Opening Day Is Here!! Let The Games Begin

[Philly High Hopes]

Kevin Gausman
Current ADP - 242

With the recent addition of Dexter Fowler, the Orioles have one of the most formidable offenses in baseball. But is a rotation of Gausman, Ubaldo, Tillman, Gonzalez and Gallardo good enough to get them to October? Regardless, there will be a lot of HRs this year at Camden Yards and yes, chicks really do like big bats and dig the long ball.

[Captain Hook]

strike Fowler from the list (back to the Cubs for those who haven't already seen)

and anyone buying that rotation, there are several bridges Mikey will sell you - Gallardo especially, look at the second half numbers and his K/9

[Navel Lint]

Ahhh...the Mad Hungarian. Led the league in obnoxious facial hair and crowd pleasing mound antics.

The Cubs never had Al Hrabosky,

but they did have Moe Drabowsky.



Moe played with the Cubs from 1956-1960, wearing number 39 the last two seasons.

[Edwards Kings]

Will he or won't he? Only Fredi knows for sure....



Put me in Coach, I'm ready to play!

[Philly High Hopes]

Will he or won't he? Only Fredi knows for sure....

If they play it like the Phillies did last year, they will let Grilli start the year and build up his trade value. Then trade him mid-season and turn it over to Vizcaino. And then trade Vizcaino in the offseason.

[Philly High Hopes]

Hall of Famer or not?

[Edwards Kings]

Will he or won't he? Only Fredi knows for sure....

If they play it like the Phillies did last year, they will let Grilli start the year and build up his trade value. Then trade him mid-season and turn it over to Vizcaino. And then trade Vizcaino in the offseason.

Yeah, that is the way I see it as well. No use drafting Grilli or Vizcaino without the other.

How long a leash are the Phillies going to give Hernandez?

Is this the closer in waiting?

[Navel Lint]

A baseball jersey for every number from 1 through 47 has been retired by one team or another except one. That one number is 38.

Here's Carlos Zambrano explaining to the home plate umpire why the Cubs should make his 38 the first to be retired.....

[Philly High Hopes]

Stephen Strasburg - 11-7, 3.46, 1.10, 155
Current ADP - 41

The 2016 season marks Strasburg's 5th as a regular starter for the Nats. Last year, he had only 23 starts, his fewest since 2011, due to a variety of ailments. He has a career ERA of 3.09 and WHIP of 1.09, but has only averaged 12 wins over the past 4 seasons and exceeded 200 Ks just once. Strasburg is in the final year of his contract. Will 2016 finally be his monster season?

With Washington being our nation's capital, we can all take a moment and salute the flag.



U.S.A.! U.S.A.! U.S.A.!

[Ando]

You're starting to figure this out all out, Philly. Glenn will smile widely on his Saturday morning.

[Edwards Kings]

Another of the Braves pitchers of the era that was Chippendale krytonite is Rick Camp, a reliever who actually compiled 175 AB over a nine year career (with a stellar 3.9 K per nine innings btw) and a smoking .074 BA. Yep, 13 whole hits of which five were for extra bases and one of those a HR. That dinger was hit in the marathon July 4, 1985 game against the Mets in which he hit a game-tying home run in the 18th inning of the rain-delayed game, which didn’t end until around 4 o’clock the next morning. Another Braves Mets killer.

And they still went ahead with the July 4th fire works at 4 am. Scared hell out of the neighborhood I am told. Anyway, by all accounts Camp was a good guy and popular at the Braves veteran events until he passed away in 2013.



Go ahead darlin...just swing away!

[Philly High Hopes]

36 days until Opening Day!

What do the following #36's have in common with each other?

[Edwards Kings]

You mean besides being MLB pitchers who threw righthanded and wore #36?

[Edwards Kings]

It appears that 36 players for the Braves wore #36.

Every team needs a a player who could be their bedrock.



As well as a player who could be their drill sergeant.



So, you are sure all the rookies wear the same kind of practice jersey?

[Philly High Hopes]

I remember "Bedrock" and "Sarge" a little differently, though each wore #40 and #34 respectively during their time with the Phillies.







Matthews was never afraid to toss his bat and stand there and watch a HR. If you get a chance, check out his HR off of Jerry Reuss in Game 4 of the 1983 NLCS. It was a BOMB, and yes he admired it in a way that would make Jose Bautista proud.

Matthews was one of my two wiffle ball stances as a kid, along with Pete Rose. I'd use Sarge's hip turn then rocking the bat over the plate when looking to go deep. The Pete Rose crouch and choke up stance came in when trying to place it somewhere. Everyone had a wiffle ball stance, didn't they?

[Edwards Kings]

Growing up, I actually played half-rubber more than wiffle ball. No better method for learning how to hit a curve, let me tell you.

