Who let the dogs out?

Hello.  Easiest way to introduce you all to Oliver.  He's a retired racing greyhound.  Incredibly loving.  http://community.webshots.com/album/578902341tyAHuW

Fun Dog Tricks

If I'd have known a dog could be trained to do ALL this, I might not have had kids...

Twitter, Facebook, Blogs: Isn't the Internet Great??

These days, there are really 3 major means of social networking, and, if you're not using them all, you're likely missing something.  You may think whatever you're missing is no big deal, and it may not be a big deal to you at all, but, if you're going to be connected, you need to be using one of these networks, and probably all of them.

If you're reading this, you're already a reader of blogs and a fan of blogging.  Keep it up.  To make your blogging more productive, I suggest you look into using an RSS Reader, such as Google Reader.  RSS stands for Real Simple Syndication, and basically, since blogs are structured formats, with each post being date/time stamped, it means they can be sorted into a hierarchical format and displayed in a reader.  There are many RSS readers (one is included as part of Internet Explorer and in Outlook), but my favorite is Google's Reader.  I prefer it because it works within the browser, and the settings follow you to any computer you use.  All you need is a google account, which you already have if you're a gmail user, but it's easy to sign up and use all of google's products.  You also have one if you're a Picasa user (for sharing pictures).  Now, you may not agree with Google's founders politics (they're morons), but, their technology is great.  With an RSS Reader, you don't have to go to 400 websites to troll for news, you'll find it all aggregated, right there.  Try it.

The next thing you need to look into is Facebook.  Like AOL of old, Facebook is the destination site on the Internet for connecting with your old and new friends.  I use Facebook mostly for connecting with old friends and an occasional snarky post, but, mostly, I just try to see what people are up to.  For interest, I started myself to keep tabs on my kids.  A requirement of their use of it was that I had to be their friend, so I could see what they were up to.  It's expanded somewhat.  If you join Facebook, you'll be able to connect with me, but, you'll be surprised with all the groups that exist there, how quickly people you knew from your past will find you.  I don't use Facebook that much for politics, but, it can be used for that as well.

Finally, there is Twitter.  I love Twitter.  The kids are not in to Twitter.  That makes it more appealing to me.  Basically, I described it to the youngest as "Facebook without the fluff, and you have to learn to speak in 140 words or less."  With the increasing use of URL shorteners like bit.ly, though, Twitter is a way to quickly link people to articles of interest, and to stay even more connected to anyone.  Because it's near instantaneous, you can sometimes engage in short conversations with people who you would normally not have anything to do with, like the Braves AJC beat writer, or CBS's White House correspondent.  It's like having a real time feed of your RSS Reader.  In fact, that's really what I do online - watch my Twitter feed and scroll through my RSS reader for interesting stuff.  Most bloggers these days link their blogs to their Twitter feed, so, once they post something, if you're following them on Twitter, you'll see it, with a link.  In fact, this post, once posted, will show up in my Twitter feed - the title, with a link.

So, I encourage you all to create twitter accounts and then follow some people you find interesting.  Here are some recommendations:

• HumanEvents - Get a twitter feed of Human Events articles
• rsmccain -Robert Stacy McCain
• BigJournalism - Breitbart's Big Journalism site
• DanRiehl - conservative blogger
• RichLowry
• ByronYork
• AoSHQ -Ace Of Spades
• politico 
• krauthammer
• ajcbraves - Dave O'Brien, Braves beat reporter
• ESPN_ACC - Heather Dinich - covers the ACC for ESPN
• RedState - a feed of Red State's home page posts
• NROcorner - A feed of NR's Corner posts
• greggutfeld - Come on, you don't know who Greg Gutfeld is?  You should.
• ThadMcCotter - Michigan congressman, and rock music lover
• Buster_ESPN -Buster Olney, ESPN baseball reporter
• SarahPalinUSA
• newsbusters - twitter feed of newsbusters blog posts
• LegInsurrection - twitter feed of LI's blog
• sistertoldjah - she's an NC based conservative blogger.  Prolific
• jaketapper - ABC's WH correspondent
• gatewaypundit - Jim Hoft's twitter account
• KarlRove

Those are just a few.

