Life is fragile. Things go great and then *poof* you get hit by something that is a wake up call to how fragile this life is that God gave us.
A few days ago a true leader at Central learned that he had cancerous cells in his stomach. This is somebody who has really taken me under his wing and has gone out of his way to see that I am taken care of. Jenny and I really appreciate everything he has done for us. For purposes of privacy, I won't mention his name yet, although I assure you the announcement will be made to the congregation soon.
We aren't invincible. Life is fragile. My prayers go out to the family of ____________.
Friday, January 26, 2007
Friday, January 19, 2007
Making sense out of things...
It has been a weird winter for Braves fans. Typically the Braves don't make too many moves other than picking up an occasional mediocre player. However this off season is quite different. Many moves have been made. In less than a year the Braves have gone from having the worst bullpen to (arguably) the best bullpen in the NL (perhaps even majors?). However, what is crazier than that is this...I'm not convinced that is a good thing.
Don't get me wrong, man-for-man, I felt like most of the trades have gone our way, we completely ripped off the Mariners and the Pirates were a bit too high on LaRoche in my opinion. I'll ignore the fact that we payed a wii(sorry, nintendo fans) bit too much money on Wickman and that we are giving Mr. Sturtze acknowledgment that he is wanted.
Here's the big issue, What good does it do to have an awesome bullpen, if that is the only part of your team that is awesome? I'm sure that I don't need to address the Starting Rotation. But I'm sure most of you are probably thinking, "Wait a minute, our offense is legit!"
Here's the thing, Our offense was legit....last season. But lets put things into perspective. LaRoche and Giles our gone. Renteria's second half was more true to form for him than his first half of 2006. The Left field spot will most likely be platooned once again (more on that later). The other corner outfield spot is manned by Jeff Fruitcake, who led the league in sending their team into commercial breaks. So it seems to me that our offense will be led by Chipper, Andruw, and McCann. We shouldn't expect more than 100 games from Chipper. McCann is good however I'd be more comfortable if he didn't have to play hurt all the time(give him a rest, Bobby!). Andruw is of course, Andruw.
Another reason why our offense was legit last year was the fact that the Braves had arguably the best bench player, in Wilson Betemit. Aybar similar to Betemit in a lot of ways however he is clearly a step down.
In order for our offense to be legit this year, somebody is going to have to breakout. Many people think that person will be Kelly Johnson. I'd rather not see him at secondbase but that probably is going to be what happens. Our infield is a defensive nightmare even without him. Think about it, there is a reason he moved from shortstop to outfield a few years ago. I'd put Aybar there if it was my call. If Kelly Johnson is going to breakout then let him do so in leftfield.
That brings us back to the original question...why have an awesome bullpen if that is the only awesome part of your team? I don't think there is a team that can beat us in the 7, 8, and 9th. But that doesn't matter because we'll get hammered in innings 1-6. We will struggle to match the runs that our opponents are putting up against our Starters 2-5.
So what do we do now? I view Mike Gonzalez as trade bait. Several other teams expressed interest in him this offseason. Plus right now, it looks like we will be platooning 3 different positions. Langerhans and Diaz in left, Prado and Aybar at second (Kelly Johnson will be in the middle of both of those platoons) and Thorman will platoon with newly acquired Craig Wilson.
Gonzalez could be used to address one of those positions. Or, he could be used for a starting pitching prospect. I struggle seeing the chemistry of this bullpen working. Wickman is paid the most and has the most closing experience, however Gonzalez is better when healthy. But Wickman would never be a set up guy (I suppose) at 6+ million. When Soriano was acquired he was immediately tacked with the label of "Braves Closer for 2008". I'm not so sure what will happen but history has told us what happens when you have 3 potential closers in your bullpen...they all go their own ways. This is mostly thinking for the future though...in 2007, should these three stay in our pen, they'll be good.
Sorry if all of this seems unorganized and random. That's just the way my mind works. I like the trades that JS made, it's just a matter of our Starting Pitching being able to give our bullpen a chance (instead of the other way around). If nothing happens with Gonzalez, I'll still be happy, with this solid bullpen, provided that we consistently don't go into the eighth inning down 5 runs.
Don't get me wrong, man-for-man, I felt like most of the trades have gone our way, we completely ripped off the Mariners and the Pirates were a bit too high on LaRoche in my opinion. I'll ignore the fact that we payed a wii(sorry, nintendo fans) bit too much money on Wickman and that we are giving Mr. Sturtze acknowledgment that he is wanted.
Here's the big issue, What good does it do to have an awesome bullpen, if that is the only part of your team that is awesome? I'm sure that I don't need to address the Starting Rotation. But I'm sure most of you are probably thinking, "Wait a minute, our offense is legit!"
