Catcher’s Blog

As it has been announced, Chipper will indeed be the starting third baseman in this year’s All-Star game, and deservedly so. Mac will be one of the backups to Geovanny Soto, along with Russell Martin. Here’s one of the stories from SI.com on the whole NL catcher’s deal:

And how do the National League players snub Atlanta catcher Brian McCann, instead putting L.A’s Russell Martin in as rookie Geovany Soto’s backup? I love Martin and his game, and I’ll admit that this is a tough call. But you have to take McCann’s power over a few more walks, don’t you? Merit-wise, I mean?

Now they’re saying Mac got snubbed as a backup? Geez. He should be starting, end of story. At least he’s going period, I guess, but this makes three straight All-Star games for Mac in a row and it’s just his third full year in the majors. How awesome is that? I won’t get to watch either way because I’ll be camping at Hunting Island, SC all next week and won’t have access to a TV more than likely. Hopefully someone, somewhere will get some footage of Mac playing, if he even plays at all. Congrats Chipper and Mac, though, on receiving this chance to be in the Mid-Summer Classic at Yankee Stadium; it is very well deserved.

In other news, Frenchy has been recalled after spending three days in AA ball, after being sent down Friday to work on his swing. In this promotion of Frenchy, though, we’ve had to put more players on the DL. Bennett, Acosta, and Infante will be replaced on the roster by Frenchy, Vladimir Nunez, and Brent Lillibridge. The Braves will only play with eleven pitchers, but opted to promote another infielder because the All-Star break is only a week away. I’m sure they promoted Lillibridge because of Escobar’s recent injuries as well and uncertainty that he’ll play tonight, or in the event that he’s out a few more games than expected. Why is that when we finally get some players healthy and off the DL, we have a few more that have to be put on there from more injuries? It’s just unreal.

Trade rumors are starting to fly around about the Braves trading Teixshy. Here’s a take on this situation from John Donovan of SI.com:

With C.C. Sabathia now off the trade table after his weekend shipping to Milwaukee, we should probably turn our attention to the big slugger on the block, Mark Teixeira. Will someone be able to pry the switch-hitting first baseman away from the Braves for a pennant run? My guess: No. The Braves face the Dodgers and Padres before the All-Star Game, which means they’ll probably hit the break closer to the NL East lead than they are now (six games at the start of the week). With Teixeira, they have a chance at stealing the lackluster East. Without him, they have none.

My take is that we won’t trade him while only being six games back the week before the All-Star break. My hope is that we play well against these two West Coast teams and dwindle our way back toward the top of standings. But realistically, if we can take both series (4 of 6), that would be great. Hopefully we can feed off last night’s huge win and play some good baseball.

Yesterday couldn’t have gone more swimmingly. We beat the Mets twice in one day. How sweet is that? It’s nice we cut down our lead in the standings, but we still have two more games to play before this series ends. As we saw yesterday, Braves hitters acted like they actually had a clue at the plate with the timely hitting and smart baseball that they played. Where has this team been all year long? Patience is key at the plate. Yesterday proves that we are a much better hitting team when we don’t resort to flailing at every first pitch and are patient enough to work the count to tire the opposing pitcher. Plus it seems Teixshy and KJ have figured something out, which can only mean good things to come if they keep at it.

I once said on DOB’s Braves blog before when KJ was still struggling mightily in the leadoff role that moving him down in the lineup might help him improve. What response did I receive? That I didn’t know what I was talking about and that KJ should stay put and ”work out his slump in the leadoff spot.” Well, no offense, but I think he hit the nail on the head last night when he said that he had different situations in the bottom of the lineup and while trying to be more aggressive, he feels more comfortable there. He feels like he can do some damage rather than just work the count, see pitches, and get on base. Is KJ a decent leadoff hitter? Yes, he is, but there’s only so long you can try something one way and it not work. Try a different method and it just might click. He was pressing and trying too hard to get on base in the leadoff spot. His patience is probably the only leadoff characteristic that he possesses. He is a pull/power hitter and needs to be driving in runs, not trying to score them, even though his speed is an added bonus. My point is to keep KJ in the 7th spot, especially against the Mets.

Teixshy seems to be heating up and Frenchy is not. Teixshy was hitting all day long yesterday and in both games. Let’s hope this is the start of a really hot streak to make up for the lack of hitting he’s been doing lately. Bobby finally got off his high horse and let the 370-straight-game, right fielder sit out a game. I don’t expect Frenchy to ride the pine two games in a row, but lets hope if he is indeed back in the lineup tonight that the rest helped him out.

