Randomness

Sorry about not posting recently. I've been caught up watching the Braves get swept by the Florida Marlins and doing some school work. I would like to mention that we here at Lees-McRae are hosting the inaugural Conference Carolina's Track and Field Championships this Friday and Saturday. It should be a good one to see. I would also like to give a shout out to Craig McPhail and the black socks today. You are truly inspiration for all of us out there that sport those fine creations. I do not know where I would be today if I did not have the courage to go public about my fondness for the high black socks. Thank you and I hope that you will inspire more to follow in your footsteps.

As we speak, we sit 37 days from G-Day. The day I finish up with school and go into the cold, harsh reality of the real world. I wonder if there will be any jobs out there for me. If anyone is reading this still, I am still on a search for something to keep me occupied for the next few months at least. At this point I do not care what it is, as long as I am not sitting around being a lazy bum. Which is really tempting to do, after all of this school and running shenanigans, but I need to move on and try to break myself of this laziness streak I have been on recently.

So, my thoughts on the Braves. I agree with what my friend said recently about this club, "Braves look like pretenders." I am hoping that the Marlins are just a really good club, and they probably are, and we just got beat by a superior club. I really like the Marlins pitching staff and if they can keep getting big hits from guys like Hermida and Bonifacio than they will be a formidable club all year long. Josh Johnson may win the Cy Young for them, and win a guy who threw a no hitter a few years ago is your number 5 starter (Anibal Sanchez), than you do not have many things to concern yourself with if you are them. If there defense can hold up, they can make a run deep into the postseason. I think the Braves need Tommy Hanson more than ever right now. I know you do not want to rush a guy, but I think he is ready for the big show. Throw him in the rotation and see what he has. He has the potential to dominate. I see some potential holes on the pitching staff, especially in the bullpen where the only reliable guys right now seem to be Jeff Bennett and Rafael Soriano (we will see how long this lasts with his history for blowing up sometime in the middle of the season). They just are not throwing strikes and locating their fastballs. Blaine Boyer needs to be sent down, a guy with his stuff should not be pitching as poorly as he has been. A guy his age (27), should be figuring it out by now and he looks as clueless as ever. Our starters are not going much past the 6th inning, which is a problem when you have leaks in your pen. We do not have any really truly dominant aces, a lot of solid veterans who will keep you in the ball game. Vazquez had a good game the other night striking out 12 in 6 innings, but because of the amount of pitches he threw and plus giving up six runs he had to relent to a bullpen who could not keep it close. Our offense is good but it cannot keep fighting an uphill battle against a pen that struggles to throw up some zeroes. Speaking of the offense, I like what we are doing for the most part. I would like for certain guys to be a little more selective at the plate (Yunel Escobar) and to be able to stay healthy (Chipper Jones, Garrett Anderson). By the way the Anderson signing is not looking real good right now. He has been plagued by a calf injury over the last month or so. I mean seriously, a calf, come on now. He swings a decent bat, but he is basically a DH playing LF for us. He has become a defensive liability, dropping two foul balls the other night that led to some runs being scored. I really like the way Kelly Johnson has started the season off in the leadoff spot, and Jeff Francouer has shown some positive signs of breaking out of his funk from 2008. He drove in the Braves only 2 runs today with some clutch 2 out hitting. He has looked a lot better in the field and is not as heavy and clumsy as he was last year. Matt Diaz looks trim and is ripping the ball, like always. Taking the most awkward looking swings that a human being can take and still make good contact. Schafer in CF looks like a keeper, if he can just play some solid defense and hit about 15 HR and hit around .270 this year. I think that is all you can ask out of him this year. He reminds me of Steve Finley, for those of you who remember who he was, a pretty darn good ball player.

In the famous words of Bill Simmons, happy halter top day today to you out there. The weather is looking fine and some of the ladies are not too bad either. Peace.

Mb