I'm in the middle on Castro. He is young and he -could- develop more. Do I think he should have gotten that extension? Heck no. Frankly I'm hoping it falls through somehow. We have him for another year at league minimum, and three more years of arbitration. If he hasn't developed by then, he probably won't. This is a huge gamble and one I don't like. I would have expected this from Hendry, not Theo.
The biggest knock on Reyes from what I remember is that he couldn't stay healthy. A tweaked hammy turned out to be a season long stint on the DL. When he was in the lineup, he usually was pretty good. I'm jealous of you going to see a minor league ballgame. It's like the 2000 Mets reunion from the sounds of it. I live 20 minutes from a minor league park and haven't been to a game all year, I suck.
Well it might just be a better negotiation position to deal with this year while he has been kind of down. Theo is assuming that he will improve and if he ends up with some type of breakout contract year farther down the road like most guys do then he will have more power at the table. It is definititely a risk and I agree it is not typical Epstein behavior.
If you look at Jose Reyes Average and On Base the first few years, people would lament about him being a lead off batter. Look at the number of walks. In 2005 & 2006 he ONLY had 27 & 53. Thats 27 walks with him playing 161 games, almost 700 at bats. He batted .273 with an OBP of .300 and he also committed 18 errors. They would wonder about his base running and fielding mental errors, which he would happen often. YEARâ–² TEAM LG LEVEL G AB R H TB 2B 3B HR RBI BB IBB SO SB CS AVG OBP SLG OPS GO/AO 2004 NYM NL MLB 53 220 33 56 82 16 2 2 14 5 0 31 19 2 .255 .271 .373 .644 1.04 2005 NYM NL MLB 161 696 99 190 269 24 17 7 58 27 0 78 60 15 .273 .300 .386 .687 1.07 2006 NYM NL MLB 153 647 122 194 315 30 17 19 81 53 6 81 64 17 .300 .354 .487 .841 1.14 2007 NYM NL MLB 160 681 119 191 287 36 12 12 57 77 13 78 78 21 .280 .354 .421 .775 0.87 2008 NYM NL MLB 159 688 113 204 327 37 19 16 68 66 8 82 56 15 .297 .358 .475 .833 0.98 2009 NYM NL MLB 36 147 18 41 58 7 2 2 15 18 1 19 11 2 .279 .355 .395 .750 0.80
Braves definitely need to sweep the Nationals over the next three games. If they fall behind the gNats anymore, they're going to be out of the race for the division lead quickly.
Yeah, at least the Braves miss Gio and Lannan. Those lefty's always give the Braves fits. They can actually hit Strasburg. Need some more offense than was shown in that LA series. I feel bad for Minor, the guy is really stringing together some starts but they have decided he is the guy they will score absolutely zero runs for. I'm liking the six man rotation so far.
Starbreaker, I ment to ask you this. With the year that Chipper is having, pretty good numbers and relatively healthy. I know he has been taking his retirement tour, but do you think there is a chance he will come back next year?
I know you asked Starbreaker but as another Braves fan of 25 years I can safely say that he will be done this year. As good as he is he still has to take every third day off. I'd love it but it's the offseason training and pre-season stuff that makes Chipper not want to come back. I remember him saying that it gets harder every year to do that and that it has taken its toll. I sure would love to be wrong though.
^ Plus, with the year he's having, and his recent history of injury, it would be great for him to go out on top. Or at least to go out on a good note, comparatively.
He's said he wants to go out on his own terms and that there is no chance of him coming back. He's already gotten a whole bunch of third bases from different ball parks, been on video boards, etc. I think it would be embarrassing for him to decide he wants to play again now. He's only playing about 75% of the time as it is. His knees are really shot. If the Braves were in the American League, I would say he would want to play DH. An interesting note, he was never a free agent in his entire career.
On another note... what the heck is Roger Clemens even thinking? He signed on with an independant team in the Houston area. Is he desperate for some positive press coming off the steroid hearings or does he really think the Astros would give him a contract for the rest of the season? Heck, they might.. it would put people in the seats at the very least. Not like there's much else for them to talk about this season. Though it would screw up his HoF eligibility.. though I think he's gonna get the steroid era treatment that McGwire and Palmeiro have.
Yeah, for some reason the *great players never seem to go out well do they. Maybe this is just a love of the game kind of thing. * denotes steroid riddled greatness.
I don't think we'll see him on the field for a few years. He'll probably get a special adviser to the general manager position and have an involvement at home games.
He's going in in five years no matter what. 1999 MVP 8-time All-Star, 1615 RBIs (31st all time) 467 HRs (32nd) 546 doubles (27th) 4726 Total Bases (30th) .3044 average No links to steroids
Sorry, I though we were talking about Clemens' comeback. I think it could be part of a gimmick for him to drum up some new support since he has been "absolved" of perjury so to speak. As for Chipper, first ballot no doubt about it. Last night was a dagger for the Bravos by the way. The Nationals just give them fits for some reason. I hate playing them. I'm worried about the wild card format this year. The Braves don't really have that "ace" that you rely on for a must win. They will probably run Hudson out there and it will be a crap shoot with the Bucs.