As we all remember, Brian McCann went through a brief time in his career when he was having problems with his vision and tried wearing glasses/goggles before finally having Lasix (Lasik?) surgery and getting his vision corrected. Since that time, he has seemed to return to his normal hitting prowess. Which is far ABOVE "normal", of course!

BUT... we probably also all remember him getting "Three Stooged" right in the eye by Michael Bourn a little while ago after that clutch homer. Ever since then, Big Mac does NOT look like himself at all at the plate. Taking a ton of good pitches and not hitting the ball well at all.

I am not an eye doctor, and I have never had Lasix/k surgery... so I have no clue if a finger in the eye can permanently mess up the results of that surgery. Does anyone else know more about this? And more importantly, does anyone else have more inside knowledge of the team so that we can find out for sure whether or not Big Mac can see as well as was a few weeks ago? Thanks!

Please, Frank Wren.  That was a deer in the headlights last night.  Chipper was managing the team while Fredi just paced and stared.  That was a full year of terrible strategies.  Overused pitchers, bad bunts, failure to move runners up, worst hitting approach ever.  No excitement from him, no arguments to protect his players.  Nothing.

FIRE that proven choker NOW!   What self-respecting free agent is going to want to come play for this loser?  The Marlins are looking like rocket scientists for letting this guy go.

With Chipper recently hitting his 500th double and driving in his 1,512th run, he moved into 50th place All-Time in both categories (Doubles and RBI).  So in addition to these two new "Top 50" categories, we are also talking about a guy who ranks:

36th All-Time in Home Runs -- 31st All-Time in OPS -- 24th All-Time in Walks -- 48th All-Time in Total Bases.

This means that our beloved Chipper is in the Top 50 All-Time for SIX of the most important categories used to rank hitters from every era.  SIX!!

And he shows NO SIGNS of slowing down this season.  Shoot, the guy is an RBI machine thus far in 2011!

And some people still try to argue that he isn't a "first ballot" guy?  PHOOEY!

If asked to make a list of guys who I would want at the plate in a crucial situation where we need either to get a rally started OR to drive someone in... and I could choose from EVERY player that ever played the game... Chipper would have to be in the Top 25.

That's the beauty of Chipper.  He can get ON BASE to START a rally... or he can DRIVE IN THE RUNS to sustain it.  He is the best combination of Pete Rose (switch hitter who got on base) and Mickey Mantle (switch hitter who drove in the runs).

What other guys had this type of COMBO package at the plate?

OK, I know the title of the post makes you say "This guy is a ruh-tard"... or it gets your brain thinking about guys like Otis Nixon, Ralph Garr and Brett Butler... but there is a method behind my madness.

For those of you who don't know this INCREDIBLE statistic:  Nate McLouth has the 11th ALL-TIME HIGHEST percentage for scoring whenever he earns his way on base with a hit, walk or HBP!  In those situations...Nate comes around to score an amazing 45.8% of the time.  Wow! 

That's right folks -- our man Nate is 11th out of the 17,200+ people who have ever played major league baseball at doing the ONE thing that is most important - scoring runs!  So doesn't this HAVE to mean that Nate is a GREAT baserunner?

It does to me, because it means that he must be doing ALL of these things right:   1) not getting picked off, 2) successfully stealing bases to get into scoring position, 3) taking extra bases whenever possible, 4) tagging up at every opportunity, 5) stealing signs and signalling the hitters, 6) distracting pitchers and making them throw hittable pitches, and 7) hustling every time.

PLUS...Nate did most of this with the Pirates, for God's sake, so it certainly wasn't just a matter of him sitting on first base and ultimately scoring as the result of having Babe Ruth and Hank Aaron hitting behind him.  He clearly had to have had some input in helping manufacture a lot of those runs.

Could THIS be why Fredi is batting Nate in the #2 hole?  Does Fredi know that if (it was a big if in 2010) Nate finds a way to have any sort of decent OBP... that he will score a boatload of runs?

But regardless of whether or not Nate stays near the top of our order... there is certainly something much more than just "luck" or "fate" involved in him having this success.  The ONLY correlation that I can draw from this is baserunning.

Can anyone else think of any other possible explanation?

No, I'm not talking about our win percentage for the 2011 season.

I'm talking about our win pecentage FOREVER!!

It has been a long climb since 1876 when we started off as the Boston Red Caps...

but our current all-time record is 9945-9954.

That's right.  We are STILL 9 games UNDER .500...even AFTER the last 20 years of success. 

Amazing.  That's a lot of suckiness we had to endure.  I remember it well.

SO...assuming Freddy G. can come in and keep up our winning ways...

2011 can be the year that the Bravos get back into positive territory and hopefully stay there forever!

http://www.baseball-reference.com/teams/ATL/

Did we even give Glaus a single minute of playing time at 3B?

With Prado hurt, would Glaus be the back-up 3B after Conrad?

Will Glaus even be on the 25-man postseason roster if we make the playoffs?

I admired him earlier in the season for making such a strong comeback and for helping us win games with his super hot month...

but it is almost sad to see him wither away now.

Hudson is obviously the guy we would want in Game 1, Game 4 and a crucial game 7 right now...

and JJ is looking like a strong guy for Game 2 and Game 6.

Hanson is reeling a bit...

and Lowe is Lowe - but now with arm problems.

Am I crazy to think that Bobby would throw MINOR out their in Game 3 if the postseason started today?

Should he?

What if Minor continues to roll and ends the season 7-0?

Do any of you folks know where I could get copies of all 7 games of the 1991 World Series?  I don't want a condensed highlight DVD.  I want the complete games as they aired on TV...with all the drama and suspense over every single pitch.  My 16-year-old son is a Braves fan, but he has NO idea what it was like being a Braves fan during the "Worst to First" days.  I would love to sit and watch that heartbreaking series with him at some point.  Thanks for any help.

I know we talk all about the projected line up and whether J-Hey should hit second or seventh, etc.

But what if we just realize that we are dealing with a FREAK and admit that he is just "that good" so that he can start off in the #4 hole.  After all, is there ANY DOUBT that the kid is going to be a cleanup hitter for a ong, long time?

NOW how strong does our lineup look?

1. McLouth (L)

2. Prado (R)

3. Chipper (R/L)

4. J-Hey (L)

5. Glaus (R)

6. McCann (L)

7. Escobar (R)

8. Diaz/Melke (R/L)