The Ted Turner Memoirs Part 2: Ascension and Ice Cold Brewskis

[lilbiggio]

Hey guys... Glad to be back, took a little break from MLB the Show to watch the Texas Rangers do what they do in the World Series... I've been itching to get back to the game and now is a good as time as any to break open a new pack of storylines with the 2011 edition of the Ted Turner Memoirs: Ascension and Ice Cold Brewskis.


For those that haven't been keeping up, this is the time in which I now update you on the glorious Rags to Riches and back to rags story of Millionaire Ted Turner. The Synopsis is as follows heading into 2011:


Our Story So Far (Updated 11/4/2010)

Ted Turner and the Braves for over 20 years enjoyed a lucrative and great relationship. However somewhere along the way, Mr. Turner was strong armed, cheated and kicked to the curb by fatcats in pinstriped suits and power ties. Not even allowed into the stadium that bore his surname.

As Turner laid his head in self pity and near suicide he gave one last attempt at taking back what was rightfully his. Planning to exact revenge on those that wronged him Turner sought to Buy back the Atlanta Braves in 2010 for $500 Million dollars.

Along the way with clever plot devices and utter luck, the Prince of Atlanta's $500 million dollar request was intercepted and repackaged by a former employee of Turner's, Mr. Holman Keezel.

Together Keezel and Turner executed the Unholy Alliance buying the Atlanta Braves back from Liberty Media in May of 2010. Due to circumstances Ted Turner could not outright own the Braves but he would serve as psuedo General Managers. This could not and has not been revealed to anyone as of today.

As the Braves became more competitve in the summer months pressure from Turner led to Keezel releasing Sitting GM Frank Wren from his contract to make room for Ted. This unexpected move left Wren in a state of bitter anger.

Our story took an even futher dive into the dark side as, Holman Keezel months removed from gaining the rights of the Braves had his life nearly taken from him at gunpoint by a mysterious assailant. All the man asked was that the Braves throw the 2010 World Series vs. the Cleveland Indians..


As we all know though... things didnt' work out quite as planned. Atlanta is the reigning World Champions of Baseball

And that's where we will begin part 2...


To Catch up on the details, go to the following link
Ted Turner Memoirs: Vegeance and Apple Pie - 2010

[lilbiggio]

Atlanta Braves 2010 Season Recap

You just read about the behind the scenes stuff... now for the actual Atlanta Braves baseball team. Here's All the top highlights from last year that you may have read about in the previous installment provided for you in a lil' compilation... lemonade sold seperately.

[lilbiggio]

2011 Season Preview

Oh man, we have just touched upon uncharted waters friends. Year 2 in a baseball dynasty? Say it ain't so. Say it ain't so... heh, I'd been looking forward to diving into all the fun of the Winter Meetings throughout the ongoing, and at times slowly processing World Series.


However here we are in the land of Milk and Honey and things in the offseason don't sit right with me.




Cliff Lee was a free agent, and as expected there was a mad rush to grab him. I threw my name in the hat because we need a left handed arm pretty bad. Although Lee wasn't in our long term plans, I must say I was happy and dissapointed to see him sign with the Yankees regardless of the fact that the Yankees lowballed the hell out of Virtual Cliff Lee.

4 teams offered up more money, and more years. But Lee still went to New York. Oh well, can't deny the inevitable I guess....


But what really seemed to bother me was that NOBODY IS IMPROVING THEMSELVES?!

Oh Sure, this is no OOTP baseball. We shouldn't expect cutthroat, ruthless deals throughout the winter months.. but c'mon son? Everyteam looked content to sign their guy back to their team, and nobody looked to make several splashes to get themselves in position to unthrone us.

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Florida didn't get better Washington didn't get better, although I'll give them credit for signing Alex Gonzales as their #9 hitter. New York and Philly The teams I most expected to sign up a star, or even a better talent to help them over power us.. did jack shiznit in Free Agency. I can't say that they got better...

I guess friends the ultimate question is, are they good enough to be good as is? Sprinkle some salt on the 2010 version of said team, and add a year and wahlah... Championship Souflee? Mayyybbee....


