I call it the Myth Of Chipper Jones. He's my favorite player ever, all apologies to Fred McGriff. But I see a terrifying trend to assume that Chipper will lead the Braves to the promised land or else the organization will go nowhere.  That’s the real window that’s driving the Braves organization, not Bobby’s impending retirement. Do we really think that the Bravos are going to win 97 games this year and that Bobby’s going to retire? It is the assumption that Chipper must make the difference that drives the organization. A glance at the farm system will tell you as much: for the fat cats in Atlanta it’s Chipper of bust. The problem is that the immediate and long-term future success of the franchise isn’t tied to Larry Wayne. While this artificial window is closing, the Bravos are killing me with some of these short-sighted/stupid moves.

Am I supposed to be okay with a Huddy coming off of injury at 9 mil plus Cabrera for 3 mil and a 19 year old prospect in exchange for Vazquez coming off a dominant year? Is there anyone out there willing to take the over for Chipper plus Glaus combined for 200 games? Are we really willing to accept that Wagner and Saito are reasonable replacements for Soriano and Gonzalez? Instead of the plus pitchers that we lost we’re going to see a lot of the M&Ms, Medlen and Moylan. Are we really ready for a heavy dose of Infante in our lives for the next seven months when the mash unit brothers go down? To imagine that a core involving Chipper (37), Hudson (34), Wagner (38), Glaus (and ancient 33), Saito (39), Lowe (36) and KK (34) is going to overtake the Phillies this year is absurd. My concern is that this group will disallow the Braves from overtaking the Phillies in years to come.

I love this site, but I can’t be the only one who notices the rampant homerism. The Lowe signing was horrible at the time and looks even worse now. The McLouth trade was and is indefensible. Unless you’re drafting a fantasy team, both are useless. Can any dummie take a team with McCann, Heyward, Yunel, JJ, Hanson, and Prado to the world series eventually? Of course. My concern is that the MOCJ will make that impossible.

Got my little brother (age 11, 16 year age difference) a Heyward jersey on a whim this Christmas and picked 24 because I'd seen so many pictures of him wearing 24. Since he's asked me, I realize that I have no idea where Heyward wore 24 in his career. Anybody know? Keep in mind, this will go down as definitive history in the hallowed halls of Winston-Salem Downtown Elementary School. 75 words

I've been trying to figure out why Jurjjens was able to drop 1.08 from his ERA between two seasons ago and last season. Everything looks about the same other than a 40 point drop in BABIP. I'm not huge on stats, but I know that BABIP is generally viewed as a measure of luck. What confuses me is that while the BABIP was lower, there wasn't a big change in total hits. Can anyone help me understand this?

More broadly, can JJ be consistently as good as he has been these last two years given his peripherals? He seems like an outlier to me.