After last night’s collision, Escobar might be out, but no one really knows for how long. If Escobar does sit a few games, who will fill in for him? I’ve read Infante is probably our only option, unless we call someone up that probably won’t match Escobar’s production that he’s contributed so far this season. Let’s hope he’s only out for a game or two, but even that will put a hole in the leadoff spot and in defense at shortstop. Just a note on this from my viewing of the incident. I found it very admirable of Chipper to stay out on the field on one knee with the Mets’ medical staff, manager, etc. until Church was up and walking while the rest of our players went into the clubhouse. Just saying. You won’t hear any of the Mets’ fans talking about this, I’m sure.

Two games down, two more to go with the Mets. JJ is on the mound and will face Mike Pelfrey. Let’s keep it going boys and take the series at the very least.

This idea was actually thought out by DOB in his latest blog, since he thoroughly believes we won’t be able to sign Teixeira for $20 million+ per year. At first, my being partial to KJ kind of kicked in, and I was thinking, “he has got to be kidding.” But I read most of the blog, I could then see where he was coming from, and it is something to think about; it wasn’t actually that bad of an idea.

I’m not ruling out the possibilty that Teixeira will remain a Brave, because I really hope he does, but all things considered we shouldn’t really count on that happening until it actually does. I know Wren isn’t Scheurholz, but I’m not sure if we’re going to be able to pay that kind of money to retain him and his services. DOB’s comments are below:

And I’ll start by asking what you think of this idea: The Braves should re-sign Rafael Furcal as a free agent after this season. That suggestion was made to me by someone connected to the Braves (I’ll leave it at that; not going to tell you whether it was a player, coach, team official, etc). And it made me think.

 And I gotta say, much as I like Kelly Johnson’s potential as a hitter, the thought of Furcal and Yunel Escobar as a double-play combo and 1-2 combo at the top of the order is … well, wow.
Yes, your leadoff problem would be solved for, say, three years, if you could get Furcal to accept another contract as short as the one he signed with the Dodgers when he left Atlanta.

And you would have the best, most entertaining double-play combination in baseball with Furcal and Escobar at second base and shortstop, whichever way you want to arrange it.
It would probably cost you more than $15 million per for Furcal, but I have a very strong suspicion the Braves aren’t going to pay $20 mill a year for Teixeira. So “Fookie” could be your big-ticket free agent. Give him $16-17 mill a year, if that’s what it takes.

But here’s my own idea, and let me know what you think: Simply move Kelly over to first base. I don’t think he’s ever going to be a great second baseman, and he certainly has the athleticism to play first. And the power to be a 25-homer guy. I like his bat too much to move him (and he’s affordable for several years).

Kelly is a very good hitter with the potential to be a great hitter. If I were the Braves, I’d start planning now to move him to first base to take over for Tex. And I’d start feeling out Furcal and his agent about the possibility of coming home.

Folks, with Furcal, Escobar and Chipper in the first three spots in your lineup, you’d have the potential to have one of the most dynamic teams in the league. And like I said, the double-play combo would be worth the price of admission, with those two covering more ground than any other middle-infield pair in the league and possessing the best two infield arms in all of baseball, gunning down runners from everywhere. Think about it.

Am I the only one who thinks this idea is possibly a good idea? While you would have to figure that it would have to be decided who would be at SS and 2B between Furcal and Escobar, this would probably have to be on the shoulders of KJ since he’s transitioned so much already from SS to LF to 2B. But I think KJ would be for taking one for the team and up to playing 1B if it would make the team better overall. KJ’s not really one to complain and he’s said previously that he’d move wherever they needed him to better the team. KJ has said he likes the lead-off spot but would hit wherever they put him, but he’s not really a typical lead-off hitter and maybe would be better suited behind Mac and Frenchy in the lineup as another run producer. KJ’s athleticism might help him make the transition to 1B if he were to do so.

Again, I’m not trying to say I don’t want to keep Teixeira, but it is nice to have a plan B in case we can’t sign him to a deal. Keeping our in-house options and bringing in Furcal, if he’s not signed to an extension, would help us get another pitcher, which would make up for the loss of Glavine (and Hampton, but I won’t really count him yet) coming off the books next season. Smoltz is getting older and I’m not sure how effective Chuckie will be as a starter, but if we could get a decent free agent starter with maybe a little more experience and success than Jurrjens has had so far, we won’t have a gaping hole in the rotation. KJ will also be on the cheap next year as well, although he is arbitration eligible, I believe, he would still be a cheaper option than a good defensive 1B would be. Also, signing Kotsay to another year or two wouldn’t be that bad if he keeps up what he’s been doing so far and it turns out Schafer isn’t quite ready for the bigs yet. Just another thought.

Today we play start the Nats series of two games, who we’ve seen it seems like a hundred times already. Tim Hudson will face Matt Chico and if the offense keeps it up, we should pull out a win, or let’s hope so anyway. Let’s keep the streak alive as long as possible; the longer, the better. The key thing right now is to stop leaving 10-12 guys on base in games. That’s going to start costing us eventually. We need more timely hitting and hopefully even with Chipper day-to-day we can keep up the good offense.