Meet the 2016 Braves

I'm a day late, there's 161 games left though so let's meet this year's Braves. 

Wait, I'm getting word in my ear 4 of the 5 guys on this 2016 card are gone? Ok let's see some guys still on the team. 

Freddie Freeman is far and away the best player on the Braves and he may not even make the All Star team. He homered yesterday though so maybe he'll have a good season like his 2013 year: .319/.396/.501, 23 HR, 121 RBI

Here's the rest of the starting infield. Let's hope good things happen here.

Adonis is playing third for now, he's got some power - 10 homers in 200 at bats last year. He hit one yesterday so we'll see.

Starting outfielders. This might work if Olivera hits, Inciarte figures out lefties and Markakis regains some power. That's alot of its. I think Markakis gets traded if he shows any value to make room for Mallex Smith. 

The Braves cut Nick Swisher, Michael Bourn and Emilio Bonifacio eating $30 million total. These are the guys  they're rolling with to start the year. Obviously Francoeur offers the feel good story potential.  Stubbs hasn't hit in a couple years but he's a RH bat that plays CF so here we are.

Kelly Johnson will play everywhere but SS, center and catcher. Flowers is the back up catcher and apparently a good pitch framer.

Rounding out the bench is Georgia boy Gordon Beckham.

Julio the ace? We'll see, looked good yesterday despite the usual long balls.

The rest of the rotation. I'm excited to see Wisler progress, Norris I have no expectations for (read bad) and Perez looks more like a reliever to me. The Braves don't need a fifth starter until the 12th so they'll be carrying an extra bullpen arm until then. 

Speaking of which here they are. John Gant makes the jump from AA to be the long man. Winkler looked fantastic in his debut yesterday throwing 11 pitches, 10 of them strikes, striking out the side. Ramirez throws really hard, that's about all I know about him. 

The only lefty on the club.  EOF returns, he was awful last year and the year before. 

Alexi Ogando had a good spring to make the club. 

Vizcaino is the best pitcher here and Fredi Gonzalez has said they will use him in high leverage situations and did so yesterday. Johnson and Grilli are the wily vets in the pen.

26th man Chachin will take somebody's spot once a 5th starter is needed. 

Once Folty is healthy he should enter the rotation as well. 

Aaron Blair could make it up this year to start as well. Jenkins and Mallex will almost definitely debut as well. Hopefully Newcomb and Ruiz bust out but we'll see, they're both starting in AA and AAA respectively.

Thanks for reading, Go Lightning!

Spring Training - Braves vs Pirates Champion Stadium

Went to the Braves Pirates game at Disney today. We showed up early and caught both teams BP.

I got my first 2016 card signed by rotation lock Matt Wisler.

Officially official

Andruw Jones and Dale Murphy watching BP

Adonis Garcia signing for fans. 

John Gant also signed a card I brought and is in fact skinny as a Wednesday newspaper as Ben Ingram said on the radio the other day.

Watched top prospect Josh Bell work on grounders for a while, he was out there whole BP until he hit in the last round.

Rio Ruiz warming up right before the game.

Phil Niekro just before tossing out the first pitch.

Got one more autograph that got smudged right before the game. Hopefully first half Jace from last year reappears. 

Folty right before game time.

Bud Norris to Polanco

Finally top Pirates prospect Tyler Glasnow, Jameson Taillon came on to pitch right after him.

It was a perfect day for baseball and despite paying 30 bucks for Spring tickets it was a good time despite the Braves losing 9-6. I got to see Dansby and Ozzie Albies play together for the first time and it was good to see Markakis get a homer. Thanks for stopping by. 

Nachos Grande Group Break Haul

I signed up for Nachos Grande 2016 case break at the last minute and got my haul in the mail earlier this week.

Of course I got a ton of Braves base cards. The Grilli is my favorite photo of them all. If you need any of these let me know if your working on the set or just want a Braves team set, I have extras of all of them. 

Chris pulled three rainbow parallels for me. I didn't pull any hits or gold parallels but these aren't bad since Freeman and Teheran are both guys I PC.

