A quick video of Derek Jeter saying some kind words about Chipper Jones.

Derek Jeter on Braves’ Chipper Jones.

Braves place Simmons on 15-day disabled list

4:07 pm July 9, 2012, by Chris Vivlamore

The Braves placed Andrelton Simmons on the 15-day disabled list Monday, a day after the shortstop injured his right hand on a head-first slide.

An examination by team Associate Physician Dr. Gary Lourie Monday confirmed Simmons has a non-displaced fracture of the fifth metacarpal (pinky finger). He will be in a cast for four weeks and re-evaluated after it is removed. No further timetable for Simmons’ return was announced.

Read the rest: http://blogs.ajc.com/atlanta-braves-blog/2012/07/09/braves-place-simmons-on-15-day-disabled-list/?cxntfid=blogs_atlanta_braves_blog

The Onion Sports Network’s hard-hitting series, Get Out of My Face (GOOMF), returns today, and features Jason Heyward as one of it’s lead stories. Skip to the 1:49 mark if you don’t care about the other parts.

Source: http://onion.com/NP2ZnN

I just added two polls in relation to Mike Minor:

In honor of the Braves’ new starting first baseman, I nominate the following as this season’s official unofficial theme song

The Braves have released Melky Cabrera.

More details here

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Nationals (61-84)	0	3	0	1	0	0	1	0	1	6	11	0
Braves (83-63)	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	5	1

Boxscore

I hope Cox doesn’t respond to this by going back to Melky as the everyday left fielder. We really won’t know for sure until Friday. Since today is an afternoon game, and tomorrow is an off day, you can expect to see a lot of players given a day off.

Clubhouse Comments

The Braves traded 3 minor league pitchers for Derek Lee today. Troy Glaus will be put on the DL to make room for Lee. He will starting working out at 3rd base with Gwinnett after a week off and is expected to back with the club after the rosters expand on September 1st.

I’ll be retweeting a lot of articles real soon that will contain more details.

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Dodgers (59-57)	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	4	0
Braves (67-48)	0	0	0	0	0	0	1	0	X	1	5	0

Boxscore

Tim Hudson was dominating and is making his case for this years Cy Young award.

Clubhouse Comments

First of all, the elephant in the room is whether or not Chipper will retire. Honestly, I don’t know. I was going against what seemed to the be the majority when I said the he wouldn’t retire at the end of this season if it ended on a high note. Given statements he’s made about retirement beginning last season, I would say that retirement is now a certainty, except for something he said Wednesday. David O’Brien asked him if he’d consider a long rehab to play again if he needed season ending surgery, and he replied “I’d have to consider it.” So, I honestly don’t know if we’ve seen him play his last game or not.

Options

First, lets get out of the way what options aren’t even worth talking about, because all indications are that they won’t happen (and in my opinion, they shouldn’t happen):

Moving Troy Glaus to 3rd base

Regardless of how much time he’s played at 3rd base in his career, his knees are currently in no condition to play the hot corner.

Bring up Freddie Freeman to play 3rd base

Freeman is solid at first base, but professionally has almost no experience at third base. He played 5 games there 3 years ago in rookie ball. The sample size is small, but the numbers were atrocious. With moving Glaus to 3rd base being out of the question as well, its unlikely that Freddie Freeman’s timetable is going to be altered. The most likely way we’ll see him in the majors this year is if he is called up in September to help fill out the bench and provide some occasional rest for Glaus.

That brings us to the realistic options. We’ll start with my current favorite first:

Stay with what we’ve got

We’ve got at least 4 guys that can play 3rd base. Hinske, Infante, Conrad, and Prado. I like all these guys, so I wouldn’t be upset to see any of them playing at third, but I think the best everyday option is Prado. He is going to play everyday no matter what, and he is probably the best defensive option among the bunch. This leaves a spot open at 2nd base. As far as I’m aware, Hinske can’t play 2nd, so that leave Conrad and Infante to take over there. There has been a lot of discussion lately about how you keep Infante in the lineup after Prado returns. I don’t think this was really how we wanted to address that question, but it does address it. Conrad can continue to be a valuable asset off the bench, and Hinske is free to be utilized in left field and at first base. So, while you can pick your favorite combination, mine is going to be Prado at third, Infante at second. For the batting order, you keep Prado at the top, put Infante batting second, and move Heyward to the third spot. The rest of the lineup fills out the same as it has all year.

Bring on someone new

A few names have been mentioned, but the name that seems to the most attractive, and most likely to clear waivers, is %Bn%. Figgins has good points and bad. His overall numbers for the year have been below par, but he’s been playing well lately. He’s a true lead off hitter that has both speed and a high OBP. He’s also from Georgia, and playing for the “home team” can sometimes provide extra drive for a player. His salary is pretty steep, but indications are that Seattle would be willing to eat a large portion of it and/or take Kawakami in return. The latter would significantly offset Figgins’ salary. Another positive about Figgins is that he can play third, second, and center field.

What does it all mean?

So, what does it mean to a team in a hot pennant race to lose someone so valuable? Well, its not good news, thats for sure, but it also doesn’t mean the season is over. The Braves earned their current spot in first place back when Chipper wasn’t playing too well. While his recent production has been important, we’ve shown that we can succeed without it. Chipper is also a valuable member to the team off the field, and this won’t change. The impact he has just being in the clubhouse shouldn’t be underestimated. I think this makes things more difficult without question, but there is no reason to believe that its something that can keep us from winning the pennant, not to mention the world series.

WIN ONE FOR THE CHIPPER!

Whether he’s played his last game for Atlanta or not, his season is over. He went down giving everything he had to try and get the Braves another championship. More than ever, its time to go out there and show our appreciation for all he has done for this franchise, now and in the past. It’s been 15 years since we won the world series, its time to win one again, and this time, lets Win One For The Chipper!

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I few of my fellow bloggers and tweeters have put a lot of analysis into much of what I’ve mentioned above. I’d strongly suggest checking them out for some deeper analysis on some of the topics above, as well as some other options I might not have mentioned above.  While there are many out there, and you can find them by looking at who I follow on twitter, as well as my retweets, I’d like to point out two in particular: @FriedBasballATL and @Ben_Duronio.