Bullpen, Schaeffer, Chuck James

I can't imagine a week in which the Braves swept the Mets as being this bad.

1) Rafael Soriano is on the DL, only Moylan seems comfortable. Now Moylan will be closing along with Manny Acosta. I think this bullpen can be very good, if it all comes together. Mike Gonzalez will be coming back, Moylan has proven himself, Soriano can be dominant, Manny Acosta is very good in the right role (not closing or one of your main set up men). I think Blane Boyer and Chris Resop can also be very very good in the right situation. While the starters have been very good (not withstanding Chuck James' shellacking today), they haven't pitched very deeply, further exacerbating the bullpen's problems. Throw in that fact that the offense has not been consistent and thus keeps putting the bullpen in pressure situations and its just not a recipe for success. This could be a year long problem or it could all sort itself out sometime in the next month or so. However, in order for that to happen, Soriano has to stay relatively healthy after he gets back from the DL, at least until Mike Gonzalez has some time to get back to form, maybe around august.

2) Jordan Schaffer is suspended for HGH.

I can believe the Schafer story. To be honest, I was somewhat suspicious of the huge jump in potential he made over the last year when he jumped from the 27th best prospect to by far the best in the braves system. He had virtually no power whatsoever in his first two years and was considered a mostly speed guy out of high school. Then last year he hits 15 homers and 49 doubles. He had a borderline bad rep as a prima donna, buying a hummer with only a 3rd round draft pick's signing bonus.

Supposedly he has already apologized to his teammates and coaches, which doesn't seem likely if he was actually innocent. Its hard to know exactly how they caught him. There still isn't a reliable drug test for HGH, so its highly doubtful that it was through that avenue.

At this point, I am almost certain that if Kotsay went down late in the season, his replacement would be either Josh Anderson or Gregor Blanco, as I'm relatively certain that Schafer won't see this majors this year.

I wouldn't say its out of the realm of possibility for Schafer to come back and play in center next year, but he would really need to make a full 180. He won't get away with his prima donna ways and people aren't going to write off his brash ways as confidence anymore. At this point, I say its most likely that the braves either sign a vet to a short term contract or make a trade for a guy with 1-2 years left for CF next year. After that I'd say the next most likely guys are Josh Anderson and Gregor Blanco, but I don't view either one of those guys as legit every day major league type guys.

3) Chuck James looked really bad today. He had virtually no control. When he wasn't walking or hitting batters, they were killing the ball. If Mike Hampton is ever healthy, Chuck James has still done nothing to show he deserves to be a part of this rotation over Jair Jurjjens. I don't even know if he deserves a rotation spot over Jeff Bennett at this point. He'll likely get at least one more start, and maybe he just couldn't get a feel for the ball in the cold weather. I want Chuck to succeed, as I think he is a big part of this team if not this year, then definitely next. However, he has to be spot on control wise and he has to develop another pitch.