Braves Outfield Options

I have discussed Nate McLouth previously in depth and I believe the Braves will give McLouth every opportunity to win the CF job next spring.  My opinion is he's a left fielder masquerading with CF speed, but, given the market for center fielders (Colby Rasmus is really the only potential candidate we hear mentioned in trades), my guess is CF is McLouth's job to lose, so, the Braves are looking for an everyday, power bat for LF, preferably right-handed.  With McLouth, you will have Freeman, Heyward, McCann as lefties, and the Braves are going to need a right hander who can fill the 4 or 5 spot in the order.

MLBTraderumors.com has the skinny on 2011 free agents and I posted on the 2011 class here.  Looking at other trade possibilities, let's look at the 2012 class, and see who might be trade bait.  The top 2012 outfielders are going to be (and here we'll look at all OF positions):

1. Jose Bautista - After hitting 54 homers and 124 RBI's in an amazing 2010 (he never hit more than 16 in 7 previous seasons), Bautista's stock has skyrocketed. He's arbitration eligible and whether the Blue Jays are in a trading mood, probably depends on what he gets in this arbitration year.  He's a righty who could regress back to a middling power guy.  
2. Josh Willingham - made $4.6M this year, and is arb eligible.  Hit 16 homers in only 370 AB's for Washington.  He has a great eye, with an OBP of .383 in 2010, career .367.  Again, Washington may be building around Willingham and some of their other good young players and be unwillinging to move him.  But, I could see a Lowe or Jurrjens for Willingham trade being done. Nationals get (in the case of Lowe) a seasoned vet for their young staff, and Braves get a needed RH power bat at a decent price.  The Nats have indicated a willingness to go after Cliff Lee, but they can't afford Lee.  Would they settle for Lowe?
3. David DeJesus - Is a relatively weak powered left fielder.  He can play center, but, he's essentially McLouth, slightly better defensively.  Will make $6M in 2011.  I don't think he's a good fit, certainly not as the LF beside McLouth.
4. Cody Ross - Now, we've seen what Ross can do in the playoffs, and he is a guy the Braves tried hard to get this year and lost out to the Giants.  He's arbitration eligible in 2011 and made $4.5M in 2010.  Don't know what the Giants may do with Ross.  They don't need pitching, and if the Braves had any good hitters to trade, they'd be keeping them anyway.  I don't think we're likely to see the Braves and Giants making any trades.
5. Michael Cuddyer - Twins former first round pick is having arthroscopic surgery in the off-season.  His numbers have been all over the place in the bigs, mostly good.  He's signed through 2011 and will make $10M next year.  He's honestly not worth that kind of money unless he returns to 2009 form.
6. Ryan Ludwick - struggled after the mid-season trade to SD.  He's got good power but strikes out A LOT.  Just an average outfielder.Made $5.5M in 2010, arbitration eligible in 2011.  Again SD doesn't need pitching, so not a good candidate for trade with Atlanta.

Braves Player Round Up - Nate McLouth

In the off-season, I am going to review some of the Braves question marks, and discuss the pros and cons of these players.  I'll largely use Baseball Reference.com and my own personal observations of players, but, I'll try to use stats where available.

The first player I will analyze, because he creates such strong feelings among Braves fans, is Nate McLouth.

