02 September 2009

The Braves have beaten the Marlins twice in a row, which is always satisfying.

A few thoughts:

• After working three days in a row, Rafael Soriano is looking rather cooked; Kris Medlen, on the other hand, is looking better and better.
• Omar Infante is not a major league center fielder.
• You could do worse than have Matt Diaz as your leadoff hitter. He's been in a Braves uniform for four years; his batting averages have been .327, .338, .244, and this year's .328. Which of these is not like the others?
• Tim Hudson looked a lot better in his first appearance after Tommy John surgery than Peter Moylan did on April 8 -- walk, single, single, walk, replaced by Blaine Boyer. All four runners eventually scored. Four runs and no outs: an ERA of infinity.

Finally, what should we do about the starting rotation? If the poll to the right were working, you could share your thoughts there. Instead, maybe share them here. I still think we should trade someone. The trouble is, the perception that the NL is far weaker than the AL is becoming widespread online, and may soon possibly spread to big league front offices: Basically, the notion is that NL pitchers and hitters become significantly worse when they move to the Junior Circuit, and should be discounted accordingly. If this notion really takes hold, we'd only have 15 potential trade partners, instead of 29, if we want full value for one of our players.

We could certainly target big-market AL teams if we were just looking for a salary dump of Lowe or Kawakami, but I don't think that would be a wise move.

< Prev		Next >