Prado Remains as the Fourth Best Second Basemen of 2010
Four out of the top five second basemen remain on the list from early July. The only newcomer is a big surprise, after years of hype he is finally doing what everyone expected him to do. Out of the four players who remained, only one of them moved from their top five position.
4. Martin Prado, Atlanta Braves: Prado is continuing to impress this season for the Braves. Prado remains at the number four spot this time around because of his consistent hitting. Prado’s average did drop 16 points since early June, but he did hit eight home runs and got 44 hits. Prado is a big reason the Braves have remained in first place. The Phillies are knocking on the Braves door so Prado will have to remain at his hot pace and keep getting on base for the guys behind him.
Click here to read the full article – By Eric Heyer of Sports Fan Blog Network
Braves Are the Fifth Best Team in Baseball
Three teams remain in the top five list from early in June. The two newcomers look like they are seriously making a run for the post-season. If these teams remain in the top five, the playoffs will look a lot different this year then the previous few years. Only one team on this list was in the playoffs last year. Things can change by the end of the season, but I think at least four out of the five on here are locks for the playoffs.
5. Atlanta Braves: In the beginning of June the Reds owned the number five spot, but now they are off the list. The Braves have moved in with a little help here and there from everyone on the team. There really isn’t one player on the Braves team that sticks out more than the other. Their hitting isn’t spectacular, but it also isn’t bad. Most of the players on the team are hitting in the .250 to .290 range with the exception of Omar Infante and Martin Prado who are both hitting over .300. The pitching is the same way, Derek Lowe and Tim Hudson are both leading the team in wins with 10. Then Tommy Hanson and Kris Medlen have eight and six wins respectively. The top four guys in their rotation are even in the fact that their win/loss disparity is no more than five. This means they are all pitching well, but not great. Out of the five teams on the list I think the Braves are the most likely to fall apart and not make the playoffs. I can see the Phillies having a big second half to take the division away from them. You never know though, the trade deadline is a few days away, if the Braves pick up a big power bat, it might be enough for them to win their division.
Click here to read the full article – By Eric Heyer of Sports Fan Blog Network
Martin Prado Makes #4 of the Best Second Baseman of 2010
Second base isn’t producing many offensive numbers this year. One man stands far and beyond at the best second baseman of 2010 so far and probably for a long time to come.
4. Martin Prado, Atlanta Braves: Prado is distinguishing himself as a solid base hitter for the Atlanta Braves. Last year Prado had his first full season in the majors and he proved that he belongs. Prado is developing into a good .300 hitter. Prado doesn’t have much power, only belting 11 home runs last year, but so far this year he has six home runs and is on pace to hit about 18 by the end of the season. Prado’s main job is to get on base in front of Heyward, McCann, and Glaus. Batting lead-off this year Prado is hitting .332 with 90 hits and 47 runs. Prado is a big reason why the Braves are currently in first place.
Click here to read the full article – By Eric Heyer of Sports-Fan Blog Network
Braves to retire Glavine’s No. 47
Tom Glavine thought of his rocky first full season with the Atlanta Braves when the team announced Tuesday it will retire his number.
Glavine’s highlights with the Braves included two NL Cy Young awards and the decisive win over the Cleveland Indians in the 1995 World Series.
Before he enjoyed five seasons with 20 or more wins with Atlanta, Glavine went 7-17 in 1988. He says at that point there was no way he could know his No. 47 would one day be retired by the team.
“It’s not something you ever envisioned and not something I ever envisioned, certainly with the way my career started in Atlanta,” Glavine told The Associated Press.
The Braves will induct Glavine into the team’s Hall of Fame and retire his number on Aug. 6 before a home game against the San Francisco Giants.
Click here to read the full article – By Associated Press of ESPN.com
Bobby Cox on Jason Heyward: ‘Don’t expect miracles now’
The first thing Bobby Cox said to me after the game was, “Don’t expect miracles now.”
And part of me felt like saying, “You mean we shouldn’t expect Jason Heyward to hit 162 homers and drive in 648 runs this season? Why not? He’s on pace to do it.” But the bigger part of me said (grudgingly), “Yeah, you’re right.”
We waited long to see what the new guy could do, and with his first swing he gave us reason to believe. But baseball, as we know, is a game of failure. The best hitters make outs seven times in 10, et cetera. And Heyward, who’s the best-looking rookie any of us has ever beheld, is nonetheless a rookie.
