El Oso Blanco

Evan Gattis. We’ve all heard his name in the Braves organization for a couple of years now and this season he is making a name for himself in the MLB. Gattis currently leads MLB Rookies in home runs and RBIs, six and fourteen respectively, and is third in SLG % at .556. While all these numbers are great and are helping the Braves to this fast start, it is his life story that is getting so much coverage. It seems like you can’t sit though one inning of a Braves game without Chip or Joe saying something about what a great story it is or how he has come so far. Forbes.com even named Evan Gattis the, “Best Story in Baseball’s Early Season.”

Gattis was a highly sought after high school baseball prospect that was committed to Texas A&M but never showed up to school. He struggled with depression as well as alcohol and drug problems, marijuana. He served a short stint in rehab and then moved to Colorado to work as a ski lift operator, a cart boy at a golf course, and as a janitor. He also sought out different types of spiritual guidance which lead him back to baseball. He went on to be drafted by the Braves after one season at a community college and the rest is history.

His perseverance is a great story and I am rooting for the guy to succeed. People need to hear about how he worked hard to straighten out his life and find his true love again, baseball. However, the way this is being portrayed is outrageous. He wasn’t addicted to hardcore drugs and alcohol like Josh Hamilton. He didn’t fight some terrible disease as a child or even battle cancer like Jon Lester. Gattis just went through what a majority of 18 year olds go through. Depression is a common thing for 18 years olds graduating high school. Moving onto college is a big step in a young person’s life and I know I was depressed during that whole first semester at college.

Good for him to get help with the weed and alcohol problems he thought he was developing. Lots of people have these problems and never do anything about them so I cannot knock him for bettering himself at all.

I find it fun how people talk about his past jobs so much. It’s like they have never worked meaningless, minimum wage jobs before in their lives. Who hasn’t worked jobs like that before? I know I have. That’s the only kind of work I can find. I’ve worked at a golf course; I’ve farmed in a radioactive soil plot; I’ve cleaned ballpark bathrooms. I know plenty of people who have moved to Colorado just to work at ski lodges so what is so bad about that job? Sounds like fun to me. Sounds like Gattis was just living the young man’s dream life. Granted I don’t know how serious his alcohol and drug problems were, everything else sounds like he was just enjoying life to me. Everybody at some point in their lives has worked a meaningless job just waiting for their opportunity to do what they truly love.

Gattis is getting his shot to do what he loves at 25 and good for him, but there are plenty of other people his age and older that have not gotten they’re shot yet and you never hear about them. All I want is for all these TV announcers and writers to put Gattis’ story into perspective. He has overcome some hurdles, but they are not anything more than the normal 25 year old college student goes through.

References:

http://mlb.mlb.com/stats/sortable_rookie.jsp?c_id=mlb

http://www.forbes.com/sites/monteburke/2013/04/13/atlanta-braves-catcher-evan-gattis-is-the-best-story-in-baseballs-early-season/

Why Macon Needs Baseball- Part One

Have you ever heard of Luther Williams Field in Macon, GA? Probably not, unless you are from the Middle Georgia area. Luther Williams is a minor league stadium in the heart of downtown Macon, GA that was built in 1929. Luther Williams seats 3,500 spectators and is the second oldest minor league stadium in the country, though it is not currently in use by any teams.

Many summer league and independent league teams have called it home over the last decade including the Macon Music and the Macon Pinetoppers, but the last minor league team to call it home was the Macon Braves. The Braves were the Single-A affiliate of the Atlanta Braves and operated in Macon from 1991-2002 then they moved to Rome, GA.

Luther Williams has seen many famous and Hall of Fame baseball players play on its field including Pete Rose, Ty Cobb, and Braves greats such as Chipper Jones and Andruw Jones. The stadium has also played the part in a few movies including “The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars & Motor Kings” (1976), “Trouble with the Curve” (2012), and “42” (2013).

Reed Johnson is the only player on the Atlanta Braves roster that played in Luther Williams back in 2000 for the Hagerstown Suns (TOR). However, almost every coach has either played or coached in Macon. Current pitching coach, Roger McDowell squared off against the Macon Peaches (DET) as a player for the Shelby Mets (NYM) in 1982. Braves’ manager Fredi Gonzalez played against the Macon Pirates (PIT) during the 1983-1984 seasons as a member of the Greensboro Hornets (NYY). Carlos Tosca, Braves current bench coach since 2010, was his manager at the time.  Scott Fletcher, Braves assistant hitting coach since 2012, was the Charleston River Dogs (TB) manager in 1997. Brian Snitker, 3^rd base coach since 2007, began his coaching career in the Braves minor league system, but later went on to manage at every level of the organization including the Macon Braves in 1992, 1997-1998.

