Braves Report

In my humble opinion, the Braves have a better infield than the New York Metropolitans.
Let me break it down:

C: McCann beats out whoever the Mets trot out, in this case, Brian Schneider. EDGE: McCann

1B: Tex beats Delgado, with ease. Tex is one of the best young 1B in the game right now, and I hope to God we sign him to a long-term deal. EDGE: Teixeira

2B: Johnson beats Castillo. While Castillo is a good fielder, Johnson’s younger, and is much more productive on offense. EDGE: Johnson

3B: Wright and Chipper tie, due to Chipper’s resurgence last season, where he finished 2 points shy of the batting title. Plus, Chipper should have won Gold Glove last season, but didn’t due to popularity contest. EVEN

SS: Reyes destroys Escobar, though Escobar is a fine player. EDGE: Reyes

RF: Francoeur destroys Church. Francouer’s one of the best defensive OFers in the game right now, with a cannon for an arm. Also, his offensive maturity was enormous last season, as he was much more patient and started hitting the ball everywhere. Watch for him to REALLY bust out this season. EDGE: Francoeur

CF: Beltran destroys Kotsay, though I feel Kotsay’s better defensively, there’s no way he can match Beltran on offense. EDGE: Beltran

LF: Alou edges out Diaz. Diaz had a great year last year, and I just don’t see Alou having as good of a year this season as he did last season. But since Diaz platooned a lot last season, I’ll give the edge grudgingly to Alou. EDGE: Alou

RESULT: 4 1/2 Braves- 3 1/2 Mets

My thoughts on the Willy Aybar trade:

This is my take on the Mark Kotsay trade that was just finalized moments ago.