If it's Friday, then it's the fan confidence poll. This poll and therefore your confidence level should encompasses several areas of the team. These areas include, but are not limited to, the team’s ownership, current management, talent, minor-league system, and general playing ability on the field. The poll will stay open for 48 hours, and then the results will be posted and graphed against the previous weeks.
0 recs | 41 comments
Bullpen. Bullpen, bullpen, bullpen. I can’t give more than a six. Also, our offense has cooled down, reflecting our fears how they’ll struggle sometimes scoring runs this year. But the starting rotation alone makes me give them a six.
soup du jour - April 17, 2009
4
Until they realize the bullpen is going to wreck the whole season…
sdp - April 17, 2009
Way to be positive!
mvandonsel - April 17, 2009
I wish I saved that AJC sports cover from 2006.
WORST. BULLPEN. EVER.
Ken Ray, Mike Remlinger, Chad Paronto, Chris Reitsma, Macay McBride, Jorge Sosa, and Tyler Yates.
The good news is, that current woes aside, I still like this year’s bullpen a bajillion times more than that one.
royhobbs - April 17, 2009
wow…was that the year we went 6-21 one month during the summer?
Smoltz's Beard - April 17, 2009
I think so...
worst month ever. I wanted to shove Reitsma into a wood chipper.
BraveBronco0121 - April 17, 2009
2009 Blaine Boyer = Reitsma
proeye - April 19, 2009
Man, just three years later, that group looks like Indy Ball, Retired, AAA, Retired, AAA, AAA, and Pirates, which is just as bad.
cbwilk - April 17, 2009
Just to instigate, our best bullpen we have had in the last decade (2002):
Chris Hammond – Out since 2006, Mike Remlinger – see above, Kevin Gryboski – Pitched in AAA last year, Darren Holmes – Retired, Kerry Ligtenberg – Out since 2006, Tim Spooneybarger – Pitched in the NYP last year, Albie Lopez – out since 2005, oh and John Smoltz.
There were only 12 other relief appearances made that year by someone other than these guys. We need this kind of health again. I remember this pen being awesome though. Hammond’s ERA for the year was .95. Our rotation wasn’t horrible either with Glavine, Maddux, Mllwood (the good version), Damian Moss and Jason Marquis getting all but two starts on the season (John Ennis and Jung Bong got those).
just some information.
yondaime4 - April 17, 2009
That’s insane how healthy they were. 12 relief appearances by other guys! And just 2 extra starts! I remember both of them were spot starts and Ennis and Jung got called up cause it was their turn in the AA rotation that day.
cbwilk - April 17, 2009
Sick change up, I loved that guy, I should get a Hammond jersey
mvandonsel - April 17, 2009
blah
The bullpen, outfield defense and offense, and infield injuries have forced me to drop my vote from 8 to 7. Was James Parr really the best option to bring up to replace Campillo? That’s pretty sad. I’d much rather have Ohman and Brandon Jones than Anderson and Glavine. Too much of the season left to play to begin panicking but the arrogant confidence of week 1 has definitely worn off.
redwards95 - April 17, 2009
Ohman
..wanted nothing to do with the East Coast that’s why he didn’t sign.
RainDelay - April 17, 2009
I'm trying not to react too much to this series...
so I, the eternal optimist, went with an 8. The farm system is well stocked, the owners seem willing to spend, I’m pretty confident in Wren, and I like the major league team’s chance to compete for the playoffs.
BraveBronco0121 - April 17, 2009
Trying as Well ...
I’m trying to stay optimistic as well. The ultimate question is: are the injuries and the performance of the bullpen a sign of things to come, or an early season aberration? Let’s all hope its the latter.
Atlanta_Chris - April 17, 2009
Likewise
Aside from the second game of the series, it’s not like the Braves screwed everything up for themselves, they just simply got outplayed by the Marlins. The Braves were like 0/4 on 3Us that could have easily been RBI run(s) scored doubles hit by Heap and Kotchman, that I’m surprised that Cantu was able to handle. That’s just some bad luck on some line drives.
The weather will warm up eventually, and balls will fly just a little bit further. Logan Schafoeur will eventually (hopefully) learn how to hit a high fastball, and make some adjustments to the adjustments teams are making for him. Good things to take out of this lesson were Francoeur’s 2-out hitting ability, Ganderson playing well when trying to prove he doesn’t really suck, and Infante continuing his superb fill-in work.
royhobbs - April 17, 2009
I’m completely on board with Logan Schafoeur, but not a fan of Ganderson…reminds too much of Curtis Granderson, who is actually a good baseball player.
Smoltz's Beard - April 17, 2009
The question is, are you willing to put up Ganderson if for every bad game he has, he responds with a 2/3, 2 2B, BB, 2 R game?
I wouldn’t lose any sleep if the Braves cut their losses and send Ganderson packing, but if he plays like he did yesterday more often, I wouldn’t complain either.
royhobbs - April 17, 2009
Yeah, if he can continue to post a .750 OBP I’ll stop giving him so much crap.