McLouth was aquired in a 2009 trade with the Pirates that saw pitching prospect Charlie Morton, Jeff Locke, and Gorkys Hernandez.  Only Morton really had any major league potential, and has failed to live up to it.  McLouth was coming off an All-Star season with the Pirates in 2008.  Of course, if not for the requirement that each team have an All-Star, McLouth's credentials were debatable. His 2008 season numbers were good, however, .276/.356/.853 and he led the league with 46 doubles, and he had a WAR of 4.6.  He seemed poised for stardom when he signed a large contract with Pittsburgh (3 years with a 4th year team option) after that 2008 season, so the 2009 trade appeared to observers to be a typical Pirate salary dump. He also battled some injury problems in 2009 which saw McLouth's numbers slip, and he had long periods with the Braves, as I started observing him, where he was awful.  A streaky, pull-hitting, 100+ strikeout lead-off hitter often down in counts with a poor caught stealing percentage indicated some potential problems with McLouth in 2009.

McLouth is owed $6.5M by the Braves in 2011.

While 2009 could be called a normal year for Nate, you need only look at the details of his at-bats to see something happened in 2010 to lower his average by 60 points and make him functionally useless.

What happened was:

• Nate struck out looking in 44% of his strikeouts.  This is up significantly from his career average of 34%.  If you watched Nate this season, you can recall many times screaming at the TV, "How could you take that pitch!?!?!?!?!?"
• Surprisingly, Nate saw more 2-0 and 3-1 counts than he historically saw, and well above the league average (could this be a product of the Braves philosophy of working pitchers deeper into the count?). As you would expect, Nate was at his best on these counts, hitting .500 on 2-0 pitches, and .333 on 3-0.  Nate's real problem is if you could get 2 strikes on him in 2010, he was nearly a dead-lock cinch to make an out, hitting .152 with 2 strikes. Nate's other issue - first pitches.  In 28 at bats where he put the ball into play on the first pitch, he hit .071.  Seriously, Nate, you're better off taking the first pitch in 2010, but, this was one of the things Nate came to Atlanta notorious for - swinging at first pitches, and 2010 was an aberration.  He's a career .299 first pitch hitter.
• McLouth didn't get many AB's against lefties this year, but he was woeful against them, hitting .135.  Nate was similarly awful in road games, hitting just .134
• As a baserunner, McLouth's caught stealing percentage declined from about 90% in Pittsburgh to roughly 78% in Atlanta.   Not good.

I think you get the picture of Nate hitting in 2010.  Horrible, with lots of aberrations from his norm.

Fielding:

• Nate was a Gold Glove outfielder in 2008 with Pittsburgh.  Did he deserve it?  In a word, no.  While he only made one error, he only had 5 assists, and his sabermetric ratings are those of a below-average outfielder.
• That is much more consistent with the Nate McLouth I observed in Atlanta.  I'd call him an indifferent fielder, frequently fielding fly balls with runners on 3rd and less than 2 outs and not even attempting a throw.  I know Braves broadcaster Joe Simpson called him on this on more than one occasion.  In fact, I vividly remember a game where with a runner on 3rd, McLouth called off Jason Heyward who was setting up to make a throw home, and McLouth didn't even make the throw.  He lost balls in lights on more than one occasion, and generally played a rotten CF.

What will the Braves do?  I don't know any major league club who is going to be willing to take on McLouth.  Given the money the Braves have to pay him in 2011, they will have to eat a significant portion of his salary to get anyone to take him.  Given that, I expect McLouth to get every opportunity in spring training to prove that he's regained the form that made him an all-star in Pittsburgh.  If he can't, and if he's willing to start the year in AAA Gwinnett (as he was gracious enough to spend time there in 2010, I don't know option status) he could be the highest paid minor leaguer, or seek his release.  Given the money involved, I don't expect to see him leave the Braves organization in 2011.  

CFB Wrap-up: 10/16

An interesting day in the college football world.

Let's get the home teams first.  Georgia Tech manhandled an inferior Middle Tennessee State team 42-14, Georgia whipped a woeful Vandy 49-0, and UNC took out 30 years of frustration at UVA and one year of frustration with agents beating the Wahoo's 44-10.

So, that handles the locals.  The big news is this was a great day for TCU and Boise State.  Ohio State proved why they're a perennial disappointment, losing to Wisconsin, and Texas told Nebraska to go F themselves as they leave the Big 12 for the Big Nothing sending 2 potential national title contenders to the garbage dump.

