R.I.P. 2 the Greg Norton Era: Atlanta Braves 2010

No Frenchy! No Norton! No Anderson! More Hanson! More Heyward! A dicey left-field platoon! Oft-injured corner infielders! Lets do this!

stoked for the madne... the mad... the madnzzzzzzzz....

I want to be excited for these guys but the thought of Chip Caray on the play-by-play kinda ruins the mood.

and MEKLY!

http://profile.ak.fbcdn.net/v22941/882/108/n1783630904_7550.jpg

wmc otm

i'm excited about heyward, but at the same time the hype being generated around the kid is disconcerting - cox is already comparing him to mantle & aaron

also lol derek lowe opening day starter

RIDE MY SEE-SAW, BITCHES.

http://blogs.ajc.com/mark-bradley-blog/files/2009/08/jason-heyward.jpg

MLBN crew was drooling yesterday over Heyward not swinging at an off-speed pitch.

after Frenchy I drool whenever Heyward lays off any pitch

Heyward officially the major-league RF

Excited, fairly confident he's not Frenchy v.2.

Tommy John surgery for Tommy Hanson

ok, good one, you bastard

yea thats kinda cruel

http://www.talkingchop.com/2010/4/1/1400102/braves-heyward-to-start-in-the

only april fools joke i fell for today

For the 45 games on Peachtree TV, the booth will be Ernie Johnson Jr, Joe Simpson and John Smoltz.

A+++

hahahahahaHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA Heyward

holy shit yall

he fucked that pitch UP

I wouldn't want to be a gatorade cooler in the Cubs dugout right now.

destroyed that ball, good god

heyward just made zambrano his bitch royale

the leather ripped clear off, grandstand lights showering sparks

love that nickname, the J-Hey Kid

me 2

holy shit

n e 1 have video on this?

found it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nS2TPOISrhg

<3 his dad

he looks like he's been playing pro ball for 20 seasons

i'm so pleased it went into the bullpen

Leyland compared him to Pujols the other day and I was like "easy now, easy"

slaughtertown

heyward looks lebron-esque imo

szmardjia is one of the worst major league pitchers i've ever seen

so all the prospect-spotters who were let down by Wieters' lack of immediate dominance are gonna get on this dudes bandwagon now eh

you can bet on it (I confess, I got him on both my fantasy teams)

Let us not forget the achievements of Yunel Escobar.

heyward looks lebron-esque imo

8 feet tall, check, 0.9% body fat, check

it's interesting, plate discipline is not usually what rookie phenoms are known for iirc

but if you dont have it, you'll never make it in the show. look at andy marte, joel guzman, etc etc etc

cant find his spring training #s now but iirc he had a good number of walks

obp:.423 avg: .305 10 walks in 59 abs

he looks like he's been playing pro ball for 20 seasons

Yep, he looked about as nervous as playing softball, beer in hand

to make his poise and professionalism even more striking, i spent the early part of the day watching cameron maybin hit against johan santana

so glad for that video upthread. heyward is a MAN.

no braves OF prospect before has ever been underwhelming after hitting a home run on opening day in their first mlb at-bat, no sirree

Heyward's nothing like Schafer, though. Heyward's minor league OPS is over a hundred points higher and he doesn't strike out nearly as often.

also re: rookies without plate discipline: Jeff Francoeur sez hey.

it's entirely possible Heyward struggles from here on out but unlike Schafer and Francoeur there's nothing in his minor league stats to make it seem likely.

Kind of refreshing to see the postgame interview and see that he's just as inarticulate as any other 20 y.o. pro athlete. If he'd been real voluble and broken down the pitches and situations he saw I would have been wondering what planet he's from.

I bought a ticket to see Jason Heyward play baseball, so if he gets rested on Sunday I am gonna flip out.

Unless his shin splints act up, you should be safe from the flipping.

ha hah ah ahahaa

btw Infante's still not a deserving All-Star

ha, conrad just hit a fly ball to left field and it was obv a fly out off his bat but you could hear some isolated screams from the crowd right after contact

Holy shit! I turned this off in disgust in the 7th and just now read the recap.

Good old LOLlie P.

MIAMI — Chipper Jones was thrown out of Saturday’s game by home-plate umpire Doug Eddings in the first inning after saying something from the bench that the ump didn’t appreciate.

What’s unusual about this, of course, is that Jones is on the disabled list, recovering from knee surgery. The third baseman has been in uniform on the bench during games the past week.

