Take this into consideration...

by ryan c on Oct 5, 2009 4:10 PM EDT Comment 25 comments

At the end of July, the braves exorcised the demon that is Jeff Francoeur, and were a better team from then on. Going 45-32 throughout the rest of the year, the braves had a .584 winning percentage. If those numbers would have ran true for a full season, not only would the braves have been in the playoffs, but they would have been NL east champs by 2 games.

I am the world's worst rosterbation expert, but when it comes down to it, there probably isnt a whole lot of rosterbating that needs to go on. Inserting heyward in right and letting everything else roll is probably the best thing the braves can do, if they can afford it financially. We had a good season. We will have a better 2010.

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The only problem with thinking like that is that it’s unlikely that the players will have identical years. LaRoach has always been known as a 2nd half player. Your also assuming that Heyward is going to step in and be an instant impact. Outside of this website I have not heard anyone say that he is going to be with the team on opening day. Most people that I have heard talk about him say that he could gain a lot by spending a month at AAA. It won’t hurt anything to put him there for a month. Were not going to be eliminated from the playoffs by May and if we are then we have other bigger problems that 1 guy isn’t going to fix anyway. In an ideal world Schafer would have come up and been good and be able to play CF full time. That would shift McLouth to LF and then let a combination of Diaz and Church play RF.

by jack dein on Oct 5, 2009 5:22 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

Totally agree on Heyward. June 1st would be a realistic date to expect his debut.

"At least he didn’t nail the bitchy fat girl from Hell's Kitchen."
www.dropoutproductions.com

by cbwilk on Oct 5, 2009 5:27 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

.584 winning percentage...

with a slumping chipper, who hits in the 3 hole every game is phenomenal. the only thing heyward has to do is be better than garret anderson, offensively and defensively. he could lose an arm in a freak welding accident and still do that.

with chipper and laroche basically flip-flopping production, the idea of .584 holding true for a year is not terribly far off. yes, laroche overachieved, but chipper massively underachieved, especially from mid-july and on.

by ryan c on Oct 5, 2009 6:06 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Your assuming that a 37 will turn 38 early in the season and has had numerous nagging injuries is going to have a bounce back season. I doubt that happens. He should be better but not that much. Anderson wasn’t that bad. He started off bad but as the season went along he got better.

by jack dein on Oct 5, 2009 6:50 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

heyward’s defense alone will make him a huge improvement over anderson. Really if you don’t think that Jason can put up an OBP of around .305 with below average power ie .400 SLG% (about what GA provided) then you have absolutely no faith in the kid. He should easily exceed GA’s numbers and represent a big improvement

by McCann's the Man on Oct 5, 2009 6:54 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

I have plenty of confidence in Heyward but to just assume that he’s going to come in and hit .300 with a .400 OBP with 30 home runs and great defense is just dumb. Besides most people outside of this website believe that Heyward won’t be up until at least May.

by jack dein on Oct 5, 2009 7:04 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

I think the great defense should be something we can reasonably assume. He’s played excellent defense elsewhere and it’s a skill that easily translates to the majors. And I never said hit .300, i said an OBP of .305 (Anderson’s OBP was .303) which is shooting extremely low and a SLG % of .400 which isn’t overly impressive.

by McCann's the Man on Oct 5, 2009 7:43 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

I definitely agree that Heyward, from day one, could outproduce Garret Anderson as far as OPS is concerned. But, I still think a few months in AAA, like Tommy Hanson, will benefit both him and the Braves in the long run.

"At least he didn’t nail the bitchy fat girl from Hell's Kitchen."
www.dropoutproductions.com

by cbwilk on Oct 5, 2009 8:14 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Am I the only one concerned about Heyward's welding career?

"...Braves tie! ...Braves tie! ...Braves tie!"

by The Keith Lockhart Era on Oct 6, 2009 1:19 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

+1

"…aren’t worthy enough to hold his (Pujols) ass cheeks apart while Playboy models wipe him with thousand dollar bills after he craps out the cure to whatever previously-incurable disease." by royhobbs 1/7/09

by buzzdeadwax on Oct 6, 2009 6:13 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

what?

"My God! Good news fans, the Braves are showing signs of life for the first time in weeks. As a matter of fact, they appear to be beating the crap out of each other."

by bravos1984 on Oct 6, 2009 7:03 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

See the root comment.

Remember when the Panthers had a good offensive line? Yeah, me too.
--Darin Gantt

by MichaelProcton on Oct 7, 2009 3:45 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

I see...

I thought he actually did have a welding job, like Chuck James and installing doors.

"My God! Good news fans, the Braves are showing signs of life for the first time in weeks. As a matter of fact, they appear to be beating the crap out of each other."

by bravos1984 on Oct 8, 2009 2:04 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

LOL.

Except Heyward’s actually good.

Remember when the Panthers had a good offensive line? Yeah, me too.
--Darin Gantt

by MichaelProcton on Oct 9, 2009 10:35 AM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

LaRoache could not help but be at least as good as Kotchman in the first half.

Also, there probably weren’t many who predicted Schafer would earn a spot on the team for Opening Day this year, but he did it. Also, a month at AAA isn’t likely to make much of an impact on his development at all. If it’s only going to take a month for him to “get ready<” then he’s probably ready in the first place.

Remember when the Panthers had a good offensive line? Yeah, me too.
--Darin Gantt

by MichaelProcton on Oct 7, 2009 3:42 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

I think ryan way oversimplified this but I agree with the general idea, this team is very close to the NL elite. I think they need to do more than just bringing up Heyward but I think we’re finally ready to challenge Philly

by McCann's the Man on Oct 5, 2009 6:56 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

i wanted to keep it simple...

because i didnt want to get caught tbe police for rosterbating in public. jason heyward could have outproduced garret anderson when he was 17.

furthermore, i dont know what offensive or defensive stats you are looking at, but garret anderson was below replacement level. his batting was terrible. his defense was atrocious. in fangraphs research, garret anderson should have paid us 3.6 million dollars to play this year.

http://www.fangraphs.com/statss.aspx?playerid=2&position=OF#value

by ryan c on Oct 5, 2009 8:41 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

i never said GA was good so I don’t know why you felt the need to respond to my comment with that

by McCann's the Man on Oct 5, 2009 10:06 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

that...

wasnt intended for you…that’s one reason i hate the reply button.

by ryan c on Oct 5, 2009 10:14 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

okay i was a little confused by that. But i definitely agree with what you’re saying, replacing GA with Heyward is a quite substantial upgrade for us, probably an extra 3-4 wins or so over the course of a season

by McCann's the Man on Oct 5, 2009 10:21 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

...because it allows you to reply to comments if you use it correctly?

Sounds like user error.

Remember when the Panthers had a good offensive line? Yeah, me too.
--Darin Gantt

by MichaelProcton on Oct 7, 2009 3:46 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

i can understand...

not agreeing with my comments, but your smartass retorts are getting old. can you at least be a smartass about something that is braves related and not something that is a personal pet peeve? no wonder people are always annoyed when their thread gets proctored.

seriously…

by ryan c on Oct 7, 2009 5:33 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

It was actually July 10 when they traded Francoeur and it also helped that they replaced Schafer with McLouth, Kotchman with Laroche, and Johnson with Prado (if only they had replaced Norton with Conrad). But overall, I agree. Add Heyward, bring back Laroche or find another first baseman with the same level of production, and get a more normal season out of Chipper, and the Braves should score plenty enough runs to win the division next year.

by redwards95 on Oct 6, 2009 10:31 AM EDT reply actions 0 recs