Catcher’s Blog

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!

If you noticed that the site was down today, then I’m very sorry. The problem is now fixed and everything should function properly.

MLBTR has posted their 2009 Offseason Outlook on the Braves. While it’s not too in depth, it does cover the basics and the needs we will be looking to fill this off season. It’s kind of like stepping into Frank Wren’s shoes for a moment and looking toward next season’s possibilities.

I agree with most of his assumptions and outlooks. One thing I do not agree on is trading KJ. Why would they trade him after two seasons? He’s picked up the last part of this season and his defense has improved a lot. KJ would be the better than Infante and Prado at 2B, plus they need utility roles on the bench. If one of those two are playing 2B everyday, they can’t play elsewhere, which, in my opinion, is where they excel. Infante has cooled off from playing everyday at different positions and Prado has cooled off slightly. Infante has a career SLG% of .391 after seven seasons and Prado has a .434 SLG% in three seasons. Still KJ comes out on top with a .440 SLG% and I think he could do even more than that; his power numbers have been down slightly this year. Still, I don’t see them getting rid of KJ yet. He’s still only 26, 27 next year, and he looks to have a lot of upside and potential to offer still. I would at least give him another year to see what he has to bring to the table. I know that I have a biased opinion on KJ, but I’m trying to be unbiased on this assumption. And as DOB has stated, there are too many other holes to fill on this team, why would we make another one that would need filling?

Also, I don’t think we should trade Frenchy after one bad season. The past two seasons he’s done rather well, so hopefully he’s learned not to bulk up like he did for this season. I think he knows now that that was a bad idea and that next year needs to be 100% better. He still has knack for swinging at bad balls, but he has cut down on that at least some by attempting to be more patient at the plate.

We really don’t know what Frank Wren is going to do in what looks to be an active off season. Let’s hope he does his job well and fills the holes that are in need of plugging for next season.

First off, something that my friend directed to my attention, the 2009 Projected Roster from SoxProspects.com. See image below.

Click to enlarge.

Jumping the gun much? I know the Red Sox were one of the teams trying to acquire Ohman at the deadline, but seriously, that’s kind of wishful thinking to me. He’s a free agent and who knows? There’s a slight possibility the Braves still might re-sign him. I’m not saying we will, because he will be demanding a lot, but who’s to say Boston will be the team to sign him if he does venture into free agency? I just thought it was kind of overreaching, but then again, it is a fansite after all.

This got me thinking about next season, and while this season isn’t over yet, it kind of is in a way. Moving on, I thought it would be kind of cool to kind of predict how the roster will look next season. Of course, I’m biased on some of the players, who could blame me, but I will do my best not to be biased on most of them. I will state my opinions on them and what not, though. This will be written later on, though.

I’m venturing to the last game at The Ted on Sunday to see the Braves take on the Mets. Let’s hope it’s a good outcome and I will make a review post with pictures sometime next week. Look out for it.