last night he said he no pop on the fastball. bobby took him out not long after he came in. in a story today, he said he didn't feel any pain, just that the ball wasn't going fast. who really knows?

haha, yea, 17

[Edited on May 16, 2007 at 6:16 PM. Reason : ]

5/16/2007 5:51:41 PM

Hasn't he had arm problems every year recently? I thought that was the reason PIT was willing to let him go. My uneducated opinion on it is that it is indicative of early ligament problems in his elbow... we'll see.

[Edited on May 16, 2007 at 5:54 PM. Reason : ^ *17]

5/16/2007 5:53:48 PM

Let's hope not. He's too valuable

5/16/2007 6:17:04 PM

Andruw with the 2 RBI single GG

Also just to make it official

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2872771


he sale of the Atlanta Braves from Time Warner Inc. to Liberty Media Corp. was approved by baseball owners, with the companies set to transfer the team later Wednesday.

The sale was agreed to by the corporations in February, and baseball officials said in March the transaction values the team at $461 million. The companies wanted the deal completed Wednesday because of changes in tax laws that start Thursday.

The baseball team, a group of craft magazines and approximately $1 billion in cash were to be transferred to Liberty in exchange for about 60 million shares of Time Warner.

Atlanta's current management team will remain in place, with Terry McGuirk staying on as club president and John Schuerholz as general manager.

Ted Turner took control of the Braves in 1976, and Time Warner acquired the team in 1996 when it merged with Turner Broadcasting System.

Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press

5/16/2007 7:44:33 PM

i remember them goin out to gonzalez last night....seemed like mccan was sayin somethin to the coaches, like he could tell a diff. Gonzalez seemed to be motioning like it wasnt a problem, but oh well.

Zimmerman with a solo shot

4-2 braves now

5/16/2007 8:03:51 PM

fuckin kelly johnson botches an inning ending double play ball, which makes bases loaded.....belliard softly grounds out to score a run, and now davies walked zimmerman to load the bases again.

4-3 braves

5/16/2007 8:30:31 PM

and ryan church doubles to clear the bases

6-4 nats


FUCKIN A Kelly johnson.....damnit

5/16/2007 8:32:23 PM

Quote :

"^ damn when did Gonzalez go on the DL? Is it his elbow? I hope he is okay because he is the most important guy in the pen (for matchups). The Braves are fighting some injuries right now"

gonzalez has a notoriously wonky arm, this could be an ongoing thing

5/16/2007 8:35:48 PM

Why in the fuck does Liberty Media want to aquire the Braves? Its not like they are going to spend the necessary money to make the fans happy. MLB needs to be like the NFL and not allow corporations to own teams.

5/16/2007 8:44:55 PM

hello and welcome to 2005

5/16/2007 8:49:35 PM

fuck the nats......take your 2 earned runs and kiss my ass

5/16/2007 9:21:43 PM

^^^ This has been discussed forever in the Braves threads. It was due to some tax free sale of Time Warner stock. Liberty Media acquired the Braves and some other assests from TW in exchange for a huge block of Time Warner stock that Liberty Media owned. The whole deal was tax free which is why TW would not consider selling to anyone other than Liberty Media.

Anyway word on the AJC today is that Liberty Media will keep the payroll atleast where it is and may allow for increases. That is better than Time Warner. Also they are now obligated to own the team until atleast 2011 because the owners did not want them to quick sell the Braves. So the Braves will be under corporate control for atleast 3.5 more seasons

As for last night's game, we suck against the Nats. Without Johnson's error, we win. Davies actually pitched okay except for the error and the shitty 1-2 pitch to Church which led to the base clearing double.

Smoltzie will face Di-sucky on Sat




[Edited on May 17, 2007 at 9:09 AM. Reason : jh]

5/17/2007 9:07:47 AM

How the fuck do the Braves lose 3 out of 4 to the Nationals!?!? When did the Nats pen become the best in baseball.

Kelly Johnson has sucked big balls this month. At least Chipper hit a dinger today. Could be a long weekend against the Red Sox.

[Edited on May 17, 2007 at 3:51 PM. Reason : tt]

5/17/2007 3:51:13 PM

well gee thank god the nationals series is over

tough luck it was 4 games long

:-\

5/17/2007 3:52:57 PM

Looks like the Braves released Craig Wilson, no surprise there.

