I haven't been able to watch a Lakers game in a while but is Bynum sulking again?  I check the box scores and it seems like his effort isn't there.  He's not getting a lot of rebounds and he's fouling more.  It's starting to remind me of last year after he came back from the injury when it was obvious to all Laker fans that he was being a little lazy because he couldn't get into the offensive flow.  Just a thought.

Could Atlanta have the best rotation in the NL? There is nothing to do at work and I've been wondering if the staff could maintain this pace.  After looking at Baseball Reference for about 40 minutes and I'm trying to find some sort of statisticall anomaly. 

Derek Lowe has almost the same H/9, SO/9.  The only deviations from his normal production is his HR and his BB has went up from last year but are closer to his pre 2007 numbers.

Javy Vazquez has been way way way better than anyone could have hoped.... if he could just keep the damn ball in the park.  Maybe in US Cell but at the Ted?  I don't know how his K rate has exploded from a consistent 8 K/9 throughout his career to a 11 but I'm not arguing.  BABIP is still steady.  I really want to believe that he is a better pitcher now than when he was in Montreal and being in the AL made him seem worse than he was.

Kawakami like most Dice K can't find the strike zone at times.   I don't think that gets better. 

Jurrjens has the least amount of numbers to go from but at 22 he's walking less but strike out less as well.  Hitters just aren't getting getting on base against him. 

Just boredom

Don't know if this is a user violation on TC but this is the verbatim ESPN insider scouting report of Zack Wheeler (the guy Jim Callis thinks the Braves will pick at 7) by Keith Law

Zack Wheeler is a tall loose-armed right-handed pitcher from East Paulding High School in Dallas, Ga., who is a lock to go in the first round. On Wednesday, Wheeler threw a seven-inning two-hit shutout, fanning 14 while walking none. His fastball comes out of his hand easy and ran from 91 to 95 mph -- one scout mentioned that he had Wheeler at 96 the previous week -- with tremendous late life. His only real secondary pitch was a hard slurve at 74-78 mph that was all but unhittable; he'd sweep it away from a right-handed hitter and then throw a tighter one to hit the inside corner for a called strike. He threw one hard changeup at 88 mph that was more like a BP fastball than a true change.

His arm action is long but he repeats it well and the length seems to come from the low point where he separates his hands, which isn't that major of a fix for player development. He takes an enormous stride toward the plate with a little bit of drop-and-drive and generates good arm speed, which leads both to velocity on the fastball and sharpness on the breaking ball. He lands a little stiffly with some recoil. With a little projection left, two above-average pitches, and a good delivery, Wheeler should go in the top 20 picks and perhaps in the top 15 as one of the four best prep arms in this class (with Tyler Matzek, Shelby Miller and Matt Purke).

http://insider.espn.go.com/espn/blog/index?entryID=4079335&name=mlb_draft

More draft talk for those that care. I think Tate is going to be the value pick for the Braves at 7. I know many people will say you already have Schafer why gets another big potential CF but hey this is baseball. Tate now may get you a former Cy Young winner later. Or if he starts adding power he could project to be a plus defender in left. The same could be said for Ackley who projecting to be a 1b/LF guy. I wish that Crow would drop but I doubt that happens so I'm guessing Ackley, Purke, Green, Tate, or Matzek.

Why isn't Schafer leading off?  I wonder does it actually harm a team if the leadoff hitter goes up, sees four pitches and strikes out as opposed to grounding out to third?  He doesn't walk but he gives you power potential and he's gonna do it sometime in the future.

Neither KJ or Jordan will get on base at a great clip this year anyway why take the fangs out of your offense by removing Schafer ability to steal or at least move on the basepath. 

