New Job, Title, Team

Welcome back sports fans, yes it is I, your beautiful, boistrous, barely boorish, Braves Bender benefactor, beneveulently bringing back, braggingly, bounties 'bout the Braves. Whew, well aliteration not aside, that was awesome.

So with that, it's time to dive right in.

Firstly, I'd like to say congratulations to moi, for landing a job in politics, it's awesome and fulfilling, kind of if I owned the Braves, weak comparison, but the point is still valid. Legislative Aide is what I am, a gopher pretty much for a state representative, but hey, my foot is firmly in the door.

Anyway, back to the matter at hand.

It seems that the off season reconstructuring of the Braves roster is something, something, something, complete. (go watch "Family Guy" if you don't get understand: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhnPaiSFVSE)

So to make us better, we added a potential 30 HR guy in Troy Glaus, added a closer in Billy Wagner and a set-up man in Takashi Saito, a 4th outfielder in Melky Cabrera and a bench bat/corner ourfield and infielder in Eric Hinske.

Matty Diaz (Charlie Hustle, Jr.) and Peter Moylan were both signed to 1-year deals since they are both in their arbitration years..

There have been talks about the Braves getting Johnny Damon, free-agent with Scott Boras as an agent, coming from writers not on the MLB payroll, but unless Damon will take a HUGE cut, I wouldn't get my hopes too high. I'd love to have the guy, a true lead-off hitter, not that Nate McLouth isn't, but I'd prefer to have him deeper in the lineup so he can hit some doubles with people on, like Damon, in front of him. McLouth has pop for a lead-off guy, but his career average is floating around the .260 mark, but does have a .450 slugging clip. So a versatile hitter like Damon could do wonders for us as he hits 20 points higher than McLouth.

However, even if we don't get him, which would be totally fine considering it would be the most crowded outfield in baseball, unless we could trade away Melky(please let that happen regardless), we still have a pretty solid outfield that is much better defensively without him. Not a lot of pop out there, but with Diaz's hitting and hustle, McLouth's speed, Melky's versatility and perhaps THE wild card for this season, much like Tommy Hanson last year, Jason Heyward who people are saying is the best thing since, well ever.

There have been talks about bringing Heyward up to start in Right Field, to platoon with Matt Diaz, to stay in the minors much a-kin to the Tommy Hanson was brought up, so that he would not start his arbitration eligible clock till the following year. Regardless, he will make his debut, barring injury, this year before the All-Star Break. I'd say around June 1st(My Birthday, for those of you keeping score at home, that's the same as Andy Griffith and Marilyn Monroe) , why? Well May 31st thru June 2nd is the end of a home stand against the Phillies and the next game is on the road, so a little home introduction against a division rival could be pretty dramatic. Yet, we'll just have to wait and see.

The "Hot Stove" season is always fun because we can all dream of landing a Matt Holiday and a Jason Bay, but you know what, I love the fact that we have a potential home run machine in Troy Glaus and if he totally flops, then we only wasted approx. $2MM, that's it. The benefits FAR outweigh the potential of failure here, and we only have him a year to help our 1st baseman in the minors, Freddie Freeman, get some more seasoning.

Anyway sports fans, remember pray for pitching, be proud of the Tomahawk Chop, and if you need a smile, just remember when Sid Slid.

Steroids...yikes.

So the last few days have been heart-wrenching for me and hopefully other baseball fans. Mark McGwire has admitted to using steroids during his career in Oakland and St. Louis, both under the watchful gaze of manager Tony La Russa...

Mark McGwire, the man who shattered Roger Maris' single season record for home runs, admitted to using steroids as early as 1989 and even during the magical chase for the single season home run record.

The 1998 season had McGwire and Sammy Sosa, of the Chicago Cubs, making baseball actually relevant again after it had started slipping in the television ratings. People were tuning in to watch these two divisional rivals face off as many times as possible. ESPN and FOX showed as many Cardinals and Cubs games and especially Cardinals vs. Cubs games, those were like ratings gold that year. That chase was so influential that even though McGwire beat out Sosa for the record, Sosa still won the National League MVP for that year. Also, neither of the two teams one the NL Central Division, the Cubs won the Wild Card but were thumped by the Atlanta Braves.

