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Talking Chop

Atlanta Braves Friday Poll

A quick poll for a Friday. How many games do you think the Braves will win in 2012?

Poll
How many games do you think the Braves will win in 2012?
100 or more
94 votes
Between 99 and 95
344 votes
Between 94 and 90
1178 votes
Between 89 and 85
731 votes
Between 84 and 80
181 votes
79 or fewer
45 votes

2573 votes | Poll has closed

0 recs  |  74 comments

Comments

Between 89 and 85

Uncertainty with JJ, Hanson, and Hudson’s health, how O’Ventbrel will hold up over another 162 games, and how the offense holds up make me skeptical they can improve over last year. Basically 85-89 wins makes me believe they’ll be in the wild card hunt, but not the automatic favorite.

Yep, same vote as me

A little better than .500/average

Well…89 wasn’t enough last year and 91 the year before was barely enough. I’m hoping that either that second wild card gets them in without too much fuss or they somehow come closer to winning 100 than the 90 mark. Which wasn’t out of the realm of possibility for the majority of last season. Well…up until September.

89

Considering how poorly the the Braves hit last season it’s amazing we won 89 games. I can see the team hitting better, but I can’t see us pitching as well.

I think we’re taking a step backwards this season. Finish around 80 wins.

There’s just too much that has to go right. Hanson, Jurrjens, Prado and Heyward all have to have better seasons and no one else can slip. That’s a tough bet.

Hanson and JJ pitched pretty damn well last year until they got hurt.

But overall, yeah. I’m not that pessimistic, but subtracting Lowe and Gonzalez and adding Pastornicky doesn’t exactly lead me to think there’ll be a massive swing one way or the other. Maybe Bourne over 162 games will make a difference?

Probably 2-3 wins difference in that alone.

-C

i agree

I’m feeling around 80-85, given the improvement around the rest of the division

I’m not really worried about the Nats and Marlins. We didn’t really play well against them last season.

Actually

We played the Marlins real good and finished with a 12-6 record, the best record we had against any opponent last year.

I am guaranteeing a 95+ win season...

I’ll bet $10,000, sorry that was Mitt whispering in my ear. Mdhenshaw’s got it right. We will almost certainly perform better in our own division than we did last season, while improving over ‘outside’ teams, too.

We beat the Nats and Marlins by 8.5 and 12 games respectively while having a historically bad September. It is not quite as easy as many seem to think it is to make up that much ground.

90 wins

But I’m incredibly bullish on Heyward and Prado having bounce back years.

The very strange thing about the 2012 version of our team is that I won’t be shocked if they win 100 games or lose 90.

90-94

With just a tiny bit of extra luck they could have still had a terrible September and yet won 90+ games and the wild card last year. So I’m making a not very risky pick that they win between 90-94 in 2012. I’d be surprised if they won less than 90 barring major injuries and not at all surprised if they won more than 94.

88 wins and the WC

a stellar bullpen gets The Braves to the World Series

I look at it this way

With Gonzalez, Lowe, Proctor, Linebrink, Schafer and others, we were a 95 win team.

Without them, we should be at least a 95 win team.

I factor in the theory the Fredi lost 6 games with his management to give us our 89 win total last season. So, instead of saying we are going to win 101 games, I’m going with the 93-96 range.

Your logic is flawless.

Thank you, good sir!

Beautiful!

This guy makes alot of sense… Justin for president lol

What I kind of like

If the Braves win 90+ games, they’ve won 90+ games and probably make the playoffs, and the organization can smugly look around the divisional landscape at spending Nationals and Marlins and wag their finger like Dikembe Mutombo.

If the Braves utterly implode and lose 121 games, then maybe there’s a Lloyd Christmas chance that the team might open up the wallet a little bit to buy back to being competitive.

It’s kind of a win-win, looking ahead.

"Who wants to sex Mutumbo?"

One of my favorite sports anecdotes of all time! You sir get a Rec.

For rizzle....what is OGT?
Operation Green Troll
oh nevermind see it here...

Oh well. I posted it anyway.

thanks

Your definition made more sense then just knowing what the words stood for. Again thanks

Thanks...

I feel like I’m back in the fold.

Well, you will be when you get that reply button down.

:D

http://www.springtrainingcountdown.com/home.php

97. Take that reality!

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say

that we win between 97-102 games . I look for Heyward to bounce back big . He’s in his third year and has something to prove after last year . A full year of Bourn . Enough said there . Freeman puts up solid numbers again because of his ability to be able to make adjustments quickly before finding himself in a 2 or 3 week slump . Prado feels grateful for being able to stay with the club and puts up Prado version 2010 numbers . Pastornicky plays average defense and hits well enough to get some ROY votes . The pitching staff relaxes some with the offense being better and performs as well as last year with a few nice suprises in Minor and Beachy . Fredi learns from his mistakes from last year and riuns the ballclub like a well oiled machine and wins coach of the year honors . Chipper finally gets another WS ring and decides to retire and then sign on as an assistant coach with a title of “coach in waiting” .

Can you tell I’m a little excited about next year . CAN"T WAIT !!!

