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.

This is my review post on the Braves vs. Marlins game from August 28, 2008. The link to all the pictures will be below the review since there are 85 pictures; it would take too long to include all of them in the post. Some are linked in the post, though. Please continue reading if you wish.

Read the rest of this entry »

Ken Rosenthal is reporting that we had some “special” interest in Mark Sweeney as our hopeful off-the-bench, lefty hitter. Since the Dodgers already signed Sweeney, it is believed that the Braves will go for the internal option in Scott Thorman, instead of signing another free agent. I could see this internal option working only if Scott rebounds from last season’s .216/.258/.394; you can’t just give up on the guy since it was his rookie season and he did hit 11 home runs with 36 RBIs in 287 at-bats. Scott apparently seems to also take a while to settle into things before “getting it” and getting into the swing of things, no pun intended.

The Braves, on the verge of losing Mark Sweeney to the Dodgers, likely will stick with Scott Thorman rather than sign another free agent to be their left-handed hitter off the bench.

Thorman, 26, batted only .216 as a rookie last season, but hit 11 home runs in 287 at-bats. The Braves viewed Sweeney — who is second to Lenny Harris on the all-time pinch-hit list — as a special case.

- Source

Here is a video on YouTube of an interview that Frenchy did while in Greenville, SC for an annual prayer breakfast.

Here is a Spring Training preview of what to look forward to this season.

Bobby isn’t considering this year as his final year and “his future is undecided” at this point. This article also tells us who the early birds are that showed up today in Lake Buena Vista a day early: Brian McCann, Matt Diaz, Buddy Carlyle, Jeff Bennett, Peter Moylan, Tyler Yates, Mike Gonzalez, Phil Stockman, Blaine Boyer, Ryan Drese, and Jeff Ridgway. The rest of the pitchers and catchers are supposed to report tomorrow and I haven’t heard anything as to why anyone won’t make it tomorrow as of yet. 

I’m working on part 4 and 5 of the Where We Stand series and I’m giving myself more time to finish the series instead of having it done by tomorrow because I won’t have it finished by then. The first Spring Training game isn’t until February 27th, so I figure if I do extend the time frame until then, I should get it finished.

Also, I’m trying to think of different posting ideas to do on the site instead of doing news, etc all the time. I’m going to do my own thought posts during the season, and even some during Spring Training, and also continue doing Braves Mailbag and Rumor Mill posts, but all there was to post during the off season was news and predictions, unfortunately. I’ve come up with a few things, but if you think of something you’d like to see me do on here, please feel free to e-mail your suggestion(s) to me at catchersblog@gmail.com. I’m not saying I’ll do them all, but all suggestions are indeed welcome!

There’s been some talk about us considering Brian Fuentes. The talks have been narrowed down on different blogs about trade possibilities and I wonder what it would cost to get him. People are saying we should offer Chuckie and Martin Prado and get one of their CFs as well as Fuentes. I wonder if maybe we offered Willy Aybar, instead of Prado, if the Rox would be interested. I know he hasn’t really done much in the past year, but he was serviceable in ‘06 when Chipper went down. He did somewhat well with the Dodgers before being traded to Atlanta and has these stats: .280 .364 .403. Everyone is counting him as the odd man out for any position anyway. His stats are better than Prado’s .277 .330 .366. I’m not sure if that would be enough to get two guys or not, but maybe enough to get Fuentes? If we were to even get him. Personally, I’m wondering why we would need to get him, unless Ohman sucks or something. But there’s always trading him in the off season or the trade deadline and he’d be a nice luxury to have, especially since Gonzo won’t be as effective coming back from TJ surgery. But it’s mainly all speculation, we don’t know what Wren thinks of this possibility or if he’s even still considering it.

Willie Harris and Pete Orr were signed by the Nats. It seems they have a thing for Braves cast-offs or something.

Also, the mailbag was rather interesting. Bowman doesn’t look for us to be able to keep Teixeira after this season, but he lists that we would be able to compete for him if we were to do so. Other questions include Dale Murphy, Mark Prior, Willie Harris, and minor league options.

EDIT:

The Braves signed former, long-time catcher, Javy Lopez, to a minor league deal with an invite to Spring Training. He was among five other players that were invited to Spring Training: catchers Corky Miller, J.C. Boscan, outfielder Joe Borchard, who was previously with the Florida Marlins, RHP Jorge Campillo, and infielder Javier Guzman.  DOB gives his take on the signing.

Yesterday was on the quiet side compared to Tuesday. Not much has been going on and not much willl happen most likely according to Wren unless he likes something can’t turn down. The rumor about Reggie Willits was actually just ramblings, but we’re apparently still looking at Chris Duffy somewhat. I figure the three CF options we have currently will be the ones battling it out for the job in Spring Training. We may have another backup catcher before then, but if not, we still have Brayan Pena, Clint Sammons, and Corky Miller as possibilities.

Other than that, Andruw is now a Dodger. Let’s see what else happens today, if anything. Head on over to TalkingChop.com for open thread disscussion.