But then when you look at the fact that our offseason featured signing 32 year old Chone Figgins to replace Chipper. We pretty much broke even, and some other moves have improved this team from the 2010 version.


We will have to wait and see if this means INSTANT CHAMPIONSHIP. Or if the CPU logic knew something I didn't...

Biggest move outside of the ones I made, and Lee to NY might have been Freddy Sanchez moving down the California coast to the NL West Winners, the LA Dodgers. Ken Griffey to Philly.. or New York.. meh, I can't even remember to be honest because it was so ridiculous.

[lilbiggio]

In Chone We Trust

Figgins and Washburn looks to help Atlanta Return to World Series


Retirees
The offseason saw the retirement of 5 Atlanta Braves. Geez kinda sucks to already be losing "name" players but this is a young team and it won't be hard to bounce back with a good offseason plan.

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1. Chipper Jones (Got da' Ring) 2. John Smoltz (Got da' ring) 3. Takashi Saito (AGE & got da' ring) 4. Cole Rohnbough (INJ) 5. Billy Wagner (Got da' Ring)

Also on that list we see that Andy Pettitte and Jorge Posada call it a quits. Freakin' Ichiro is done too... what the hell. Now that is one I didn't see coming. Pettitte leaving kinda explains why NYY went after Lee so bad now.


Signings

With the loss of Chipper Jones, we went into this offseason with one plan, and that was secure a good 3B to get the job done so that Yuniel Escobar would not see the light of day. When I noticed Chone Figgins available from Seattle, I went after him.

Figgins with his speed and switch hitting abilities will add an element to our lineup, there's no replacing Jones, but Figgins is a real good, um...really good second option. The power is definately gone in that spot of the order though.

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1. Chone Figgins - inked a 3 year/ $5.78 Million dollar deal. 2. Jarrod Washburn ( We needed a left handed arm in the rotation he'll be working to meet that need) 3. Carl Pavano ( brought in to try out as replacement Closer. We'll use Spring Training to work him into that role).

We let everyone else go to free agency, that's right Lee... Crawford, McClouth... signed them back to the highest offer they'd want just to add difficulty with the budget. Unfortunately nobody bidded against us, so the price wasn't raised on any of these guys.

Fail.

McClouth brought home a 59 million dollar deal for 6 years so he'll be with us for the long ride. Lee signed for 2 more years in an extension. We skipped arbitration and signed Kris Medlen longterm for 7 years at 13 million (that will be a bargain in no time), and Carl Crawford is back in Atlanta for 5 years at 28 million but he will probably not see all of that money.

It is now time for Spring Training, I'm actualy digging the warm looking weather, the busch league uniforms, the palm trees in the background of the stadiums, and the new season vibe.

I'm actually looking forward to playing Spring Training games after the 2 week layoff between playing the games.. feels like an offseason really did go down lol.


I'll play a couple games, there's really no signficance to Spring Training other than a test run of the new team... but nothing wrong with more baseball right friends? We got a couple of position battles in the making... Figgins got to know his role right jabroni? And Kris Medlen has to show that he was worth the long term committment.


The 2011 season is officially under way!

[lilbiggio]

First day at the show... first day in the Cactus League.

Three months ago I was at the huose with my wella, helping around the yard. Doing small things here and there to help out. It's funny they don't even know just how big of an opportunity this is.

To them, my family. I'm going away to test my hand at this world. I'm leaving our world and exploring the horizon. Call me Christopher Columbus I guess. I don't think the world is flat...

I don't think a lot of things really.


I just play baseball.


But I wonder... why?

Why did they pick me... someone up there knew I had the skills to do this job. I know I have the skills to do this job. Yet, why?


Why, am I now sitting on the bench?

Why am I sitting on the bench, on what was supposed to be MY first day in the show? Who is this Chone Figgins... why did he come out of nowhere and seemingly take my moment.


I came to play... not to sit.

- Julio Gomez (Third Baseman)

[lilbiggio]

As well as Julio Gomez and Chone Figgins, we have a couple of other position battles to figure out during Spring Training. Out of the 35 ST games, I have figured out a schedule of 8 starts spread across the next 2 months that will allow us to make an accurate judgement on who is going to be in the starting lineup on Opening day.


