sad to see glavine being released but awesome trade for McClouth.

This could be the move that finally makes me turn in my Pirates fan card.

Can the Braves opt out of June from now on?

Wakefield (W, 10-3) 6.0 3 0 0 1 1



KAPOW!

For the fourth year in a row, June continues to be an epic fail.

2006: 6-21
2007: 13-15
2008: 11-16
2009: 10-15 (with one game remaining)

Every year we were either at or above .500 beginning June 1. Makes it pretty tough to recover and make a run.

I suppose that staying in contention via sweep is helpful.

wow very surprised all the moves the braves have done. Not like the move was unexpected.

The slumping New York Mets have traded outfielder Ryan Church to the Atlanta Braves for outfielder Jeff Francoeur.

http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/9794336...s-for-Francoeur

damn Philly needs to slow down.......damn it

Of course the winning streak couldn't last too long.....here is to starting another one in Milwaukee!

BTW...helluva catch D Wise, and great job Buehrle! Unbelievable!

He might take it to an extreme sometimes, but this is the reason that any player would love to play for this man....

http://blogs.ajc.com/mark-bradley-blog/200...rk_bradley_blog

nice series win in Milwaukee.......big series with the Marlins starting Tues.......lets do thisssssssssssssss

I would like to start a showwwwwwwdown marlins v. braves war......but I think the Phillies have run away and hid for good. at least they dont have Halladay (yet).

Wild card is still open.

Honestly, I would love this, but after the Cliff Lee acquisition....I really don't believe that is possible...

wow what a series this has been with LA.......hopefully we can finish it off today......3 great games so far

We really needed to get that first game from Philly last night. Bummer. Looking foward to today.

boooom great win today, ty Lidge

Just got back from the game a couple of hours ago. Wheeeeee. Only the second time I've attended a walk-off. Went with a Phillies fan, so that was fun. She kept saying how their bullpen was shaky but that they had "Lights Out" Lidge in the 9th. From what I saw, the 7th and 8th inning guys were solid. Lidge's stats are pretty LOL: 0-5, 7.27 ERA, and 8 blown saves in 30 opportunities.

Hope yesterday stays in his head. We've got great momentum now. Seems to be a swagger in the dugout that has been missing for the past few years. Any thoughts on what might happen to Smoltz?

Smoltz will not be back in ATL with Huddy coming back. I love having Roachy back, considering we need power, not another average hitter (Kotchman). Every series is almost a must win from now on...

good to get the series win vs. Florida but damn Philly or Colorado NEVER lose

2.5 back from the WC with 8 to play. One more in Washington, than Florida x 3 and Washington x 4 at home to end it. Going 6-2 gets us to 90 wins and an outside chance.

Rockies finish in LA but it looks like we will clinch by then so it will probably be a healthy dose of Mark Loretta, Juan Castro, Brad Ausmus, etc.

I would have much rather it been the Marlins that had a decent chance though, mainly because I think the Braves could beat the Dodgers. I'd rather play them over STL or PHI (which we will unless the Rockies choke), but I was very impressed with the Braves when they played the Dodgers.

GLGL, f the Rockies and Jim Tracy.

I've felt like this team has had potential all season. Finally showing what it's capable of. Just hope it's not too late.

Got back from the game a little while ago. This is the happiest I've been as a sports fan in several years.

My Chipper crush is back on.

gg

Sad to just flush it at the end like that. Guess we at least got a sweat this year.

so i just sorta re-found the offtopic forums the other day and wanted to say whats up.

anyone else think we should really consider throwing money at matt holliday? we could use the big bat and its not like his D is awful (or any worse than Anderson's).

with a good bat in the middle of Diaz, LaRoche and McCann and our pitching staff we could give the Phillies a run for it, or atleast be the WC favs.

