Graham
Tazewell
Richlands
Lebanon
Grundy
Marion
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.
Conference + District B:
J.S. Battle
Virginia
Gate City
Lee
Union
Central
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.
.png.01bb665814ffc257795fe158cb2045c7.png.8a531ac878a82772b21014d7a6167582.png){kind=logo}
2013 Richlands Blue Tornado
in SWVA Football
Posted
There was going to be a 7 on 7 today at Richlands but it's been cancelled due to the weather.