Adam LaRoche: Time to Breakout!

Maybe it's his spot in the lineup or his ineffectiveness to hit LHP. When it's time to step up, LaRoche can't deliver most of the time. Over the past two years he's had Julio to look over his shoulder but now it's his time to breakout. I don't dislike the guy but, more times than not I've been dissapointed with his play. It could be the high expectations I've had since his rookie season when he was compared to Will the Thrill. Clark was one of my favorite players at one time.

2004 vs. LHP: .250/.423/.450 20AB
vs. RHP: .280/.326/.490 304AB
2005 vs. LHP: .188/.235/.292 48AB
vs. RHP: .268/.330/.474 403AB

My guesstimations for '06:
vs. LHP: .240/.310/.370 75AB
vs. RHP: .285/.340/.485 390AB
Improvements all around, we can hope right?

Against the rest of the East in '05
Phillies: .340/.377/.679 53AB
Mets: .239/.314/.435 43AB
Marlins: .286/.362/.476 42AB
Nats: .179/.314/.268 56AB

As the numbers tell us he took care of the Phillies where 5 of his 20HR's came off Philly pitching. LaRoche had most of his doubles against the Marlins but that came with strings attached as Florida accounted for 15K's against him. Finnally the Nats and Mets were able to hold their own. In 2006, I guess the numbers against the Phillies will drop a bit but his BA hopefully will stay over .300. In '04 LaRoche had similar numbers vs. the Phils in little over half the AB's. Against the Nats and Marlins I expect somewhat higher numbers and more of the same production from the Mets. As history tells us, LaRoche is a slow starter out of the gate usually picking up the pace by the middle of May. Will Atlanta wait that long before replacing him?

Entering Spring Training the competition is young. James Jurries was added to the 40 man roster and should see time at 1B this year. Scott Thorman and Matt Diaz are other possiblites at 1B. Will Jarrod Saltalamacchia be moved to 1B? Another question that some Braves fans, scouts, and reporters have talked about. In conclusion, all I'm saying is that this year LaRoche has the chance to solidify his role with the team and hopefully he can reach the expectations some of us have had for him. Does anyone else have anything to share about LaRoche?

Blank ends talk of Braves purchase

Well, so much for that. Arthur Blank and Time Warner have ended discussions on a potential sell of the Atlanta Braves. As I posted last week, I thought the two sides were moving closer to a deal but now the truth is out. How desperate is Time Warner to sell the Braves? I'll put it this way, Time Warner has been listening to offers on the Braves since 2002. In 2004, TW sold the Atlanta Hawks and Thrashers for $250M. All you do is just wait for the next possible investor to spring up.

Franco's uproar at Mets Camp

I got a kick out of this. The NY Daily News has an article on Julio Franco's arrival at Mets camp. What did he do? He showed up sporting a Braves T-shirt. Way to go Julio!

Franco, on the other hand, doesn't quite get what the angst is all about. He arrived yesterday for spring training wearing a Braves' T-shirt, of all things, and wore it around the clubhouse for an hour or so, leaving PR man Jay Horwitz in need of oxygen before he finally changed into Mets gear.

Later, the article states that Glavine told Franco the Braves are the bad guys here in NY. Glavine also had some words to spare:

"When a team is that successful, everybody gets sick of them winning," Glavine said yesterday. "I'm like everybody else here: as players, you're tired of them winning, and you want to be part of a team that beats them."

I've read some people bashing Tommy G. over those comments. C'mon people he plays against the Braves, and he's not expected to root for them. Glavine doesn't hate or dislike the Braves organization. He just wants to win in NY and I'm not going to blame him for that because that's what he's there to do.

Barry Bonds: Retirement after '06?

The talk of the town is about Barry Bonds's recent comments on retiring after the 2006 season. This was first reported from USA Today. One thing is true, Barry Bonds will retire when Barry Bonds wants to. He can claim retirement everyday this season but until he acutally does I won't believe it. Remember last year's antics? Barry has fooled us before. I thought he was going to hang it up after he blasted the media and whined about being tired and wanting to be left alone.
Baseball Tonight was talking about this, and I believe it was Gammons that questioned how mlb will celebrate Bonds this year? Celebrate, who Barry? This guy doesn't want anything to do with the public. I'm still not sure he'll break Hammerin Hank's 755 in just one season alone. Bonds's health will constantly be under keen observation. He came back in '05 for 14 games and still took 5 yard. Barry has 47 to tie and 48 to break Aaron's feat. He should easily break Ruth's HR total (714) but Aaron's would be a monster accomplishment for this year. Can a guy who hasn't played full time in 2 years, plus get the pitching to hit the homerun's break it? Who knows, in the end the burden maybe too heavy for him to take.

