Musings on the Atlanta Braves with 39 Days Left Until Spring Training

Today has probably been one of the slowest days of the 2009-10 offseason thus far.

Scratch that...today has been the slowest day of the 2009-10 offseason.  Period.

I know you can say that the Aroldis Chapman signing is a big deal...and it is.

But that just seemed to push me over the edge a bit.

Seeing the Reds make a splash...wow.

Just wow.

Now, it's not like the signings of Tim Hudson, Billy Wagner, Takashi Saito, Troy Glaus, and Eric Hinske weren't enough to perk my interest.

And it's not like the trades of Javier Vazquez and Rafael Soriano for a grand total of: Jesse Chavez, Melky Cabrera, Mike Dunn, and Arodys Vizcaino were anything to sneeze at.

But still...the feeling of sheer boredom that will be looming over my head for the next 39 days is almost too much to bear. 

We, as Braves fans, have basically been told that no more moves are coming.

That the roster is set.

And that life isn't worth living (note the use of a hyperbole).

Add to that the fact that I have a disease that requires me to write and I'm totally losing my mind.

It's not as it was when I first joined this site when I could just write an article or two per day (and, yes, there was a time that I was capable of doing that) about why I like the Braves, or why I think Frank Wren isn't all that bad, or the greatest Braves of all time.

I used those up.

And I have no other sports interests.

I don't follow college or pro basketball closely enough to care anything about it and Jake Delhomme was the starting QB of my favorite NFL team.

Oh! I have to tell you...

(If you can't tell, this is more of a blog than a "story," but bear with me, this little bit of a hissy fit will end momentarily and I will actually talk about something relevant.)

...and that's the story about the time my grandpa got his finger stuck in a toaster.

Anyway, there are a couple of things I think need to be officially put on the record.

First, the Jason Heyward situation looks like something that's going to be very interesting to look at this upcoming spring.

The Braves seem to be giving every indication that he'll have a more than fair shot to win the job out of Spring Training.

It would be a little extreme to say that it's his job to lose, but I would venture to say that a Jordan Schafer-like ST should at least garner some attention from the big wigs within the Braves' front office/manager's office as to whether or not they're willing to let that arbitration delay kick in.

But, I think this will wind up going the Tommy Hanson path as opposed to the Schafer route.

Regardless of what he does (within reason, they'd obviously let him start if he hit .714 with 25 homers), it'll probably be just too enticing for the decision makers to keep Jason from earning the big bucks a year early and he'll start the season (and dominate in) AAA before making a rousing debut at Turner Field in mid-to-late June.

I guess I can live with Melky Cabrera for two-and-a-half months...

Kind of makes you wish the Braves had an unlimited payroll like the Yankees and didn't have to make financially wise decisions though, doesn't it?

Speaking of not having an unlimited payroll...

Can we just let the Johnny Damon -to-Braves rumors die?

After hearing Frank Wren say just a few days ago that the Braves were looking to make one more minor addition this offseason (it turned out to be Eric Hinske), I see this while making my daily interweb rounds.

(Yes, you'll have to click the link, it's at 12:34...I don't want to paste it here and make this thing any more of a monstrosity than it's going to be.)

Now, I know that I said that nothing was happening.

And you're probably saying that this constitutes as "something."

But it's a bit unreasonable (and perfectly designed to bring my hopes up before crushing them into a burning pile of flames), don't you think?

I get that Wren could be bluffing by saying he has nothing else to spend, but with the market being as it is and the Braves being in the market that they are (i.e. poor attendance), that just doesn't seem to be the case.

And I think Damon's playing the "Atlanta would be great" card to push the Yankees into signing him before his price falls completely off the face of the earth.

I just don't want to buy in at this point...especially since some people (via Buster Olney) are saying that Damon's almost certainly going to be a Yankee.

Now, the fun part of this one (like the rest hasn't been!): nicknames .

This section of this blogicle (the demon spawn of a blog and an article) will be the Official Reference Guide to Every Non-Given Name Cameron Britt Will Use This Upcoming Season (a suggestion for a shorter name in the comments section would be very nice).

I'll fire these off in a list in a Name=Nickname format (not all of these are original, so just roll with it).

Melky Cabrera = Leche/Melk-Man
Matt Diaz = Captain Caveman
Nate McLouth = Nate-Dogg
Brian McCann = B-Mac
Jason Heyward = J-Hey/J word
Yunel Escobar = Esco (really big stretch, isn't it?)
Troy Glaus = Gloss (if he turns out to be oft-injured)
Chipper Johns = Hoss
Jair Jurrjens = JJ
Derek Lowe = D-Lowe
Kenshin Kawakami = KK
Peter Moylan = the Aussie
Takashi Saito = suggest one, please
Billy Wagner = Sandman v.0.5 (play on his wak-in music and his "shortness")

There will be a link to this in my bio for future reference.

Now, I think that should pretty much put this set of minor thoughts out of my brain (don't think I could have lived with these little things rattling around independently without any articles to segue them into).

I think a season preview is in store next...I'll start work on that in the next couple of days....

(This is an official submission to fill David O'Brien's spot on the AJC website should anything debilitating happen to him...I can learn a little about KU and unknown musicians if that's part of the job description)

(Photo Credit: http://i.cdn.turner.com/si/multimedia/photo_gallery/0901/mlb.top10.prospects/images/jason-heyward.jpg )