Mar 10
27
Braves Give 20 Year Old Kid the Job
Jason Heyward – Braves New Right Fielder
Is the Atlanta Braves desperate to find outfielders, for them to give the opening day job, out in right field, to a twenty year old kid? Or is Jason Heyward the 6′ 4″ baseball player that is weighing in around 240 to 250 pounds just that good? It does appear that the Atlanta Braves have several options in right field and they could have went with a Matt Diaz from last year’s team or assigned the newly acquired Melky Cabrera to that position. It wasn’t a matter of not having anyone to play the RF position for the Braves. It was a matter of choosing the best right fielder and his name is Jason Heyward from Henry County High School in McDonough, Georgia.
I guess Braves fans are happy to see Bobby Cox pass this first big test with Heyward. Many had their doubts that Cox would even let him begin the year with the big club in the ATL. Now that Bobby Cox has “inked” him in at right field and said he would play every day, regardless if a righty or a lefty is on the mound for the opposing team. Where might we see the big slugger from McDonough batting in the hitting order? This will probably be the sign that Cox is still in charge of the Bravos and especially if we see Jason Heyward hitting sixth or lower in the line up. You can already see in the Spring games that Chipper Jones doesn’t plan to hit or hustle this year either. I believe Chipper clogging up the three hole (if he’s struggling) is what will hurt the Braves the most.
It’s not hard to manage in Major League Baseball and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. Before you get into steals and calling squeeze plays and trying to determine which pitcher and for how long; you can go to the most elementary part of baseball and see how MLB managers can’t get that right. How hard could it possibly be to come up with a batting order? You first determine which guys play which positions the best, so you eventually come up with 8 people to put in a batting order and that’s with the pitcher hitting ninth or last in the line-up. I believe the majority of baseball managers should hit them by their season averages. Most would think it’s bad baseball if you took an Albert Pujols and put him first in your batting order. Actually if you break down the numbers and chances for success, the only bad baseball that gets played, is when you take a Pujols, Alex Rodriguez, or Barry Bonds and stick them in the 3rd spot in the batting order. In most cases these guys would be a lead off hitter, but would ultimately come down to who else was on their team.
These old guys in baseball that are coaching and jotting down these line ups nightly are just copying the old coaches before them. It would take some broad shoulders for a MLB coach to set his line up and bat his guys in the best way possible. Isn’t that funny? To actually do something the best and most productive way would take courage. Maybe one late summer when a team is really out of the post season chase, we will get one of those managers to bat his guys in order, based on the highest batting average first and so on.
However, getting back to the final coaching season for Bobby Cox and the Atlanta Braves. You would have to figure that Cox will eventually be known as one of the worst hires in Major League Baseball. Too many around the city of Atlanta are too quick to pat him on the back and think he’s done a great job here in the Peach State. That couldn’t be further from the truth. A manager leads his ball club into 14 consecutive post seasons and only manage to win one World Series Title and that series with the Cleveland Indians went to game 6 and was won by a lone run that right fielder Dave Justice provided.
Too many sports fans in the state of Georgia have been disappointed over the years and years of watching our professional and college teams come up short. It’s only natural for them to consider a playoff appearance as a championship in their book. Cox had a wealth of talent and still has more than you know about and this is because he and other pro teams, must play the athletes that signed the biggest contracts in the off season. We as sports fans often miss out on the best players for that specific game in the middle of the season not getting a chance to play, cause some high dollar contract player must get his chance to prove he’s worth the big bucks.
Mr. Heyward for the Braves won’t turn 21 years old; until early August gets here; which will be like one month after the All Star Game in July. I’m really hoping that Jason Heyward at 20 years of age, will get a chance to be the youngest homerun derby winner ever. I will feel sorry for the person that has to pitch to Heyward in the home run derby. If you’re going to give this home-grown Georgia kid 10 outs in the 2010 Homerun Derby; you better have a lot of baseballs and energy. I will go on record right now and say Jason Heyward hits 40+ homers on his first 2010 at-bat appearance in the 2010 Baseball HR Derby.
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