01-18-2006, 06:59 PM
What do you hope to see your team do in the spring? Here are some things I'm looking for out of the Braves.
- Finding a right-handed first basemen to fill in for LaRoche occasionally or platoon with him. While LaRoche deserves the chance to play every day, if he can't hit lefties we need to find a righty who can. James Jurries and Scott Thorman each have potential.
- Find a closer. Please, no more Chris Reitsma. He failed once. Why in the world would we even think about giving him another chance? Let Devine, Boyer and Villerreal battle for it.
- Sort out the bullpen. Once the closer is found, we need to have a plan for how the rest of the bullpen will stack up. Last year you could go from closer, to mopup man, to setup man and back in the span of a week. That doesn't work well. Our guys need to know their roles.
- Let Davies, James and Ramirez battle it out for 5th starter. Don't just give Ramirez a spot in the rotation because he has experience. Make him earn it, because he doesn't need to stand in the way of two very good young arms if he's not producing.
- Finding a right-handed first basemen to fill in for LaRoche occasionally or platoon with him. While LaRoche deserves the chance to play every day, if he can't hit lefties we need to find a righty who can. James Jurries and Scott Thorman each have potential.
- Find a closer. Please, no more Chris Reitsma. He failed once. Why in the world would we even think about giving him another chance? Let Devine, Boyer and Villerreal battle for it.
- Sort out the bullpen. Once the closer is found, we need to have a plan for how the rest of the bullpen will stack up. Last year you could go from closer, to mopup man, to setup man and back in the span of a week. That doesn't work well. Our guys need to know their roles.
- Let Davies, James and Ramirez battle it out for 5th starter. Don't just give Ramirez a spot in the rotation because he has experience. Make him earn it, because he doesn't need to stand in the way of two very good young arms if he's not producing.