Opening Day 2014

            Opening Day is finally here!  And not a moment too soon.  It's been a long off-season, especially for Braves fans.  

            First, the season ended a lot sooner than we wanted after going 1-3 against the Dodgers in the NLDS.  That was heart breaking. 

            Then, we lost Brian McCann to the Yankees in free agency, no surprise there.  After that, we lost Tim Hudson to the Giants in free agency.  I don't know what everyone else was thinking, but this surprised me.  I thought he would want to stay in Atlanta.  Then the Giants came along and offered him $23 million for two years.  I don't remember the amount the Braves offered, but if memory serves, they only offered him one year.  So, good for him!  I am a Tim Hudson fan; we will miss him as a Brave, but at the same time I am very excited for him.    

            After that, the Braves made the surprise announcement that they are building a new stadium.  (What?!?!?!)  It is set to open in 2017 in Cobb County, northeast of Atlanta.  To be honest, I'm still processing this.  

            In January it was announced that the Braves will have three inductees into the Hall of Fame in July.  Bobby Cox was elected along with Tony La Russa and Joe Torre by the Veterans Committee.   And then Greg Maddux and Tom Glavin were elected along with Frank Thomas (War Eagle!) by the Baseball Writers Association of America.  Six inductees is a lot in one year, especially after no one was inducted last year.  I am so excited to see all of these men go to Cooperstown.  They are all very deserving!   

            Then came the extensions.  This was by far the best part of the off-season.  The Braves signed extensions for:  Jason Heyward (two years, $13.3 million), Freddie Freeman (eight years, $135 million), Julio Teheran (six years, $32.4 million), Craig Kimbrel (four years, $42 million), and  Andrelton Simmons (seven years, $58 million).  They also extended the contracts for manager Fredi Gonzalez and general manager Frank Wren.  They locked up a lot of very important guys for a long time.  

            Everything was looking great.  Sure, we lost two important veterans, but with those extensions, it looked like we were going to be set this year, and for years to come.  Then tragedy struck.  In about a twenty-four hour period, during Spring Training, we lost not one, but two of our top starting pitchers; Kris Medlen and Brandon Beachy.  Both have since had their second Tommy John surgery and will miss the entire season.  Not to take anything away from those five huge extensions, but such a blow to the starting rotation really hurts.  

           In other news around the league:  

               - Clayton Kershaw signed a seven year, $215 million contract with the Dodgers; which is the biggest overall deal for a pitcher, ever.  If any pitcher deserves this, it's Clayton Kershaw.  

               - Derek Jeter will retire after this season.  It does not matter what teams you like (or loathe), everyone likes Derek Jeter.  The game will not be the same without him.  

               - Mike Trout and Miguel Cabrera just signed monster deals with the Angels and Tigers, respectively.

               - We will have repay and certain calls can be challenged this year.

               - The penalty for using PEDs is now more stringent: 80 games for the first offense, 162 games for the second offense and banned for life after the third offense.

            So here we are, Opening Day.  It's been a crazy off-season and I'm so glad we can just play already (or, at least, watch them play) instead of speculating about it. 

Happy Opening Day everyone!

            

What do we do now?

            Well.  The Braves season ended Monday.  I still can't believe it.  I knew we didn't have the momentum going in, but the Dodgers did not have a great September either, so I thought we had a chance.  I really thought this was our year; this was THE team.  They played their hearts out this year and I am proud of what all they accomplished.  I just hate that it ended so early.

            Monday was heartbreaking.  Absolutely heartbreaking.  First of all, the game was in LA, so it did not start until 8:30 cst.  I watched the game with the TV muted and listened to Jim Powell and Don Sutton through my MLB At Bat app.  That is not something I usually do, but I just couldn't listen to the TBS announcers any more.  I watched games one and three with the sound on.  If you did not know any better you would have never guessed the announcers were not affiliated with either team.  This was the Dodger's show, and it was the Dodger's series to lose.   Nevermind the Braves finished 96-66 and the Dodgers finished 92-70; or that the Braves won the regular season series 5-2.  When game three started and the announcers were recapping game two, the sentiment was that the Dodgers had lost game two, not that the Braves had won.  Looking back, maybe that was the case.  Games one and three  ended with scores of 1-6 and 6-13, respectively.  Blowouts.  And game two's score was 4-3.  So the one game the Braves won, was close.  Even so, I just couldn't listen anymore.  The app was a couple of minutes behind the television feed, which was unpleasant, but I dealt with it.  

