Thursday, March 31, 2011

The Braves Blog: 2011 Opening Day

New Year’s Day

First Things First: A Word about the Old Man

Robert Cox moved down from the front office to the dugout midway through the 1990 season. At that point in time, the Atlanta Braves were a joke. Cox’s move to manager didn’t seem to help much that year, as the team finished with the worst record in baseball, 65-97, and 26 games out of 1st. It was the 7th consecutive losing season for a team that had still never won a playoff game since moving to Atlanta in 1966. On October 3rd, they lost their final game of the season, and as usual the postseason would begin without them, as it had in 23 of their 25 seasons in Atlanta. Two days later, my little brother Jack was born at St. Joseph’s Hospital. The next time the Braves missed out on the postseason, my brother was 16 years old.

I will miss Bobby. I will miss the steadiness he brought to the franchise. I will miss the way he stood up for his players. I will miss the way he fought for every pitch. I will miss him yanking off his hat when an ump missed a pitch. I will miss him trotting out onto the field to speak for the rest of us. I will miss the way his players thought about him and played for him. I will miss his loyalty. I will always miss the way he cheered and rooted on his players, the way we all do at home. That’s what I’ll miss the most: that he cared as much as I did. He left the team in good hands, but it will never be quite the same without Mr. Cox.

A Good Start to a New Beginning

It’s only been a few months since the Freddy Gonzalez era began. We haven’t even played an official game yet. But I have to say, I like the way he has handled things so far. I was surprised and delighted the way the final opening day roster ended up. In case you missed it, here’s the 25-man squad the Braves will start the 2011 campaign with.

Starting Position Players

C Brian McCann

1B Freddy Freeman

2B Dan Uggla

SS Alex Gonzalez

3B Chipper Jones

LF Martin Prado

CF Nate McLouth

RF Jason Heyward

Bench

C David Ross

IF Brook Conrad

MI Brandon Hicks

IF/OF Eric Hinske

OF Matt Young

Starting Pitchers

RH Tim Hudson

RH Derek Lowe

RH Tommy Hanson

RH Jair Jurrgens

RH Brandon Beachy

Bullpen

RH Cristhian Martinez

RH Peter Moylan

RH Scott Linebrink

LH Eric O’Flaherty

LH George Sherrill

LH Johnny Venters

RH Craig Kimbrel

Final Roster Decisions

The biggest story is that Joe Mather failed to make the team. If you read my spring training preview, you’ll know that I was extremely pleased by this development. Mather was simply terrible this spring, but most people still expected him to make the team based on his versatility and the fact that he bats right handed. Also, keeping Mather off the opening day roster would mean waiving him and allowing any other team to pick him up. But Gonzalez took fan favorite Matt Young instead, choosing to place performance and potential above things like experience.

This was not the only interesting and (for me anyway) exciting final roster decision. Martinez made the team ahead of veteran Scott Proctor, despite the fact that the Braves would have to pay Proctor anyway. Proctor has never been able to recover from arm troubles that caused the Yankees to let him go a few years back, and Martinez did a good job when called upon last season and this spring. In addition, Hicks making the team as the backup shortstop was a big surprise, simply because he has struggled with the bat even the minor leagues. However, he is strong defensively and a fast runner, and he looked much better at the plate this spring. Finally, Beachy won the 5th spot in the rotation. I think this was a good move as well. Beachy looks to be the guy most ready to help the team right now, and it certainly won’t hurt to give Minor some more time at AAA. Thankfully, the Rodrigo Lopez situation worked itself out and never became much of a threat.

Kenshin Kawakami will begin the year at AA, with the Braves still looking for a suitor to take him off their hands. Jordan Schafer will also begin the season in the minor leagues. There was hope that he would impress during spring training now that he is supposedly fully healthy. Unfortunately he struggled mightily. Anything’s possible, but at this point I’m not really counting on him being a part of the team’s success in the future.

Odds and Ends

The most positive result of spring training was that Chipper Jones made it through without any setbacks and will begin the season in the starting lineup. Freddie Freeman had a very good spring and heads into the season as the starting first baseman. Martin Prado seems to have made a seamless transition from the infield to the outfield, and he will be the left fielder on opening day.

The bullpen is a bit more of a concern for me now than it was at the start of spring training. For now, Gonzalez plans to use both Venters and Kimbrel to finish games. Hopefully this will work out, because I’m not as confident about the veterans the Braves brought in over the offseason, particularly Sherrill, who really struggled during ST. On a positive note, the bullpen as a whole finished the exhibition strongly.

The defensive problems that were a problem during the latter stages of last season have been evident again this spring. Hopefully most of the trouble was due to a lack of focus, as many of the errors did occur in the last couple of weeks, when the players were ready for the season to begin. Freeman is a very good defensive first baseman. Defense is not strength for Uggla. The Braves have a rotation full of groundball pitchers, so hopefully this will not be an issue.

Finally, I have to say that I’m a bit worried about Brian McCann. Mac did not have a good spring at the plate. On its own, that would not concern me very much. I’m more worried about his state of mind. It was a foul ball off Mac’s bat that struck minor league manager Luis Salazar in the face and eventually led to him having extensive surgery. In the end, Salazar lost his eye. No one would blame McCann in any way for this tragedy, but you don’t know what McCann may be telling himself. We can only hope that he puts it behind him.

More to Come

As much as I’ve been anticipating opening day, I have to say that it still managed to sneak up on me. I will write much more about the Bravos and the 2011 season over the next few days. For now, let’s hope we can get off to a good start on Thursday in Washington, a place where we have always struggled.

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