Shoeless Joe

I have just finished reading "Shoeless Joe" by W.P. Kinsella. This is the book that the movie Field of Dreams is based off of.  While I don't want to be the guy who says, "The book is way better than the movie." I do have to give the book credit on a few things. Instead of Horace Mann as the writer Ray Kinsella teams up with, it's the famous J.D. Salinger. The book also included more characters that the movie did not, which is not surprising. Books have more time to create and wrap up storylines than movies do. One of the pleasant surprised from the book was how much of it made it into the movie. There were even entire sections of dialogue that I recognized from the movie. All in all, I strongly recommend this book to baseball lovers and those who enjoyed the movie. You won't be disappointed. I am the kind of reader that believes books and movies that tell the same story need to exist separate from each other and should be enjoyed individually. Give "Shoeless Joe" a read and ask yourself, "Is this heaven?" The answer of course is, "No. It's Iowa."

The Braves in the Off-Season

 

I haven't been able to remember a Braves off-season in which they actually made a move I wanted them to make. That doesn't mean they haven't made good moves, it just means they aren't the ones I wanted them to make. But this year, the Braves went out and got BJ Upton. Some people have really been hating on the guy and saying he's way overrated and not worth 5 years $75.25 million. In a market where Jayson Werth is worth 7 years and $126 million, I'd say the Braves got BJ for a good deal. He's a great defender and while some of his stats have trended in the wrong direction, (OBP for one) he still brings power and speed to a lineup that has needed that from the right side. There is some worry about his makeup and whether he will be a hard worker, but the Atlanta clubhouse has a way with dealing with those guys. No doubt it will hurt to not have Chipper around to influence, but McCann, Prado, Hudson, and the young guys (Freeman and Heyward) seemed to have established a culture of winning and hard work from what I've read and seen on TV. Needless to say, I couldn't be more excited about the BJ Upton signing. He is, after all, the center fielder on my fantasy team.

The Braves also jettisoned oft-injured and underwhelming Tommy Hanson. I used to drink the Tommy Hanson kool-aide until the last couple of years when the velocity was dropping and the weird delivery never really improved. The nagging shoulder injuries and his mechanics seemed to go hand in hand. I was more than okay about the Braves trading him for a good righty bullpen arm in Jordan Walden. That should help balance out Venters and O'Flaherty.

On a minor note, the Braves said goodbye to David Ross and signed Gerald Laird to play catcher for the first month while McCann recovers from off-season shoulder surgery. After that, Laird will serve as Mac's back up. I'm not crazy about Laird. He has the physique of a couch, but he always ends up on winning teams so he obviously knows how to win.

The one thing the Braves still need to get figured out is the LF and 3B situation. I don't like the idea of Juan Francisco being our everyday 3B or the idea of Reed Johnson being the everyday lett fielder. I really don't like the idea of Prado moving between LF and 3B depending on the handedness of the pitcher. That will surely put him in a funk to be constantly playing different position. If you think where a guy plays defense shouldn't affect how he hits, you're right. But it does. Baseball players are creatures of habit and you can only screw with that so much. Hopefully the Braves will remedy the situation through a trade in the coming months.

While I will be severely bummed to not see Chipper playing 3B anymore, I am very excited about the 2013 Braves and what they can accomplish. Go Braves!