Half rubber, for those that never heard of it, is a bat-and-ball game similar to stick ball (i.e. pissed my Mom off when there was no "old" broom or mop to use so the "new" one was decapitated). The game was developed in Savannah (no matter what Charleston says) around the beginning of the 20th Century. You only needed two (pitcher, batter, but could use a catcher if you did not have a wall or hedge to stop the ball) and involves no running of bases. It uses a baseball-sized rubber ball, that's been cut or sawed in half. The ball will rise, dip, or break multiple planes, sometimes on the same pitch.

My favorite stance to copy was Stargell's, complete with the elbow hitch.

[DOUGHBOYS]

We played pickup games at schools with a rubberized ball that resembled a baseball. That ball would get sorta lopsided with more use. It made the game more interesting.
Once while playing with the gang, an older gentleman passed by us on the street in a car. He circled back and approached us.
He told us that he had a better way to play.
Telling us to follow him to the school's last building.
On that building, he etched a strike zone with a rock on the building.
Voila! No more catcher needed AND the ball left a mark to tell us if it was a ball or strike.
Instant catcher. Instant umpire.
Then he volunteered to pitch for both sides. He came back every Saturday during that summer to pitch.
He made a great game, greater.

I would do a Willie McCovey stance and hitch before getting in the batters box. Then turn around and hit right handed.
Why do left handers look so much cooler than righties?
And of course, many kids would point ala Babe Ruth in where they were going to 'park it'.

Ha! Going back to the older fella who helped us out...
Nowadays, he'd probably receive a summons for defacing public property and be thought of as a possible pedophile in being a stranger among a lot of kids.
Times have certainly changed.

[Daveclum]

Well,you had me. I thought the older gentleman was going to be someone like Elroy Face.

[Philly High Hopes]

Great stories guys. I can say that I've never heard of half rubber. Dan - Did your pitcher happen to wear a bath robe and use a walker?

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[Navel Lint]

It appears that 36 players for the Braves wore #36.

Every team needs a a player who could be their bedrock.



As well as a player who could be their drill sergeant.

Just like Philly HH, I also remember The Sarge in a slightly different way...


He did wear #36 with the Cubs

The Cubs didn't have 'Bedrock' Bedrosian, but they did have Bill Stoneman.
He wore #36 from 1967-68

[Edwards Kings]

C'mon...try to hit it...I dare you!



The treatment of Phil Niekro is the reason I still hate Joe Torre to this day. Torre, who almost got sent down to the minors as a young player because of his inability to catch the knuckle ball, became manager of the Braves for the 1982 season and won with Bobby Cox's team. Not surprising, the team went south two years later and Torre was gone. But before he left, he was the primary instigator in not resigning Niekro, who had been with the Braves 18 years, won 20+ games three times on some bad teams, because, according to dipshitz Torre, Niekro was too old. Niekro went on to play three more years and won 16 games twice for the Yankees.

Is it me, or is it getting hot in here...

[Philly High Hopes]

35 days until Opening Day!






Cole Hamels - 13-8, 3.65, 1.19, 215
Current ADP - 74

The Hamels deal to Texas netted the Phillies Jake Thompson, Nick Williams, Jorge Alfaro and Jerad Eickhoff. Along with their other trades over the past 2 seasons, the Phils' farm system has jumped in the Baseball America rankings from 22 to 8. It will be interesting to compare their rebuild to the Braves' rebuild over the next couple of years. The Braves ranking has jumped from 29 to 3.

The Phils appear to have a more balanced pitcher/hitter approach while the Braves are stockpiling as many arms as possible (though they've added Olivera, Inciarte and Swanson). The Phils have Franco and Nola who have already graduated to the majors along with a potential Rule 5 gem in Herrera. The Braves have an legit cornerstone in Freeman. Each has a top SS prospect in Crawford and Swanson, though Crawford is closer to the big leagues. The Phils likely hold a spending advantage when it's time to jump back into the free agent market.

Who will get back to the top of the NL East first? Until then, we can watch the Mets and Nats battle it out for first place.

[Philly High Hopes]

Hamels' better half ...

[Edwards Kings]

"A save (abbreviated SV or S) is a statistic awarded to a relief pitcher, often called a closer, who enters the game under certain conditions and maintains his team's lead until the end of the game. The save rule was first adopted for the 1969 season and amended for the 1974 and 1975 seasons."

The first "closer" for the Braves was Cecil Upshaw. I actually have this card and back when traded cards were cool, "saves" were being derided in my circle of friends as "bogus", but the fact that Upshaw was getting the saves for the Braves kept him from being tire-spoke-material.

By the way...Upshaw had good stuff...his career K per nine innings was 5.2.



For my good Mets friends....

[Philly High Hopes]

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Bryce Harper - 330-118-42-99-6
Current ADP - 3

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It's interesting to look back at the last 10 #1 overall picks:

2015 Dansby Swanson
2014 Brady Aiken
2013 Mark Appel
2012 Carlos Correa
2011 Gerrit Cole
2010 Bryce Harper
2009 Stephen Strasburg
2008 Tim Beckham
2007 David Price
2006 Luke Hochevar