*A new poll has been added concerning this subject.

Farnsworth speaks out

Kyle Farnsworth had a few choice words for the Braves organization coming at the opening day of Yankees camp.

"The main thing was winning," Farnsworth said. "With what the Braves were doing, I didn't think they had a chance to win the division again. They're a great team, but to get a chance to come to the Yankees, play for this organization, I never thought I'd say I'd be a Yankee. It's the greatest organization, so I was willing to come here.

"Maybe it's [the Braves'] time. Fourteen straight is long enough for them. They're a great organization, and hopefully, [Braves manager] Bobby [Cox] can do something again like he did last year. He's a great manager and the coaching staff is unbelievable."

Hmmmmmm..well Kyle.

1. Farnsworth turned his back and left without hearing of the 3/15M offer from Atlanta, he took a 3/17M from NY. He obviously took the money and ran.

2. Instead of being the "closer" for a consistent playoff team he goes to being a 7th or 8th inning guy.

3. After being traded to Atlanta, Farnsworth said the Braves were a team he had always dreamed about playing for and was very happy to be here.

Why does everyone want to be a Yankee? Yes they have the tradition, Yankee Stadium, Sinatra, yada yada. I thought Farnsworth would have resigned w/Atlanta, but instead took his arse to NY. He did blow the lead in game 4 against Houston leading to the longest afternoon of baseball 18 inning game, so maybe it's for the best.

In other Braves news: Atlanta signed RHP Carlos Almanzar to a minor league deal. Almanzar is coming off Tommy John surgery and appeared in 6 games last year for the Texas Rangers.

Blank progresses on Braves purchase

Reports are circulating that Mr. Home Depot Arthur Blank is in discussions with Time Warner on purchase of the Atlanta Braves. Originally reported back in December, Blank has claimed interest in the team. Don't expect this to be an overnight venture. Atlanta has been appraised for $400M. Blank has been the most outgoing suitor to purchase the team and it very well might happen. Time Warner wants to push cable channel Turner South as apart of the deal, but Blank is not interested in the station. As I said back in Dec. I'll report more when news breaks.

Team USA Roster Finalized

The WBC is approaching fast and rosters have been finalized. Jeff Francoeur and Chipper Jones have both made the final cut. Here's how the depth chart shapes up.

Starters: Clemens, Willis, Peavy, Sabathia

Relievers: Lidge, Timlin, Wagner, Nathan, Chad Cordero, Fuentes, Sheilds, Todd Jones, Street, and Dan Wheeler

Catchers: Varitek, Barrett, Schneider

Infield: Chipper, Arod, Jeter, Teixeria, Utley, Young, Lee

Outfield: Damon, Francoeur, Griffey Jr., Wells, Wynn, Matt Holiday

Maybe 4 starters is enough, but I would have liked to add a fifth by subtracting a reliever. This team will train for 2 days at the D'Backs house starting March 3rd then play an exhibition game against the Giants on March 5th before play starts on the 7th. As of right now, Jake Peavy will start the opening game against Mexico.

The Rocket Sweepstakes

On a slow day newsday, I'll talk about what most baseball enthusiasts are already talking about. The Rocket, Roger Clemens. Will he take the mound for another season? He was supposed to retire after the 2003 season as a Yankee, but came back and played for the hometown team Houston. After 2 seasons in Houston making $23M plus, helping the team win it's first pennant, and just falling short of a world series title he's back into free agency. Usually when a pitcher has been in the league for 21 seasons he's not paid $18M/year. It's odd because Clemens is coming off a pretty good year, posting the lowest ERA of his career and now he finnally might retire.
Houston doesn't want to pay him the almost $20M salary for another season while other teams have shown interest. Can you guess the usual suspects? If it was the Yankees, and Red Sox, your correct. The Rangers have also displayed interest, hoping to cash in on the home cooking deal the Astros gave out last year. To me, it doesn't matter if the guy comes back or not. Injuries began to take toll on him last year and it showed. If he does come back I don't see him going off to the Yanks or Sox, but rather resigning with Houston. C'mon Clemens had it made last year, just show up on the days your number is called and pitch. If Clemens retires, would he return as a bullpen coach someday? Very possible. As reported, Clemens as already been instructing Astro's pitchers at mini camp. A decision should be made soon.

