Atlanta Braves Fan Confidence Up Again

the recap went up so late I figured Gondee must have just come down from a combination of Jameson and crystal meth

Play the Pirates hard and get ready for a big series in Atlanta against Philly.

Hope “The Ted” is rockin’

Yes, we will trade them ideas for Jayson Werth.

It’s interesting to see an “other’s” view of Werth. I think we’re all on the same page — love to have him; fear the back end of a longer contract, though.

I wish the Phillies had extended him instead of Howard, but that’s unfortunately a done deal. “Old Howard” promises to age worse than “Old Werth” but I could be wrong. Also, there are lots of mashing 1B out there. Werth-like players are less common.

If the Phillies somehow extend Werth, too (which would be a miracle), the back end of that makes me nervous. I’m suffering through year 2 of Ibanez and dreading year 3. To be fair, Ibanez has picked it up in May and he’s been incredibly streaky in his career.

In that vein, the Phillies are getting old. It’s sneaking up, to be sure, but they are. Keeping Werth instead of letting Domonic Brown come up is not going to help that.

New blood should be coming into the team on a regular basis just to “ladder” your players and to maintain some semblance of cost control. The Phillies finally realized that they are a “big market” team and are acting accordingly, but they are not the Yankees or Red Sox, and having a bunch of players all celebrating their 32nd, 33rd, 34th, 35th (etc.) birthdays together may be nice, but it’s not good baseball from the business side.

At this stage, I fear the Phillies are already saddled with a Ryan Howard who will be scary (in a bad way, not scary in a Heyward way) as he approaches the mid-late thirties. Adding Werth to the old-folks home when Werth will most assuredly seek and get a minimum of 5 years does not seem smart.

All that said, Werth is a blast to watch. He’s really good in a lot of ways — he is great at working the count, getting on base, hitting for power, stealing, fielding — he does it all.

I will have absolutely no hard feelings if he leaves. If I were him, I’d want to make as much money as I can in this contract, since it will be his only shot at an FA deal. Injuries and a late start to his career made this his only realistic shot at a big payday.

If he leaves, the Phillies might plug in Domonic Brown. He seems to be a player, but you never know until they are in the bigs. The other option (overlooked) is to keep Dom at AAA next year and give Mayberry a shot. Then, when Ibanez leaves after 2011, plug Brown in with Mayberry and Victorino. Ben Francisco has been a forgotten man in Philadelphia, too. Maybe they try to keep him and work him into the mix, too and keep him around.

Who knows? Should be fun to watch.