Fredi's Ready! The next era of winning in Atlanta

[wuapinmon]

The AJC reports:

Manager Fredi Gonzalez has made no secret of it all spring, but made it official on Tuesday, that his lineup for Opening Day would be: 1. Left fielder Martin Prado, 2. Center fielder Nate McLouth, 3. Third baseman Chipper Jones, 4. Catcher Brian McCann, 5. Second baseman Dan Uggla, 6. Right fielder Jason Heyward, 7. Shortstop Alex Gonzalez and 8. First baseman Freddie Freeman.

“You can go left-right all the way down so it makes it difficult for the opposing manager to bring those situational lefties in, or a situational right-hander in,” Gonzalez said. “And then you’ve got to pick your poison throughout the lineup.”

The two spots drawing the most debate were McLouth hitting second, after a miserable 2010 season, and Heyward hitting sixth despite his .393 on-base percentage, which ranked fourth among all NL qualifiers last year.

McLouth has reaffirmed Gonzalez’s decision with a resurgent spring and Heyward can draw an argument either way – as table-setter or run-producer.

“I know all my people from SABR,” Gonzalez said, of the statistics gurus at the Society for America Baseball Research. “But hey, we’re dealing with human beings. Sometimes guys get comfortable at a certain spot and they’re producing and they’ve got confidence and go get him.”

[BGRTHNUMEGO]

So essentially Fredi is trying to save McClouth's career and confidence by batting him early where he is comfortable, and doesn't dare move Chipper down to 6 because he's Chipper, even if it means putting the best hitter on your team in the 6th spot in the order.

Makes perfect sense, Fredi. Look at all of the hugely successful teams in the past that have put their best hitter 6th.

[CJF]

So essentially Fredi is trying to save McClouth's career and confidence by batting him early where he is comfortable, and doesn't dare move Chipper down to 6 because he's Chipper, even if it means putting the best hitter on your team in the 6th spot in the order.

Makes perfect sense, Fredi. Look at all of the hugely successful teams in the past that have put their best hitter 6th.

I'm curious. Has there ever been a manager or coach of a team you cheer for that you actually thought was good at their job?

[BGRTHNUMEGO]

I'm curious. Has there ever been a manager or coach of a team you cheer for that you actually thought was good at their job?

Do you think batting Heyward 6th is a good move? Do you think any other manager in the entire league would bat Heyward 6th no matter what team he was on? Does pointing out that this move sucks mean my opinion of Gonzalez as a manager is that he's horrible?

Coaches and managers make a lot of decisions during their tenure. Many of the good moves are often so obvious and consistent that discussion of them is boring. I don't come to a board like this to read everyone patting Fredi on the back for his decision to put McCann in the clean-up spot. I was upset last year when Cox had Heyward in the bottom for so long, and then was complimentary of Cox when he finally pushed J-Hey to the top.

The problem is many of the teams I cheer for have had very similar head men (Cox, Sloan, Bronco) running the show at the same time that had similar philosophies (value the vets, rookie mistakes are more harmful than the same mistake made by a vet, play those that make fewer mistakes over those that are playmakers) and thus my complaints become broken records.

[CJF]

Do you think batting Heyward 6th is a good move? Do you think any other manager in the entire league would bat Heyward 6th no matter what team he was on? Does pointing out that this move sucks mean my opinion of Gonzalez as a manager is that he's horrible?

Coaches and managers make a lot of decisions during their tenure. Many of the good moves are often so obvious and consistent that discussion of them is boring. I don't come to a board like this to read everyone patting Fredi on the back for his decision to put McCann in the clean-up spot. I was upset last year when Cox had Heyward in the bottom for so long, and then was complimentary of Cox when he finally pushed J-Hey to the top.

The problem is many of the teams I cheer for have had very similar head men (Cox, Sloan, Bronco) running the show at the same time that had similar philosophies (value the vets, rookie mistakes are more harmful than the same mistake made by a vet, play those that make fewer mistakes over those that are playmakers) and thus my complaints become broken records.

Who is patting Fredi on the back over the line up? I honestly haven't seen one inning of spring training so I don't know if it is the right line up or not. I'm not ready to call him an idiot yet. Give me a few weeks and I very well could completely agree with you.

[Parrot Head]

I'd be tempted to switch out Gonzalez or Freeman and McClouth in that lineup from the AJC. I also like the idea of putting a good bat behind Uggla to see what he can really do with that kind of protection, but it might be Chipper back there before long. He doesn't have the bat he used to, but pitchers would still respect him somewhat.


Oh, and they finally dropped Billy Wagner from the 40-man roster today. They didn't say why it took so long, but if he decides to make a comeback this year, it can only be with the Braves so that could be the reason.

[BGRTHNUMEGO]

Heyward has hit a home run every opening day that he has played in. 2-0 Braves.

[San Juan Sun]

1-0 so far.

Opening Day shutouts are nice.

[wuapinmon]

1-0 so far.

Opening Day shutouts are nice.

Heyward has hit a home run every opening day that he has played in. 2-0 Braves.

[Parrot Head]

It was definitely a good way to start the season in a cold DC.

My 5-year-old daughter came out dressed for school this morning in her Brian McCann shirt, a total surprise to me. My wife told her last week that baseball started back up today and she had been reminding me every day since then. It turns out she was secretly planning to wear the shirt too. I almost shed a tear of joy.

When she got home from school we were able to watch the last inning together while I had a late lunch and she was totally fixated on the game. This is going to be another good summer.

[BGRTHNUMEGO]

From the AJC: Kimbrel has 47 K's and 17 BB's through 26 career innings.

[BGRTHNUMEGO]

Big finish today. Prado and Uggla go deep to take the lead in the 8th, and the Kimbrel mows down McGhee, Betencourt, and Morgan to finish it out.

Kimbrel threw his fastball almost exclusively to those hitters, 94-97 mph with decent movement. He's struck out 5 of the first 6 batters he's faced this year. And building on the stat in the last post he now has 50 K's against still 17 BB's in 27 innings.

[Parrot Head]

I think D. O'B from the AJC said that winning 2 out of 3 from the Natinals to start the year now makes the Braves 37-38 since the start of the 2007 season against them.

The Braves won today's game without getting a single guy into scoring position. The Brewers were 0-8 with RISP.

[San Juan Sun]

Depressing lack of offense so far. Lost 5 of last 7.

[BGRTHNUMEGO]

Depressing lack of offense so far. Lost 5 of last 7.

Read what I thought was a pretty pathetic attempt to justify having Heyward batting 6th. One change mentioned was to simply swap Heyward and McClouth (even though so far and based on last year it should be Gonzalez batting 6th and McClouth 7th) so you could maximize Heyward's ABs, get him better protection with Chipper behind him, and set the table better for the run producers in the middle of the order.

The argument against it from an AJC writer was "Do you really want Uggla batting 5th without any real protection behind him"? So he admits McClouth isn't much protection as a #6 hitter...but argues that Atlanta should keep that kind of hitter at #2 in the lineup and let Heyward bat with no protection behind him? The same guy earlier justified Fredi keeping Heyward at 6th when McClouth was out for a game by saying Heyward needed to really get settled in to that 6th spot, and yet in that game rookie Freddie Freeman was moved from 8th way up in the batting order to cover the #2 spot.

Horrible decision to bat the guy that will likely be the best overall hitter this year at 6th in the lineup. Makes absolutely zero sense.