Recently, minor league stadiums are starting to look like Major League stadiums with big, beautiful brick walls, crazy concession stand food, and luxury suites. When I was in college it was preached that Minor League Baseball was supposed to be family friendly. The teams should want to attract families and “make mom happy.” Suites are unnecessary at minor league stadiums. There are plenty of other ways to welcome groups, show sponsors a great time, and provide top of the line services. Here are the changes I think Luther Williams needs:

1. An electronic scoreboard. Trust me from experience, while the manual score is fun and gives you that feeling of watching a game in the old days, certain improvements are just necessary.

2. Some kind of TV board to broadcast replays, lineups and stat lines.

3. Modern improvements to the press box. That catwalk is scary.

4.  A really good lawn maintenance guy. For the field being almost 100 years old it looks great, however, if a minor league team is going to be playing on the field it needs to look a lot better.

5.  Improved picnic area. This is where groups and sponsors can be shown the VIP treatment.

6. Basic updates to the locker rooms.

7. Basic updates to the offices. These are rough and definitely need A/C.

If you have other suggestions please make them. This is a topic I am very passionate about and I really want to see baseball in Macon again. I will continue with this topic later with more information on what happened and why the Braves left.

TO BE CONTINUED...

I'm Sorry Huddy!

So I completely jinxed Tim Hudson the other day. I jumped the gun on number 200 so this post is just an apology to him. Good luck today Hudson.

The Bulldog

Tim Hudson is on the verge of a huge career milestone as he takes the mound tonight against the Pittsburgh Pirates. Hudson is looking for career win number 200. As of right now Hudson has a career record of 199-104, a career ERA of 3.41 and 1,814 strikeouts. Hudson ranks third among all active pitchers in wins and winning percentage and eighth in strikeouts.

Winning % Active Leaders             Active Leaders in Wins

Roy Halladay	.662		Andy Pettitte	247
Jered Weaver	.658		Roy Halladay	200
Tim Hudson	.657		Tim Hudson	199
Justin Verlander	.656		CC Sabathia	193
CC Sabathia	.652		Mark Buehrle	175
			Derek Lowe	175

2013 marks Hudson’s 15^th season in MLB, six with the Oaklands A’s and nine with the Braves. Hudson was 92-39 with the A’s and is currently 107-65 with Atlanta. Hudson has earned six Opening Day starts (3 with the Braves and 3 with the A’s), is a three time All-Start (2000,’04,’10) and the 2010 NL Comeback Player of the Year. Hudson is so consistent that he has never had a losing record in any of his first 14 seasons and has only lost double digit games three times.

Tim Hudson played baseball at Auburn University from 1996-1997.  In 1997, Hudson went 15-2 with a 2.97 ERA, hit .396 from the plate, led the Tigers to the College World Series, and was named an All-American as well as the SEC Player of the Year. Hudson’s name can still be found near the top of most significant records, both pitching and hitting, in the Auburn baseball record book including number one in career average strikeouts per nine innings (11.89) and number two in both Hits (108)and RBIs (95) in a single season.

Hudson was not projected to play in the majors because of his bat but because he understood how to get batters out through accurate command of his split finger pitch and sinker. The A’s took Hudson in the 6^th round of the 1997 MLB draft. Time made the slow climb up through the minor leagues until finally earning his first start with the A’s on June 8^th, 1999 against the San Diego Padres. Hudson earned a no decision in five innings of work while allowing seven hits, four walks and three earned runs. However, the most impressive stat about his start was striking out eleven Padre batters. Hudson was one strikeout away from tying an 84-year-old record for most strikeouts in an American League debut set by Elmer Myers of the Philadelphia A’s in 1915. Hudson continued to pitch well and with help from the likes of Barry Zito, Mark Mulder, and Jason Isringhausen, they led the A’s to four consecutive ALDS appearances (2000-2003).

Hudson was then traded to the Atlanta Braves for a handful of minor leaguers to help strengthen the starting rotation. Hudson was the veteran in Oakland but made it to Atlanta in time to learn from true veterans like John Smoltz and Mike Hampton as well as see the growth of future stars like Brian McCann, Jeff Francoeur, and Adam LaRoche.

Since the first start in 1999 to today, Hudson is still as dominant as ever. Hudson has learned that you don’t have to strike out every batter. A fly ball or ground ball still goes in the scorebook as an out just the same as a K and with the 2013 season under way simple philosophies like this will be important to a young starting staff. With Hudson’s experience and the arm strength of young guns like Kris Medlen and Mike Minor, the Braves are poised to make a run at not only a Nation League Pennant, but a World Series Championship this season. 

References:

Baseball-reference.com

Baseballalmanac.com

Auburn Baseball Media Guide, http://grfx.cstv.com/photos/schools/aub/sports/m-basebl/auto_pdf/2012-13/misc_non_event/13-fact-book.pdf

An Influx of Catchers

Brian McCann, Evan Gattis, Christian Bethancourt, Gerald Laird. This lineup has it all and most of them are capable of 30 home runs, 100’s of RBIs, silver slugger awards, and  All-Star Game appearances, but what does one team do when they have all these names on their 40 man roster?

