Beautiful day for the Braves A-List season ticketholder
Play Day at SunTrust Park.
Met up with Katie, who had an autographed Scott Patterson photo for me. I stuck around to watch her hit in the Braves batting cages.
She made contact with most of the pitches in the strike zone.
Next to the batting cages:
plaques for all the Braves Silver Slugger Award winners.
Also Tom Glavine's 1991 Silver Slugger Award.
With Kris Medlin and Leo Mazzone.
Lunch: roast beef slider, cole slaw, pimento cheese, tater tots, curly fries, and sausage and grits. Cookies and brownies.
Eddie Perez and Kelly Johnson.
Kelly was rocking sneakers like Anna's.
Flatbread pizza. Ziti. Tossed salad. Cupcakes.
Also saw Norman and his friend. the teacher from Gainesville and her beau, the older couple from McDonough, and Nabil the ticket rep. Joel was there but I missed seeing him.
Many items for sale but no bargains - except there Stance 2019 St. Patricks Day over the calf socks for five bucks. Perfect to wear with my green Braves jersey and green Gwinnett cap.
The AJC’s Mark Bradley only says the obvious: dominant starting pitching is needed to win in the playoffs. Then Bradley surveyed the current situation: Cole is too expensive. The Braves would be outbid for him. Zach Wheeler is only a #3 starter, gets hurt a lot, and isn’t that good anyway. Bumgarner has been hurt and is 30 and will be expensive. Signing him could create an albatross of a contract. Keuchel didn’t knock the Braves socks off last year, and will be more expensive going forward. Soroka should be the Braves ace of the future. I say the Braves give him a big contract this year or next. Hopefully good Folty will show up more often than bad Folty. Teheran comes cheap but can’t be trusted in the postseason. Fried won 17 games and should continue to improve. The Braves need Newcomb to start. The Braves have four top prospects: Ian Anderson, Kyle Wright, Bryse Wilson, and Kyle Muller. Doubtful any will be ready next April (I bet the Braves will try to fit at least one into the 2020 rotation).
I agree with Bradley: dominant starting pitching is key in the postseason. The Nats and Astros had the highest-paid 1-2-3 starters in baseball. But there are only so many Gerrit Coles, Max Scherzers, Stephen Strasburgs, Justin Verlanders, etc. Yet the Astros had one of the best pitchers in baseball starting game seven (Zach Greinke) yet they still lost.
The Braves had Maddux Glavine and Smoltz develop into hall of famers before their eyes, but several other can’t miss prospects failed to pan out: Steve Avery, Zane Smith, Pete Smith, Mike Hampton, Denny Neagle, etc. Charlie Morton struggled for years before developing into an All-Star. Everyone complained when the Braves kept stocking up on young pitchers in 2015 2016 2017. No guarantee any will develop into all-stars, much less hall of famers.
Decisions have to be made. Chances have to be taken. Give a high dollar contract to one guy and he doesn’t work out, and there’s no money to sign someone else (unless you’re the Yankees). The Dodgers appear to have struck gold in a couple of their young starting pitchers, but a certain amount of that was luck.
Last year Braves GM Alex Anthopoulos actively pursued quality players throughout the offseason and season. Atlanta doesn’t have the budget of teams like the Yankees, Red Sox, and Dodgers, and doesn’t need to hand out hundreds of millions to over the hill pitchers. AA restocked the bullpen, and I have no doubt he will make every effort to start the 2020 season with the best pitching possible.
Thinking about getting a new battery for my old Seiko Braves Radio watch, which is still nice. But I love my Apple Watch, which tracks steps, workouts, my heartbeat, and notifies me of various news and sports stories.
RUSTY STAUB [SABR Bio] hit at least one home run every year from 1963-85. Never played a season without hitting a home run. He was the first full-time designated hitter to record 100 RBI in a season. All 695 plate appearances in 1977 for DET were as a DH and he knocked in 101. He was an early advocate of wearing batting gloves. Some believe that success he had at bat is the reason batting gloves ae in such wide use today.
No comments:
Post a Comment