Spring Fever!

The Braves are playing good baseball this spring... out the gates with an 8-2 record. As one who prides himself on never getting too emotionally high or too low, I will temper expectations for a long season. But yesterday's drubbing of the Houston Astros (even if it was their AAAA team) was nice to see. Derek Lowe, our big free agent winter signing, threw four perfect innings, striking out six and inducing six groundballs. Now those are statistics I can live with! I can not stress enough how important a good GB/FB ratio (groundballs-to-flyballs) and K/BB ratio (strikeouts-to-walks) are for a pitcher. It tells me everything I need to know. It's more important than their ERA, in my opinion.

Also, Francoeur--yes, Jeffrey Franceour--walked and scored, giving him 3 walks on the spring. If he's going to turn the corner on a forgettable 2008 campaign, he needs to develop patience. His walk rate simply must come up. He's much too important a cog in our line up to be a black hole again this year. Kelly Johnson had two hits, and one that absolutely ate Lance Berkman up! KJ's been on fire this spring as well. I'm ready for him to come out of the gates strong. Omar Infante, Mr. Utility Everything, tripled in two runs. Stephen Marek, relief pitcher we got in the Mark Teixeira deal, gave up three runs on a hit and two walks, but they were scored as “unearned” so his ERA still sits at zero (I know, I know, I just said ERA doesn't matter). Reid Gorecki (who??) is hitting .571, yet has no chance to make the team.