papz

But remember you were also dogging Brian Jordan real bad Let\'s just give it some time.

papz

Wow... Hudson vs Roger was outstanding. Huddy was still throwing 94 mph cheese in the bottom of the 9th. If we can get some offense going, our pitching will carry us deep in the playoffs.

I was a bit shaky watching Kolb get the save. His control just isn\'t there. The velocity on his fastball is great, but he needs to add a slider or change. His sinker just isn\'t cutting it. I think before we should even consider moving Smoltz back, which I am totally opposed to, we should take a look at Sosa closing games. He has a 98 mph fastball and nasty slider. Definately worth a look. If we move Smoltz back into the bullpen, which we shouldn\'t, we\'ll have a void in the rotation. Davies will be great, but he\'s not ready.

Will the real Andruw Jones please stand up? Sigh.

Everyone is entitled to be stupid, but some abuse the privilege.

All little common sense goes a long way.

saintswhodi

Huddy left no doubt as to who was our number one. And if Smolts moves to the pen, weren\'t you talleing me John Thompson was gonna have a breakout year? What happened to Ramirez? I think Sosa is a good set up man, but could he handle the pressue of closing? I guess we wouldn\'t know unless he was thrown into the fire. Don\'t get too high on Jordan, he is doing okay, much better than Mondesi, but he ain\'t no J.D. Drew. Mondesi sucks, and he has for the past couple of years. He totally gaffed on one fly ball last night that could have cost us the game. Put a lead off runner on second late in the game. He was just to slow to cover it. Glad for a win finally though. Damn Huddy is outstanding.

papz

Okay maybe I\'m just fooling myself with Jordan and Mondesi. They both are hitting under .220 and both has been disappointing. But... Ramirez and Thompson both has been pitching fine. Thompson has had one tough start as has Smoltz. The other starts were great. Ramirez hasn\'t had a terrible outing yet.

Yea about Sosa possibly closing... yea true we wouldn\'t know unless he was put back there. They same could be said when Eric Gagne was converted to a reliever. The same could also be said when Brad Lidge (man this guy is nasty) replaced Dotel last year. Or when Robb Nen got hurt the other year and Tim Worrell did an outstanding job replacing Nen. I\'m not saying Sosa will be anywhere as good as these two, but it wouldn\'t hurt to give him a chance. He has electric stuff.

On the side not, it\'s only 13 games into the season! Give it some time and faith. The Braves for the last 13 years has come through... you gotta love that. Any hitting and we\'ll get 14 straight. If you look at Thompson\'s number for the past 2 years, he\'s already been solid. And I do have faith that he will win 16 plus games. :P

\"John Thomson will make his fourth start of the season when he opposes Brandon Backe on Tuesday night at Minute Maid Park. Thomson struggled with his control and suffered his first loss of the season on Wednesday. Dating back to last year, it was his first setback in 11 starts.\"


[Edited on 19/4/2005 by papz]

Everyone is entitled to be stupid, but some abuse the privilege.

All little common sense goes a long way.

saintswhodi

I was pointing out Thompson to say it wouldn\'t hurt us in the starting rotation to move Smoltz back to the pen cause of Thompson. I wasn\'t knocking him. But if you have huddy, Hampton, Thompson, and Ramirez, you have a 1-4 rotation right? We can have guys fill in if we need a 5th guy. But Smoltz as a closer is as close to a sure thing as we can have, especially with hitting not being very good right now, outside of a select few. Close games, we need Smoltz to finish. Maybe Kolb could close if we have a 3-4 run lead or something. He closed last night, but that seemed like a battle of atrition for both teams more than a solid close out inning.

I can;t say anything more on Mondesi and Jordan. I just hope at some point they prove me wrong.

papz

I agree he didn\'t look good yesterday at all. 4 more rotation will tire of starters though. We don\'t have any other candidates that are major league ready. 4 man rotation means more bullpen action. I\'m not for that at all. True having Smoltz back there would be a great asset for this team but the season is still young. Let\'s just hope Kolb pitches better than we\'d have nothing to worry about. He was an allstar last year... I think it\'s his nerves. Over 140 more games to go, I\'m pretty sure he\'ll have it straightened out soon.

Everyone is entitled to be stupid, but some abuse the privilege.

All little common sense goes a long way.

saintswhodi

If kolb gets it together, you are right. But that\'s an if as well as Jordan and Mondesi\'s ifs. Long way to go though, baseball is definitely a marthon and not a sprint. But damn, we can\'t lost to the Expo, err, um, Nationals any more. That\'s just a no no.

papz

Nothing to get excited about yet but both Jordan and Mondesi are hitting better. Our pitching staff is still doing extremely well... and word on Kolb is that he went to see a shrink about a week ago and has pitched well every since. And we just sweep the Philles

saintswhodi

I am just glad to see the bats have been alive for the last two games.

papz

After tonight, I officially give up on Kolb. We need to weigh our options here because we can\'t have him keep pitching like this and expect to win. I still can\'t justify moving Smoltz into the bullpen though, he\'s been pitching so well besides the first start.