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2012 Baseball Preview: Atlanta Braves

April 5, 2012

Atlanta Braves

The Braves had a very quiet off-season.  They traded Derek Lowe, ostensibly to free up some payroll (worried as they were about arbitration costs), but they made essentially no new investments.  Resigning Eric Hinske and signing SS Jack Wilson to a 1 year, $1 million contract isn’t exactly going to light up the talk radio shows.  The bigger story was perhaps that they retained two of their stars who they had tangled as trade bait, but found no one willing to bid generously.  Martin Prado and Jair Jurrjens will be staying in Atlanta.  They’ll try youngster Tyler Pastornicky at SS.  Along with certain-to-improve Jason Heyward, the National League’s best bullpen, a steady but no longer lights-out Tim Hudson, aged but still powerful Chipper Jones, peppy leadoff hitter Michael Bourn, solid catcher Brian McCann, big bopper Dan Uggla at 2B, and assorted bits and pieces they will probably replicate last season’s efforts, but it’s hard to envision them improving.

In: Jack Wilson, Chris Jones

Out: Derek Lowe, Alex Gonzalez

Strength: Craig Kimbrel was impressive at closer, and the Braves certainly have a solid lineup.

Weakness: Atlanta doesn’t seem to have the je-ne-sais-quoi that puts teams over the top.  Lots of solid players who could well blossom (Heyward, McCann, Prado, Freeman, Bourn), but they lack the star quality, and their rotation is not going to make opposing batters quake

Manager: Fredi Gonzalez

Projected Rotation: Tommy Hanson, Jair Jurrjens, Tim Hudson, Mike Minor, Brandon Beachy

Projected Closer: Craig Kimbrel

Projected Starting Lineup:

            Michael Bourn CF

            Dan Uggla 2B

            Chipper Jones 3B

            Brian McCann C

            Freddie Freeman 1B

            Jayson Heyward RF

            Martin Prado LF

            Tyler Pastornicky SS

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