A look ahead (Change of Topics)

This is the time of year that every team feels positive. This year’s team is real IFFY, literally. If our players perform to close to the top of their potential we could win it all. Bourn leads of hits.300 plus steals 60 bases, Prado has a more typical year like when we hit him leadoff and he picked us up. He hits second, hits .300 plus and watches pitches and becomes the guy that hits to right and is awesome at moving baserunners. Chipper hits .300 plus in 125 abs or so, hits 20 to 25 homers, has a .350 obp and knocks in 80 or so. Uggla and Mac alternate at cleanup vs righty/lefties. Uggla starts off decent and doesn’t wait for 2nd half to put up his normal #‘s, he spreads it out. Both Uggla and Mac have good years, Uggla hits.275 with his normal 30+, 100rbi seasons. Same for Mac, hits .280 with 25hrs and 100 rbi. Freddie avoids softmore slump, I feel very positive he will have much the same year. I love his inside out swing, it will be harder for major league pitchers to find a hole in his swing. The big one, Heyward. If most everyone else is hitting it will take a lot of pressure of him. I have no idea how you fix that high and tight heat hole in his swing. As an amature, it seems that he needs to crown the plate more and shorten his swing. He’s strong enough to hit’m out without such a long swing. IF the new hitting coaches end up helping him to .280, 20-25 homers, 80 rbi, that would go a long way to meet the next step in his path to super stardome when he becomes 30-35 plus hr and 100+rbi. Which leaves us with ss. IF Pastornicky could just play solid defense, we can live with his hitting in the eight hole no matter what. If he hits .265-.275 with 10-15 homers and steals 20 bases that would be a huge plus. And, in a worst case scenario I love the fact that we picked up Jack Wilson. He is a far above average fielder, even at his age and is close to a .270 lifetime hitter. I read a quote where he was real hard on himself for not contributing last year. I think he has some good ball left in him and he’s our kind of clubhouse guy. He’s having Pastornicky to his home soon and until spring to work on fundamentals. That’s a team guy. IF our starters are healthy (that’s asking a lot) Huddy (how’s his back) he says he’ll be ready and he’s always been a horse. Hanson, (no clue on how to predict that shoulder). They say he’s ready but everyone doubts that he can maintain with his delivery. IF his shoulder holds up, he’s a second ace. JJ. IF he can pich with the knee brace and be up to par he’s a solid #3. Beachy I have no worries about surprisingly. He’s a bulldog that goes right at you and is ready manno a manno. 5th starter solid. So many choices. An out of these choices for #5 you can also fill in any of the above injuries if neccessary. Minor, Teheran, Delgado, Medlin, Vizcaino. We’ll have the best relief core in the business. I think it’s bull that Kimbrel got tired at the end. Heck, he was throwing 98mph all the wat throught the end (i digress, pet peave) Kimbrel, Venters, O’Flaherty, Medlin, Vizaino, Martinez, Valvaro. AND looks at Moylan, Gearrin, Ascencio, Hoover, Avilan, Chapman, Cordiier, Redmon, Heck, WE’RE LOADED!!! A lot of performance IF’s with the position players, some health IF’s with our staff. But IF things go our way we should have a heck of a ballclub. I’m espcially excited about our pitching staff but our offense could surprise some people. Let’s face it, we were in like flint with a month left in the season before the freaky slump hit us. All things being equal players end up falling back into their career numbers most years and there’s no way to predict what happenned last year. Personally, I think everybody was too tense and trying too hard to be a hero.

Over the last few years, the Braves have been consistently inconsistent. That is to say we’d get on hot streaks and be very difficult to beat, and then be poor to mediocre for big stretches.

We need to get consistent, if not specfrakular performance starting in April. Not that BS we’ve had to endure the last couple seasons. The theme of being terrible in April, good in the summer and bad in September is becoming familiar very quickly.

If nothing else, 2012 April lineup gives them the chance to post a decent record and not fall into a big hole right off the bat.

Undefeated. No doubt.