It's the off-season and we're all bored, so why not mess with lineups?

Below, I used a lineup optimizer using Bill James' 2011 player projections and one of Fredi's tentative lineups that we will likely see on Opening Day. Keep in mind a few things - this lineup order is just a rough draft, it assumes that the players listed play every single game, and Bill James' projections are just projections. I personally think he's a tad bit optimistic on Chipper and McCann and little pessimistic on Prado and Uggla, but that's just me. Anyway, here are the numbers.

Player Name:        OBP:       Slg. %

Martin Prado          .356        .446

Jason Heyward      .411        .493

Chipper Jones       .401        .481

Brian McCann        .366        .493

Dan Uggla              .352        .483

Nate McLouth         .335        .416

Alex Gonzalez         .291        .405

Freddie Freeman     .336       .446

Pitcher                     .176       .181

This lineup would score 4.97 runs per game - pretty dang good. Using the lineup optimizer, which Fredi and any other manager wouldn't use because it goes against traditional baseball lineup construction, we would score 5.184 runs per game.

Below, I have the Bill James projections and tentative lineup for the Phillies. Keep in mind the same things as above, like projections and such. I think Bill James is a little pessimistic for Utley and too optimistic for Domonic Brown. I mean, I know D. Brown is very good, but I have a hard time believing he'll slug over .500 in his rookie year, but I could be wrong.

Player Name:        OBP:       Slg. %

Jimmy Rollins       .329        .424

Placido Polanco     .342         .391

Chase Utley           .387        .497

Ryan Howard        .368         .547

Carlos Ruiz            .360        .413

Raul Ibanez            .343        .446

Shane Victorino     .343        .431

Domonic Brown       .346       .505

Pitcher                   .176       .181

This lineup would score 4.812 runs per game, or .158 less runs than the Braves. Now, remember I really could have butchered this lineup - a Phillies fan probably could've given a more accurate one - but I'm willing to bet that the difference would be small.

So, all in all, the Braves have a better projected starting lineup, albeit a very small difference, than the Phils. With similar pitching between our two clubs, the one thing the Braves need to fix up to compete with the Phillies is defense. The Phillies defense is quite outstanding outside of Howard and Ibanez, so if we could get a great defensive CF we could be right on par with their club and be ready to challenge for the division crown next spring.

Hey everybody, I have a baseball-related question and I'd like gather a few opinions if I could.

I'm currently planning a trip with a couple buddies this summer to visit about 6 or 7 different baseball stadiums throughout the country. We've already decided on three we'd like to visit - Wrigley Field, Fenway, and New Yankee Stadium (gotta get the cliches out of the way). This leaves me with about 3 or 4 more stadiums to check out.

I've read about some great stadiums to visit, but I'd like to get a first-hand account of what some stadiums are like. Has anyone been to some stadiums that are just too good to pass up? Any that I should look into more deeply? Thanks.

My apologies for the immature title. Though I must admit that at events like these, it's always tempting to say something stupid/lame/stupid that the guys would remember or maybe mention to each other on the bus ride home. Anyway, I just figured I'd pass along some photos and share what went down today in Macon. I had a handful of stuff to get signed, so my girlfriend took the pictures. There were a ton of people there and they were pushing people through quickly, so she captured what she could. We were asked not to ask the players to look at the camera and smile, although most of them tried to when possible.

In the picture above you'll see the crew: Huddy, Heyward, Redmond, Ross, Hubbard, Clontz, and Jim Powell. Huddy was typical Huddy - polite and quirky. I told him, "Happy to see you in a Braves uniform for a few more years." He looked at me, then at my girlfriend for about three seconds or so, then replied "I appreciate that; it's good to be back." Then I asked, "How's the elbow feeling?" "It's feeling real good, real strong." See folks. Huddy's no injury risk, he said so.

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When the Braves won 14 consecutive division titles, it seemed like we had absolutely everything. We had great players, quality baseball to watch, and of course, we could look forward to October baseball every year. Looking back, I realize now that there was one thing that we were missing - a true division rivalry.

