Wednesday, January 30, 2013

new look home team

Future hall of famer, Chipper retired. Prado, Hinske, and Delgado are with the D-Backs. Micheal Born is going to play some where besides Atlanta. Chad Durbin is a Philly. No more David Ross, he signed with Boston. And that's just the guys on last year's rooster that I can come up with off the top of my head.

This year's Atlanta Braves roster has had as much turn over as I can ever remember. Looking back, the great teams of the 90's turned over pretty slowly. The main stays (Jones, Jones, Glavin, Smoltz, Maddux) seemed to fade out one by one; allowing for some continuity form year to year. Not this year; there is a good chance that on opening day, Jason Heyward, who has three full seasons in the majors, will be the longest tenured brave in the line up. It should be McCann, but he probably won't be in the opening day line up.

If a team is going to turn over a roster, this is the way to do it. This should be a damn good ball team. With the early signing of BJ Upton, and last week's trade for his bother Justin the home team has put together the best out field in the National League. With the possible exception at 3rd the infield looks solid around the diamond. There are six guys in the lineup that should hit at least 20 home runs. With Simmons, Heyward, Upton, and Upton I think we can count on 80 stolen bases and the whole line up should be full of extra base hits.

I don't know when this was taken, but I know the numbers are
wrong. Heyward wears 22 and Freeman wears 5, but its a cool
picture

Opening day should look something like this:  
Simmons (Short Stop)
Heyward (Right Field)
Justin Upton (Left Field)
Freeman (First Base)
BJ Upton (Center Field)
Uggla (Second)
Laird (Catcher)
Johnson (Third)
Pitcher's Spot

When McCann gets back, plug him in somewhere in the middle and that is one deep line up.

As far as the pitching staff goes, if they stay pretty well healthy all year we should be solid. Hudson, Medlen, Minor, and Maholom are all solid proven starters. Brandon Beachy is as well, and we should have him back around the break. I guess we'll find out if Teheran is the second coming that we've heard about for the last few years. (side note I forgot about the Tommy Hanson trade in the first paragraph, he's an LA Angle).  My big concern: can the starting rotation stand an early season injury? The Braves have two guys in the minors (Graham and Gilmartin) that could come up if one of the starters goes down, but they are both very young. My understanding is that they are not quite ready.



The Bull Pen should be the strength of the pitching staff once more. O'Flarherty, Venters, and  Kimbrel, enough said. Add in Jordan Walden (acquired in the Hanson trade) the Bravos should be able to play six inning games most any night they want to.

Just a quick look around the NL east
Washington Nat: - should be the toughest team for the Braves this year.
Phillies - old
Marlins - traded the whole team to Canada
Mets - not yet

Wednesday, January 9, 2013

resolutions

It's the 9th of January, and I'm ready to make my new years resolutions for 2013. I think they are all well thought out, and more importantly measurable. I have decided that if a goal can't be measured there really isn't a reason for having it. Also, I believe publishing them on the www should provide some accountability and motivation.

So here we go...

By my own measurements (3 point Jackson-Pollock algorithm) I have figured that I'm currently sporting  17.95% total body fat. On my 171 pound 5'11'' frame (33 1/2 true waist) that's 30.69 pounds of fat.  18% body fat falls right on a line between average and ideal, but I would very much like to drop that number down to 15%. I'm not real concerned about my weight; about 170 pounds is probably where I should be. Soooo; if I drop 3% body fat I'm going to have to gain some muscle some where. My left arm measures 12 1/2 inches my right is 12 3/4. Left leg 21 inches; right 20 1/2. I'm guessing those numbers will have to go up, but we'll see.

To get to 15% body fat I'm going to have to lose 4.43 pounds of fat. All things considered I should be able to get this done. Adding that weight in muscle might be tougher to do, but if I get down to 165 total weight I look like I have some sort of chronic disease.     ...More squats, and jerks for me. 

I'm have not been a great money saver so another goal of mine is to increase my savings account by a multiplier of 3. Being that there really isn't a whole lot in it now I should be able to get that done.

I'll update this in about a month


Thursday, January 3, 2013

where we were and where we are

We are a few days removed from the turn of the new year, and most folks have restarted their day to day routine. I'm betting that for many people the resolutions that were made with such excitement are beginning to fade already. For me though, I like to ease into my resolutions with a healthy dose of retrospect and an awareness of where I'm at.

2012 was a wild year to say the least. Looking back on the previous twelve months I find myself thankful for my laid-back demeanor. Six Flags Over Georgia does not have a roller coaster with as many ups and downs as 2012 did for me. I recall distinctly, several moments, when emotions flat over ran my usual stoic personality. While I can deal with an occasional stresser with out much problem enough is enough. I'm happy to turn the page to a new set of months, and see if I can keep them a little more even keel.

With that said; some how every thing seems to have ironed out for the best.  While there are challenges  at home and at work that weren't around on January 4th 2012, I welcome the tasks at hand. i guess I can safely say that through all the messes of last year my little family and me are in better shape that we were a year ago. So... It's All Good

I didn't want to bore any one with a wordy recount of every thing that happened in 2012, but in case you,er wondering I'll do 2012 in bullet points

  • new son
  • sick mom
  • quit smoking
  • fired
  • started smoking
  • hired
  • well mom
  • sick dad
  • coaches award at a gym (yep that really happen)
  • drunk nights
  • sober nights (not many)
  • a few other thing that don't fit well into bullet points
I think I'm close to deciding on a few new years resolutions, and it's my plan to keep them updated on this blog. I'm not sure if it will be a lot of fun, or if nobody will really care but we'll find out.  

Happy Year!!!