What the hell is wrong with the bullpen?  Everyone is getting hit or just plain wild.  And for all the people that smashed my idea of putting Hanson in the bullpen; with him I doubt they lose the sweep game in Philly and there wouldn't be all this uncertainty in the late inning.  Because if you have confidence in Moylan at this point you are getting lonely on that island.  Mike as well.  The adventure in the season opener or giving up meaningless runs to the Pirates just doesn't bode well for a closer that may come on with runners on in the eigth inning of a important game in September 

With all that said.  Are we overreacting?  I felt so confident after the first series that this team would win 90 plus with Jurrjens and Lowe winning 16 or 17 games and now I'm wondering if the Phillies are just that bad.  Without Chipper and McCann this offense has no pop and those guys bring (compared to what you'd like out your 3-4 spots) little thump anyway.  Garret seems washed up and while Francouer is hitting I feel more confident in 2006 FYF.  The bullpen was a positive last few years and now its nothing. 

I beg of you brothers of Talking Chop talk me off the ledge. 

Why not put him in the Major League pen?  Just an idea so please don't blast me like we did that guy who proposed the Alex Gordon trade.  Is there anything else he can do in the minors other than put more pitches on his arm?  With Jo Jo pitching the way he has signing Glavine is an additional thing to put on Wren's con list.  I love Tommy as much as anyone but holy crap we have 7 major league pitchers.  Not including Campillo. 

Just saying trot him out every three days pitcher two or so innings.  As soon as there is an injury pop him right in there.

Yeah he did overpay for Derek Lowe and while I'm not a proponent of "making a move just to make a move" I enjoy the fact that Wren has did anything that isn't a sideways step.  I'm a little sore about Smoltz still and if you would pay 15 per for Lowe I think you could stomach 10 for Smoltz.  When healthy who would have rather have?

Now on to the corner outfield issue.  Dunn is the guy.  Has to be, there is still quite a bit of money out there like Gondz pointed out  and I think Wren realized that the fan base is losing confidence.  Anything less than a big time play for Dunn or (not jinxing it) Manny  would be a disappointment.  Now about locking Jeff Francouer in a room....   Wait. Maybe we could all pitch in and buy him a "Swing A Way"

http://www.swingaway.com/

And this for Dunn

http://www.tom-emanski-baseball-videos.com/

Are we competing or are we rebuilding?  Or is he letting the market dictating to him what to do?  Is he saving money for next offseason?  Is going to wait until Hanson and Heyward are big league ready?  Is he going to let Chip play out his final years or a horrible team?   Is he going to let Chipper go? Maybe there is an elite prospect in 2010 draft.  I don't know anymore.  My head hurts.

Looking at this page:  http://www.hardballtimes.com/thtstats/main/player/index.php?playerId=801&firstName=Javier&lastName=Vazquez

In his season with his best FIP (2008) of the last four years he had an ERA of 4.67, his highest WHIP, SLUG, and BB totals in three years.

All that tells me is that FIP is a very good theoretical stat.  But it is not great at correlating to actual production.

To add to my arguement, a quick fan post from a White Sox fan. 

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/index.php/vazquez-the-frustrator/

Simply a very good pitcher (2 or 3) but not what the Braves needed.

(where's a beer so I can have a victory sip?)

There is all this speculating about trading Prado and something for Swisher but is that really the best available option?  We all know Wren is looking for a right handed corner outfield power bat i.e.  Pat Burrell but is too poor a defensive player so we've heard zero discussion on him.  We all "want" Adam Dunn because like someone said in an earlier post 40 home runs is 40 home runs doesn't matter what side of the plate it comes from.  So it seems that we will settle for Nick Swisher even though he is clearly the least potent bat of the three. 

Swisher has never hit over .262, never had a 100+ rbi season and the only season he came close is the season he hit 35 home runs and on a moneyball team like the one he was on he should have drove in more runs all things considered.

It should be noted that both Burrell and Dunn have played in hitter's parks the majority of their careers but with all three you will get .250, .380, .480 minimum.  So at least go after the guy that's going to produce the most runs for you and that guy isn't Nick Swisher

http://www.baseball-reference.com/s/swishni01.shtml

http://www.baseball-reference.com/d/dunnad01.shtml

http://www.baseball-reference.com/b/burrepa01.shtml

i'm just saying if you're going to go for piss poor  you might as well get Pat Burrell.