Sure, we had the Mets, but other than the year 2000, they didn't come close to challenging us. To me, the Mets weren't so much a division rival as much as they were the Braves' little brother that we got to beat up on for fun, and of course, to pad Chipper's stats. I never remember loathing the Mets existence, high-fiving strangers when I saw they lost, or coming up with offensive nick-names for any of their players.

Anyway, the winds of change blew and our Bravos fell off the top, and ultimately out of contention. When the Braves were finally dethroned in 2006 by the Mets (thanks Jorge Sosa), a year later in 2007, a division rivalry slowly started to form - between the Braves and the Phillies.

The Phillies have been on top for the past 3 years. Although the Mets dethroned us, the Phillies are the ones who ultimately have taken our spot. And as a Braves fan, that infuriates me. That makes me want to beat Philadelphia at all costs. When I see Philly fans, I get angry, when the Braves lose to the Phils, I get frustrated, when the Braves have an upcoming series against them, I get excited. And during the '09 season, these feelings intensified tenfold, because the Braves were back in contention. I think that now, us Braves fans finally have a division rivalry on our hand, sure only to escalate with the 2010 season.

And you know what? I'm glad most of their fans are loud and beligerent and throw snowballs at Santa. All the better. I want to see emotions running high when the Braves face the Phillies. I want there to be verbal arguments at games between fans, and I want Braves fans to loathe Phillies fans and vice versa. I want the Braves-Phils rivalry to rival that of the Yankees and BoSox. And maybe, just maybe, a strong rivalry could put people in the seats when the Phillies come to town.

So thanks, Phillies. Now go and make some more questionable blockbuster trades so we can beat your sorry asses next year.

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This is a mild to majorly pointless post, but hey, it's the offseason.

I was just wondering if anyone else ever made up original, funny nicknames for any Braves players. My brother and I used to come up with them all the time.

For example, when the Braves had Tyler Yates, we called him "Yates Infection" and it was like every time Yates got a strikeout it'd be like "Dude, Yates Infection is so nasty!" or if they showed him in the bullpen, it was "Man, it looks like Yates Infection is just itchin' to get into the game."

Other nicknames included Bob Thickman, Manny "I'll-Cost-Ya" (a game), Damn Kolb, LaDouche (dubbed after LaRoche, in the 2005 NLDS elimination game, barely jogged around the bases towards home and was thrown out by a mile where if he actually ran he would have made it. Nothing against him now...), etc.

Does anyone else have some good nicknames?

After reading the fanpost, "Andruw Jones wants his job back," I realized that I had almost forgotten about my favorite former Braves player. AJ was my childhood favorite due to his incredible defensive talent, his ability to slug 35 home runs a year, and he was always smiling about something (most likely food) every single at-bat.

An idea that was brought up (and quickly shot down) in the comments section was "wait a second, could we really get Andruw back? Is he worth anything anymore?" I began entertaining the idea of having AJ back in the lineup if he were his old self, and to be honest, I liked the idea of seeing him back. I decided to do a little research to see if Jones's career really is completely done, or if maybe he could bounce back - in an Atlanta Braves uniform.

Last year with the Rangers, in 281 AB's, Andruw's line looked like this: .214/.323/.459 giving him a .782 OPS, with 17 homers and 43 RBI's. Now, that seems pretty bad.

Except for that home run total. In fact, for his number of AB's, that home run total is very good. His HR/AB ratio was 1/16.5 - that is very good. How many home runs does that translate to over the course of a whole season? From 1998-2007, he averaged 590.3 AB's a season. If you put Andruw's 2009 HR/AB ratio over the course of an entire season (590.3 AB's), he would hit a rounded total of 36 home runs. Hmmm...that looks just like his old home run totals.

Another thing stood out to me was that Andruw's OBP was over .100 points higher than his BA. The number of walks AJ took last season was surprising to me - 45! This is a huge improvement for Andruw, showing that he has more plate discipline. Over the course of an entire season, AJ would have racked up approx. 95 walks in '09 - which is, believe it or not, better than Chipper's season average of about 90 BB per season.

