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Atlanta Braves 2013 Team Preview

March 22, 2013 by Leave a Comment

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Braves fans are in for a fun year. You have to admire this organization. Chipper Jones exits stage left as possibly the greatest Atlanta Brave ever. The organization waits just a few months and brings in Justin Upton, a kid that many scouts said would be the next Ken Griffey Jr. type player and added him to a lineup who scouts said would be the next Ken Griffey Jr. type player (Jason Heyward).

The Braves have had a recent string of postseason letdowns. The had the eventual champion Giants on the ropes in 2010 and let them off the hook. They’ve lost one-game playoffs in each of the last two years. Braves fans must feel like they’re a bit snake-bitten.

Major Off-season Moves:

  • Traded for Justin Upton and Chris Johnson (for Martin Prado and Randall Delgado)
  • Signed B.J. Upton
  • Signed Gerald Laird
  • Traded for Jordan Walden (for Tommy Hanson)
  • Chipper Jones retired
  • Michael Bourn, David Ross, Jair Jurrjens signed elsewhere

The Braves run their organization in a professional manner. They’re going to have a really successful season. I expect them to be in the market for a starting pitcher along with St. Louis. If they can shore up their starting rotation, this team is going to be one of the top teams in baseball. They might be anyways, but at the end of the day I like their division rival Washington’s starting pitching a bit more.

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Filed Under: 2013 Diamond Hoggers Season Previews, Atlanta Braves Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , ,

The Return of a Generational Superstar: Jason Heyward is Back

April 15, 2012 by Leave a Comment

When I woke up this morning I got an e-mail about my Jason Heyward Baseball-Reference page sponsorship expiring in 20 days.

In a year’s time, it seems like I was barely able to take solace in my own epitaph written on that page:

Every once in a while, we who follow the game of baseball are blessed with a generational talent of that era. This is that player.

And I could be wrong, but I think Heyward is back. Really back. Been to the lowest depths and didn’t know how good he had it once back. The wheels could still fall off just like they did after last April, but I think we’re seeing that crown jewel prospect who was once ranked ahead of Stephen Strasburg starting to become a force again.

I had the chance to scout Heyward’s at-bats all day long on MLB.tv. I made my wife mad because she couldn’t peel me away from the computer screen to put up an umbrella on our new porch table. I had to see his plate presence. I had to see what kind of pitches he was swinging at. And of course, what kind of results was he yielding.

In the first at-bat of Heyward’s game (a 7-4 win to complete an Atlanta sweep over the Milwaukee Brewers) he got Chris Narveson into a 3-1 count but just got jammed and flew out to center. He didn’t swing at any bad pitches. Next time up Heyward hit a towering home run off the lefty starter into the right field seats. It doesn’t look like line-drive power to me. He followed that by lining a 3-0 count rocket to left field off a lefty reliever and a walk off John Axford.

These 1 for 3 with a walk and an extra base hit are the types of games that you will take all day long from Heyward, or any young player trying to make his way back. Heyward looks like he’s onto something special again.

And those are really cool shoes to honor Jackie Robinson.

Filed Under: Atlanta Braves, Jackie Robinson, Milwaukee Brewers Tagged With: ,

Chipper on Jason Heyward: “He’s 90 Percent Back”

February 28, 2012 by Leave a Comment

The significance of us sponsoring Jason Heyward’s Baseball Reference page could mean only one thing: we felt that the man was a generational talent ready to blossom in front of our eyes last year.

He wasn’t just rewarded with our admonishment. There was another Opening Day home run. There were SportsCenter comercials. A twitter account created solely to track when he hits a home run. He became Nike’s new ‘Swingman’.

But then the struggles came, and the injuries lingered. Heyward’s sophomore campaign became one continuous desolate ruin.

By reading an article focused on the reconstruction of J-Hey by Paul Newberry, we learn that Chipper Jones seems to think the worst is behind Heyward.

“He’ll get it done. He’ll get it back. He’s 90 percent back,” Jones said.

I hope Chipper’s right. This guy has a chance to be the crown jewel of the entire league if he’s right. There’s some other interesting points in the write-up–like Heyward coming off a bit ‘snarky’ when asked about childhood memories of David Justice and Fred McGriff.