Coincidentally, during a 2005 game at Florida, Eddings ejected three Braves including pitcher Mike Hampton, who was also on the DL. Eddings got into a heated argument with Braves catcher Johnny Estrada that night and tossed Estrada, Hampton and manager Bobby Cox.

http://s190.photobucket.com/albums/z212/T-dogggg/Reactions/th_chipper.gif

that was mike hampton's greatest contribution to the braves

Simpson was really letting Eddings have it tonight, just short of calling him a corrupt sack of shit (in that pleasant Joe Simpson way of his).

Great game from Jurrjens.

Wow @ Simpson! He is really feeling his Malt-o-Meal this weekend. Before the first inning was done he'd already called the Marlins front office "classless and low" and called out Hanley Ramirez for being an attention whore.

;_;

via Neyer:

http://espn.go.com/blog/statsinfo/post/_/id/6618/jason-heywards-chase-for-400

Aaaagh these fuckin' guys!!!!!! Shit!

really takin' the gas pipe, eh?

Jurrjens has sore knee; Brandon Beachy to make start in MLB debut

go Beachy go

Braves fans presuming they had the WC locked up but considering there are 5 more games against Philly alone, they may not see October.

Don't presume my presumption -- I've been prepared for no-playoffs for three weeks.

nice deefense by the putative ROY on that 5th-inning fly

what was McCann doin on that sac fly?

I don't even want these guys to stumble into the playoffs at this point -- watching them get pantsed and stuffed into their own locker in the first round would be embarrassing.

They still have to face Philly too right?

Yeah, last series of the season.

Prado RIP

;_;

yowch

Neyer yesterday:

"The Braves have two more games against the Marlins, who aren't playing for anything and won't be using Hanley Ramirez. Then they've got three against the Phillies, who really can't do anything else except get somebody hurt.

Meanwhile, the Giants and the Padres have to try to kill each other this weekend.

As much as anything, this is why the Braves are a great bet for the wild card."

Meanwhile, the Giants and the Padres have to try to kill each other this weekend.

― kind of shrill and very self-righteous (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, September 29, 2010 4:24 AM (4 hours ago)

Not necessarily. The way the Padres have been playing over the last month, they may drop out of contention before they land in SF.

At this point, I sincerely hope SF and SD both make it in. I'm tired of this gang of toothless asthmatics. Better luck next year.

Braves kicking ass today. Basically if the Padres lose today the Braves are in.

look again

it's 7-8 but the Phillies only have three outs left

Can't believe this game ended up so close!

gonna be tough w/out Prado

btw I walked thru the ATL airport yesterday around 2:30 pm, from one end of terminal B to another, and there was nothin on bar TVs but the NFL.

Not surprised.

Hello 2 the Fredi Gonzalez era

No objection.

since Fredi was attending research talks at the SABR convention, i'd say it's a good hire.

Man, if the Braves and the Mets get talented, forward-looking managers the NL wild card'll get a lot tougher.

Ya, if only the Braves had a manager with some talent instead of being stuck with that Cox guy for the past 20 years.

but as Neyer hinted about Cox's decisions in this last series, "there's a reason they go out."

Fine, Cox's shit doesn't work in the playoffs, we already knew that. We know he can't manage his bullpen in the postseason and all that, but luck is still more of a factor in the postseason than anything most managers do or don't do.

But y'know, look out! The Braves might get a forward-thinking manager and jump right into the playoff hunt one of these years.

at least one smart enough to bench Brooks Conrad in a timely fashion?

One would hope.

That wasn't what I meant, William! I was hoping the Bravos would pick some idiot, but I didn't really expect them to.

The Mets, on the other hand - that could be a seismic shift.

Fine, Cox's shit doesn't work in the playoffs, we already knew that.

uh, how many pennants did he win, six?

Yeah, but none after 1999. You could argue that he had lesser talent to work with, or that he made more mistakes than he had in the past (and you could argue that it had something to do with age -- everyone's skills degrade with time). I don't really know. Like you said, failing to make defensive substitutions in the 9th inning of a playoff game is almost indefensible.

Anyway, luck usually trumps managing in the playoffs -- which was the main point of Neyer's post.

Like you said, failing to make defensive substitutions in the 9th inning of a playoff game is almost indefensible

See what I did there!!

(actually it was an accident)

actually 5 pennants but who's counting

Hubbard and Cadahia fired. Fredi's bringing his own guy in as bench coach; Pendleton is out as hitting coach and being moved to 1B coach. All good moves. Chipper as hitting coach is kind of a high risk/high reward thing, but it may be a little early to speculate on that one.