Kuzul

Spring is in the air, and so is baseball. I have long missed the sport for over four months, but now it is back. 

The Braves played the Mets, Chipper Jones started, and Bobby Cox was present. It was just like old times. Sure Bobby wasn’t managing or Chipper wasn’t playing third, but they still are part of the Braves.

The Braves have new young pitching, something else familiar to the Braves’ faithful. There always is a young star pitcher, or even pitchers, that the Braves bring up and this year is no different. They sign great young talent, then groom them in the minor leagues. It is a part of the Braves’ DNA to do this every year.

Yes, this is an article talking about Spring training, but it is important. Spring training is a good way for the Braves and other teams to find hot players who deserve to be on the 25 man roster and to prepare their players for the long haul of the regular season.

Spring training is a way for us fans to finally see or hear a game again. I love listening to the golden voices of Jim Powell and Don Sutton, and I was able to hear them on Saturday.

Even if the game means nothing in terms of winning or losing, I still loved hearing the commentators banter. It made me even more excited for the season to start. It made me feel like the regular season had already started.

I am happy that I can read box scores again for baseball. I enjoy seeing how different players perform statistically. I can somewhat quench this thirst by looking at the box scores of spring training games. 

Obviously nothing can make up for the lack of the MLB regular season, but spring training is a nice distraction. I can see my favorite players again and hear the crack of the bat. Life is almost back to normal for us Braves’ fanatics.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

The St. Louis Cardinals starting pitcher Adam Wainwright will have Tommy John surgery on his right elbow and will miss the entire 2011 season. 

While this puts a major damper on the Cardinals playoff hopes, last year’s Major League Baseball playoff participants are faced with questions of their own.

Whether it’s the New York Yankees or the World Champion San Francisco Giants, each of these teams will have to address major concerns if they hope to play deep into October for consecutive seasons. 

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With the Atlanta Braves’ first spring game right around the corner, the powerhouse Philadelphia Phillies are the favorites to win the National League East in 2011, but all of that can change in the blink of an eye if a few players can step it up in spring training.

Here are the 10 keys to success for the Atlanta Braves in 2011.

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There are no sure things in sports, but sometimes, you can come close.

In baseball, some players are so consistent that a look at their previous three or so years can give you a pretty good estimation of how they will perform in the coming season.

Here’s what Braves fans can reasonably expect.

Chipper Jones will get hurt; no rational human being can expect anything close to a full, healthy season from Chipper.

He hasn’t played more than 150 games since 2003, and many of the games in which he does appear are single pinch-hitting appearances or early exits after tweaking some body part. He further weakens the team with all those games where he’s too hurt to play, but not hurt enough to go on the DL.

Consider that he’s also had a steady three-year decline in slugging and he’s a $14 million dollar albatross around the Braves’ collective neck.

This leads us to our next guarantee.

Derek Lowe will eat innings and record double-digit wins. Roto players hate him, but since becoming a starter, Lowe has never failed to win in double-digits and never misses a start.

Considering the nightmarish wave of injuries that befell the Braves rotation in 2008, it’s no wonder Frank Wren was willing to overpay for this workhorse.

Dan Uggla will hit 30 homers and make 15 errors. Since Uggla joined the big leagues, he is second only to Albert Pujols in homers by National League right-handed hitters. Both his power numbers and his fielding stats have held steady over the course of his career.

Considering how hotly contested the Braves playoff series with the Giants was, despite Atlanta’s dearth of power and poor fielding in the series, I think Atlanta can stomach the occasional error from their new slugger.

Brian McCann will be Brian McCann and Martin Prado will be Martin Prado. Two models of consistency, McCann can be relied on for 20 homers, Prado will bat .300 and both will provide steady defense and a positive presence in the clubhouse.

The only question will be: Who plays left field when Prado takes over third base after Chipper’s inevitable injury?

Nate McLouth will stink.