There’s also a bit where new Braves hitting coach Greg Walker mentions this:

“We went back and looked at 2010, when he was really good,” Walker said. “We said to him, ‘OK, this is what you did. You’ve done it before, so that’s you.’ We’re not trying to reinvent the wheel here. We’re not trying to change Jason Heyward. We’re trying to get him to maximize his potential. We showed him. We filmed him and showed him what he looks like now, and how he looked in 2010. He saw the difference. To be honest with you, we haven’t made a lot of changes. We’re just trying to clean him up and get him back to where he was.”

So if you’re keeping score at home, Greg Walker and the Braves do not want to change Jason Heyward. But they want him to hit like he did in 2010.This idea is absurd, because if you saw him at the plate for much of last year, of course the Braves would like to change Jason Heyward. But you must be careful with the treatment and wording of such things around young potential stars.

And my mind shifts back to that rumor we heard way back when–when someone had said that the legendary Bobby Cox had said that Heyward was like a Ferrari: you have to be careful with them, you don’t want to dent them.

Filed Under: Atlanta Braves, spring training Tagged With: , ,

Peter Gammons chats with Jason Heyward

January 31, 2012 by Leave a Comment

I like Peter Gammons, and I like Jason Heyward. Naturally, anytime anything occurs involving both of them and I run across it, that item will end up on this blog.

Had I not made the trip over to Baseball Musings today I would have missed this. Gammons wrote on MLB.com about Heyward’s injury affecting his swing last season.

In June, batting .234, Heyward went on the disabled list to try to rest and rehab his shoulder. At one point, Chipper Jones suggested Heyward might need to learn to play with pain, which was whispered behind the outfielder’s back, and in August, Heyward was struggling so badly that he played sparingly.

“I knew how I felt,” Heyward says. “I knew what I could and couldn’t do. My swing got altered. I changed my hands to make up for the shoulder by changing my base load approach, and that got me more out of line. I tried to slow down and regroup, but it never worked on a consistent basis. When things go the way they were going, it would have done no good to try to answer people, who are going to believe what they’re going to believe. It hurt me, because I love to play; I wanted to be in there every day and contributing. It would have accomplished nothing to get into some war of words. I just focused on doing the best I could do each day, and when the season ended get my shoulder healed.”

If you follow Heyward on Twitter, the guy has been working like an animal to get in great shape and I think he’s going to rebound in a big way in 2012. This is good–baseball gets back one of it’s blossoming young stars and I get a one of my keepers in my most important fantasy baseball leagues to contribute usefully once again. It’s win/win all over the place.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: ,

The Baseball Show: Introducing Tomahawk Take

November 9, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Last night on The Baseball Show, Mike Rosenbaum of The Golden Sombrero and M.J. Lloyd of Off Base Percentage discussed the following topics:

-Our involvement with Tomahawk Take on the FanSided Network.

-Thoughts on the Braves shortstop situation, minor league prospects, Jason Heyward, the Jair Jurrjens rumors, and the Braves rotation for next season.

-We offer our thoughts on Derek Lowe’s departure to Cleveland.

-We talk about early hot stove off-season activity: Grady Sizemore, Prince Fielder, Jose Reyes, Hanley Ramirez, Albert Pujols and many more free agents are discussed.

-We talk about the managerial possibilities around baseball: Sandy Alomar, Terry Francona, and Ryne Sandberg.

-We debate about the importance of a manager in the game of baseball today.

-Mike talks about Ozzie Guillen’s departure from the White Sox, along with thoughts on Robin Ventura.

-As always, much more is discussed.

Filed Under: The Baseball Show by Diamond Hoggers Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Jason Heyward’s homerless streak has ended (Braves win again)

July 2, 2011 by Leave a Comment

[Box Score]

[AJC]

The player we sponsor on Baseball Reference is not without homers as part of his game any longer. He didn’t hit any bombs in May. He didn’t hit any homers in June. But on July 1st, Jason Heyward lit up the skies like a firework and it was a legitimate bomb that put the Braves ahead 2-0 in the 6th inning. He’d add a single and score another run late in the game for good measure.

