The Breakdown: Is Santana really THAT good?

In our quest to determine exactly how much Johan Santana actually adds to the Mets’ starting rotation, we’re going to delve into the their starting rotation before - and after - Santana came into the picture. In honesty, looking at the rotation, Santana is replacing Tom Glavine after his return to the Braves. The other four starting slots are more than likely to stay the same - Pedro Martinez, John Maine, Oliver Perez, and Orlando Hernandez round out the rotation.

Let’s look at their stats from the last two seasons combined: Read more »

Almost Official - but is Santana THAT good?

Well the NL East will be a tougher cookie to crack in 2008, apparently - the Mets and Twins have agreed to terms of a deal, and all that stands in the way now is a contract extension for Santana.  The Mets and Santana have until Friday evening to come to terms on an extension expected to be $20 to $21 million a year for five or six years.  It appears that Santana has most of the leverage in this situation, so he’ll probably get what he wants if he sticks by his guns.

The amazing thing to me are the predictions coming across the waves right now - ESPN is naming the Mets the team to beat in the NL both online at on SportsCenter. Read more »

Mets Close In On Santana

As we take out our favorite stick to beat this dead horse one last time, it does appear that the Mets are now the favorite in the Johan Santana sweepstakes.  ESPN is reporting that the Twins requested final offers and the Red Sox and the Mets have made offers, with the Yankees now reportedly out completely.  It also appears that the Mets have made the best offer, with some combination of minor league and pitching prospects (different sources report differing things).

So nothing is certain yet, and with the life this story has had throughout the past few months, we could see him end up in Yankee pinstripes at the last minute.  That said, we’ve had at least one source report Read more »

Examining Blaine Boyer

One of the factors that will go into this year’s bullpen is the return of Blaine Boyer. Boyer pitched in 43 games in 2005 and posted a 3.11 ERA before getting injured in 2006 and having surgery on his shoulder.

I liked what we saw of Mr. Boyer before his injury - and I am glad that he feels he’s ready to return. After his surgery in 2006, he tweaked his oblique Read more »

Earlier Games?

So the Braves announced late yesterday that they’ll be moving the start time of weekday games up from 7:35 PM to 7:10 PM. Now, they say that they’ve polled tons of fans - and season ticket holders - and found out that most people want an earlier start time. The theory here is that you can get home from the game earlier and it won’t be as much of an impact on your next day’s activities.

Now some of our staff has a bit of an issue with the earlier start times. Read more »

Locking in the Closer

The Braves took a step Thursday to solidify the back end of their bullpen when they signed Rafael Soriano to a two year, $8.5 million contract.  Soriano is expected to close games this year for the Braves, who have been searching for a stable closer since John Smoltz returned to the starting rotation.

Soriano had a 3.00 ERA in 71 appearances and 70 innings this year, with a career high 72 strikeouts.  Read more »

Life after Cox?

So we need to realize as fans of the Atlanta Braves that the time may come after this season for one of the greatest managers of all time to retire.  Bobby Cox has been managing the Braves since the middle of the 1990 season and has provided a strong backbone of leadership and encouragement through the 1990 dynasty and now well into the 2000s, but he’s not getting any younger (he turns 67 this year), and he’s made no bones about the fact that he wants to do other things after baseball.

Cox has certainly been successful - his overall record as a manager is 2255-1764.  He led the Braves to the post-season for 14 straight seasons and has a reputation across baseball as extracting the best from his players in a positive manner. Read more »

Santana Still Going Nowhere

So the Twins, Yankees, Red Sox, and Mets have pretty much run the blogosphere dry with their ridiculously long negotiations around Johan Santana.  Someone really should go ahead and make a move here.  First we had the Yankees and Red Sox as main suitors, with the Mets as a wild card underdog of sorts.  Then the Yankees were up, then Red Sox up, and Mets looking like they were out of it.  Now the St. Paul Pioneer Press is reporting… Read more »

Baseball in Gwinnett - Implications

So there’s some feedback coming from the community regarding the Braves’ decision to move their AAA team to Gwinnett.  Here are some thoughts coming from different groups of people.

Atlanta:  We’re hearing mostly positive feedback from Atlanta - another baseball team in town can’t hurt, right?  Another smaller crowd sees no need to add a third team to Georgia - citing attendance issues for the big league team that would be worsened by the presence of another baseball team in the metro area.

Gwinnett:  I’m hearing two crowds from Gwinnett Read more »

Is Yunel Ready?

I get this question a lot when discussing the NL East with other NL East fans - Is Yunel Escobar ready to start at shortstop?  We all know the Braves think so - they traded Edgar Renteria away to start the off-season.  So is Yunel going to perform at a major league level?

Well only time can tell us for sure, but I see limited reason to worry about him.  Why?  To start, he has the confidence of not only the Braves front office, but his coaches and teammates. Read more »

Mailbag: Glavine’s Effectiveness

Kenny wrote:

Is Tom Glavine going to make a legit difference on the starting staff this year? I love Tommy, don’t get me wrong, but he looked very below average by seasons end with the Mets. I’m hoping he’s got a good year or two left, but whats everyone else’s opinion?

This is somewhat of a speculative answer, as I haven’t talked to Tommy personally and haven’t seen him pitch.  That said, I have heard Frank Wren address this question.  I’ll echo his thoughts and then add some of my own.

Read more »

Handicapping Javy’s Return

Today, we’ll briefly discuss the status of Javy Lopez heading into this spring - as relayed by Frank Wren last weekend.  Javy played 76 games for the Orioles and 18 games for the BoSox in 2006, and hasn’t played since.  As you can expect, he was a little bit out of shape heading into this off-season.  He knew his return would be dependent on him showing he was a legitimate backup catcher, and to do that, he needed to work on his defense.

So Javy called Braves bench coach Chino Cadahia.  Javy asked Chino to work with him on his defense, because he needed to improve defensively before any team would consider signing him. Read more »