I don't think we have enough money to land a major bat like Holliday unless we dump Lowe's contract first. The 15 mil we free up there goes a long way to re-signing LaRoche, a closer, and a bat.

good point, i dont keep up with all the money stuff

i'd be all for dumping Lowe's cotnract. he was decent but not great last year, and if Javy and Hudson pitch as well as they did he should be 4 or 5 in the rotation. id gladly dump him, put kawakami in the 5 spot and pick up a decent bat. Hudson, Javy, Jurrgens, Hanson, and Kawakami would still be one of the best rotations in the majors.

even if we lose gonzo i think our bullpen will be fine. o'flaherty, soriano, and moylan were strong last year (well aside from a few games from soriano) and even acosta, logan and the other rookie (i dont remember his name, he started a few games before hanson was moved up) were solid. whats the word on campillo?

The other rookie is Kris Medlen.

Campillo was sent to AAA and he opted to become a FA instead.

yeah, he had a rough couple of first starts but thats not surprising. he was nasty in a couple of long relief appearances.

we signed Hudson for (i think) 3 years 9 mil a year with an option for a 4th and a bonus for 600 innings or something. thats probably not 100% correct. its on ESPN somewhere.

Nice discount there. His option for 2010 was 12 mil, I think.

we pick up Billy Wagner for a 1st rounder (which we will get back if Soriano and Gonzo leave, i think, i dont know how all that works out)

1 year 7 mil team option for another year at 6.5 mil.

i guess i can dig it if soriano and gonzo leave, but even without them our pen was good and we really need a bat. though if both those guys leave we have a buncha set up guys who could be good closers but havent really been in that spot before.

Gonzo hired Boras as his agent, so I don't see him accepting arbitration. Soriano probably won't either, since he probably gets a multiyear deal as a FA. With everyone involved being a Type A FA, then we lose our first rounder to Boston for Wagner, but gain the first rounders of anyone who signs Gonzo or Soriano.

I'm not sure what to think of the Wagner signing yet.

I thin i t's great, provided his arm doesn't fall off.

soriano accepted arbitration.
why do we sign wagner if we're going to offer soriano arbitration? i doubt there was a huge hurry to sign wagner, so why not atleast wait until we know if soriano's coming back or not?

It was a risk worth taking, I think. We signed Wagner and Saito to go with Moylan, so it looks like Soriano's going to be in a committee, at best. More than likely, he walks and we take the draft pick. Now, however, we shop him and try to restock the farm system a bit.

Boo on the Vasquez trade. Boo I say. Like the Yankees needed to get any better.

Yeah...I really don't like the trade. Vazquez was potentially my favorite Braves starter last year.

that year was an anomaly for Vazquez, though. he's been good but never that good for a whole year and he's getting old. I wish we'd kept him, but we still have a great rotation, and could throw Medlen in an emergency and I thought Medlen pitched really well last season after his first few starts.

Cabrera doesn't do much to boost our offense, but the rumor seems to be we got him to use as trade bait, and we ended up getting rid of a bunch of salary space to maybe sign a big bat. Xavier Nady was a name that was thrown around I've seen. What did we do with McLouth? I was really excited about a leadoff guy with some power, even though he was hurt quite a bit last year.

It looks like the Braves have reached a deal (pending physical) with Troy Glaus to play 1st. That might provide some cheap power we could really use, plus it leaves enough money for another signing. I've heard Nady get mentioned alot, but you could also make a lowball offer to Johnny Damon. An outfield of Damon/McLouth/Diaz with Melky on the bench to cover all three spots might not be horrible.

that would be a pretty nice outfield, but Damon from what I read is wanting more money than even the Yanks are wanting to pay him. I wish we'd kept Church for more than 1 season. I know Franny was really struggling, but his upside was worth way more than Church's for one year.

i havent seen what we signed Glaus for, but i heard it was cheap, so maybe we're not done in the market yet.

that would be a not bad outfield. The glaus deal is just kinda blah. I mean I know they are getting him for cheap but it is just so blahhhhh.

I agree, I'm just a hopeless optimist when it comes to my teams. If Glaus bounces back 100% and hits 25-30 HRs, Wren is a genius. If not, then it's just another warm body/Garrett Anderson signing.

i think its more of a quality/decent 1 year guy as we get one of the younger guys in the minors ready to play full time in 2011.

looks like the braves went out and got damon. This should be very interesting. one move that I am pretty happy with.