Catcher’s Blog

While many people are already panicking and it’s just May 1st, I’ve been thinking of some possibilities that might help out the team. Of course, not all of these are my ideas, so I won’t take credit for them. These are just possibilities that the team could think about doing over the course of this season. Some of these suggestions are not meant to be taken seriousily, by the way.

- With Smoltz stating that he’ll be returning as a reliever for now, we’ll definitely need someone to fill his spot in the rotation. I’m sure we won’t find a top-of-line starter like Smoltz available right now, though. But maybe Frank Wren could make up for the somewhat questionable job that he’s done so far by going out and making a deal with another team for a middle of the rotation guy. MLBTR was ahead of me, which I was hoping they would be, and suggested we try for Joe Blanton or Kevin Millwood. While this might be a feasible option, we really don’t want to have to give up a lot to get a pitcher, but that’s harder these days to accomplish.

Blanton isn’t really blowing people away with his current line of 2-4 W/L 4.07 ERA 21 K 9 BB. That’s not much of a difference from what we have right now, maybe Blanton’s slightly better though. Millwood, who would probably cost us more than Blanton is doing slightly better with this line 2-2 W/L 3.86 ERA 27 K 17 BB. Millwood’s strikeout rate is good, but he definitely needs to cut down on the walks. I’m sure there are more options, but these are the two MLBTR mentioned might be available with the right offer. MLBTR also wonders if top-prospect Jason Heyward would be sought after if a trade were to happen. I’m not so sure we need to give up the entire farm for one serviceable pitcher, though.

- This is kind of stretching it, but AJC’s Chop Chick seems to think after yesterday’s game Bobby needs to hang ‘em up and move to the front office of the organization. I’m not sure how much of what has occurred lately can be pinned on Bobby, but in a way, I guess you could put some of the blame on him with the way he uses the bullpen and some of his other managerial ways, which in the past have seemed like genius moves in the long run. I don’t think we’ll go as far as firing Bobby, though. While he does make the decisions, and sometimes bad ones, in the end he doesn’t throw the pitches, make inexcusable errors, or keep the offense from scoring runs. Bobby cannot be responsible for every single thing that goes wrong on that field. In my opinion, if you want to blame anyone, blame the entire team since it’s a group effort as of late.  

- Here’s a really good story by AJC on Gonzo attempting to make his return. Remember, there is hope down the line. We hope.

- This video probably best describes our team right now. It’s self-explanatory, hilarious, and probably not the best to view at work or around the kids. Just giving a fair warning.