Atlanta Braves 2009 write up

Rotation: The Atlanta rotation will not be great, but will be good. Braves have many potential candidates to plug into the rotation, and consistency will be seen throughout the 5 man rotation/no dropoff after #3 starter. Jair Jurrjens was 3rd in ROY voting, and had an overall good season, but he will need to do a little more to establish himself as the ace of this rotation. The offseason moves to get Lowe and Vaszquez were good moves. Lowe is a solid veteran who, throughout his career has consistenly kept his ERA below 4 and has won 15+ games. Although 35, I don't see him to lose much of his stuff this season; he has had a great last few seasons with LA and Boston, and a move to a pitcher-friendly ballpark will help. Vaszquez is a strikeout machine; he had over 200 K's last season. Expect him to have as many this season, moving to a more pitcher friendly National League. If he can keep his ERA down, he will be a solid top 2 starter on this rotation. Kawakami and Campillo/Glavine will likely fill out the rotation. Not much is known about Kawakami, but he supposedly was dominant in the Japanese Leagues. We all know that the MLB is a whole new game, and he won't necessarily have as good numbers as he did in Asia. However, I do expect him to provide decent stats and win 10+ games, as well as below a 4.2-3 ERA for this team. Campillo was great for Atlanta in the first half of the season, but as he become more known, and hitters picked up on hi... [More]