McGwire's apology for taking

them is fine, I'll accept that he is in fact sorry for taking them. I do believe that. However, he has waited so long that it doesn't even seem to mean anything anymore. He is a coward, and saying that his congressional "non" testimony was only because he couldn't be assured immunity is so far-fetched in my view. Had his attorney gone to the US Attorney's office and requested immunity for him coming forward with all that he knew, they would have given it to him in a heart beat. Do not let his "lack of immunity" hog-wash make you think he was this little man being bullied around by the courts or Congress. He is a liar and a cheat all the way back since 1989, if not earlier.

This is a three fold problem for me:

1) Mark McGwire is an admitted cheater and should be stricken from the records like "Shoeless" Joe Jackson and the rest of the Chicago "Black Sox". This would mean that Sammy

Sosa was the first person to break the record in my eyes, of course until we prove that Sammy was a junkie too. We all know he is, then Barry Bonds would be next and he's a steroid freak too (Honestly, who's head can grow like that after the age of 21?)

2) Cardinals manager Tony La Russa was McGwire's manager in Oakland when he started using steroids, became very well known while on steroids and again his manager in St. Louis when McGwire broke the record. La Russa needs to be investigated and if nothing else criticized for either his allowance of steroids in TWO of his clubhouses or criticized because he must have been a bumbling, real-life version of Mr. Magoo, not being able to see what was going on right in front of him, especially in Oakland where he coached McGwire AND Jose Canseco, an admitted steroid user and injector who says he did it for many people including "Big Mac" in Oakland's locker rooms.

3) This means that Jose Canseco was right all along and he, McGwire, Sosa, Bonds, Rafael "Period" Palmero, Jason Giambi, Andy Pettitte, Alex Rodriguez, and others, were in fact all taking steroids during the era. Although Commissioner Bud Selig would have us believe that the "Steroid Era" never actually existed.

I hope and pray every night that McGwire never gets into Cooperstown, that if he even walks in he will begin to feel like he's burning as a demon in that holy shrine of baseball. Tony La Russa is possibly the most evil man in baseball's history seeing as how it was his teams in two locations, that made steroids in baseball really explode onto the public stage.

I remember watching in 1998, being excited and loving each time those guys launched one over a wall. I had stopped playing baseball by that time, but I still loved the game. Sosa and McGwire were two titans dueling for all the world to see. Now, with this realization, they were no more than frauds. People may criticize me for occasionally watching professional wrestling, but at least with pro wrestling you know it's fake. More importantly...

They don't lie.

New Year, New Team.

Greetings all and happy new year! I hope everything is going well for you all out there. It has been quite a while but we here at the Bender are back.

New additions to the Braves:

The Braves have added Troy Glaus as their new first baseman and the supposed answer to the power shortage the line up has faced this last year. The right handed slugger missed most of 2009 while recovering from shoulder surgery and if healthy will bat 4th sandwiched between the switch-hitting Chipper and the lefty Brian McCann.

Next would be the controversial aquisition of Melky Cabrera from the New York Yankees. The Braves shipped out their 4th place getting pitcher for the Cy Young Award for 2009 with 15 wins, Javier Vazquez, along with lefty Boone Logan from the bullpen for The "Melk" Man, lefty reliever Mike Dunn and the key to the whole trade is teenager Arodys Vizcaino, who was in the top 5 of prospects for the Yankees organization and who Yankees GM Brian Cashman has said he can see the Yankees regretting letting him go. The Braves rotation looks pretty good today with Lowe, JJ, Hanson, Huddy and KK, but looks great a few years down the road with the possibility of Hason, JJ, Arodys and possibly Huddy plus others. A lot of people were initially upset with the trade considering Vazquez because fans wanted Lowe traded away instead of a sub 3 ERA player. However, the trade was to free up payroll to acquire some bats for the offense and a few prospects. I'm ok with it now, but I was indeed one of the many upset Braves fans.

Erik Hinske is the new lefty pinch hitter off the bench. This quality of player is helpful for the Braves because he has the postseason experience that not many of the team has. Hinske has played in the last three World Series for the Red Sox in '07, Rays in '08 and Yankees this past fall. Hinske also has the ability to play the corner positions of the infield and outfield should either of the injury plagued corner infielders, Chipper or Glaus, need a breather or for whomever is in the outfield once the season starts.

Well, that's all for tonight, more to come tomorrow!

GOOO BRAVES!!!