Maybe pessimistic prognosis is the answer, I don’t know. Never tried it before. I certainly agree with everything that you said above, I’m just not ready to be happy about Atlanta sports just yet. Things will change when they throw out the first pitch, but I think this is the first time I’ve truly been down on my teams. Just watching the Bravos, Falcons and my Jackets go down like they did at the end put a sour taste in my mouth. I’m not an NBA fan, and I consider Tech basketball @ Phillips a non-season, so I’ve got nothing to lift my spirits right now. I think the Braves will be fine, just not ready to go into predicting things just yet.

Reply fail.

I think what I need to be excited about this Braves team is a real badass in the middle of the order. Vintage Chipper-style. We haven’t had that in a few years. Of course Mac’s the best catcher in the league, but he’s not quite the guy to carry a lineup, you know? After year one, I was ready for J-Hey to be the guy, but now I’m not so sure. If he is though, maybe that’ll light my Braves fire again.

Maybe that’s not it. Maybe it’s the fact that our offseason has been quiet after a horrific September. Maybe it’s my inability to argue Rob Parker’s beliefs during the NFL playoffs to my roommate from Yankee Nation. Maybe I don’t want to predict a winning season just to get hurt again down the stretch. Maybe sub-par is better than mediocre. Maybe I just need a postseason victory to get me off the ledge. Or maybe I should be out drinking beer on a Friday night instead of thinking about Atlanta sports.

Maybe I’m retarded, because I sure can’t seem to find the reply button.

You sir

Either need to drink more, or drink less.

Maybe….Not sure how you reconcile that attitude with the rigors of a baseball season. I started typing a bunch of reasons why your thinking is stupid, but I decided not to bother.

Don’t give me “rigors of a baseball season” bullshit buddy. If that excuse helps you sleep at night, then I’m happy for you. I’m not your average troll chiming in to let the TC nation now how negative I am and that the Braves aren’t going anywhere. If you can’t tell from my posts above, I’m obviously just flustered with what’s transpired lately and I’m looking for answers. I’m guessing you bombed reading comprehension on your SAT’s. “Rigors of a baseball season”. You’re an idiot.

Look

Pretty much all of us here know what it’s like to feel disappointment in sports; after all, being fans of one sport let alone several, is about the biggest crap shoot ever, and every year, multiple times, if we fancy more sports. There are so many teams in every league of every sport we like, and unfortunately, there can be only one winner each year. It’s about as successful as hoping you land number 17 on the roulette wheel.

You can take the antagonistic, pessimistic approach to watching sports if you want, but I can tell you this from personal experience, it’s not much better, for a variety of reasons. Just because you’re expecting disappointment doesn’t make it any better if it does come.

For example, [unfortunately for you] I’m a Virginia Tech guy. You don’t have to tell me twice that they’re notorious for losing bowl games or games that get them to bowl games (and they suck at basketball). Back in 2006, VT had a 21-3 lead on UGA, and I said that “it wouldn’t last because that’s what VT does.” Georgia scores 28 points in the second half and wins 31-24. I was right, but you know what, I still felt like garbage, because my team lost. In 2009, VT played Tennessee, and they were tied going into halftime. I said they would lose again, but VT won. I was happy VT won, but guess what; everyone I knew called me out for doubting, and I felt like garbage.

Stay agnostic towards Atlanta sports if you want, but I’ll tell you that there’s nothing wrong with a little bit of hope, blind or not. The chances of winning for every team playing a single game are still 50/50, no matter what statistics are floating around out there, and there aren’t many greater feelings in the world when your team(s) win while you were unequivocally supporting them.

Are you kidding me? First of all I’d watch the ad hominem attacks when all you’ve done is show off fattest part of your ass.

Secondly, nothing you said actually responded to the argument I raised.

The point is maybe baseball isn’t for you, because you are stuck somewhere between viewing the world like a fruit fly and as some stereotypical Southern football fan who doesn’t have the patience, intelligence, passion etc to endure an entire season that is dynamic and filled with various trends that might frustrate your angry little brain.

Also, it’s difficult to slam someone for what you consider is just “an excuse (that) helps me sleep at night,” and then say that you are only posting out of frustration.

Which of your two personalities got that vaunted SAT score of 400 on the Reading comprehension portion?

Did you just have an entire conversation with yourself?

Ha I want to know....

the identity of those who voted “79 or less”. Put their email address up for naked baseball spam! Get their facebook pages and identify them when they go to games. get their license numbers, visit their homes and honk loudly. And if, at the end of the 2012 season it comes true………………

Thats a good question .

With everything that just went wrong for us last year , we still won 89 games and missed the playoffs by one game .This team has gotten better this offseason with hardly making any moves . Lowe , Proctor , Gonzalez , Linebrink and Parrish are all gone . There’s no way that all of Heyward , Prado , Uggla and McCann are going to struggle like they did last year . I just don’t se it . We;ll finally get a full year of something we haven’t had in long time with Bourn in CF , a legit leadoff man . And yes , the Marlins and Nats did improve last year . But have they really improved that much that they will win those needed games that they need to make up the ground on us from last year , when we ourselves , will be better tham we were last year ? I don’t think so .

I actually voted that we would win between 95 to 99 wins . But if we can stay , for the most part , somewhat healthy for the entire year , I don’t see why wouldn’t be able to win 100+ games .

I say 94 wins.

If things go really well, 97-100 is well within reach. Major injuries could, of course, change everything for the worse. However, I can’t realistically see enough things going wrong to drop us below 86, minimum.

Anyone else notice the Gaussian distribution of the poll results? Damn, I took one Stats class in college and I still can’t get away from it….

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