When I took a look at Andruw's 2009 monthly splits, I saw that he had a fantastic April, an okay May, a very bad June, a great July (.964 OPS, 8 homers in 67 AB's), and a bad August. However, in August, he only played in 14 games, and only had 48 AB's. AJ didn't see much playing time after mid-August, only seeing 38 AB's after August 17.

AJ received pretty consistent playing time before the All-Star break, and it resulted in 14 homers and an .870 OPS. But once he struggled in August, he was basically taken out of the lineup except for spot starts. I think that if AJ had consistent playing time, being the streaky hitter that he is, he could work through his streaks of hot and cold.

A lot of people may try to say AJ has lost it because of his strikeout total. Yes, his strikeout total was high in '09 - 72 K's, making an estimated season total 151 K's for AJ. However, strikeouts aren't necessarily a bad thing for sluggers. It's just an out. Two of the game's greatest sluggers, Ryan Howard and Adam Dunn, strike out even more than that every season - heck, Howard struck out 186 times last year, and 199 times in '07 and '08.

Another knock that AJ has on him is that he played in Texas last year, a hitter's park. While his home stats were better than his away stats, I'm not sure how much the park contributed to his numbers. He had 9 HR's at home and 8 on the road. Although the difference in OPS seems substantial - .858 OPS at home and a .705 mark on the road - that difference mainly comes from a difference of 6 more doubles and 7 more walks at home than on the road.

Another problem with AJ is that people think he has become too fat and too slow. I agree he should try Nutrisystem, but he still swiped 5 bags while only being caught once last year. Perhaps TP and the Braves could really work with him if we were to bring him back to keep him in shape.

If we did bring him back, I could picture Andruw Jones having a season that is good but not great, perhaps like the numbers he put up in 2001: .251/.312/.461 with 34 homers and 104 RBI's. If he played full time in 2010, I can see him putting up numbers like this: .235/.335/.465 with 35 homers and 100 RBI's, which is nothing to sneeze at! Just because his average may be low doesn't mean he couldn't be productive and valuable.

Does anyone else think it may be a good idea to bring back Andruw Jones in 2010? He would come cheap, probably around $500,000. Opening Day, I think we should start AJ in CF (only if his defense can be relied on), put McLouth in left and Diaz in right. IMO, Heyward will be up in June, giving AJ 2 months to prove himself. If AJ sucks terribly, we can get him out of there, put Heyward in right, and move McLouth back to center. However, if AJ bounces back, we could keep AJ in center, have McLouth in left, Heyward in right, and Diaz to make spot starts whenever needed. Is AJ worth the risk of having a hole in our lineup for 2 months?

Plus, if we sign AJ rather than an outfielder like Cameron, we save some money that we could spend on extending Laroche's stay, which IMO is the most important thing we need to do this offseason.

Now, I don't know about Andruw's defense. I saw that he was mainly a DH all year - he only played in the outfield 17 games last year. He didn't make any errors in OF, but has anyone seen him play? I have heard he is not very good anymore, but I'd like some confirmation. I still believe in AJ when it comes to taking good routes and getting great jumps on balls, but I don't know...

What does everyone think about reuniting the Jones brothers?

It's over.

It was painful, but not too painful. I mean, at least our NL East rivals didn't win back-to-back years, and the Series wasn't that great (none of the games were very close, or dramatic).

Unfortunately, I think the more painful part will come later, when we will have to hear about the Yankees, and how Joe Girardi is a saint for leading a $220 million team to a championship (how did he do that?!?!), and how great Mariano Rivera is, yada, yada, yada.

Chipper has had a rough year offensively and defensively this year, and in my opinion, if Chipper had a Chipper-esque season, the Braves would have had at least 90 wins, maybe just enough wins to make the playoffs. The Braves really needed some big production from the #3 spot this year, and it just wasn't there. Now, Chipper rebounded after a tough 2004 season, which was the first season Chipper spent a little bit of time being injured, but I'm not so sure this time. Will Chip get back to hitting .300/.400/.500 with 30 homers? Can he rebound in 2010 and for Bobby's last season?