So, who can spoil the non-BCS schools' party?

1. Auburn beat Arkansas in a defense optional game, 65-43 to stay undefeated, and putting them on a collision course with...
2. LSU, who handled McNeese State to remain unbeaten, despite Les Miles' best efforts.
3. Michigan State dispatched Illinois, but, I don't expect to see them in the BCS contenders.
4. Oklahoma killed Iowa State.
5. Utah and Nevada won, but they have to face TCU and Boise St, so, don't expect them to make it undefeated.
6. Oregon was idle, and the number 2 team still has some tough Pac-10 games to play.

The first BCS rankings are out tomorrow, and everyone agrees Boise St will be number 1 in those rankings.  Everyone also agrees that they will drop as their strength-of-schedule component declines.  Oregon will benefit, assuming they can remain undefeated.

But, we're faced with the spectacle of the first BCS number one winning out, and ending up, perhaps 3rd in the BCS standings, because, if LSU or Auburn win out, they will almost certainly end up 1 or 2, and if Oklahoma wins out, so would they.  

Wow!  Great season ahead.

#Braves 2011 and Interesting Free Agent Outfielders for the Bravos

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution is reporting that Thursday, Fredi Gonzalez will be introduced as the next Braves Manager.  Not much of a surprise there.

Anyway, now that the season is over, let's take a look at the Braves for 2011 and what Fredi will have to work with and some payroll numbers:

Pitching Staff (Starters):

• Derek Lowe - 2 years remaining at $15M per year.  If the Derek Lowe we saw in September and October is the new Derek Lowe, I doubt the Braves will attempt to move him like they tried last year.  
• Tim Hudson - 3 years left at $9M per year.  Well worth it and will be remaining until 2013, when he's 37.
• Kenshin Kawakami - has 1 year left at $6.7M.  The Braves will try hard to trade Kawakami in the off-season. He's 35, has been awful and is going to be tough to move.  I think he'll get traded, but the Braves will have to eat most of his salary.
• Jair Jurrjens is arbitration eligible.  He has 2 good years, but this year was a disaster due to injuries.  I don't know how that affects his value or what it will be.  He's arbitration eligible.  I expect the Braves to be looking at $3-5M for 2011 for Jair and that they'll sign him.
• Tommy Hanson is not arbitration eligible and will make around $400k next year.
• Mike Minor and Brandon Beachy are rookies and will also make the league minimum.  One of them will be the 5th starter.  The other will start the season in AAA Gwinnett or the bullpen.
• Kris Medlen - would be the 5th starter, if he wasn't going to spend the entire season rehabbing from TJ surgery.  League minimum, probably covered by insurance.

Relievers:

• Peter Moylan - Moylan got $1.15M coming off Tommy John surgery.  I expect he will get about $2M in arbitration and the Braves will keep him.
• Eric O'Flaherty is arbitration eligible.  After an up-and-down season that saw him battle non-baseball related physical health problems, hard to say what O'Flaherty's worth is.  If the Braves can re-sign him for less than $1M, I expect they would.  A reliable lefty is hard to find.
• Johnny Venters - everyday Johnny will get some rookie of the year votes, and deservedly so. Venters came up through the system as a starter.  It will be interesting to see if Gonzalez and McDowell (hope he stays) keepVenters in the pen or let him compete for a 5th starter spot.  If the decision is made to move Lowe or Jurrjens, this could happen.
• Craig Kimbrel - the rookie is going to be given the closer job.  League minimum.
• Michael Dunn - another left-handed rookie, Dunn will get a chance to re-earn a bullpen slot.  However, with Venters, O'Flaherty, and Dunn, another left-handed reliever may become trade bait.  My guess is Dunn's the odd man out.
• Christhian Martinez - not real sure his contract status, or if he's technically a rookie.  He could make the bullpen, if he's not traded.