5/17/2007 5:02:42 PM

1-4 in the last 5......not a good week

5/17/2007 5:32:07 PM

While cleaning up for a garage sale, I found my framed David Justice poster. This thing is going up in my living room

5/17/2007 11:27:36 PM

it'd be awesome if players got an award for choking, because andruw jones would get the award every year

5/17/2007 11:29:25 PM

big series against the bosox starting today. looks like its gonna be lerew tonight, smoltzie tomorrow against dice-k and huddy on sunday... i could see maybe taking 2 of 3 this weekend and maybe better if lerew can find the stuff he had in his first start and if the bats wake up. should be a fun series to watch.

5/18/2007 12:59:22 PM

The Braves played the Nationals at the wrong time I guess. They have won 6 of 7 now and probably won't have any success similar to that the rest of the year. Hopefully it won't affect the Braves going into this weekend's series. The Sox are playing great, but have some injuries (Beckett, Drew) so maybe the Braves can take advantage. The Mess will probably sweep the Yanks

I just hope we can hit something this weekend. The guy starting for the Sox tonight is named Hansack - I hope he sucks as much as his name does.

5/18/2007 4:36:53 PM

rained out

5/18/2007 8:00:29 PM

^yeah, but a doubleheader tomorrow!

5/18/2007 8:08:10 PM

come on mets series!

5/18/2007 8:44:30 PM

holy hell

12-0 red sox in the 7th

lowell had a GS

5/19/2007 3:27:52 PM

13-3 now

5/19/2007 3:44:07 PM

after winning 5 of 6 last week, we lost 5 of 6 so far this week including a 12-3 game vs Pit and a 13-3 game vs Boston...we better get back on track before next week's games against the Mets and Phillies or else that could do some major damage...

5/19/2007 5:19:44 PM

#12 for Chipper

5/19/2007 7:49:00 PM

so game #2 was almost the COMPLETE OPPOSITE of game #1.....14-0 Braves. damn

5/20/2007 12:06:55 AM

come on hudson

5/20/2007 12:33:53 PM

damn rain delay has ruined my afternoon

5/20/2007 3:55:46 PM

five swinging strikeouts on the day for andruw

the last being the final out of the game, with two on and andruw representing the tying run

AWESOME

5/20/2007 7:41:15 PM

the WORST looking at-bat i've ever seen

that and Chipper's AB in the same inning

[Edited on May 20, 2007 at 7:41 PM. Reason : ]

5/20/2007 7:41:39 PM

yeah those last two swings were womanly

5/20/2007 7:42:49 PM

at least andruw finally got dropped in the order. how did this guy hit 50 homers a couple years ago

5/20/2007 8:05:17 PM

i don't know, something's really weird with his swing this year

the increased power came after he widened his batting stance, imitating pujols

but this year he loses his balance way too often, he's on a knee in almost every at bat

i think he's just swinging way too hard

if he keeps batting .220, he shouldn't be too hard to resign -- but it might not be worth it

5/20/2007 8:12:59 PM

i mean i guess we've gotta re-sign him because he's still the best centerfielder in the NL and he's obviously got talent. surely pendleton can work with him, because he's swinging like he's never played the damn game

5/20/2007 8:17:54 PM

i think andruw should definitely sit after tonight til him and TP get this thing figured out. other than his big hr year, he has always gone through some lengthy spells of bad ab's, but this is embarrassing.

those last two at bats looked like a middle schooler trying to hit randy johnson in his prime.

on the other hand, that kid saltalamacchia had one of the best ab's i've seen in a while earning the pitch hit walk, hopefully they can find a way to get him in more

[Edited on May 20, 2007 at 8:27 PM. Reason : ]

5/20/2007 8:27:26 PM

is salty athletic enough to play outfield? if they bench andruw for a few games, i'd put frenchy in center (which is his future IMO), move johnson back to left, and maybe salty in right? i'm guessing harris can play 2nd easily

5/20/2007 8:39:03 PM

Bobby's not going to bench Andruw for multiple games, he *might* bench him one game to *heal* a nagging injury, but he's too valueable in the outfield to bench more than a game at a time.

5/20/2007 8:43:56 PM

^ i'm not saying that, i know bobby, and i know he wouldn't likely do that. instead i think andruw should step up and say he needs a few days off to help himself and the team.

he is obviously a huge part of the defense, but with ab's like he's had on this road trip he's providing nothing to the lineup

5/20/2007 8:50:15 PM

Everybody responds to stretches like this differently, and one of the reasons Bobby Cox is so great is that he's the best manager in baseball at recognizing what specific players need to break out of a slump. I don't know what he'll do here, but he'll figure something out.

