Catcher’s Blog

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.

This is my review post on the Braves vs. Marlins game from August 28, 2008. The link to all the pictures will be below the review since there are 85 pictures; it would take too long to include all of them in the post. Some are linked in the post, though. Please continue reading if you wish.

Read the rest of this entry »

Sorry for the lack of posts everyone. Again, I’ve been lazy or busy doing school-related things. Or there’s also the fact that we can’t win a game now it seems. But other than that, I will post my game review of the 28th game vs. the Marlins probably tomorrow or Wednesday. It’s not as in-depth as some of the past reviews I’ve written, but it works. I also got a few autographs and pictures after the game before they left for Washington, and that’s in the post as well.

I don’t usually post site updates on blogs, but since I’m posting, I might as well include that I revamped the layout a little bit. Not much, but I did make another header and changed a few of the colors up a bit. I really love how the header came out, with its abstract feel. I will admit that I sort of followed a tutorial for some of it, but still. The picture of Mac is actually a picture I took at the game on the 28th. I added that to give it more depth and a more Catcher’s Blog feel. He adds more to the graphic.

Another note while I’m posting randomly in the middle of the night, I will be going to last home game on September 21st against the Mets. We’ll be sitting in section 117, row 8; I purchased the tickets this past weekend. It’s never too early for a good deal on tickets. Seriously, StubHub is like one of the best places to buy Braves tickets.

So today is a much-needed off day for our struggling Braves. I’m not sure that having an off day will do much of anything, but what could it hurt? Like the Braves play lately, I’ve been lazy and unenthusiastic about posting, mainly because I didn’t really want to focus on how bad things have become. So I won’t. I’ll make this a “good” post.

TalkingChop has been covering the September call-ups and with September just a few days away, I thought I’d link to those good posts. It’s a three-part series with hitters, pitchers, and roster fitting, but it’s a good read. Something to take your mind off the sting of the terrible games lately. Part one, part two, part three.

Also, I wanted to mention that I’ll be venturing to Atlanta to Thursday’s game against the Marlins. Hopefully it won’t be as bad as I’m thinking. The Marlins are off their game a bit lately and Charlie Morton is pitching against Anibal Sanchez. Hopefully this will be one of his good days. *crosses fingers* Anyway, I’ll be making a post this weekend on the game with pictures. Be on the lookout for that.

Kotsay cleared waivers, but a good bit of teams are supposedly interested in taking on his services, according to MLBTR and Ken Rosenthal.

Somewhat surprising new addition to our cleared waivers list - Braves center fielder Mark Kotsay.  Apparently a number of teams are interested in the resurgent Kotsay, though not enough to take on his remaining salary.

Mark Kotsay - Ken Rosenthal says he cleared and a number of teams are interested. Kotsay clearing is a bit of a surprise since the A’s are paying most of his salary. Kotsay can block trades to eight teams. The center fielder is having a nice comeback season with a .782 OPS in 324 plate appearances.

I’m pretty sure teams don’t want to have to pay his salary, but the A’s are footing over half of it. I really like Kotsay, though, but I think that while we are planning to acquire a power-hitting outfielder, someone needs to go at some point. It would be better to trade Kotsay before the season ends so that we can at least get a decent return, as he will be a free agent and we will probably get a supplemental draft pick from someone signing him, if at all, like we did last year for Ron Mahay. But that is if someone takes a chance on him, like we did this year, and signs him in the off season. I think a team will be in desperate need of a center fielder that is still in contention and we will trade him for the right offer.

Also, as we’ve already heard from many places, the Braves are looking to add a top-of-the-line starter next year.

The Braves nearly acquired Jason Bay in July, and will be in the market for a slugging outfielder this winter.  They’ll also be looking for a quality starter, likely in the Ryan Dempster/A.J. Burnett/Jon Garland range.  Click here to browse the free agent market.

I’m sure that we will go for at least one top starter, but I’m not so sure about Ryan Dempster, though. Maybe it’s just me, but he’s been a closer/reliever for a few years and he has been good this year as a starter. But to me, he’s been on a team that has no trouble scoring runs or winning ballgames. He may not be as good on another team, but I’m no expert. I could see us getting Ben Sheets or John Lackey maybe, and even Jon Garland, but I’m not sure about Dempster being so top-of-the-line like the other pitchers we have interest in.

And another note: Jo-Jo is making the start tomorrow in Glavine’s spot. This could be good or bad, but we’ll see.