Pitchers NOT coming back:

• I think we can count on these guys not coming back, due to age/salary/ineffectiveness:
• Takashi Saito - he's 40, made $3.2M in 2010, was injured alot and is subject to arbitration. I doubt the Braves will offer him arbitration and let him become a free agent.
• Billy Wagner - duh!  He means it, he's going to retire.
• Farnsworth - with a $5.25M team option, he is not coming back.  Farnsworth will be lucky to get back to KC at $2M.

Pitching was what got this team to the playoffs in 2010.  It will carry them again in 2011.  Largest question mark is whether Kimbrel can handle the closer role.

Batters.  

This is the Braves biggest question mark.  These things I think are certain:

• Chipper Jones will return.Chipper is going to make $13M next year.  He's worth it still.
• Martin Prado is arbitration eligible.  The Braves will offer it and he'll get about $6M (compare him to Placido Palanco).
• Brian McCann is signed through 2013.  He's going to make $6.5M next year.
• Omar Infante - the team has a $2.5M team option on him.  They'll exercise it.
• Alex Gonzalez - another guy for whom the team holds a $2.5M option. They'll exercise it, too.
• David Ross - the Braves signed Ross to a 2 year extension at $1.6M per year. May be the best back-up catcher in baseball.
• Jason Heyward - the rookie RF will make the league minimum. He'll be arbitration eligible about when Chipper retires.
• Freddie Freeman - the rookie 1B should make the club.  League minimum for him.  If he falters in the spring, we'll see who's available on the cheap then...
• Nate McLouth - looking at McLouth's contract, you learn why the Braves wanted him to get his stroke back and play.  He's signed through 2011 at $6.5M next year.  He has no trade value, so, he needs to work this winter and get his swing back.  
• Matt Diaz - suffered through a rough year with an injury to his hand and never really got rolling.  He's arbitration eligible and made $2.55M this year.  My guess is Diaz wants to stay here, and would take around the same to stay.  Is an OF of Heyward, McLouth, Infante what the Braves really want, with Diaz as the 4th OF?
• Brooks Conrad - the 30 year old rookie makes the league minimum.  The Braves will keep him as a pinch hitter, occasional IF replacement.
• Rick Ankiel - if not for Ankiel's $6M mutual option for 2011, I'd expect him to stick around.  I don't know where Ankiel can go.  The Braves will not exercise their option, so, he'll become a free agent.  I just don't see a market for Ankiel.  He'll get invited to someone's camp in the spring, probably not the Braves, though.

Not coming back:

• Troy Glaus improved his value to someone this year. He's a free agent, and someone will likely sign him. Not the Braves, though.  Hard to believe that Troy is only 33.  Maybe an AL club looking for a DH. Wish him well, because he carried this team in the spring.
• Derrek Lee - Free agent first baseman will need to find a job somewhere else.
• Melky Cabrera - Arbitration eligible, but, I doubt he fits into the Braves plans in the OF.  He made $3.1M this year.  Depends on how Fredi feels about the choice between him and Diaz.  
• Erik Hinske - a free agent who made $1M this year.  Never saw Hinske at 1B.  Would he take another $1M contract to be a PH and potential back-up in case Freeman falters at 1B?

That pretty much sums up the Braves existing players.  They are going to add another LH power bat (Freeman) making them very left-handed, and increasing the need for a RH power outfielder.    Their ability afford that kind of depends on whether they can move Kawakami and McLouth and their salaries.  As I said, though, these guys have little trade value.  If you see them traded in the winter for low-upside players, you know it's a salary dump.