If Jason Heyward has the second half that we fully believe he is capable of having, he’s still got time to be a true MVP candidate if the Braves can run down the Phillies in the NL East. And it doesn’t really matter, because Atlanta is finally getting healthy and they’re playing great baseball.

Atlanta got a 1-hit shut out from Jair Jurrjens, the only hit against the Orioles being an Adam Jones single. Jurrjens will be in Arizona next week for the All Star Game. He’s 11-3 now with a 1.89 ERA. He might be the finest pitcher in all of baseball right now.

The Braves have a really, really nice nucleus right now. And Martin Prado is on the mend.

Filed Under: Atlanta Braves, Baltimore Orioles, Interleague Play Tagged With: ,

The Atlanta Braves are going to be alright

June 24, 2011 by 5 Comments

The Atlanta Braves sit at 43-33, 10 games over the .500 mark and four games behind the Philadelphia Phillies for the coveted first place spot in the NL East.

The Braves enter their three game weekend series in San Diego on the mend. And when these guys get fully healthy they’ve got the opportunity to be a downright scary squad.

They’ve weathered some tough storms in the early part of this season, and have still managed to play 10 games above .500 baseball. They’ve gotten barely anything out of Jason Heyward–who someday should evolve into the biggest prize in all of the game. It might not be this year, but it’s fair to expect that Heyward will perform better for the remainder of the year than he has so far. Another player who falls in that category is Dan Uggla, who has been way worse than his career norms.

If they can just remain reasonably healthy and continue to tread water at the current pace for a few more weeks, they’re going to get back Martin Prado and Tommy Hanson back by the middle of July. That’s when this team will open it’s sales and be running wide awake, we presume. By then, they could be the best all around team in baseball.

This squad is likable for many reasons.

One of those reasons? They’re our MLB: The Show ’11 team of choice (with the addition of Michael Bourn). Johnny Venters, Chipper Jones, Craig Kimbrel, Uggla, Heyward, Prado, Jordan Schaefer, Nate Mclouth, Brian McCann, the list goes on and on. It’s a nice nucleus they’ve compiled to run down those Phillies.

The Braves are going to be right the thick of things until the end of things. Count on it.

Filed Under: Atlanta Braves Tagged With: , , , , , , , , ,

Atlanta gets a huge lift from Brooks Conrad, Heyward looking good

June 17, 2011 by Leave a Comment

[Box Score]

[AJC Braves]
I listened to about 8 innings of this game on the MLB At-Bat Radio app while playing MLB the Show.

They’re calling him “Clutch Conrad” in Atlanta, but if Brooks Conrad keeps hitting bombs like this one I don’t know how you could possibly call him anything else.

K-Rod imploded and the Braves eventually won it in the bottom of the 10th inning to salvage one game in the series. Jason Heyward walked, singled twice, drove in a run and scored a run.

Chipper Jones also matched his career high with 5 RBI in this game including 3 hits and a home run, but left the game with a strained abductor muscle.

Filed Under: Atlanta Braves, bonus baseball, New York Mets Tagged With: , , ,

Jason Heyward is presumably returning to lineup tonight

June 15, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Jason Heyward sounds like his return from a fractured ego sore right shoulder will happen tonight at Turner Field, and to really make everything smoothed over; it’s his bobblehead night!

Heyward told a person close to him this morning that he’s feeling good and ready to return to the lineup. After two minor league rehab games with Triple-A Gwinnett up in Indianapolis, Heyward traveled back to Atlanta today. Heyward will likely take batting practice before the Braves make a final decision on activating him but he told this person his shoulder is feeling as good as it’s felt in a long time and he’s “ready to get back to the office.”

Yea, whatever. Let’s just hope he hits .260 or better with some pop so that he doesn’t need to go back on the DL for some type of imaginary injury that multiple MRI’s cannot detect. We knew we never should have sponsored his B-R page.

UPDATE (3:40 PM): David O’ Brien reports that Heyward is in the lineup, hitting 7th.

 

  • Heyward poised to return from DL on his bobblehead night [AJC]
Filed Under: Atlanta Braves, bobbleheads Tagged With: ,

Jason Heyward could return tomorrow

June 14, 2011 by Leave a Comment

There is a lot of excitement building with the possibility that Jason Heyward could return to the Atlanta Braves tomorrow. Heyward went 1 for 3 with a double, walk, and run scored for AAA Gwinnett last evening; and earlier in the week Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez speculated that it would be possible that Heyward would return as quickly as Wednesday or Thursday.