The Braves will be dealing with this problem within the next month. McCann is on the verge of starting his minor league rehab assignments after offseason shoulder surgery to repair a tear in his labrum. McCann has been the face of the Braves organization and everybody knew he was destined to be the back stop for many years ever since we all saw that picture of him as a child with John Smoltz. However, age and injury are starting to take their toll on number 16.

If you take a look around baseball you will see a new philosophy on how teams are dealing with keeping their young catcher prospects healthy. Buster Posey, for example, platoons at first for approximately 30 games a season. This keeps his bat in the lineup and saves his knees. This transition for catcher to first is an easy one because let’s be honest, first base isn’t the hardest position on the field and defiantly one of the least stressful. Don’t worry this will all come together in the end.

Evan Gattis is a great story and I’ve been high on this guy since he first burst onto the scene with the Rome Braves (.322, 22 HRs, 71 RBIs) in 2011. In 2012, he destroyed people in Lynchburg. In 21 games before his call up to Mississippi, Gattis was batting .385 with 9 HRs and 29 RBIs. Gattis then moved on to AA where he was slowed by injury but still managed to hit a respectable .258 with 9 HRs and 37 RBIs. Gattis truly earned his spot on the opening day roster this season after a great spring and if the fans had a vote for the final spot on the roster, no doubt would it have gone to Gattis.

Christian Bethancourt, this is a name you’ve been hearing and reading about for a couple years now as, “the Braves catcher of the future”. Well is the future here now? I think not, at least not yet. With McCann out, I thought this spring was Bethancourt’s chance to make the roster, but Gattis really showed up. Everybody raves about Bethancourt’s defensive prowess but his downfall is his bat. Have the rules changed? Does the National League have the DH now and I missed something? The Braves already have one person in the lineup nightly that can't hit, the pitchers; they really don’t need a second. Have you seen this lineup right now? Crazy strong. I also seem to remember another catcher a few years ago coming up that had the same hype by the name of Jarrod Saltalamacchhia. He played well when he was called up but ended up being expendable because of McCann. Though the rent-a-player rarely works, the Braves did get Mark Teixeira at the time and he had the potential to really help the Braves, much more then Salty could have by sitting on the bench or playing in Gwinnett.

Gerald Laird was signed in the off season after David Ross departed for Bean town. And can I just say congratulations to Ross. He deserves every dollar the Red Sox are willing to pay him. Laird is that veteran backstop that every team is looking for. He brings years of knowledge and postseason experience to a very young team. However, he is not a power hitting catcher by any means. His best offensive season was 2007 when he produced 9 HRs and 47 RBIs.

Obviously, Bethancourt can take some time and continue to develop in the minors. Perhaps his bat will come around, but I feel unless Gattis just falls off the face of the earth and can't hit the broad side of a barn anymore or forgets how to catch the ball, Bethancourt is expendable in the long run and can be great trade bait for a position Atlanta may need in the future; Possibly an everyday third baseman or a starter if injuries do arise.

Once McCann is back to big league form, there will be some decisions to be made but everything tends to work itself out. Maybe Laird isn’t producing at all, maybe McCann doesn’t quite trust his shoulder with every swing, and maybe Gattis’ bat slows. Only time will tell but once September rolls around, I can’t see the Braves holding on to three catchers, so there will be a battle for the backup spot between Laird and Gattis. Do you want experience or youth and power?

Clearly, after the season it comes down to three players, McCann, Gattis, and Bethancourt. But you might not have thought of the fourth person who will have a lot to say about this catcher’s debate, Freddie Freeman.

With players like Jason Heyward, Craig Kimbrel and Kris Medlen almost guaranteed to get paid handsomely within the next two seasons, someone like Freddie Freeman maybe be the odd man out. The 2014 roster is going to come down to production this season for Freeman and McCann. If the Braves decide McCann’s bat and leadership is priceless, than Freeman might not be in a Braves uniform next season and McCann better start working on his footwork at first, otherwise McCann’s Burgers will be making a move to a new stadium. The Braves aren’t known for paying bench players millions so I can't see them keeping Freeman as the younger version of Eric Hinske.

Regardless of who is behind the plate or standing at first next season, the one thing you have to remember is the days of players like Chipper Jones, Craig Biggio, and Ozzie Smith being the face of an organization are coming to an end. Baseball is in the business of winning and every team has to put itself into the best possible position to win every day.

References:

 http://www.spotrac.com/mlb/atlanta-braves/

http://www.baseball-reference.com/

Who's Sold on the Upton's??