Looking at MLBTradeRumors list of free agents, the best RH outfielder in the FA pool is clearly the Phillies Jason Werth (Carl Crawford's a lefty with not as much power).  Inasmuch as he's been a Braves killer, it would be nice to bring him to Atlanta and get him away from the Phils.  I'd expect he's looking for $18-20M.  Xavier Nady as recently as 2 years ago hit 25 homers, but has really declined due to injury.  He could be had for around $3M so could be a value shot.  The Yankees Marcus Thames will also be a FA.  He has never had the chance to play full time, but hits righties ok, and has a lot of pop.  He's a just so-so outfielder, so LF would be his home. Pat Burrell will also be a FA.  He's at the end of a 2 year deal at $8M per year.  It'll be a push if he can duplicate that. He's a big RH bat who is a good fielder. Jose Guillen is 35 and has played for every team in MLB (almost).  He's got good pop still, but is well traveled and made $12M/year on his last contract.  Is he worth the $6-8M he'll command?

Braves Loss - It Hurts, but Cox screwed this up

Every day, I take a 30 minute break and walk around the parking deak and listen to the ESPN Baseball Today podcast.  It's hosted by Seth Everett and Eric Karabell of ESPN.

 

Today, Eric commented that Friday night, after the BillY Wagner injury, that Bobby Cox had other options in the bullpen beyond Farnsworth?  It was the 10th inning.  His only other choice was Christian Martinez. 

 

Seth described the awful way the Braves lost Sunday as being the worst he could remember.  Does he remember Friday's game and how the Giants lost?  They had a 4-1 lead after 7 innings and their closer lost it for them in the 8th.  Then Billy Wagner gets hurt and Rick Ankiel (Rick Ankiel!) joins the Babe by hitting a GW homer.  I actually think the Giants loss is worse (the Braves are crippled and saddled with Brooks Conrad), but since I am a Braves fan, Sunday's is much more painful.  They were right to ask why wasn't Diory Hernandez in at 3rd in the 9th and move Infante to 2nd.  On Friday, after Glaus's heroic DP, Cox had enough sense to replace him with Hernandez for the bottom of the 11th.  Why not Sunday replace a guy who's single-handedly trying to give this thing to the Giants (in addition to the lousy defense is lost the awful bunt he made ahead of Hinske's homer)?

 

Eric is out to lunch on Aubrey Huff's splits ("Aubrey Huff can't hit lefthanders.").  Going lefty-lefty against Huff did nothing to improve the Braves' chances.  Sure, he proportionally strikes out and hits into more DP's, but, the Braves needed neither of those, and if you were looking for a strikeout, Kimbrel was certainly the go-to guy, not Dunn. Yes, a poor decision by Cox.  But, not as bad as the 2-2 slider to Sanchez, who couldn't hit Kimbrel's fastball.  A little league coach would never have thrown that pitch to him seeing his swings against Kimbrel.

 

Huff's 2010 Splits:

Split	G	GS	PA	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	SB	CS	BB	SO	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS	TB	GDP	HBP	SH	SF	IBB	ROE	BAbip	tOPS+	sOPS+
vs RHP	145		480	407		117	28	2	19	59	6	0	66	60	.287	.388	.506	.894	206	10	3	0	4	5	2	.295	101	138
vs LHP	90		188	162		48	7	3	7	27	1	0	17	31	.296	.378	.506	.884	82	7	6	0	3	0	4	.323	98	158

 

Look at Dunn's splits.  Sure, he strikes out lefties more, but he's not that much more effective against them:

Split	G	PA	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	SB	CS	BB	SO	SO/BB	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS	TB	GDP	HBP	SH	SF	IBB	ROE	BAbip	tOPS+	sOPS+
vs RHB	21	44	33	4	7	1	0	1	0	0	11	9	0.82	.212	.409	.333	.742	11	2	0	0	0	2	0	.261	125	104
vs LHB	24	44	38	6	8	2	0	0	0	0	6	18	3.00	.211	.318	.263	.581	10	0	0	0	0	0	1	.400	76	73

 

Is Kimbrel awful against lefties?  Let's look:

Split	G	PA	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	SB	CS	BB	SO	SO/BB	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS	TB	GDP	HBP	SH	SF	IBB	ROE	BAbip	tOPS+	sOPS+
vs RHB	21	47	38	0	3	1	0	0	0	0	9	22	2.44	.079	.255	.105	.361	4	0	0	0	0	0	1	.188	58	8
vs LHB	20	41	34	2	6	1	0	0	0	0	7	18	2.57	.176	.317	.206	.523	7	1	0	0	0	1	1	.375	146	44

 

I think the numbers make the argument here - Kimbrel against lefties is essentially Mike Dunn with a better chance of a strikeout. 

