Jair Jurrjens to the DL

The Braves place Jair Jurrjens on the disabled list due to his strained right oblique. It appears it's a safe measure and they want Jurrjens to be 100% when he makes his next start. He will have to make a start in the minor leagues to get back on tract before his scheduled return on April 16.

Mike Minor will be starting in his place.

Let's hope that Jurrjens can remain injury free after this.

Opening Day Victory

A great start for the Braves as they opened their season by beating the Washington Nations 2-0. Shutting out the opposing team is also a nice little addition to the win as well. Beating Nationals Livan Hernandez is always a plus in my book too. I say this because Hernandez was the pitcher in game five of the 1997 National League Championship where he was given an alien like strike zone by umpire Eric Gregg. He went on to strike out 15 batters that game for a win. Yeah, if you don't remember this controversy, go find a clip of this and see for yourself. Strikes being called in the opposite batters box! Click on Hernadez for pitching stats and you can see that this was certainly not talents here that won the game. I can only give him credit for his continued use of the gift he received.

Here's a video I found that shows a few strikeouts of this game. About 1 minute 34 seconds in it shows one batter swinging, but what other choice did he have? Then the next batter (Fred McGriff?) watches a ball go by for a strike at least 6 inches off the plate.

- Derek Lowe struggled in the first inning a bit, but he got settled down and did well. He had over 100 pitches before he could finish the 6th inning. I think he got into a full count seven times. 5.2 IP, 3 H, 2 BB, 6 SO was his line.

- Braves bullpen was fantastic for 4.1 innings. Kimbrel got the save.

- Chipper Jones went 2-4 with a run. He hit key double where he later scored on a Brian McCann hit. Chipper's knee looks to be causing no problem.

- McCann was 2-4 with an RBI.

- Jason Heyward was 1-2 with a walk. He had a home run in his first at bat of the season. Last year, he hit one in his first at bat of the season and of his career on opening day as well.

* The Braves have an off day tomorrow (Friday) and will continue the series vs. the Nationals on Saturday. Tommy Hanson will be on the mound for his first start of the season.

Final Spring Game!

Finally, the last of spring training games have been completed. The Braves lost 0-2 vs the Twins.

-Not a whole lot worth mentioning for this game. Or rather it really doesn't matter.

- Brandon Beachy was phenomenal again. He pitched five scoreless innings, allowing five hits and striking out five. Carry this over to the season and we have a heck of a 5th starter.

- Braves are still prone to making errors. Prado made an error in left field. I'll give him a pass because he is still learning the position. Like usual, Brooks Conrad made an error. Only difference is that Conrad is not a starter (thankfully). Keep Conrad OFF the field as much as possible please. It's unbelievable how much this guy can't field.

Okay good, spring training is done. Here we go season, where games finally matter. The Braves schedule starts off pretty tough. They are away for their first six games, and then when they return home they get to play the lovely Phillies.

Derek Lowe will be opening day starter vs the Washington Nationals tomorrow at 1:00 pm. Only problem is, I have a good feeling the game is going to be a wash out with rain in the forecast. How about we get some nice lovely spring weather for a change. It's killing me!

Minnesota @ Atlanta

The Braves returned to Turner Field today after having a game rained out yesterday. Must of been a nice little break before the season opener which is less than two days away. I was able to catch the game through MLB.TV for free. Must be a little preview to get people to buy it. I do have a month of free MLB.TV that came with my PlayStation 3 game called MLB: The Show '11. It was a pre-order special offer. I'll enjoy that.

The Twins were the visiting team, and they lost 4-2 in the 10th after Mauro Gomez hit a walk off home run. Overall it was another boring spring training game.

- George Sherrill just continues to suck. He allowed a walk and a run one inning.

- Linebrink, Moylan, O'Flaherty, Venters, and Kimbrel all pitched very well. All of them combined pitched five innings, allowing four hits, one run (unearned), one walk, and striking out six. O'Flaherty and Venters both have not allowed any earned runs for the spring.

- The offense collected nine hits which isn't bad. Otherwise not a lot happened other than the walk of shot by Gomez.

* Tomorrow (Wednesday) Brandon Beachy will pitch in the final spring game. The Twins will be the visiting team again.

Starting Lineup Predictions

To make things a little bit easier on me, and more simple for the reader, I'm going to post the projected statistics of the Braves starting lineup in one article. I'm not going to have time to do full articles on each player individually. Like I did with the pitchers, I'm going to remain conservative with stats. There are a few guys who I think could potentially have much better seasons than I predict though. Jason Heyward was a rookie last year, obviously in his 2nd year of Bigs he could be even better.

I'm going to stick to a few basic stats. These are all based on a full season of play except for Chipper Jones. Here we go.

1. LF- Martin Prado

105 Runs, 33 Doubles, 2 Triples, 13 HR, 60 RBI, 7 SB, .310 BA, .350 OBP, .460 SLUG, .810 OPS

2. CF- Nate McLouth

93 Runs, 25 Doubles, 3 Triples, 17 HR, 68 RBI, 13 SB, .258 BA, .346 OBP, .445 SLUG, .791 OPS

3. 3B- Chipper Jones (130 Games) *Based on last couple seasons. Spring results not considered. Could have .300/.400/.500 line based on excellent spring.

80 Runs, 25 Doubles, 1 Triple, 20 HR, 80 RBI, 5 SB, .275 BA .385 OBP, .470 SLUG, .855 OPS

4. 2B- Dan Uggla

91 Runs, 34 Doubles, 0 Triples, 34 HR, 108 RBI, 4 SB, .263 BA, .365 OBP, .510 SLUG, .875 OPS

5. C-Brian McCann

65 Runs, 39 Doubles, 0 Triples, 23 HR, 85 RBI, 3 SB, .277 BA, .372 OBP, .490 SLUG, .862 OPS

6. RF- Jason Heyward *Where he bats in lineup could change numbers.

87 Runs, 37 Doubles, 5 Triples, 26 HR, 94 RBI, 15 SB, .289 BA, .402 OBP, .510 SLUG, .912 OPS

7. SS- Alex Gonzalez

67 Runs, 30 Doubles, 3 Triples, 16 HR, 68 RBI, 2 SB, .254 BA, .305 OBP, .410 SLUG, .715 OPS

8. 1B- Freddie Freeman *Rookie player-Basing numbers off 8th spot of batting order and minor leagues.

53 Runs, 25 Doubles, 1 Triple, 15 HR, 70 RBI, 6 SB, .283 BA, .358 OBP, .485 SLUG, .843 OPS