Here's the thing, Our offense was legit....last season. But lets put things into perspective. LaRoche and Giles our gone. Renteria's second half was more true to form for him than his first half of 2006. The Left field spot will most likely be platooned once again (more on that later). The other corner outfield spot is manned by Jeff Fruitcake, who led the league in sending their team into commercial breaks. So it seems to me that our offense will be led by Chipper, Andruw, and McCann. We shouldn't expect more than 100 games from Chipper. McCann is good however I'd be more comfortable if he didn't have to play hurt all the time(give him a rest, Bobby!). Andruw is of course, Andruw.
Another reason why our offense was legit last year was the fact that the Braves had arguably the best bench player, in Wilson Betemit. Aybar similar to Betemit in a lot of ways however he is clearly a step down.
In order for our offense to be legit this year, somebody is going to have to breakout. Many people think that person will be Kelly Johnson. I'd rather not see him at secondbase but that probably is going to be what happens. Our infield is a defensive nightmare even without him. Think about it, there is a reason he moved from shortstop to outfield a few years ago. I'd put Aybar there if it was my call. If Kelly Johnson is going to breakout then let him do so in leftfield.
That brings us back to the original question...why have an awesome bullpen if that is the only awesome part of your team? I don't think there is a team that can beat us in the 7, 8, and 9th. But that doesn't matter because we'll get hammered in innings 1-6. We will struggle to match the runs that our opponents are putting up against our Starters 2-5.
So what do we do now? I view Mike Gonzalez as trade bait. Several other teams expressed interest in him this offseason. Plus right now, it looks like we will be platooning 3 different positions. Langerhans and Diaz in left, Prado and Aybar at second (Kelly Johnson will be in the middle of both of those platoons) and Thorman will platoon with newly acquired Craig Wilson.
Gonzalez could be used to address one of those positions. Or, he could be used for a starting pitching prospect. I struggle seeing the chemistry of this bullpen working. Wickman is paid the most and has the most closing experience, however Gonzalez is better when healthy. But Wickman would never be a set up guy (I suppose) at 6+ million. When Soriano was acquired he was immediately tacked with the label of "Braves Closer for 2008". I'm not so sure what will happen but history has told us what happens when you have 3 potential closers in your bullpen...they all go their own ways. This is mostly thinking for the future though...in 2007, should these three stay in our pen, they'll be good.
Sorry if all of this seems unorganized and random. That's just the way my mind works. I like the trades that JS made, it's just a matter of our Starting Pitching being able to give our bullpen a chance (instead of the other way around). If nothing happens with Gonzalez, I'll still be happy, with this solid bullpen, provided that we consistently don't go into the eighth inning down 5 runs.
Monday, January 8, 2007
In the beginning...
Many of you may have thought I forgot about this. It was quite awhile ago when I first made public the idea of blogging once again. Well...you thought wrong. I have been in and out of town a lot and have had much time to think about the minor details involved.
To be honest, my 100% first choice was livejournal. I liked the idea of friends not having to create an account at my own blog, plus many people already have a livejournal. I even got as far as creating an account at livejournal. However, one specific thing forced me to switch to blogger...
After creating my account at livejournal, I began to edit my information. I typed in my Name, measurements, credit card #, and then attempted to submit a picture. Much to my surprise, the picture was too big. So I tried a second time....again, too big. I wanted to give it one more try. I resized the handsome looking picture of mine into a very small square and clicked enter and thats when livejournal told me....
wait for it...
wait for it...
The picture was too big! OK, perhaps that story was full of exaggeration but it annoyed me. Livejournal told me that the picture had to be 100 x 100. I didn't have a picture that size that looked extremely well. Resizing a few pictures made them look worse and I wasn't willing to submit those hideous looking pictures of my eyeballs.
So I created an account here at blogger and sure enough, they accepted the first picture I uploaded in its original size.
Thats how I got here. Sorry for those of you who suggested livejournal. As I said, that was my first choice, but I think the world wants to see more of me than my right eyeball.
To be honest, my 100% first choice was livejournal. I liked the idea of friends not having to create an account at my own blog, plus many people already have a livejournal. I even got as far as creating an account at livejournal. However, one specific thing forced me to switch to blogger...
After creating my account at livejournal, I began to edit my information. I typed in my Name, measurements, credit card #, and then attempted to submit a picture. Much to my surprise, the picture was too big. So I tried a second time....again, too big. I wanted to give it one more try. I resized the handsome looking picture of mine into a very small square and clicked enter and thats when livejournal told me....
wait for it...
wait for it...
The picture was too big! OK, perhaps that story was full of exaggeration but it annoyed me. Livejournal told me that the picture had to be 100 x 100. I didn't have a picture that size that looked extremely well. Resizing a few pictures made them look worse and I wasn't willing to submit those hideous looking pictures of my eyeballs.
So I created an account here at blogger and sure enough, they accepted the first picture I uploaded in its original size.
Thats how I got here. Sorry for those of you who suggested livejournal. As I said, that was my first choice, but I think the world wants to see more of me than my right eyeball.
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