I did pretty good on buybacks with 2 coming from packs I opened as a kid, thanks for making me feel old Topps. I guess the red are common and the silver are scarce?  Good job putting a stamp right over Chippers face.

Hit on 3 of the Berger's Best inserts, I got 2 of the Aaron but ones for Tony. I don't even know if I have that '95 Smoltz..

Like me, Chris is trying to complete the much maligned set so when he offered to trade some team sets he got stuck with iwas quick to let him hold onto a Braves team set in exchange for the Pirates, Blue Jays & Red Sox. 

Cutch just looks weird without his dreads.

Love what looks like a walkoff shot of Josh Harrison.

This will probably be THE card of this set. I heard the pitcher that gave this one up was pissed about this card.

Didn't wanna leave the Red Sox out so this cool fielding shot of All Star utility man Brock Holt leaping out of the mist wins the best photo. 

Thanks for hosting the break Chris and for the extra cards towards my set!

Braves @ Rays - 8/11/2015 IP AUTO

I went to the Braves game in Tampa St. Petersburg tonight and all I got was this stinking card!

Showed up a little before 5:30 as that's the time on the Rays website that the Braves would be taking BP and walked up to a line to get in the stadium. I guess the Rays don't care if there fans get to see the home team take BP or maybe they didn't take it today.. oh well. Saw about as much Braves jerseys as Rays gear. Caught most of Atlanta's batting practice still, Jonny Gomes is a bad man in BP.

Wandered down to the visitor's dugout area with my daughter to try and snag her a ball and me some autographs, it was already packed so I was only able to grab the Wisler but that was good enough for me and my daughter got a ball so all was well. In the end the Rays won a pitcher's duel 2-0 on a 2 run homer by Kevin Kiermaier in the 7th inning. Still it was my son's first regular season Braves game and the family had a good time so no complaints here just wish the Rays would get a real baseball stadium, I might actually try to follow them if they did.

Me and my daughter at Sam's Club Tropicana Field

Cards From Across the Border

Made my first trade with Douglas over at Sportscards From The Dollar for some cards off his Archives want list

In return he sent me some Archives I was looking for. Freddie Freeman your our only hope.

I don't have too many Ty Cobb cards and this one's a great shot. Frank Thomas looks huge in this photo another Georgia Peach. This was my first card of Jason Heyward in Cardinal red. Shelby's working out well in that trade I suppose...

Doug said he was sending some bonus cards, these white frames GQs are awesome, I love these framed parallels. Simmons looks like he needs the All Star break and hopefully we'll get our #3 hitter back not too long after that.

He also said he'd throw some Lightning cards in the package as well and did he ever. This super thick serial numbered Stamkos from Panini Prime looks like it was made to be autographed in gold ink, may have to give it a shot as they practice right down the street from my house.

This die cut looks awesome scanned, sometimes my scanner kills cards but this one really pops in digital form.

More Stammer, hopefully Stevie Y can lock him up for the future. I always liked Teddy Purcell who's now in Edmonton still being the same solid player.

A couple Bish cards for the collection here, it will be interesting to see what the Lightning do with Bishop's contract expiring after next year and Andrei Vasilevsky (20 y/o) waiting in the wings.

....of Tampa Bay goaltenders.

Unfortunately I don't have any of Andrei's cards to show here but I do have this awesome relic of the departed Brett Connolly Doug sent over.

These weren't even all the Bolts cards he packed in the mailer! Thanks for the memories and the lopsided trade you demanded to New York Marty, we've got Cally (and a Cup) thanks to you.

Another National Hockey Card Day card from a trade, the Pinnacle is in French as well and boy am I tempted to peel that Dino.

Doug didn't stop there though he made sure to hit all 3 teams I collect and sent over these 2 from '15 Score, I've bought two of the $5 50 packs from Target and gotten zero Falcons so these were much needed. If anybody I trade with collects football as well I have some cards for you I just sorted all my old football cards by team.

Thanks again for all the cards Doug, I will be getting something together for you when I get back from purgatory aka Fort Lauderdale.