Catcher’s Blog

Reactions seem to vary toward the Santana deal yesterday. Here is what some Braves players had to say about the trade: 

Frenchy makes you want to go into panic mode more so than your intial reaction to the deal as a fan.  

Making the playoffs just got a little tougher for the Braves. The New York Mets agreed to trade for star pitcher Johan Santana, pending a deal the Mets could get him to sign an extension.

“That’s the worst news I’ve heard all day,” Francoeur said. “I don’t want to face him.”

Francoeur is 0-for-3 against Santana with two striketouts.

Although Francoeur’s confidence against Santana is shaken, he is confident manager Bobby Cox will return after this upcoming season.

- Source

Glavine and McCann take a much more positive approach to the situation, taking away some of the worry.

“This certainly evens the balance within the division,” said Glavine, who signed a free agent contract with Atlanta in November. I don’t think this makes [the Mets] the class of the division. I think it puts them in a position where their rotation is much better and that was their biggest need.

“Within the division, I think you have three teams that can now not only win the division, but also the World Series. I think all three teams did a nice job of filling their biggest needs.”

“It’s going to be a dog fight,” Braves All-Star catcher Brian McCann said. “Obviously our division is up for grabs and I think it’s going to stay close until the end. The Phillies upgraded. The Mets upgraded and we believe we’ve upgraded. Nobody is going to run away with this thing.”

- Source

Should we be worried about Santana? Some will definitely say “of course,” but you have to look at the bigger pictures in that Santana isn’t the greatest thing to happen on earth. Sure, he might be a good pitcher, but he can’t pitch everyday and he’s human, so he might not be the great pitcher he has been in the past. Plus you have to factor in the trasistions he’s going to have to undertake in going from the American League to the National League, even if they aren’t major. Baseball is a game of chance and randomness, so you never know what will happen during a game. Sure, the guy may be intimidating, but I say  bring him on.

This will be the last mailbag for the month of January and I’m glad this month is coming to a close for more reasons than one. But most of all, I’m ready to see what February brings us, and for Spring training that is only seventeen days away. Who isn’t tired of hearing about football and basketball by now? Bring out the bats and balls, dust off the bases, beat the dirt off the cleats, and wash the uniforms because baseball season is almost here.

The mailbag post for today includes questions about how Chipper can remain healthy in his elder years and if he’ll be as good in ‘08 as he was last season, why Chuckie isn’t considered a lock for the fifth spot in the rotation, Joey Devine being traded for Mark Kotsay when we will only get one year of Kotsay, about Hampton’s health once again, and also about Tommy Hanson, Cole Rohrbough, and Jeff Locke, who are top pitching prospects in the minors.

This is basically a catch-up post for me to post all of the recent news/tidbits of this week. While it’s not much, it is something as the month of January is coming to a close and February is on its way with only 20 days until pitchers and catchers report to Spring Training. Lately, I know I have not been really great at updating, but I hope to get better and back to like I was to some extent. We’ll see how this goes as I can’t promise anything.

- Firstly, not only did Soriano and the Braves reach a deal on his salary for the ‘08 season, they’ve come to an agreement for the ‘09 season as well. So, we’ll have Soriano as our closer at least until the ‘09 season when he reaches free agency. This is a really good thing considering our past troubles with closers, aka Bob Wickman, who is probably going to retire should no one want him, which is the case so far. But Soriano should dominate in the closer’s role and we’ve seen what he’s capable of doing in this role, even if it was only a short glimpse last season.

- The Braves have changed times for the home games, trying to accommodate fans’ wishes. Monday-Thursday games will all start at 7:10 pm, while Friday games will start at 7:35 pm due to Atlanta traffic. Saturday games will begin at 7:10 pm unless the Braves are a part of FOX’s game of the week, then games will start at 3:55 pm. Sunday games will start later at 1:35 pm instead of the usual 1:05 pm as in recent years. The Braves are also testing a 4:35 pm game on August 18th to see how many families would come, directly following school in the afternoon, making it so the kids will be home at a decent hour on those days. Also, games that ESPN cover will continue at 8:05 pm, but they have not picked any games up as of yet.

- There was a Braves Notes update today and they included some answers to many people’s questions.

Chuck James didn’t take on his usual off season job at Lowe’s, wanting to rehab his injured left shoulder. Chuck says he’s ready for Spring Training and doesn’t think he’s got a rotation spot either, that he’ll have to work to get one.

Mike Hampton appears to be doing well after recovering from a pulled hamstring earlier this winter. Frank Wren says Hampton’s throwing and running while trying to get ready for Spring Training.

A contract extension for Jeff Francoeur is hopefully going to be in the works soon. Jeff switched agents this off season, to Lonnie Cooper, who is agent to John Smoltz and Bobby Cox, in hope of attaining a long-term contract similar to McCann’s last season. Jeff is eligible for arbitration after this season and the Braves would like to avoid that if at all possible.

Mike Gonzalez is well ahead of his rehab schedule the Braves have set for him and might even be back before the June date that was originally thought. Gonzo has been throwing bullpen sessions for over a month and feels great. This is really good news, but we shouldn’t expect too much from him to start with, though.

“I wanted to break [camp] with the team,” Gonzalez said. “Obviously, that’s not going to happen. So I’m pretty much going on what they have to say. I feel ready and I feel good. The timetable that they’ve given to me, I’m on course.”

NOTE BEFORE READING: I wrote this for my LiveJournal and posted it there already. I didn’t leave hardly anything out, meaning it’s full of fangirl moments and rants as well. Please excuse those moments; I had to include them for y’all to get the full effects of my day. I’m posting the link to the pictures that I do have, but I may add more to that gallery soon. I’m not sure yet. I won’t crowd this post, so just click the link at the bottom. You get to read first and then look at the pictures. Read the rest of this entry »

I’m sorry for the lack of updates lately, but school is showing why it’s not liked as much as other fun things in that it’s making me have less free time. I know as soon as I went on my  not-so-mini-hiatus, there would be news everywhere. Well, considering it’s the end of January, any news is good for this time of year. So I’m not going to try catch everyone up because I’m sure most of you know by now everyone is signed for this year except Soriano. Hopefully, the team and Sori can agree on a deal though since the difference was only by a million, but all we can do for now is sit and wait to see what happens.

The Braves mailbag post today was quite interesting in the fact that it mentions the chances of Teixshy signing a long-term deal, the odd man out in the outfield since we currently have five OFs on the roster, whether Peter Moylan would be a good candidate for the closer’s role, the candidates for the remaining two bullpen spots, which conveniently leaves out Jeff Bennett, and also a rant about this year’s FanFest, to which I’m sure the Braves got plenty of already.

At least it’s something new to read about and it does mention that FanFest is being rethought again, while most likely doing away with the “treasure hunt” autograph signing. I plan on posting my FanFest review post soon, but I don’t have all my pictures. I might just post it and post the pictures I do have, but I’ll think about it some more. I’m off to work on the site project that I mentioned in this post. Maybe it won’t be a week or more until I post next time. Hope everyone had a nice holiday weekend.  

ETA: New poll added!