Smoltz's Beard - April 17, 2009
I’m with you, I’ve been voting 8 because we’re supposed to be looking at the organization as a whole. One bad week with the major league team isn’t going to make me panic.
cbwilk - April 17, 2009
Hooray for rational thought
VictorW - April 17, 2009
BOOOO for rational thought!
Let’s get our pitchforks and torches!!
buzzdeadwax - April 17, 2009
Good point. My votes have been heavily favoring just the ML product.
Smoltz's Beard - April 17, 2009
Likewise.
soup du jour - April 17, 2009
Dropped from 8 to 6
These past 3 games the team just looked terrible. Rather than do a very long run-on sentence, i’ll list the ways:
-Poor defense (besides Kotchman, who’s a friggin wiz)
-Hitters mostly looking overmatched (If we can’t hit good pitching, we’re not gonna go far)
-Injuries (really Yunel?)
-Innings eaters not eating innings, which leads us to…
-BULLPEN FAIL
Hopefully this sweep was the bitch slap the team needed. I wonder if they were strutting a little bit after getting to a 5-1 record rather easily. At least it happened early in the season.
That said, there are positives. Soriano looks to be returning to his filthy ways. Yesterday’s offense was Francoeur and Garrett Anderson, so maybe thats a positive? If Anderson can catch the ball that is. Alot of the balls hit in this series were hard hit balls right at people, so that will turn in our favor at some point. And hopefully Chipper sitting out these games now will get rid of this random thumb bruise. Schafer is struggling badly, but he supposedly is good at making adjustments. Unless TP tells him to be more aggressive, then it may take a while.
10-4 - April 17, 2009
8 to 7
Almost entirely because of the bullpen. I still have confidence in the starting rotation and our offense battled admirably against the Marlins, but the bullpen blew it each time.
That said, I’m starting to feel better about Moylan, Soriano & Gonzo (and even Carlyle), but everyone else gives me heartburn.
beeswax - April 17, 2009
I threw up a 6 because of that disastrous performance (or two. Or three) by the bullpen this week.
bigjoe - April 17, 2009
I gave a 6 because of the bullpen. Mostly because I don’t have much confidence in many of them to get much better.
eaheckman10 - April 17, 2009
8!!! We will be okay!!!! Plus, I just don’t think the Phillies and Muts are as good as ESPN makes them out to be.
mvandonsel - April 17, 2009
If I was a fan of the Mets I wouldn’t have nearly as high of a confidence in them…Phillies probably on par.
soup du jour - April 17, 2009
6
The injuries worry me.
yondaime4 - April 17, 2009
At least you spelled 6 right.
mvandonsel - April 17, 2009
The ones amuse me. Mutt/Philly trolls or bi-polar Braves fans?
soup du jour - April 17, 2009
Isn't this supposed to be...
how you feel about the organization as a whole, and in general? If so, it doesn’t seem as if you should change your ranking very much from one week to the next unless there is some sort of major trend manifesting itself. A bad week from the bullpen might make me worry some about how well the season is going, but wouldn’t change the fact that I think the organization is top-notch from top to bottom. So I gave them a 9, like I did last week. Call me an idiot that doesn’t know baseball, I don’t care. Well, I do care, but I’ll get over it.
sddbaker - April 17, 2009
This
You are not an idiot and you do know baseball. Good Show.
mvandonsel - April 17, 2009
Then why would there be a weekly poll? Why wouldn’t we just have one or two polls the whole season?
Gage23 - April 17, 2009
I have wondered that as well.
sddbaker - April 17, 2009
I think maybe we need to amend the poll to be about our confidence with the Major League team, and then maybe have a monthly poll for the organization.
I’ve felt the same way, if we’re talking about the organization as a whole, I’m voting pretty high, 8 every week, because the way we run our front office is great and our minor league system is exceptional. Even at the end of last season I would have run up a 5 or a 6 because of these things.
cbwilk - April 17, 2009
Agreed. Gondeee, get your act together.
Smoltz's Beard - April 17, 2009
Read: stop drinking.
cbwilk - April 17, 2009
Bullpen will be fine my concern is..........
In the long term I think our bullpen is sound and we will shake out the rough spots over the next month. We have the pieces internally to make our bullpen more than serviceable. I truly see Soriano closing full-time before the All Star Break. I’m more concerned with the folllowing:
GA in my opinion makes us worse when he’s in the field and at bat. He most likely will bring his bat up to par but he makes us worse in the field and I doubt he magically makes his legs ten years younger. Any option will be better than GA and this move will fester as the season goes along. If he doesn’t pick it up he will lose playing time and I can see a club house issue developing with GA demeanor.
It’s apparent that we don’t have enough power bat’s and it’s going to affect us when our hot streaks lose consistency. i.e. this past serious vs. the Marlins. We really need a power bat. We truly need to make a power bat a huge huge huge priority. We also must accept that we will have to give something up of TRUE value to achieve this. Someone as simple as Dan Uggla could solve all of our problems. (Don’t rape me on the name drop just an example of someone who could help the team) Imagine what an impact that bat would make. We need to find that bat sooner rather than later. The difference will be our season.
Charmin519 - April 17, 2009
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