Marcus Giles:Leading the way

As most of you already know the Braves plan to use Marcus Giles as the leadoff hitter for the upcoming season. How will he do? Since going fulltime in 2003, Giles has usually bat second in the order behind Rafael Furcal. So, moving him up one spot shouldn't make a difference, right? Take a look at Furcal's and Giles OBP.

2003:Furcal: .352 Giles: .390

2004:Furcal: .344 Giles: .378

2005:Furcal: .348 Giles: .365

Giles's OBP looks a tad better, but there really more closely related. During those three years Furcal had 336 more AB's than Giles. I think Giles will fit the role. He usually racks up on doubles, so given 100 more AB's and add 10 more doubles to his total from last year (45) he'll be in good shape. Here's a perspective opening day lineup:

1.Giles
2.Renteria
3.C. Jones
4.A. Jones
5.LaRoche
6.Francoeur
7.McCann
8.Langerhans
9.P

NL East: Bowden offers deal to Sosa

Yesterday, Washington Nationals GM Jim Bowden offered controversery ridden Slammin Sammy Sosa a major league deal full of incentives. No specifics have been released and it's not certain if Sammy will accept. Other teams have offered minor league deals to Sosa, but this is the first reported big league deal. Sammy just needs to retire, but if takes the deal he'll be providing backup duties for Jose Guillen. Although, Guillen may miss the start of the season while still recovering from shoulder surgery.

Braves Prospects: Who to watch in '06

Every team has their top prospects, the players we look forward to seeing succeed in the big leagues. Some do, some don't. What's a defintion of a prospect? From Merriam-Webster's dictionary a prospect has many meanings most notably an advance realization of something to come, something that is awaited or expected. So, when one of your prospects makes waves through the minor leagues we generally expect a big splash into the majors. That's doesn't always work out as expected. Look at these two players, Mike Hessman and Jeff Francoeur. Hessman is what some may call a career minor leaguer. He put up solid numbers in the minors but when he made it to the big show he failed miserably. On the other hand, Francoeur didn't really have great numbers in the minors but they were respectable. When called up, he exploded on the scene. Granted in Francoeur's case, no one could have predicted his impact with Atlanta based on his stats from the minors.

Lists are complied every year of who are considered to be a team's top prospects. This is usually based on stats as the player's progress in each individual league. I want to list my top 5 Braves prospects for 2006. Based on other lists, my list doesn't vary too much from the general consensus.

My Top 5 Braves Prospects

1. Jarrod Saltalamacchia-C aka Salty, or Salty Dog. Jarrod has clearly taken over as the top prospect in the Atlanta organization. Last year he played in the Braves adv. rookie ball league Myrtle Beach. His numbers were impressive .314/.394/.519 19HR 81RBI 35 doubles in 400+AB's. He also is apart of Team USA and this past fall played in a qualifying tournament for the Olympics Americas Tournament to be held next August. He had 7 hits in 8 AB's including 2HR's. Salty should start the season out in Rome(A) or even Mississippi(AA) since half the team from last year now plays in either Richmond or Atlanta. If Salty continues his strong push he may be apart of the big club in 2007.

2. Chuck James-P He appeared in 2 games for Atlanta last year pitching 5.2 innings with 5K's and posting an ERA of 1.59. I can't wait to see this guy pitch every five days for Atlanta. He could be a darkhorse to make the team this year, but with Davies also bidding for a starting spot James could likely start out in Richmond(AAA) or Mississippi(AA).

