Off-Day Thoughts

Written by Jonathan on April 14, 2008 – 9:48 pm

So the Braves have a much needed day off today as they make the trip to Florida to play the Marlins, who have flown out of the gates this year to get off to a great start to the season.  Hopefully the Braves will make a good run at stopping that.  But either way, I wanted to take the off day to make some commentary about the season thus far and things that are on my mind.

The Season Thus Far - It hasn’t been the best start to the season thus far as far as the record is concerned.  We’re 5-7 at this point, but there’s still plenty of time to get things going.  Six of our losses have been by one run, so we’ve been in most of the games and not eliminated early.

Leadoff Runners - We don’t get nearly enough leadoff base runners from our offense.  It seems like every time that we put someone on base, it’s with two outs.  Likewise, we give up way too many leadoff base runners to our opposition.  We need to swing that a little more in our direction.

Jeff Bennett - I liked the guy……..until yesterday.  I know Glavine took the loss in the game yesterday, but in my personal scoring system, I’m giving it to Bennett.  There’s never any excuse to walk four straight batters and definitely never an excuse to give up two runs on walks.

Jorge Campillo - I still don’t know much about him, but I know I liked what I saw yesterday.  I think if he can keep that up steadily through the season, then there’s no reason he shouldn’t find a full-time position in our bullpen.

Starting Pitching - Nevermind, I don’t want to get into our endless list of injuries to our starters.  Hampton, Glavine, Smoltz…….it could be a long year.

Clutch Offense - So we can score endless runs when we’re up in a game (which is good with the condition of our bullpen at times), but it seems like when we need the hits and the runs, we just can’t do it.  I attribute this to our slew of one-run losses so far this season.

I’ve got a few more things on my mind, but these are just the pressing ones for now.  I don’t like off days.  I feel like there’s nothing to keep up with, but the team definitely needs it.  I’m ready to watch Jair start tomorrow against the Marlins.  What’d I miss?


Tags: , ,
Posted in General |

BravesBlast.com is not affiliated with or sponsored by the Atlanta Braves organization. Views expressed on this site do not reflect the views of the Atlanta Braves organization.