Catcher’s Blog

Since it’s New Year’s Eve and it’ll be 2008 tomorrow, I thought I’d make a special post and wish everyone a Happy New Year. 

I’m going to be messing around with the current layout for a few days because the colors are starting get on my nerves. Too much white for my liking, plus I’m paranoid and have to have everything like I like or it bugs me. I’ll also try to make a new header image as well. So, the layout might look funky for a few days and I’ll announce when I’m finished with everything.

 Also, I’m currently working on Part 2 of the Where We Stand series, so hopefully that will be posted later this week. Be safe and have a Happy New Year and a good week.

Well, first of all, I’m starting with the catcher’s position because it’s the first position on the field, but we all know who the starting catcher in 2008 is and will be until possibly 2013 or longer, but I’d still like to touch on a few points of my own.
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Brian McCann lists some of his favorite holiday memories in this interview and it also mentions that he is in fact married. He talks a little bit about his first Christmas with his new wife.

Braves All-Star catcher Brian McCann has already enjoyed a memorable month with his new bride, the former Ashley Jarusinski. After exchanging their wedding vows in Atlanta on Dec. 1, the couple enjoyed a relaxing honeymoon in Maui. They’re now anxiously anticipating their first Christmas together as a married couple.

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I will be conducting a series of posts from now until Spring Training starts. These posts will be about the team as a whole as well as breaking down each position, along with my predictions. I will be talking about what the specific needs of each position are and where the position stands at this time. Since there’s not much else going on right now, this will keep the site and myself active as well. It’ll be fun to look back at the end of Spring Training and see how closely my predictions were to being right, if at all. I’m sure the Braves are not done dealing yet, so if there are any deals made, I’ll keep the post like it is and do a write up of the addition(s). I actually got the inspiration for the idea from Blabberin’ Braves when reading their breakdown post for the backup catcher role.

Since there isn’t a great deal of time from now until Spring Training, I hope to make about two posts a week, maybe more, which is why I’m starting it now. The length between posts really just depends on me on a writing standpoint and also time, which I have more of right now until January 7th when classes start back for me. I hope to start this series of posts either tomorrow or Wednesday, I won’t post anything Tuesday on Christmas. Well, this will be my plan for the next few weeks. I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays if you celebrate.

First off, I saw this tidbit on MLBTR and thought it was worth mentioning.

The Braves and Rockies were among the teams that showed late interest in Haren, but neither club stood a chance of matching the Diamondbacks’ offer.

It makes me wonder why we were interested in Haren late in the game when we were supposedly not looking for anymore starting pitching with all the “surplus” we currently have going into Spring Training. Naturally, we’d have broke the farm bank with this trade, but acquiring Haren would have been a luxury since we don’t really ‘need’ anymore pitching for the rotation.

MLBTR seems to think that it might have been to get the Mets to up their offer and trade Reyes, which I doubt will happen. MLBTR seems to also think we might try to go after Bedard now that Haren is off the market. I don’t really see us doing that for many reasons, but you never know. Having either of those ace pitchers would solidify our rotation x10 or more, but at the cost of getting them would be way too much to give up or at least in my opinion. Having either would be a great luxury, but a luxury we currently don’t need.

If the four or more guys vying for the last few spots don’t prove to be worth anything after a certain amount of time, then we might consider pursuing another starting pitcher. I think we should at least give these guys the benefit of the doubt for a little while until they prove they’re not good enough first. Again, that’s just my opinion.

Mark Teixeira underwent arthroscopic knee surgery in November, but is expected to be ready to start working out in January in preparation for Spring Training, which pitchers and catchers are to report to February 14, while position players are to report February 19.

Also, since there’s not much else going on, here is an interview that was in the December issue of ChopTalk, and I found it to be an interesting read. The interview was typed up for the official site, so I thought I’d post it here. When Chuck was struggling last year, they didn’t really delve into what was wrong with him too much. He talks about that injury and his usual off season.

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