Coincidentally, tomorrow night is Jason Heyward bobblehead night at Turner Field.

Obviously if Heyward is back with the Braves tomorrow night (and I have one of my important fantasy lineups finally at near full-strength for the first time since the season began) we all owe a serious assist to Chipper Jones.

Whether Heyward was genuinely hurt badly–or just being extra cautious–we fall in the category of the casual fan that just enjoys baseball more when he’s playing right field for the Braves. Hopefully he’s just back on the field and being a full-fledged 21 year old OPS machine by the weekend at the latest.

Filed Under: Atlanta Braves, injuries Tagged With:

Brian McCann saves the Braves

May 18, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Brian McCann had the big moment yesterday, as Wandy Rodriguez had shut the Braves down for 8 innings. In the 9th inning with two outs, Mcann pinch hit and homered off Astros closer Mark Melancon. This tied the game at 1-1 and sent the game into extra innings.

In the 11th inning, McCann homered again off Jeff Fulchino to give the Braves a 3-1 walkoff victory at Turner Field. This also happened to be a game in which Jason Heyward (1 for 3, two walks) and Chipper Jones (1 for 5) returned from injury. The Braves now head out to Arizona to play a Diamondbacks team that plenty of teams are making hay against. This is a time in which the Braves can really make a move in the NL East.

Early in the season I heard a fair share of Atlanta Braves fans say that they didn’t think that they could catch the Phillies so they were actually rooting for the Phillies if the Phillies’ opponent was anyone that could be considered a threat in the Wild Card race. With the way Philadelphia is having trouble scoring runs, and the fact the surging Braves are just 1 and 1/2 games behind the leaders of the division with Florida sandwiched in between.

Filed Under: Atlanta Braves, bonus baseball, Houston Astros, walk off wins Tagged With: , , , , ,

Jason Heyward to get MRI on shoulder

May 11, 2011 by Leave a Comment

And who didn’t see this one coming? I certainly did.

I love Jason Heyward. I think his talent is other-worldly. But every time this guy goes into a slump, the organization and he come out and deflect it towards an injury. This was predictable.

Heyward’s been terrible in May, going just 2-for-28 while his batting average plummeted from .263 to .220 in the span of just nine games. Heyward told O’Brien the shoulder has really affected him, saying, “It hasn’t felt good, really, for any consistent period of time. I tried to play through it.”

I just don’t know about this. Somehow I think if he had a few multi-hit games mixed in there, it wouldn’t have been mentioned. But I knew if Heyward didn’t start stringing some hits together soon, someone would leak that it’s an injury that’s actually behind the hollow numbers. I didn’t know if it would be his back, or his legs, or what it would be. But I knew it would be something.

As much as I love watching Heyward play, this is the one knock I have on him. He is so very fragile. And there’s nothing worse than a guy who is always hurt. And if you’re keeping score at home, you can add Heyward to the list of guys who are burying one of my most important fantasy teams. This year been unreal in terms of bad luck in fantasy baseball.

Filed Under: Atlanta Braves, injuries Tagged With:

Jason Heyward’s Sportcenter Commercial

May 2, 2011 by 1 Comment

You gotta love this guy. He really is the Ken Griffey Jr. of my kids era (I still need to have a kid though).

Filed Under: ESPN Biases Tagged With:

We are the official sponsor of Jason Heyward B-R Page

May 2, 2011 by Leave a Comment

We’re happy to be the sponsor of the J-Hey Kid’s B-R page. Because you see, we’ve always wanted to sponsor a B-R page. We’ve been using the site since back in 2002 when in college we would be late to class because we were checking old Lou Gehrig game logs. To this day, we’re still addicts for Baseball Reference and who better to be our first guy that we sponsor?

Like we told someone the other day, Heyward reminds us so much of growing up watching Ken Griffey Jr., sometimes when he’s at the plate it’s like its the summer of 1993 all over again and we’re 11 years old.

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With:
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