Hottest Team in Baseball

The Braves are the hottest team in baseball. No one else has won their last four games. Tonight I took in my first game of the year. More on that tomorrow.

 

Adam LaRoche spends his free time rescuing underage sex slaves overseas, and the guys on 790 treat him like accused domestic violence offender / underperforming Braves outfielder Hector Olivera. The two shouldn’t be mentioned in the same sentence. Not that the Dodgers gained much on their side of the trade: none of the three players the Braves gave up has been productive either. As a whole, signing Cuban “superstars” has its downsides. Puig has alienated teammates in LA. He gets thrown out on the bases more than most, and often throws to the wrong base. Cespedes helped the Mets win the division (no great feat in the NL East) but is on his third team in three years.

 

LaRoche has a better outlook on life that most. Concerned more about character than money or grades. He was up front with team management about having his son in the locker room, but the White Sox weren’t up front with him. To pick a nit, his home school = sheltered comment was uninformed and off the mark, surprising when contrasted to the rest of his story. Former Brave Blaine Boyer, from East Cobb, was Adam’s sidekick in the sex slave rescue.

 

I was just thinking how I needed to admit that my spring training impression of Mallex Smith was probably wrong, as usual.

 

How does one buy the Braves stock? Can you buy them at Turner Field? I’ve got to get me one. Do you get the actual shares? Of course the AJC went out of their way on Facebook to report that the stock value dropped the first day. I think Facebook dropped after it came out as well.

 

See where the Friday July 1st game is Star Wars night? Schuerholz Jedi Master bobble and parade if you buy the special ticket. I’m in.

 

Won the raffle here at work for tonight’s tickets.

 

ROB ON THE BRAVES: I don't know if Aaron Blair has much left to prove in the minor leagues.  He will probably be the next new face you see up here.

 

It's good to see Rio Ruiz off to a good start in Gwinnett.  He will be 22 by next spring training.  If he keeps up the production in AAA, he should be the starting 3B at Suntrust Park.

 

It's also good to see Albies and Swanson tearing up AA and High-A respectively.  If they keep doing well, I could see the organization moving them both up a level by June 1 - or maybe leaving Albies at AA and moving Swanson up to AAA. Service time aside, I would like to see all of these guys up in September.

 

ME: Just noticed an article in the Sports Illustrated Masters preview noted their 20 favorites to win the Masters. In descending order: 20 Vaughn Taylor, 19 eventual winner Danny Willett, 18 Henrik Stenson, 17 my guy Kevin Na, 16 Patrick Reed, 15 Justin Thomas, 14 Brooks Keopka, 13 Brandt Snedeker, 12 Charl Schwartzel, 11 Louis Oosthuisen, 10 Bubba Watson, 9 Adam Scott, 8 Dufner, 7 Bryson DeChambeau, 6 Jason Day, 5 Phil Mickelson, 4 Dustin Johnson, 3 Jordan Spieth, 2 Ricky Fowler, and 1 Rory McIlroy.

 

Sales meeting Friday. I helped pick the menu – your favorite BBQ. After going to all that trouble I was thinking about going in and not eating, just so they’d get on to me. Yesterday when things were busy I was thinking I’d go in to the meeting and pile a huge mountain of BBQ on my plate. Fun to think of things like that to take my mind off the bad day. Then last night I was concentrating on the TV and Internet.

 

Google pictures of Roger Staubach. Several of him suspended in mid-air with his legs spread out like Michael Jordan, throwing jump passes for the Cowboys over the Vikings’ Alan Page, or on the sidelines at Navy trying to get a better view.

 

Bad day yesterday. Frustrating to have to pull the same person’s slack for going on nine years. Jesus said to forgive 70 times 7, figuring back then people wouldn’t do the math on such a supposedly high number. These days with calculators figuring numbers is easy, but I think Jesus wants me to forgive an unlimited number of times. But after eight full years my patience has worn thin. Plus I spent time listening and counseling other frustrated coworkers. Yesterday and today our boss got a better (and bitter) taste of the struggle I deal with every day, and he wasn’t happy.

 

Worked until 7 pm, but not much on my own stuff. Work is time sensitive – the sooner you do your part the more time others have to do theirs. Plus doing it early/on time means I can spend less time rushing things through at the end.

 

C had a meeting at Johnson Ferry and M had his Tuesday night meeting. After the rough day I broke my fast food rule and had Taco Bell. Drove by Great Clips but Denise wasn’t working. Gassed up and went home. Turned on the TV and laptop, and crashed.  

 

M got a nice haircut, after going over 16 months with just a small trim. He got if after he and C returned from OKC.

 

Last Saturday Auburn Equestrian won the national championship, on team member Margaret Hurt’s birthday. The team had to ride a bus out to Waco and back.

 

Waited until the last minute to do taxes again. Spent six hours Saturday cleaning up and organizing paperwork and filing the taxes.