Seems to me that Andruw's current problems are as much mechanical as anything. His swings the past few games, especially today, have looked terrible. I'm not a hitting coach, but I've watched a lot of baseball and even I can tell when someone's swing doesn't look right. His entire body is coming open when the ball is halfway to the plate.

5/21/2007 12:18:24 AM

so why do have prado, woodward, and orr all on the 25 man roster

do we really need three utility infielders?

--

speaking of utility infienders, willy aybar is in rehab

http://www.ajc.com/news/content/sports/braves/stories/2007/05/19/0520aybar.html

[Edited on May 21, 2007 at 9:05 PM. Reason : ]

5/21/2007 9:04:09 PM

Quote :

"i mean i guess we've gotta re-sign him because he's still the best centerfielder in the NL and he's obviously got talent."

I disagree with the first point unless you are strictly talking about defensively and even then his added weight has cut down on his range (at one point he was by far the best defensive CF I'd ever seen but I think Torii is better at this point). But it's pretty obvious what he is doing. He is trying to put up monster HR numbers in his walk year b/c he knows how retarded most GMs are when looking at HR numbers. His quotes in the papers only make this more obvious.

[Edited on May 22, 2007 at 12:56 AM. Reason : wouldn't surprise me to see him as a Yankee even though noodle arm Damon is still around]

5/22/2007 12:55:42 AM

yeah i meant defensively, and notice i said NL, not league

5/22/2007 6:45:37 AM

^^ regardless of his "limited range", he still would have made that catch on Sunday night that Beltran blew against the Yankees on Matsui's two run double

Also this week's series against the Mets has me very worried. If the Braves continue to stink it up, they'll be five and a half out when just a week ago they had a 1.5 game lead.

5/22/2007 10:09:53 AM

I don't have the time to get so worked up over a 3-game series in May. It'll give me an ulcer I don't need right now, already in the hospital with my wife the past two weeks. I will say this, though: the team looks like it's ready for another stretch like last year, though I don't think it will happen on that magnitude. Pitching is pretty shitty (save smoltz and hudson), offense is inconsistent. I just haven't seen much in this team the last week and a half I've been watching. Maybe it's just my pessimistic POV. Who knows?

5/22/2007 10:22:42 AM

^ Well Kelly Johnson who was the spark plug for the offense in April has pretty much sucked ass in May (other than his big game on Sat). Andruw has somehow gotten worse this month than last, Chipper is still bothered by his multiple injuries, and McCann is still struggling with his hand. Frenchy and Diaz have looked good and Harris has been a great call-up.

The pitching does suck ass. Davies and James are horribly inconsistent, Lerew sucked huge his last two starts and is now on the DL, Redman is a fucking joke and should be released, and Hudson is coming back to earth as expected. Smoltz is the man.

The Braves are going to have to hit because the pitching is not going to get much better IMO. Plus the fact that they are chasing the best team in the NL doesn't help. Either way the Braves should still be able to take the wild card even if the Mets do start to pull away (which I don't think will happen because their pitching is bound to fall apart - Oliver Perez, Jorge Sosa, El Duque, and Maine are not sub 3.00 ERA guys).

5/22/2007 11:05:59 AM

Quote :

"regardless of his "limited range", he still would have made that catch on Sunday night that Beltran blew against the Yankees on Matsui's two run double "

Probably, but only because Beltran plays one of the deepest CF's in the game. He makes more gap catches than any other CF but is a bit timid after his collision with Cameron about coming in on balls... And I do think that, RIGHT NOW, Beltran is a better all around player than Druw..

[Edited on May 22, 2007 at 12:00 PM. Reason : x]

5/22/2007 12:00:11 PM

^ I agree that he is a better all around player because he can hit for an average and steal bases. I don't think he is a better fielder than Andruw and Beltran's arm is not as strong.

Beltran is faster and a definitely the better hitter considering how shitty Andruw looks this year and the fact that Andruw is going to whiff 150+ times this year

5/22/2007 12:33:52 PM

^^ i think its obvious that beltran is a better all-round player than andruw at the moment both because of beltran's offense (along with andruw's lack there of at the moment) and his ability to steal bases pretty much whenever he wants (highest success percentage in the mlb) but defensively there is no comparison between the two. andruw has a much better arm and still has better range. and as for the matsui double beltran let drop the other night... thats a ball andruw still catches in his back pocket every time.

5/22/2007 1:56:55 PM