3. Elvis Andrus-SS This kid is young, Andrus will only be 17 at the start of the 2006 season. He split time last year amongst the Gulf Coast Rookie League club and Danville. A majority of his playing time came from the GCL. Expect a slow growth to the bigs for Andrus. Renteria will man SS for the next three years and by that time he could be ready. It won't be without competition, but we'll get to that in a bit. With continuing success Andrus will easily be a top 5 prospect for coming years.

4. Eric Campbell-3B Will Campbell take over third when Chipper retires? His name has been mentioned since Marte was traded. Campbell and another prospect Van Pope are the frontrunners for 3B in a couple of years. Campbell shared the 2005 Appalachian League POY award with teammate Max Ramirez. He's a power hitter, going .313/.383/.634 last year. Campbell should now move on to Myrtle Beach or maybe Rome.

5. Yunel Escobar-SS-He's one step ahead of Elvis Andrus and will be competing for SS in the future. Escobar had 12 hits in 30AB's at Danville and quickly was promoted to Rome where he continued the good numbers. .313/.358/.470 in 198AB's. Escobar could be playing in Mississippi sometime this year. Luis Hernandez, the SS at Miss. has not been very good since making the leap from the GCL.

Keep these guys in mind: Brandon Jones-OF, Anthony Lerew-P, Scott Thorman-1B

John Thomson: Does a trade loom?

Ken Rosenthal reported yesterday that the Braves could trade Thomson for some relief support. He stated afterwards that might not be prudent due to the health of the rotation. This is similar to what the AJC reported last week about Thomson. As of late, Thomson seems to be the ultimate trade candidate. Here' s my take:

1. Atlanta has John Thomson for only $4.75M, what a steal.
2. Thomson can rack up the innings, when healthy.
3. Thomson likes being in Atlanta.

Thomson came back at the end of last year but couldn't quite get the spin on his offspeed stuff like he did before. He should be healthy for the start of this season. Here's some reasons that Atlanta could trade him:

1. Davies is ready to go full time in the rotation.
2. Cox/McDowell/Schuerholz isn't satisified with closer's role at the end of ST.
3. Thomson pitches crappy during ST.

Honestly I thought last year was Thomson's last season as a Brave. When they resigned him I was surprised but thought he could get back to '04 form. I really think Davies performance and the closer situation will really depend on Thomson's future with the team.

Super Bowl XL thoughts...

The Super Bowl, an event that's hard to ignore. It's one game a man and woman can watch together, men for the football and women for the commercials. Unless you live in a cave you have either heard about or seen the Super Bowl. This year the annual event turned XL, calling it Super Bowl XL. The easy favorite was the Pittsburgh Steelers. Maybe it was because they beat the top 3 teams in the AFC and had been on a hot streak. Meanwhile the Seattle Seahawks didn't get the respect of a worthy opponet. The way I see it is when one team is regarded as the heavy favorite and the other team isn't given a chance, that equals trouble for the favored team.

Seattle: Played a terrific first half, minus the late Steeler score which I'm still not sure that was a TD. It was really close. Seattle dominated on both sides of the ball in the first half. The Seahawks just couldn't get the first half points to go with their gameplay. Brown shanked 2 field goals of 50+ yards that had the distance, just not the angle which, would have been huge to get back later in the game. Poor clock mgmt was another factor against Seattle. The turning point in the second half had to be when Willie Parker put on a jetpack and landed in the end zone. The Herndon INT gave the Seahawks a spark but it was too late.

Pittsburgh: Started out slow in the first half, playing very cautious and timid. Leading to their first touchdown, the pass to Hines Ward was amazing. I guess that's called destiny. Probably 9 times out of 10 that would have been knocked down incomplete. In the second half, Roethlisberger used his running ability and made some big plays at crucial times. The Steelers were able to move the ball and cap it all off with a Randle El pass to Ward on the end around to put the finishing touches on the Steelers Super Bowl victory.

Need some inspiration?

Start your day with some Braves rally music!! I was looking around at different Braves merchandise and came across this CD. Braves: The Ultimate Rally CD. This was released during the summer of 2000 and is a combination of radio playcalls and music. I would have been happy with a cd full of playcalls from season's past. The music is nothing special, stuff that you may see from an ESPN Sports Jam compilation. Except for the song "Peaches" from the Presidents. The only reason that made it has to be the association with the Georgia Peach.