Josh Anderson Traded To Tigers

Written by Colin on March 30, 2009 – 1:51 pm

Josh Anderson won’t be making the major league roster out of spring training this year – at least not for the Braves. The center fielder was traded to the Detroit Tigers for a hard-throwing right-handed minor league pitcher named Rudy Darrow. Anderson started the spring as the favorite for the center field starting spot, but Jordan Schafer has performed very well this spring. He’s expected to land the starting job now that Anderson is no longer with the organization.

Rudy Darrow spent last season at the A and AA level, where he had a 2.02 ERA in 47 appearances. He had 57 K’s in just over 63 innings, with 23 walks. He’ll probably start out at AA in Mississippi.

What are your thoughts on the trade? We essentially turned Oscar Villarreal into Rudy Darrow. Good trade? Bad trade?


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Posted in Roster Moves | 8 Comments »

Young Bats Produce, Braves Fall

Written by Jonathan on February 25, 2009 – 6:57 pm

The Braves kicked off the Grapefruit League season this afternoon with a 5-4 loss to the Detroit Tigers.  Jair Jurrjens made the start for the Braves and allowed 2 earned runs in 2 innings of work on 4 hits.  He escaped potential further damage by getting Carlos Guillen to ground into a double-play to end the first inning.  Not the greatest start for Jurrjens, but it’s still early in the preseason and not much to worry about at this point.  Reyes, O’Flaherty and Perez each allowed an earned run while Acosta and Marek both tacked on an inning of scoreless work.

Trailing 3-0 in the top of the fifth, the Braves proceeded to put 3 unearned runs on the board to tie up the game.  Future first baseman prospect, Freddie Freeman, brought two runs in with a two-out single and Brian McCann also added an RBI in the inning, plating Jordan Schafer.  Jordan also cracked the board later in the game with a leadoff home run in the top of the seventh.

Everyone anxious to see Jeff Francoeur at the plate today will still have to wait to see some performance out of him.  Jeff went 0-for-4, but it’s only the first game.  Most will say you can’t count on much that happened today to be telling as to how the season will go.  These early Spring Training games are where we really should be looking toward the young guys and seeing what they can do.

The Braves open up their home Grapefruit League season at Wide World of Sports tomorrow against the Astros at 1:05pm EST.  Jorge Campillo will take the hill for the Braves, making his campaign for a long relief spot in the bullpen.  Catch the game on ESPN.  So one Spring Training game closer to the season, what’s the good news of the day?


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Posted in Game Analysis | 1 Comment »

Finally The First Spring Training Game

Written by Jonathan on February 25, 2009 – 10:29 am

Today, Jair Jurrjens will step to the mound for the Braves to kick off the Grapefruit League season against his former team at Joker Marchant Stadium in Lakeland, FL.  Jurrjens is looking forward to facing off against the Tigers, who traded him to Atlanta in October 2007.  Detroit will be sending Justin Verlander to the mound to start the game.

Also slated to appear for the Braves are Jo-Jo Reyes, Manny Acosta, Stephen Marek and Eric O’Flaherty.  Blaine Boyer was slated to throw an inning today but was scratched after cutting his hand on an apple slicer yesterday.  He is expected to make his next appearance.

Aside from Chipper Jones and Garret Anderson, all of the projected Opening Day starters are making the short trip to the game today.  Those two will likely make their first appearance in the televised game tomorrow afternoon versus the Astros.

The game starts at 1:05 EST and we’ll be doing our best to run a game thread here for the game.  It’s the first one of the season so it’s time to start kicking the rust off and getting back into the swing of things.  What’s everyone looking for in this first game today?  I’ll be happy to see Jurrjens have a solid two innings and no other pitchers get injured in the process; a couple of nice plate appearances from Francoeur would be encouraging as well.


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Posted in Game Threads | 12 Comments »

Braves Drop Tigers In 9th

Written by Jonathan on March 20, 2008 – 10:54 pm

Tonight’s game saw a pitching matchup between Tim Hudson and Justin Verlander.  Both starters looked strong, pitching into the 6th inning (Hudson pitched the full 6) and each giving up 1 run.  The Tigers got on the scoreboard in the top of the 1st inning with an unearned run.  Chipper Jones tied the game at 1 with a solo home run in the bottom of the 4th.  Aside from those moments of scoring, the majority of the game was about the pitching, with the score remaining tied into the 9th inning.

Chipper Jones vs. Cards on March 17, 2008. Photo: Kevin Hinton

Photo: Kevin Hinton

Tyler Yates took the mound for the Braves in the 9th and, though giving up no hits, walked three and allowed 1 run in the inning.  The Braves entered the bottom of the 9th trailing by 2.  Through the help of 2 hits and some errant fielding on the part of the Tigers, Josh Anderson plated two with a walk-off single, giving the Braves the 3-2 victory.

Tim Hudson looked strong and ready to go for the season, as well as his expected position to start the opener against the Nationals.  He’s given up only 2 earned runs in his 15 Grapefruit League innings thus far. Royce Ring fought off his bad outings of the preseason to pitch a hitless inning, striking out one.  Jeff Francoeur, making his first appearance since being beaned in the face, went 0-3 with a strikeout and grounding into a double play.