He won’t hit 162 home runs in 2010. He might not hit 25. (He had only 29 homers in the minors.) We — and I plead guiltier than anyone — spent yesterday falling all over ourselves to gush, but in the cold light of Tuesday morning we — and I’m talking to myself here, too — have to remember: The guy’s 20; he hasn’t yet figured out everything.
Although it must be said that the least surprised person at Turner Field on Monday was … Jason Heyward. Someone asked if he’d ever dreamed of hitting a home run as a Brave, and he almost laughed off the question. “If I played here in my home town, I’d hope I’d hit a home run in 81 games,” he said.
Click here to read the full article – By Mark Bradley of Atlanta Journal Constitution
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Reliever Gonzalez goes with Boras
Mike Gonzalez has already drawn strong attention from a number of different teams looking for a closer and as he continues to determine where he’ll pitch next year, he’ll do so under the advisement of Scott Boras.
Two Major League sources have confirmed that Gonzalez recently chose Boras to serve as his agent. The veteran reliever had previously been represented by Dan Lozano of the Beverly Hills Sports Council.
With the addition of Gonzalez to his star-studded stable, Boras now possesses one of the top available relievers on this year’s free-agent market. The 31-year-old lefty posted a 2.42 ERA and limited opponents to a .209 batting average in the career-high 80 appearances he made for the Braves this past season.
Click here to read the full article – By Mark Bowman of MLB.com
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Braves end season with six-game skid
Their season finale Sunday lasted 15 innings and nearly 4 1/2 hours and ended ingloriously in a 2-1 loss against the Washington Nationals at Turner Field, leaving the Braves with a six-game losing streak as the final act in a season that crashed from a promising peak six days before.
In under a week, the Braves went from a 15-2 tear that brought them to within 2 1/2 games of wild-card leader Colorado, to finishing third in the National League East behind Florida.
The Braves lost all four games in the series – the first time they were ever swept in a four-game home series against the Montreal/Washington franchise — despite strong performances from starting pitching in three, including Tim Hudson’s seven innings Sunday (seven hits and seven strikeouts).
“We just didn’t do much with the bats the entire homestand,” said manager Bobby Cox, whose club scored just nine runs in 44 innings against the NL’s worst pitching staff and a Nationals team that came to town with a major-league most 103 losses – and left with 103.
Click here to read the full article – By David O’Brien of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
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Winning season gives Braves confidence
Discouraged that they weren’t able to complete their goal of reaching the playoffs, the Braves are determined to finish the season strong and maintain some of the momentum they built over the course of the past couple of weeks.
Chipper Jones said that if somebody had told him at the beginning of the season that Atlanta would notch 90 victories, he would have predicted a playoff spot.
The bid for 90 victories ended on Thursday night, when the Braves lost a third consecutive game. But regardless of what happens the rest of the way, they have come a long way from the 72-90 campaign they endured last year.
Click here to read the full article – By Mark Bowman of MLB.com
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Braves pushing for playoffs with drive
Chipper Jones feels as though he’s returned to the 1990s.
Those were giddy times for the Atlanta Braves, who won their division just about every season and often made it to the World Series – five times by the time the decade was done.
Well, look who’s making an improbable bid for the playoffs.
Yep, it’s the Braves, the franchise that fell on hard times after the last of its record 14 straight division titles in 2005.
A 4-0 shutout of the Florida Marlins on Monday night was Atlanta’s 15th victory in 17 games, closing the gap on Colorado in the wild-card race to two games. The Braves haven’t even given up on chasing down defending World Series champion Philadelphia in the NL East, pulling within four games of the division leader.
There’s only six games left in the regular season, so Atlanta still faces long and longer odds to catch either team. But this late-season run has sure made things a lot more fun around the clubhouse for players who had almost forgotten what it was like to play meaningful games in September.
Click here to read the full article – By PAUL NEWBERRY of TheItem.com
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Lowe beneficiary of Braves’ laugher
Chipper Jones and Garret Anderson highlighted the early power display that helped Derek Lowe feel less uneasy about his latest finger ailment and the possibility of reliving the nightmare that he’d experienced when he last stood on Citi Field’s mound.
It took the Braves just three innings to provide Lowe comfort and compile all of the runs that would encompass the 11-3 bashing that they handed the Mets at Citi Field on Monday night.
“A lot of this game is momentum, and if you can seize the momentum early and set the tone, you’ve got a good chance to win it,” said Jones, whose three-run homer capped the four-run second inning.
Click here to read the full article – By Mark Bowman of MLB.com
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