Kuzul

By re-signing Eric Hinske this offseason, the Atlanta Braves brought back arguably their best bench player, as well as all but guaranteed themselves a place in the 2011 postseason. Hinske, 33, has been to the postseason each of the last four years, each time with a different organization. In 2007, Hinske found himself in Boston, where he played in 84 games, ending with six home runs and 21 RBI. That year, the Boston Red Sox clinched their first AL East title since 1995 and went on to win the World Series, Hinske’s first World Series ring. That offseason, Hinske signed a minor-league contract with the Tampa Bay Rays, but earned an invite to Spring Training. After a solid performance at Spring Training, Hinske was added to the Rays’ 40-man roster in late March and was named the club’s opening day right fielder. The 2008 season saw Hinske hit 20 home runs for the Rays, ...

The Atlanta Braves acquired veteran right hander Scott Linebrink today from the Chicago White Sox in exchange for pitching prospect Kyle Cofield. The move solidified the Braves' need to add a veteran presence in the bullpen. He will help out with the impressive, young core of arms the Braves already possess. Kyle Cofield, a towering 6'5", 230 lbs. right hander, was mostly a starter before he was moved to the bullpen this season. Cofield compiled a 25-26 record and 4.12 ERA through 485 minor league innings pitched, though the 23-year old has yet to advance past Double-A. He has had issues with his command as well, issuing 4.9 BB/9 (walks per nine innings). Scott Linebrink, 33-year old journeyman, struggled in his time with the White Sox, but that can almost surely be attributed to the hitter's environment of U.S. Cellular Field. Linebrink allowed 16 homeruns (eight in 2010) and amassed a 4.65 ERA in ...

     The Atlanta Braves were one out away from completing another storybook come from behind victory when things fell apart in the top of the ninth. Earlier, in the bottom of the eighth, Alex Gonzalez singled and Eric Hinske hit a pinch hit home run off of Sergio Romo to the Braves up by a score of 2-1. Hinke's homer was just the fourth Brave hit of the night but it came at such an opportune time.     Without closer Billy Wagner, Manager, Bobby Cox, went to rookie Craig Kimbrel to put the game away. He quickly earned two outs and it was apparent that Giants hitters were having a difficult time catching up to the youngster's fastball. With two outs and two strikes,  Braves catcher, Brian McCann, called for a slider. This was a mistake. No one had been close to hitting the fastball. Put the guy away with the ...

When the Atlanta Braves signed Troy Glaus this past offseason, they hoped for an offensive spark that has been lacking at first base in recent years; they got much more than they bargained for.  Glaus has been stellar this year, and last night was no exception.  Glaus hit a home run off Robinson Tejada on an 0-2 count to give the Braves a 5-4 victory over the tough-luck Royals Saturday night. Glaus went 1-4 in the game, his homer being his only hit, and Brian McCann also homered to run the Braves' winning streak to four games and send their home record to 23-7.  Billy Wagner worked the ninth to earn the win. The Royals, under skipper Ned Yost, still struggle to compete in a mediocre AL Central.  Yost, who served as the Braves third base coach, bench coach, and bullpen coach during the 1990s, was hired to give the team a bit of ...

If the recent news and rumors turn out to be true, the Braves have a big question on their hands—who is the Braves' everyday third baseman after 2010 (or perhaps the rest of this season)? It's not a simple question to answer. Third base is the one position the Braves do not have a long-term solution for. The face of the franchise will be Jason Heyward, who is primed to be in right field and in the heart of the Braves order for years to come. Despite a rough start to for Yunel Escobar, he and Martin Prado form a solid, if not spectacular at times, combination at the middle of the diamond. The Braves are flush with veterans and youngsters for their starting rotation, and have the enviable position of having 6 starters right now, with Kris Medlen seemingly supplanting Kenshin Kawakami as the best starter outside the trio of Lowe, Hudson and ...

When Frank Wren replaced John Schuerholz as General Manager a couple of years ago, Braves’ fans were undoubtedly skeptical that he could come in and make such a difference. I think now that even the skeptics can be silenced by the performance of Frank Wren in building a ballclub that can be defined by words like "deep," "versatile," and "talented." Tonight showed just how those words ring true about the 2010 Atlanta Braves. In Bobby Cox’s last season, the Braves wanted to make a run for the pennant. The roster at the start looked tentatively good, but it remained to be seen if this club could do well. The first month of the season was atrocious for the Braves. No one could seem to hit, pitching fell through more times than not, and a couple of guys carried the load for keeping this Braves squad from hitting the bottom of the ...

It's June 1st and I have an alarming stat for Braves fans—this year's primary starting pitchers (Hanson, Hudson, Kawakami, Lowe and Medlen) are having a more successful year at the plate than the starting centerfielder, Nate McLouth. Through 51 games (nearly a third of the year!) the pitchers are hitting .184 and McClouth is hitting .179 with no signs of coming out of his slump. In fact, it's hard for me to even call what's happening with McLouth a slump at this point.   The Braves have straightened out most of their issues in the lineup—Yunel Escobar, Melky Cabrera and Chipper Jones have heated up while Jason Heyward, Martin Prado and Troy Glaus are still more than holding up their ends of the bargain. McLouth is the lone holdout and has seemed allergic to any kind of success at the plate, save the one dramatic walk-off home run earlier in the year.   So what ...

I’m sure most of you have been in the following situation: You make a decision, it turns out bad, and when you look back at it you realize that you overlooked a major factor which likely led to your bad decision. Well that’s how I feel about the Atlanta Braves left-field situation right now. After an offseason of speculating players, platoons, and positions, I realize that I overlooked an obvious solution from the beginning: Eric Hinske. Signed to be a utility player and pinch hitter, I (along with most others, I assume) never really looked at Hinske as a viable candidate to start in the outfield. The Braves obviously felt the same way, as Hinske started off the year on the bench, pinch hitting in almost every game. But going through Hinske’s career numbers last night, I realized that if I was given stats (and not names) to choose from, I would have chosen ...

Talk about a turnaround. Just six games ago, the Braves were shut-out by the No. 2 man on the all-time homers allowed list. Now, they find themselves dumping a high-powered Brewers attack out of a dust pan and into the trash after outscoring the Brew Crew by an unbelievable (keep in mind we're talking about the team ranked next-to-last in runs in the NL coming into this series) 21-run margin over three games.  The heroes of this series (outside of the usual suspects Jason Heyward, who returned to the line-up for game two of this series and went on to steal two bases, and Martin Prado, who hit a grand slam in game one) may be surprising, though. Troy Glaus, Brooks Conrad, and Eric Hinske played out of their minds (the latter two in only the two final games). Glaus went 5-for-13 (.385) with two homers, five RBIs, three runs scored, and also tacked on two walks.  Hinske, ...