John Smoltz will face off against C.C. Sabathia tomorrow as the Braves meet the Indians at 1:05pm.  We’ll also be setting out for Florida tomorrow evening to cover a few games through the weekend.  Don’t forget to subscribe to the BravesBlast Insider newsletter for a chance to win tickets to a game in the opening series’ against the Pirates or Mets.  Contest ends March 25th.


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Posted in Game Analysis | 2 Comments »

Braves Tie Tigers In 10

Written by Colin on March 14, 2008 – 7:50 am

Yesterday the Braves played and tied the Tigers in 10 innings.  Led by three RBIs by Brent Lillibridge and help from a Joe Borchard RBI, the Braves took the lead after the sixth inning.  But Jeff Ridgway – whom we got in return for Willy Aybar – walked three and gave up an earned run that tied the game.

Chuck James, recovering from a partially torn rotator cuff, pitched two scoreless innings in which he gave up one hit.  He’ll likely start the season in Richmond, unless Hampton hurts himself again (knock on wood.  I’m not going to be responsible for Hampton’s injury…twice).  Following James’ outing, Jo-Jo Reyes pitched three innings and gave up five earned runs.  Reyes isn’t looking good this spring - He now has a 9.00 ERA. 

Some argue that stats mean nothing since the players aren’t all big-leaguers.  I agree that good stats can be misleading, but if a player is not doing well against a mixed staff of major leaguers and minor leaguers, they are not likely to get better against JUST big leaguers.  Jo-Jo fits in this last category and needs more time to develop his stuff – he has to find his confidence and get a grip on his game.  He doesn’t look ready for the big time to me.

Next up, Tim Hudson starts against the Phillies today at 1:05 PM.  He’ll face off against Francisco Rosario.


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Posted in Game Analysis | 2 Comments »

Braves 5, Tigers 4

Written by Jonathan on March 7, 2008 – 10:53 am

The Braves held off a late push from the Tigers yesterday afternoon to land a 5-4 victory, pushing their preseason record to 6-2.  Tom Glavine made his second start of the preseason for the Braves, yielding 2 runs on 4 hits.  Glavine handed the ball over to Ryan Drese to close out the third inning.  Drese faced 5 batters through the 3rd and 4th innings, issuing only 1 hit and gaining himself the win for the game.

Dontrelle Willis took the hill for the Tigers, pitching 3 solid innings, issuing only 2 hits and striking out 3.  Armando Galarraga replaced Willis at the start of the 4th inning and, through the next 2 innings, was accountable for all 5 of the Braves runs on the day.  The Braves took advantage of the 3 walks issued by Galarraga and doubles by Yunel Escobar and Joe Borchard to paste 5 runs on the board in the 5th inning.  Escobar was 2-3 on the day with 3 RBIs, increasing his preseason batting average to .500.

The Braves held the 5-2 lead into the 8th inning, when Braves pitcher Damian Moss gave up 2 runs on 3 hits before closing out the game and obtaining the save.  Zach Schreiber also contributed 2 innings of scoreless pitching for the Braves.  The Braves face off against the Tigers once again today when Mike Hampton takes the mound against Tigers veteran, Kenny Rogers.


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Posted in Game Analysis | No Comments »

2008 Preseason Awards

Written by Colin on February 25, 2008 – 7:48 am

We’re going to dig into this year’s preseason and hand out some of our own awards and make predictions as to the end of season awards.

Preseason Team Awards

Best AL Team: Detroit Tigers
Best NL Team: New York Mets (I said it, but I’m not happy about it.)
Most Hyped Team: New York Mets
Worst AL Team: Tampa Bay Devil Rays
Worst NL Team: Florida Marlins (this was a no-brainer.  The state of Florida is apparently cursed.)
Best AL Division: The AL East beats out the Central for this title with the Blue Jays being the determining factor.
Best NL Division: The East is strong (and beats out the West) with the Mets, Phillies, and Braves all looking for the division title.  We should see some great baseball out of this division all season long.
Worst AL Division:  The West is going to be ugly with Oakland, Seattle, and Texas.  Texas should be on the rise, but Oakland completely disassembled whatever they had last year in their fire sale.
Worst NL Division:  The NL Central has a couple teams that are decent (Chicago and Milwaukee), but Cincinnati, Houston, and Pittsburgh bring the division down to the worst in the NL.

This year is going to be fun to watch in several divisions – the AL East and Central promise to be intriguing, as do the NL East and West.  The Tigers and Indians are going to create some great story lines, and we’re all familiar with the NL East and the competition we’ll see there this year.

Preseason Individual Awards

AL MVP: Alex Rodriguez
NL MVP: Matt Holliday
AL Cy Young: C.C. Sabathia
NL Cy Young: Jake Peavy
AL Batting Title: Ichiro Suzuki
NL Batting Title: Matt Holliday
AL HR Title: Alex Rodriguez
NL HR Title: Ryan Howard

There we go – our projections for the individual awards in 2008.  No, we don’t think Johan Santana will win the NL Cy Young award this year – he’s a great pitcher, but I think Peavy will pull it out this year.  The others don’t have many surprises – Matt Holliday is a very solid hitter that is only helped by the fact that he plays in Colorado.


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Posted in League Analysis | 11 Comments »

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