Catcher’s Blog

Today I was sent an article in one of my alert e-mails from SI.com writer John Donovan and he brings up a good point about the NL East when he says it’s the toughest division in baseball. But this particular part caught my eye and I agree:

Right now, the Phillies are staggering. The Mets are playing their best ball of the year. The Marlins are sticking around. The Braves, the one-time king of the division, are … I don’t know. What the heck are the Braves doing?

Every Braves fan seems to be asking that very question to themselves and other Braves’ fans. What the heck are the Braves doing? This past series seemed to be looking good in the first game and that we were picking up where we left off before the break, with almost everyone contributing, getting hits, and stealing bases, but the last two games in the series were played by a completely different team altogether. I really don’t know an explanation for any of it. How do we play well the first game and then the last two we act like we have no clue as to what we’re even doing out on the field? How on earth do we let a last place and current worst in baseball team beat us like it was merely batting practice? And former cast-off Braves at that. And why in the world do we sit arguably our best hitter right now in Brian McCann, especially right after the All-Star break? I just do not get this team sometimes.

The AJC made a good point that Mac is playing with urgency and getting fired up when it seems no one else on the team will. I have noticed him playing with a lot more fire underneath him than the rest of the team seem to want to play with. I just don’t get why they don’t get it. Something needs to happen or we won’t even get a sniff of the post season. We’ll be sitting right at home like the past two years, watching other teams play in the post season. It’s just stupid. The team and players say they want to win and they say it’s frustrating to lose, but if we really wanted to win, we would find ways to do it. No matter what it took. I just don’t see us doing that at all. We seem like we’re playing because we have to and that’s not how it should be at all.

The next two series against the Marlins and Phillies will set the tone for the second half and if the Braves want a shot at the post season, they better start playing better baseball. No one is going to hand it to them or roll over and die. They need to play and they need to start to doing it now.

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.

Tonight kicks off a very crucial series in that we play the first place Phillies for three games. The Phillies have not had a great go at it lately, so this could be our chance to gain some ground on them. Will we sweep them? I doubt it, but it’s nice to think about. The Phillies can always find ways to knock the Braves around, no matter how bad the Phillies are playing. Sometimes we even help them do it, too, and that’s the sad part. I know half of our bench/team is out of commission right now, but hopefully we’ll get relief from somewhere. If we have good pitching and our offense is clicking on all cylinders, then we should have a pretty good chance. But since this isn’t always the case, we’ll just have to cross our fingers and hope for the best. Tonight Charlie Morton faces Kyle Kendrick in what should be a decent match-up.

We’re halfway through the season already and it doesn’t seem like we should be. Why does baseball season always go by really fast? With all that said, BravesBlast.com is doing a mid-season review series on the NL East. They started from the bottom and reviewed the lowly Nats, who no one seems to even remember exist unless they’re playing them. The review is pretty good and thorough, so I’d recommend reading it if you have any curiosity on what the Nats have (or don’t have) to offer right now. It’s not a bashing review either, it’s done in an unbiased point of view, which usually makes for a better read unless it’s something to do with the Braves.

While the first game of the Mariners’ series looked like it was going to result in a sweep by the worst team in baseball, we came back and won the last two in great fashion. Teixshy seems like he’s gaining confidence at the plate and all us fans really hope he is coming out of his long slump. We knew he started off slow, but we weren’t thinking it was going to end up being this slow. If he heats up, maybe he can make up for the absence of Chipper in the lineup and keep us going in a good direction.

And how awesome is Mac? He is single-handedly leading this team right now, while Chipper is out, with his awesomeness of a season he’s having. He’s up to 14 homers and he had only 18 total last season. He’s hit .300+ for most of the season and I think he’s only going to get better. He is catching a majority of the games and he will, but usually his second half is always better than his first. I don’t know how much better he could do than he is right now. He busts his butt out there every game he plays to try to help this team win and it shows. I’m not saying other players aren’t, but he’s out there every single day that he plays, every single inning giving 200%. I think he’s more of a leader than Frenchy at this point, since Frenchy is having some kind of funky time as of late or most of the year rather. Mac really does deserve to be the starting All-Star catcher.

Tonight the Brewers come in for three games. As you probably remember our first series against them in Milwaukee was not that great, having two one-run losses that were heart breakers and one lopsided-scoring game, which seems to be the norm with this team. Jo-Jo has pitched well his last few outings and if he can keep this up, good things are to come for him and the team. Hopefully he keeps it up again tonight against the Brewers ace, Ben Sheets, who is 8-1 with 2.74 ERA. If Jo-Jo pitches well and our offense shows up tonight, we should be able to get a win.

Tonight we start a six game homestand against the Seattle Mariners, who seemingly have it worse than we do right now, as they are 8.5 games back in the AL West. They just recently took the Mets lead and fired their manager, John McLaren, this week. Erik Bedard, who was supposedly the trade of the off season, behind the Johan Santana deal, hasn’t quite panned out to be the ace that the Mariners thought he might be for their club with a 4.15 ERA and 4-4 record. But while they’re in the midst of their own troubles, we have our own to worry about…still.

Erik Bedard will be facing off against the still surprisingly good Jorge Campillo. In fact, Campillo will be facing his former team tonight. Campillo has surprised everyone with how well he has pitched thus far; he sports a 2.17 ERA with a 2-1 record. Let’s hope he can keep up the good work. The game will be on Peachtree TV yet again, with coverage starting at 7:30 pm.

I have been lacking in posting this week, but it’s been due to my sinuses and my Internet wanting to be a pain in the butt. I just haven’t been up to making a post, but here it is. I hope this will change.