Frank Wren has said that the Braves need McLouth to return to the form he showed in Pittsburgh, but let’s be clear about something: Nate McLouth had one terrific year in Pittsburgh in 2008, but was never that caliber of player before or since. Even at his best, he still only batted .276 with a .350 on-base percentage.

Take away his one atypical season and McLouth is a 10-homer, 12-steal guy with a .250 batting average. Hardly worth a starting spot on a championship contender.

Those are my guarantees for the season. Anyone else see any sure things for the Braves in the coming year?

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

Chipper Jones is an all-time Brave. He’s been through the best times that the franchise has ever had and the recent struggles to make it to the postseason up until 2010. He’s won a World Series Championship and many division titles.

He’s been a Most Valuable Player and he’s posted extremely good numbers throughout his career.

The problem now, though, is that Jones will be 39 years-old in April and has seen a huge decline in his numbers since he hit .364 in 2008. He’s had his power taken away his average has fallen off drastically.

Jones is entering his 16th full season in the big leagues and knows his way around the league. It could be his last season putting on a baseball uniform, which means it may also be our last chance to see a living legend.

It doesn’t all have to be sad though, because Jones still brings a lot to the table.

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Chipper Jones, who has been a staple in the Atlanta Braves lineup since 1995, will play this season under new management for the first time in his career.

How will this affect him? This is one of many questions that the aging superstar will have to answer in his 2011 campaign.

Whilst recovering from a career-threatening injury, the most prominent question on fan’s minds is whether or not he will be healthy enough to play, and play effectively.

The organization, and Chipper himself, seem confident that he will come back and be the starting third baseman for the club.

But will he stay healthy?

Jones has failed to play in over 140 games in every year but one since 2004. Prior to that, he appeared in 140+ games every season since his rookie year. Another serious injury could abruptly end the career of one of Atlanta’s sports legends.

2011 will be the first year that Jones will play for a manager other than Bobby Cox. These days, this is unheard of.

Fredi Gonzalez was a coach in the Braves system, and knows Chipper well, but the chemistry of 15 years under one manager is hard to follow. There may be some aspects of Gonzalez’s managing style that are new to Jones, and it may take some getting used to.

Assuming Jones stays healthy, what kind of production will he have? Following the 2008 season, in which he hit .364, his average dropped 100 points in 2009, and did not shift much in his abbreviated 2010 season.

While hitting .265 may be adequate, anything lower would cause an undesirable hole in the order, especially hitting third.

Losing playing time and sitting on the bench would be a dreadful way to end his career.

But Braves fans can be just as optimistic as Jones himself. Not to put too much weight into one stretch, but in the nine games prior to his injury, he accrued 12 hits in 30 at-bats, and looked like he was finally starting to heat up.

This made the season-ending injury all the more devastating.

Chipper believes that he will be healthy and productive, and the Braves have no reason to believe otherwise. He wants to prove to the organization and the fans that he still has some life left in his career.

This could very well be the last season Chipper Jones takes the field, and if it is, he and the Braves’ faithful would like to see him go out with a bang.

He is no longer the most potent offensive threat on the team, but he may be one of the most important. 

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

The addition of Dan Uggla was the biggest move for the Atlanta Braves this offseason. Uggla has shown great power during his time in the majors, as has hit 154 homers in five seasons, which comes out to an average of 30.8 homers per year. He has also racked up 465 RBIs during his career at an average of 93 a season.

The Braves may have picked Uggla up at the height of his career, as he had his best year to date in 2010, hitting career highs in average (.287), homers(33), and RBIs (105) among others, and will be just 31 when the season starts.

Uggla may be the key to the Braves’ season, as he is hoping to provide them the power they have so desperately needed, especially from the right side. Here are 10 reasons why Uggla could go from the Braves’ MVP to the National League’s MVP.

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When Chipper Jones tore his ACL (for the second time in his career) in 2010, many (including myself) thought he would hang up his spikes for good and go down as one of the best switch hitters of all time.

But Chipper wasn’t going to leave the game until he could do so on his own terms, even if it meant a grueling recovery and playing for a manger other than Bobby Cox for the first time in his career.