            The game was close.  So close.  I was so proud of Freddy Garcia.  From what I saw leading up to the game no one game him a chance; especially after the Dodger's announced they were starting CY Young favorite Clayton Kershaw.  Garcia allowed two early solo home runs to Carl Crawford, but other than that he held his own.  In an interview the day before he said he was not nervous and that he would "just make pitch".  And that's what he did.  The game was tied 2-2 when he came out after the sixth.  Then in the seventh Jose Constanza hit a single, scoring Elliot Johnson and the Braves took the lead.  I thought that was it.  It had to be.  We have one of the best bullpens in the league.  Jose Constanza would go down in infamy just like Francisco Cabrera when he drove in Sid.  "Just make pitch" would be our new saying; it would be on t-shirts for sure.  We would play again Wednesday in Atlanta.  Kris Medlen would get the start against Zack Greinke (who we beat in game two).  We would go on to play the Pirates in the NLCS (because I had tickets to game seven, so we would need home field advantage).  But none of that came to pass.  In the bottom of the eighth Yasiel Puig hit a double off of  David Carpenter.  Then Juan Uribe hit a home run giving the Dodgers a one run lead.  And that was it.  It was so sad.  The boys looked so defeated.  I can still see Chris Johnson standing at the rail of the dugout with his arms draped over it.  He had a great series, and a great year, and to see him like that; so dejected.  Heartbreaking.  Tuesday was rough.  I was still so disappointed; oh, and tired.  The game ended after midnight and I stayed up until the end.                      

            So what do we do now?  I've played the "what-if / if only" game the last couple of days.  What if Craig Kimbrel had been brought in to pitch the eighth?  What if Jonny Venters or Eric O'Flaherty had not gotten hurt and could have pitched that eighth inning?  If only Tim Hudson had been healthy, game four might have been our clinching game instead of our "win or go home" game.  If only our sluggers hadn't been slumping, maybe we could have had a bigger lead and those two runs in the eighth inning wouldn't have mattered so much.  I'm tired of thinking about all of that.  It doesn't change anything.  

            The Cardinals beat the Pirates last night, so even if the Braves had advanced, my NLCS tickets would have been obsolete.  The Cardinals and Dodgers will face off starting tomorrow.  That is going to be a great series.  I would love to see Adam Wainwright and Clayton Kershaw face off, but the schedule was released today and that does not look likely.

            There is a lot of good baseball left.  I guess that is what we do now.

It's Hard to Not Count Your Unhatched Chickens When You're 13 Games Up

            I cannot believe baseball season is almost over.  This summer has flown by!  Maybe that is because all three of my favorite teams are doing well.  The Braves, Cardinals and Dodgers are all currently leading their divisions.  The Braves and Dodgers have considerable leads, but we know all too well not to take it for granted.  Remember 2011?  As late as September 8, 2011 the Braves were leading the Wild Card race.  The closest team behind them was the Cardinals.  They were 6.5 games back.  The Braves did not make the playoffs that year.  That was decided on the last day of the regular season.  The Cardinals went on to win the World Series.  That’s one of the things that make baseball so great.  Nothing is decided until the very end.  The best game I have ever watch was game six of that World Series.  The Cardinals were down to their last strike not once, but twice.  They pulled out the win and went on to win game seven and the World Series.  I felt sorry for the people who just do not “get” baseball after that series.

            I am getting a little worried about the Braves.  Sure they are thirteen games up, and playing very well, but we’ve all seen this before.  I wrote a while back about the Braves being streaky this year.  I’m still worried they will hit a cold streak at the worst possible time.  Plus, guys are getting hurt; really important guys and by really freaky accidents.  Tim Hudson’s ankle got stepped on while he was covering first and it resulted in a season ending injury.  Jason Heyward got hit in the jaw by a fastball while batting and he is out for at least the rest of the regular season.  By the way, my favorite hockey player, Sidney Crosby, took a slap shot to the jaw and missed a considerable amount of time last hockey season.  I’m starting to wonder if it’s me.  Hudson and Heyward’s injuries both happened at Citi Field.  Good thing we don’t have to go back there!  Last night a pitch hit Justin Upton and now he has a contusion on his hand.  Hopefully he will not miss too much time.  We cannot afford to lose anyone else. 

            They pretty much have to keep it together because…..I HAVE POST SEASON TICKETS!!!  Presale tickets went on sale earlier this week and I have two to the second game that will be played at Turner Field during the NLDS.  Of course it is yet to be determined when exactly that will be, but I will be there.  I am so excited!  I have never been to a post season game before.  I can’t wait.  In the mean time we will see how the Braves finish.  Here are a few things to consider:

-We have already lost Hudson, and Beachy had a scare last week with his elbow.  We are second in the league in ERA and have had great pitching.  Will it hold up?

-Will Jason Heyward make it back for the post season?  He was the best hitter on the team when he got hurt.  Will he still be hot?

-During the game tonight they announced that Fredi Gonzalez has started his original line-up 28 times this season.  Tonight is game 134.  Things have not gone exactly as planned, but the boys have done a fantastic job.  Will the back-ups continue to step up?

I hope so, on all counts!  We will see.