Catcher’s Blog

First, I’d like to mention (and congratulate) our 3-time All Star catcher on his winning the Silver Slugger Award for the second time in his young career. There was a conference call with the man himself, which you can listen to here, in which a few people ask McCann a few questions. DOB from the AJC posted a few quotes from this conference call in this article yesterday. Here are a few quotes from that article:

“You don’t play the game for awards,” McCann said, “but it still makes it nice to know you ended the season on a positive note and everybody noticed the numbers that you put up.

…

“If you had told me that [three years ago], I wouldn’t have believed you,” he said. “I put a lot of hard work into getting my swing where I wanted it. Now I’m working on my defense, trying to make myself a better all-around baseball player.”

Don’t you just want to hug him?

To view the rest of the Silver Slugger Award winners, go view the official press release. It’s very surprising that Chipper didn’t snag one, after winning the Batting Title, but David Wright did have a solid year at 3B.

Secondly, there are a lot of rumors starting to surface involving the Braves, which is a good thing. Lately, all we’ve heard about is this blasted Jake Peavy mess that just won’t end was all but put to rest today by Frank Wren. It’s about time we start hearing other rumors about other possibilities to try to offset the frustration most Braves fans now have toward the Padres, which hopefully will subdue now that we’re clearly moving on. I’m not going to post all of the rumors on here, but I do try to keep up with them all, mostly on MLB Trade Rumors and the MLB Hot Stove Blog. Those are two good sources for rumors and such things to keep you busy during this long off season.

Also, the top prospect that we’re absolutely not trading for any reason, Tommy Hanson, has been lighting up the AFL or should I say mowing down? Either way, he’s doing extremely well, as is his teammate Tyler Flowers. Normally, I don’t mention a lot about minor leaguers on here, but I’ll make an exception this time. To check out Tommy Hanson’s stats and possible prediction of his Major League debut, please head on over to CrookedPitch.com. This is a very good read on a future projected pitching star.

Finally, I mentioned before that I had something in the works and that I wasn’t going to talk about it. But, since it’s going slowly right now, so I figured I might as well at least mention it. What I’m currently working on is a new home for Catcher’s Blog, only the name is different. I won’t reveal too much yet, but when I get the layout ready, I’ll put a preview up. The reason for this transistion to a new domain is that I’m 21 now and I’m wanting to bring a more personal side and be more “girly” to the blogosphere, if you will. Please take the word girly really lightly, because I really am not a girly girl by any means. I like being a girl and being somewhat feminine, but being “high fashion” and what not just isn’t me. Plus, I’d like to establish a name for myself as a Braves blogger, well more so than I already have anyway. So keep looking out for new updates on the new domain. I hope to have it up and running by December or around there, but I’m not sure when I’ll actually launch it. I’ll have to think about it some more and then there’s finishing up college as well.

Last off season, I did a series on the Braves’ roster and what our options at each position were before the season started. This year I’m thinking about doing the same thing, only not quite to the same extent because it took way too long to do last time. I won’t start this probably until January or around there, but there’s a fanpost on TalkingChop about where we stand so far. It’s pretty detailed payroll-wise and it’s sorted pretty well by each facet of the team, so have a look if you wish. It’s a very nice read and a good reference as well.

Another off season-speculation read is on MLBTR, which is an abbreviated version of the newly-posted Braves Mailbag, and discusses options for the Braves “big bat” on the off season checklist for next season. If you wish to read the whole Braves Mailbag on the official site, feel free to do so here. MLBTR throws out a few names mentioned by Braves beat writer, Mark Bowman, in which the Braves might be seeking services from. My take on this is that the Braves do not want to overpay an outfielder just to play here for a year or so and are looking to trade for the power-hitting outfielder that they need to bolster the lineup in 2009 without having to fork over a lot of money while doing so. Who will it be? I would say an Adam Dunn-type player or around that equivalent; someone who’s not too old and isn’t declining and someone who hits for power with consistency. Mark Bowman named, specifically, Xavier Nady that would probably be the better option. We’ll have to see, though. Still a while to go before the season starts and even a few weeks before teams even start gearing up for the Hot Stove League.

DOB’s latest blog addresses the upcoming off season needs as well. He mentions a few names as well that the Braves might have some interest in or might even take a look at at the very least, some of which are not mentioned in the Mailbag, but are definitely worth a look or two.

I saw a few sites doing this and thought I’d try it out. Here is what comes from catchersblog.com from the site Wordle:

According to MLBTR, the Braves have mentioned that the payroll will increase in ‘09 and the team will have roughly around $45 million to spend this off season with that amount coming off the books. Most of the money freed up looks to be going toward starting pitching, as it should after this season of injury-ridden pitchers falling off one-by-one. Some names mentioned as possibilities for the rotation next year are as follows: Derek Lowe, A.J. Burnett, Matt Cain, Brad Penny, and Ryan Dempster. All of these are better than the fill-ins we used this past season, but some of those guys could possibly be re-signed to their respective teams. The Braves would also like to try to re-sign Smoltz, Glavine, and Hampton. I don’t see them signing all three, though, unless their contracts were incentive-based or decreased a bit (mainly Hampton for the latter).

I started back college classes today, trying to attempt to wind it down now with only four more classes to go (one left after the current quarter), so posting might be a little slower. Of course, I could post at school should anything huge happen. But the main point here, I’m working on something new. I won’t say what it is yet because I still have a lot to do on it before it’s ready, but look out for this revelation sometime within the next few months. I’m pretty excited about it myself.

I was able to get some Rookie Hazing pictures while at the ballpark on Sunday for the last home game. To view them, please go over to Braves Love, who featured them in one big post. My comments are in that post as well. The rest of my pictures will be up later in my review post whenever I sit down and write it, lol. I’m hoping to do so before school starts Tuesday, so that will be out of the way, but I haven’t done so yet.

I’m sorry for the lack of updates lately, I just haven’t really been motivated to post anything. Maybe I’ll do better with the supposedly-busy, upcoming off season. Let’s hope so. When the Braves release info about FanFest, which will hopefully be released soon, I’ll be sure to post it. Hope everyone has a good weekened!