 

Stupid moves of Sunday's game:

1. The 2-2 pitch to Sanchez (McCann, Kimbrel?)

2. Taking out Kimbrel (Cox)

3. Having Conrad in the game at all in the 9th (Cox - and I am cutting him some slack for having him in the game in the 1st)

 

To give you something else to think about for the rest of the week, when the Braves are eliminated, how many days until Freddi Gonzalez is announced as the new manager?

 

Finally, we all love VJohnny enters this year,  but, he's a starter, and that's how he came up.  I expect the team to give him a chance to win a rotation spot next year, with Kimbrel getting Wagner's job.  With Medlen out for the year, that will give the Braves choices of JJ, Lowe, Hudson, Hanson, Minor and Venters.  Someone's getting traded (Lowe, JJ?).  I think Lowe improved his value in September and October and the Braves may try to move him again to get a bat and dump salary.  Kawakami is toast.  Welcome to Kansas City or Seattle, Kenshin.

Braves Magic

The Phillies are clearly the class of MLB again this year, and it would appear they are on a course to meet the Yankees again in the World Series.

However, if you did not stay up for last night's 5-4 Braves victory over San Francisco, you missed one for the ages and a game that sort of sums up the Braves' season.

Down early 4-0 with one of SF's aces, Matt Cain delivering shut-out pitching against the Braves anemic batting order and with Bobby Cox ejected after the same umpire who blew last night's call on Buster Posey blew another one, the Braves battled out a run in the 6th to make it 4-1, then took advantage of some shoddy SF fielding and timely hitting by Alex Gonzales (who was 4 for 43 coming into the game) to tie the game against SF's closer (Brian Wilson, who had 48 saves) and force extra innings.

That would be drama enough, except, in the bottom of the 10th inning, the Braves were forced to play the gimpy Troy Glaus (who carried this team in May/June, but had been battling nagging injuries since, and compelled the Braves to trade for Derrek Lee at the deadline) at third base (for just the second time this season) as Billy Wagner was brought in, in all likelihood to pitch two innings (hopefully).

Former Brave Edgar Renteria led off, and knowing Glaus's health issues, bunted at him and reached first base.  On the play, Wagner likely hurt an oblique, and fortunately, the next batter sacrificed Renteria to second, with Wagner getting the out, visibly in pain.

If you were, like me, going UGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH at the site of Wagner flinching in pain, you thought, ":This is it.  Season's over."

Kyle Farnsworth, who did not distinguish himself in his last time through Atlanta, was brought in to replace Wagner, and promptly hit a batter and then walked a batter to load the bases with 1 out.

If you watched the game, you know what happened next.  If not, a ground ball was hit to Glaus (again), who, instead of going home to get the out there, started a double play, and the Braves were out of the inning!  At that point, you had some inkling that something special was going on here.

In the top of the 11th, Rick Ankiel, the former Cardinal's pitcher, and reconstituted center fielder, hitting just .220 for Atlanta since coming over from KC in July, hit a monster homer into McCovey Cove to make it 5-4 in the 11th.

Farnsworth worked an uneventful bottom of the 11th, and the Braves return to Atlanta having split the first 2 in SF 1-1.  In 5 game series since the format began, teams that split 1-1 are 25-10.  So, the odds favor the Braves, but, Wagner is out for the series and the season, and we may seen him throw his last pitch.

It's too bad he's not planning on coming back next season, but Craig Kimbrel and Johnny Venters have been awesome.For now, Wagner is out this series and the next (if the Braves make it).  The guess is Takashi Saito will take his place.