Now that we are halfway through the first month of the season, I think there’s no better time to start asking the question, “Who’s sold on the Upton brothers?”

Coming into spring training, I’ll be honest, I didn’t like the signing of BJ or the trade for Justin. I felt the Braves gave BJ too much money and gave up way too much for Justin; Although some of this is biased since Prado was my favorite Braves player.  Kris Medlen, now you the man.

With all the information that came out stating Bourn was asking for too much money (somewhere around $70 million) and the Braves couldn’t afford him (ended up signing for $48 million with the Indians), I didn’t understand why they signed BJ for 5 years/ $75.25 million. And don’t even start with the Scott Boras talk. I know who he is and what he does with his clients; let’s keep this strictly about money and stats. Unless I was taught how to count wrong, isn’t 75 more than 70 and definitely more than 48? I know BJ is two years younger, but has 30 and 28 years old made a lot of difference to center-fielders in baseball? This isn’t a running back in the NFL we are talking about. If you want to go along with how they measure a pitchers career, check out the difference in innings. That’s staggering for a younger player.

Here are BJ and Bourns’ career stats:

Michael Bourn                                    BJ Upton

   8 seasons                                                         9 seasons

BA: .273                                                            BA: .254

OBP: .339                                                          OBP: .335

Hits: 835                                                           Hits: 917

2B: 129                                                            2B: 204

3B: 46                                                              3B: 20

HR: 24                                                               HR: 119

RBI: 217                                                             RBI: 449

R: 466                                                                 R: 543

SB: 277                                                             SB: 235

BB: 298                                                              BB: 434

K: 688                                                                 K: 1,034

Innings: 6,652.0                                                      Innings: 7,130.2

Now for Justin, what he is doing for the Braves right now is insane and who doesn’t love it, but we all know baseball is 162 games and it will not stay like this all season. We can hope though, right? Maybe for an 11 game run in the playoffs? He is going to slump and hit somewhere near .270 and at some point this season he will have terrible games and terrible at-bats where you won’t even recognize him at the plate.

Yes, we needed a third baseman to replace the great #10, but was Prado a necessary sacrifice? When was the last time you’ve seen a player willing to play any position, hit in any spot in the lineup, and be great in the clubhouse? Did you ever hear about Prado not hustling to first base and being pulled out of a game by Bobby or Fredi, not trying hard enough for a fly ball or even criticizing his ownership for not adding enough to his team to win? Let me answer that for you. NO, but other people mentioned in my rant were. All he did everyday was work his butt off to give the Braves a fighting chance at the playoffs.

Prado has gone above and beyond for the Braves since his call up in 2006. He deserves to get paid, not sent to the Diamondbacks like a homeless person being turned away from the soup kitchen. Plus didn’t Chipper’s retirement open up millions of dollars to share the wealth?

My biggest complaint, at the time, about these acquisitions was the saying, “The Upton’s add power from the right side in a left-handed heavy lineup.” By all means they do and clearly they have (Justin with 7 HR’s through 12 games), but wasn’t the signing of Dan Uggla after the 2010 season supposed to take care of that? They paid this “power hitting righty” $62 million for 5 years and what has his production looked like? Well here let me show you:

Dan Uggla’s two worst seasons (‘07 & ‘09) in Florida/ Dan Uggla in Atlanta

‘07 & ‘09 seasons combined                vs.                Two Seasons in Atlanta

                                 BA: .244                                                                       BA: .227

                                 OBP: .340                                                                  OBP:   .330

                                 SLG: .469                                                                   SLG: .418

                                  H: 292                                                                          H: 255

                                 RBI: 178                                                                      RBI: 160

                                  R: 197                                                                          R: 174

                                 HR: 62                                                                          HR: 55

                                 BB: 160                                                                        BB: 156

                                  K: 317                                                                          K: 324

So what I’m trying to say is the Braves paid for a 30 HR per year average hitter, on his down years, mind you, and what we got in return is a player whose stats look like that of a 40 year old at the tail end of a mediocre career.

While I love the Braves ownership group spending money like I’ve never seen before, I would like to see more results and higher averages. If the Braves were dead set on acquiring the Upton brothers, I feel something should have been done with Uggla. I know his trade value wasn’t/ isn’t high. Hell, there probably wasn’t any. However, I am hoping that these brothers will light a fire under ole Danny boy’s ass and he will realize he needs to either step up or get out of the way.

Granted, after all this, I am slowly coming around to the Upton’s. I am just not trying to get wrapped up in this amazing start. As the saying goes, “Every team in baseball will win and lose 60 games; it is the other 40 that decide the outcome of your season.” Both brothers are playing well and hopefully will help Heyward lead Atlanta through a great run, including the playoffs, ultimately culminating in a World Series.

References:

All Statistical information was researched and acquired from http://www.baseball-reference.com/

Some numbers were calculated on a good old fashioned calculator.