Notes from the Braves, Troy Glaus Presser

The chance to play for Bobby is something he’s always wanted to do

I wonder how much not having Bobby around next year will affect us for this very reason.

I just watched the Troy Glaus Press conference and he looked very pleased to be there. As Wagner did, he also said he has been a long time fan of the organization. A reporter asked him if the history, playing for Bobby and him being a fan had anything to do with the signing because he heard he had offers for more money. Glaus said he has always wanted to play for Bobby and he thought, in Atlanta, he had the best chance of winning.

Other tidbits was FW was asked basically what’s next and he said the main parts of the team is pretty much set and they are ready to go to spring training. Maybe we are done and Melky is going to do battle with JayHey. Also, when Troy held the jersey up, Bobby stared at it for a while before looking to the cameras as if someone else should still be wearing the Braves #25……

I still think this is a very good signing and if he can bounce back to he 2007 numbers, which in turn rejuvenates Chip, we can have a very good offense, even with Melky. I don’t expect Chipper to have a career year or anything close, but he should, at the very least, be approaching .300BA. If all that happens, our pitching staff is still the best in the NL East, if not the NL, and the bats can be good enough to take the division back.I think BMac, Esco, (rejuvenated)Chipper and an ‘07 Glaus = Bay, Wright, Beltran and Reyes and falls alittle short to Howard, Utley, Victoriano, Werth/Ibanez(we’re either going to see Werth come back to earth or Ibanez play like he did in the 2nd half last year when the NL caught up) I think the staff will push us over the edge against both teams.

I also, think we see Brad Lidge banned from the Philadelphia city limits this year.

Another interesting thing I saw on ESPN ( for all of you who aren’t fantasy players) they had their top 11 fantasy analysts predict 2010. They each did NFL and MLB. mixed in with a ton of other predictions they each predicted NL Cy Young and Rookie of the Year. This was not a fantasy baseball vote, because there was a separate one for that, but just baseball award. Out of the 11, 5 NL ROY votes went to Jason Heyward, 3 to Strasburg, and 3 to Buster Posey. Along with Heyward for ROY, Tristan Cockcroft selected Tommy Hanson for NL Cy Young, saying “Linecum is the best pitcher but I’ll will go with the darkhorse.”

They all guessed on Javy’s numbers as well and on avg. came out to around 15W, 4.25 ERA and 1.20 WHIP.

“our club is primarily in place,” and there might only be a “few smaller minor additions.”

Man it makes me think that the JV trade looks even worst if all we did is to clear payroll for Glaus….Ugh not something I wanted to hear from FW though it is clear Liberty is cutting payroll and we should atleast have 4-5M for a mid season trade to improve the club if injuries and Glaus/Melky don’t produce…..Not a good feeling to have right now

If they start Heyward in RF opening day we are still a better club than we were opening day 2009.

Wagner + Saito > Soriano + Gonzo

The reason I say that is mainly because of Gonzo’s control. Wagner and Saito are both guys that have excellent control, Gonzo however is someone that is a little more wild with his control. If his slider was off he couldn’t get the job done. Soriano was a guy that could get the job done with just his FB because he has that control. Same with Wagner and Saito.

Nate McLouth > Injured Schafer

A guy playing with a wrist injury for a month is no good to any team and therefore he created a black hole in the bottom of our lineup. In the future however i full expect Schafer to be greater than Nate in every way. However opening day Nate should be doing better than Schafer was.

Prado > Injured Kelly Johnson

This will start arguments of course but there is no getting over that a healthy Prado will be better than KJ who started the season in a slump then was injured making him just deplorable at the bottom of the lineup some times the top of the lineup. You could also argue that Prado is better than KJ due to his streaky hitting. However this year will tell the truth as KJ should be getting bats full-time in Arizona and Prado in Atlanta.

Melky = Garrett Anderson

I mean to be honest they both are kinda terrible. I say they equal because GA out performs Melky offensively and Melky outperforms GA defensively. Also if Melky is traded and we have Diaz out there instead then that is a big upgrade.

Heyward > FYF

For some reason i just feel at Heywards worst as a rookie he would still put up better numbers than FYF did.

Glaus > Kotchman and LaRoche

What we lose from Kotchman and LaRoche is stellar defense. However what we gain is consistency and power. Kotchman showed hardly any power with us. He can hit doubles just not HR’s that you want out of your 1B. LaRoche supplies more power than Kotchman however you have to wait until the 2nd half of the season to get it. Glaus is someone who can supply that power consistently and more of it. We will lose a bit on the defensive side but we gain a strong RH bat to put behind chipper.

Just compare

Kelly Johnson 2B
Escobar SS
Chipper 3B
McCann C
Anderson LF
Francoeur RF
Kotchman 1B
Schafer CF
Lowe P

to

McLouth CF
Prado 2B
Chipper 3B
Glaus 1B
McCann C
Escobar SS
Melky/Diaz LF
Heyward RF

The only thing that would make us better is a lead off hitter so we can drop McLouth down. We could always just swap Melky/Diaz and McLouth in the line up =^)

I dont even understand the point of press conferences anymore. They all say the same tired cliches. They’re all so damned generic. As much as some people hate certain atheletes, you gotta admit they are much more entertaining.
I would love to hear a Chad Ochocinco press conference. I’ll bet Rickey Henderson had some pretty good ones.
Nothing against Glaus, just wanted to rant a little bit.

That the “young player in right field” about which they’re keeping an open mind isn’t Melky Cabrera.

Speaking of which, it occurred me that the chances of Heyward NOT already being an upgrade over Melky are really, really slim.

I expect that:
Chipper summer 2010 > Chipper summer 2009 and
McCann’s Spring 2010 > McCann’s Spring 2009 (since eyes are already fixed)

McCann, Yunel, Hanson, Freeman, Heyward, Jurrjens, Schafer (Hopefully) would be a great young core. But it looks a lot worse without Esco.

We’ve been in a steady decline since Turner sold out to Time Warner. Our ownership doesn’t care if we win or lose.

He alluded greatly to Jason Heyward starting in right saying the club will be “open minded about the young player in right field.”

Out of context, that could be alluding to Heyward, Schafer, or even Melky.

Let’s all be honest, no GM is going to come out and say that a stud prospect doesn’t have a chance to make the team because they want to delay his salary arbitration by a year, but everyone knows that’s part of the business of baseball.

Also, last year Wren said we were going with an internal option in LF, then went out and signed Garret Anderson days later.

In other news, Holliday just inked with the Cards for 7 years…wow!!!

Also, Kotchman is about to be a starting 1B again – for the Mariners.

“By the way, Glaus is a big dude with powerful handshake, and appears to be in outstanding shape. I was expecting some chunkiness, from the pictures, but he looks to be in great shape, and looks a few years younger than the photo I used in a previous blog. He says he’s had absolutely no constraints or restrictions on what he can do this winter, been lifting hard, throwing, etc. He’ll start hitting this week, but said he had no problems with his swing when he finally made it back in September.”

“It’s just, you know, obviously, you know, obvious, you know?” – Troy Glaus