When 2011 kicks off, Braves fans can expect to see Chipper playing third base and probably hitting out of the three spot in the lineup the way he has for over a decade.

But what should we expect from Chipper in 2011?

Before we get to stats, Chipper’s health needs to be brought up. Even before he tore his ACL, Chipper was accustomed to spending time on the disabled list. He hasn’t played 150 games since 2003 and has played more than 140 just once since then.

Even if he can fully recover from his torn ACL and avoid any future setbacks, Chipper will be spending some time on the DL in 2011.

I’ll set the under/over on how many games Chipper plays in 2011 at 120. Over the past seven years, he has average 122 so I think it’s a fair starting point.

Fredi Gonzalez has to be aware of Chipper’s health problems, and even if he were to avoid the DL all season he likely wouldn’t reach 150 games. Nagging injuries that could force him to miss a day or two will likely develop and he will probably get plenty of off days to try and keep him healthy.

Health aside, what kind of production can we expect from Chipper?

Since winning the batting title in 2008, Chipper’s offensive game has declined a lot. Not only is he no longer capable of providing plus power, he has hit .265 and .264 in the past two seasons. Granted, some of that probably has to do with bad luck (his BABIP in both years is over 20 points below his career average), but Chipper likely won’t hit as high as his .306 career average.

All that said, he still kept his on base percentage above .380, so he will have some value to the team even if his average continues to fall.

Power is another issue. Chipper slugged a career low .426 in 2010. He hasn’t hit 30 homers since 2004 and likely won’t approach that number this year even if healthy. In 2010 (granted, it was in limited playing time) he hit only 10 long balls.

There is, however, hope that Chipper will regain some of his form and help provide the Braves with some offense in 2011. From June 11 until his season ended on Aug. 10 (a two month period), Chipper produced a .307/.387/.520 slash line with seven homeruns and 24 RBI.

Chipper was off to an incredibly slow start, but looked like his old self before getting hurt. If he can avoid a slow start again in 2011, he could be a very productive third baseman when healthy.

Bill James predicts that Chipper will produce a .288/.401/.481 slash line with 17 homeruns and 66 RBI in 119 games next season, and I think his assessment is pretty good.

With a line like that, he wouldn’t be the Chipper of old, but would give the Braves a good on-base presence before Brian McCann and Dan Uggla while provide some pop.

My Prediction for 2010: 120 games, .290/.410/.490, 20 homeruns and 75 RBI

Think that I’m being overly optimistic or not seeing a huge resurgence coming? Let me know what your prediction is in the comments.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

Though it was mostly Jason Heyward grabbing all the rookie headlines this season for Atlanta, Jonny Venters was the team’s true freshmen MVP. Often times, the players that fly under the radar and have the least amount of pressure put on them become the major contributes to their team.

For Atlanta, an organization with so much depth, some of the least known prospects often become the ones that most contribute to the big league club. Who are some candidates to be the Jonny Venters of 2011? Take a look inside, where likely at least one of these players will have a chance to state their case in the coming campaign.

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There are prospects, and then there are mega-prospects.

When each new baseball season rolls around, teams and fans evaluate the talent that each organization holds. Each organization has its gems, some of whom get compliments as the next Alex Rodriguez or Roger Clemens. 

In recent years, players like Stephen Strasburg, Bryce Harper, the Upton brothers, and Jason Heyward have been the league’s biggest attention-getters. Over the course of the last 30 or so years, there has been seemingly more and more attention given the apparent superstars of tomorrow.

Well hyped does not necessarily mean the future stars, just the players that were put under the microscope from a young age. Some players thrive in the spotlight and become superstars, while others wilt under the intense pressure and become busts.

But who are the most hyped prospects of the last three decades? And how does a mega-prospect from 20 years ago like Ben McDonald go up against a modern-day phenom like Stephen Strasburg? Take a look inside, where the most hyped prospects of recent memory are evaluated.

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