Position Battles

Third Base

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Chone Figgins vs. Julio Gomez The experienced Figgins looks to hold his spot as the Braves starting third baseman. Gomez has tremendous upside and could theoretically give Figgins a run if he has a productive spring training. I have currently put these two men on seperate squads so that they can get adequate playing time.

Shortstop

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Omar Infante vs. Yuniel Escobar These are too very good players. In fact either of the two could challenge Martin Prado for the starting spot at 2B, but since we're talking SS we'll have to see who makes the most defensive plays showing the best range, and provides the best clutch hits... it's a dogfight for this one.

5th pitcher's spot in the rotation.

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Tommy Hanson vs. Jair Jurrjens Both of these guys had a lock in our rotation last summer. But then poor play forced both of them out and into the bullpen to work as long relievers. With a new spring, the fifth spot in the rotation is open again and whoever pitches the best this spring will get the spot. Hanson is a better strike out pitcher, but Jurrjens has a lot more pitches available to him in his repitoire so this one should go down till the final week of Spring Training.

For those taking score the rotation is this as of now:

1. Derek Lowe (R)
2. Kris Medlen (R)
3. Jarrod Washburn (L)
4. Kenshin Kawakami (R)
5. Hanson/Jurrjens

Closer

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Carl Pavano vs. Peter Moylan vs. Mariano Gomez And finally, what should be the hardest spot to pick, judge and trust.. the coveted closer's role in our pitching rotation. Losing Wagner is going to hurt this team a lot. He was so automatic, and now we've got to find a replacement and fast. Pavano was brought in but I'm already seeing that it's taking him far too long to get loose in the bullpen. Moylan was here last year and the job is his to lose, as he worked well as our 2010 setup man. However in a spring training game vs. Detroit he gave up 3 hits and 2 runs in the 9th and blew the save, so he's already in the dog house. Mariano Gomez came out of nowhere, I'm not even sure how he wound up on our team, as I don't remember him from AAA or AA... but whatever bro.. this guy has some filthy stuff from the left side of the mound... he stepped up his game and made himself noticed and look, he's in the convo.

That's what's fun about Spring Training. Stories like Mariano Gomez... nowhere to be found all of 2010, but in ST... you get your chance to shine against MLB talent. We'll see where this goes throughout the next 8 games.

Next spring training TV game: February 27, 2011:

Atlanta (A Squad) vs. Pittsburgh Pirates (A squad)

[lilbiggio]

Rough game for us as we lost this one in the eight inning as Lasting Milledge took our bullpen yard breaking a 0-0 tie and leaving us with relatively no time to come back.

It was a good day at the ballpark for Troy Glaus as he hit safely twice and looks to be swinging a good bat. On the otherhand, our backup catcher Alvin Colvin looks confused at the plate, he struck out 3 times, and grounded weakly the fourth time. Can't wait to get McCann and the regulars back in the lineup so teams like the Pirates can get the losses they deserve..

hopefully that is to say.


Next game is vs. Cliff Lee and the Yankees. We're the host team so we'll break out the red shirts for this special matchup. Julio Gomez will get the start this time around instead of Chone Figgins as we continue seeing who'll have the better spring. Figgins went 1-4 in this game vs. the Pirates. But was 2-4 with a stolen base in the Spring opener vs. Detroit.

[lilbiggio]

Yankees Pitching Comes up Strong in Three Hit Shutout

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Forget robbing a homerun, now we're straight taking foul balls as Randy Winn demoralizes us further by reaching into the stands to rob us of a pop foul. .

This was a rough game, Cliff Lee took a no-hitter into the fourth inning, and then the Yankees brought in three straight relievers who all did the same thing until the 7th when we finally got our first hit.

On the lfipside of things we were pounded with basehit after basehit. Mike Rivera the Yankees new catcher to replace Jorge Posada had a field day today driving in 4 runs and collecting 3 hits. Medlen struggled throughout this afternoon, but did strike out Alex Rodriguez twice. ARod is having a pretty bad spring training so far so I'm not sure how to evaulate that.


We have another start against New York later this week. C.C. will be our opponent so it won't be any easier but we'll atleast have a chance for quick redemption.