Archive for January, 2011

I really didn’t think he would do it. It was just too silly for words really; the idea we would sign a pitcher – even to a minor league contract – with worse numbers than Kenshin Kawakami. Yet Ed Price of AOL FanHouse (Twitter link) reports that Braves announced that they signed Rodrigo Lopez to a minor league contract with an invitation to Spring Training. As I said two days ago when Lopez said he was considering such an offer, there is just no good reason to add another failed arm to the system. For those who missed Saturday’s post, Lopez [...]

As a follow up to my article on Jayson’s thumb, I thought it appropriate to let you all voice your opinions on his thumb and 2011 performance by way of a poll. Let’s go old-school on this one, voting on triple crown stat projections (batting average, home runs, and RBI’s). Here it is:

Hello again everyone! As I look out my window into the backyard, I can wistfully report that the snow has now accumulated to almost three baseballs deep (who needs a ruler?). I only point this out because I’ve gone at least two posts without complaining about the weather here in Michigan. I didn’t want you guys to wonder if you were in the right place or not . As Fred so astutely pointed out in his last post here, it is indeed a slow news day on the Braves front. That’s why I was so surprised to see a headline [...]

Bits and pieces for the weekend because the news is weak… Following up on Bob’s Mike Minor story Dave Shovein over at the Hardball Times thinks Minor’s going to have a good year. “Minor owns an electric left arm that allowed him to post a 9.5 K/9 in his nine-game stint in Atlanta last season. As of now, he’s considered the favorite to win the fifth starter spot and possesses tremendous upside. Well worth the gamble as a fifth or sixth starter in deep leagues.” I’d settle for him taking a room in Tom Glavine‘s garage trying to soak up [...]

Anyone who does any kind of personal fitness management knows about maintaining core strength/stability. For the couch potatoes amongst us, core strength/stability is developing and using the muscles in our abdomen and back to stabilize, align, and moves maintain the body mechanics necessary for avoiding serious injury and reduced physical capability. Like our body, perennially successful clubs are built around a core of players who hold the team together and keep them performing at the highest level. During the Braves our 15 year run players like Smoltz, Glavine, Maddux, Chipper, Lopez, Lemke and Justice guided by Bobby Cox and Leo [...]

Those of you with sharp eyes (OK, those of you who were awake when reading TomahawkTake), probably noticed that the recent article here on Sherrill and Linebrink wasn’t penned by me. If you were really sharp (OK, had taken your No Doz), you noticed the piece was written by Fred Owens. Fred beat me to the punch with his post, but I still wanted to semi-formally (we don’t wear tuxes here) introduce him to the group as the newest member of the team. Fred will be a regular contributor going forward. Shortly I’ll have a full bio posted for Fred [...]

As a follow-up to last night’s post, I thought it might be fun to find out just how optimistic you all are about Mike Minor. So we don’t get too far ahead of ourselves, let’s just focus at first on what he’ll be doing on opening day. Just click below and the poll will be right after the jump. Vote early and as often as your cookies allow

Hello again everyone! Since such a big chunk of the country is getting firsthand experience with Michigan weather, I decided not to whine about hold cold it is here tonight. Instead, I thought I’d lead with some thoughts on Mike Minor. I’m sure you all remember Mike, he of the late season call-up to Atlanta last year. He’s making headlines in the blogosphere right now, since MLB.com has ranked him as the number 21 prospect in all of baseball, and the third highest ranked prospect in the Braves organization. This is the same Mike Minor who had people scratching their [...]

Hello again from sunny Michigan, where the mercury almost hit 30 today! I was browsing the web tonight, trying to come up with something interesting to write about when I ran across this David O’Brien literary gem about Nate McLouth and how important this season was to his career. I’m not positive about readers of other sites, but I’m pretty sure that TomahawkTake readers are smart enough that they don’t need me to tell them that bit of insightful reporting!

This post was published to Tomahawk Take | An Atlanta … at 12:34:16 PM 1/25/2011 (This was published last week on my previous blog Red White and Braves at MLB blogs. I updated it and re-posted it here because many of you haven’t seen it and it is still a current conversation.  I will be posting here from now on so no more duplicate posts I promise!)  Early last week I read – and choked on – an article by Mark Bowman who opined that adding George Sherrill and Scott Linebrink was a good thing “. . . Wren seemingly [...]