Braves Activate Nate McLouth, Designate Joe Mather For Assignment.

Yeh, this is sure to turn around the Braves’ hitting woes.
Can’t wait to see him against midling lefties, to go alaong with the rest of these guys (other than McCann) who can’t hit lefties.

this should be great to watch while Prado is on the DL. These two will be very competitive in the outfield look for a great couple of weeks for the Bravos

Not a huge fan of McOut but he has to be better than Mather. Mather has been dreadful outside of one angel game. Matt Young was even better than Mather. Hopefully we cut ties with Mather soon.

Let’s take a look at the Braves’ bench options. Assuming that the Braves will continue to carry 12 pitchers, then obviously that leaves five bench slots. Ross and Hinske are automatic keepers, so that leaves three. What’s covered and what are the Braves’ needs?

• Hinske provides a power left-handed bat, and he can play the corner outfield positions and 1B. If Hinske plays LF, Prado can be moved to 2B or 3B, so indirectly he provides backup at those positions too.
• Ross, obviously, is the backup catcher. AFAIK he does not play any other position. He can be used as a right-handed power bat off the bench, although it runs the outside risk of needing an emergency catcher to finish a game.

So what the Braves appear to need are:

• Another RH bat off the bench, so they don’t have to use Ross in every situation.
• A LH bat off the bench on days when Hinske starts
• A backup at SS
• A backup at CF
• A late-inning defensive replacement at LF/RF
• A late-inning defensive replacement at 2B/3B (Prado can provide this to an extent)
• A pinch runner

Conrad covers the RH bat off the bench; he’s also the emergency catcher, and he can play infield in a pinch. So he stays. Diory Hernandez stays on the roster because he’s the backup at SS, and he also provides the 2B/3B defensive replacement. (Neither Diory nor Brandon Hicks can hit a lick, but Diory appears to be a somewhat better fielder.) That’s 24. The remaining needs are the CF backup, the corner outfielder defensive replacement, and the pinch runner. McLouth covers two of these; he can handle CF if Schafer gets hurt, and although Nate’s defense is not great, he’s still better than Heyward or Hinske. With Mather gone, the other option would be Matt Young, but McLouth is clearly the better hitter. (This all leaves the pinch-runner rule unfilled — the Braves don’t appear to have any good options there.)

Yeah, it hurts to be paying a guy as much as the Braves are paying McLouth to sit on the bench. But what else are they going to do? If they cut McLouth, they’re going to eat it. If they trade him, they’re going to eat nearly all of it. May as well put him in a role where he can be at least somewhat useful, especially since the Braves don’t appear to any any better options. Other than Young, the Braves don’t even have another outfielder on the 40-man roster.