Eric Hinske

The Atlanta Braves acquired veteran right hander Scott Linebrink today from the Chicago White Sox in exchange for pitching prospect Kyle Cofield.

The move solidified the Braves' need to add a veteran presence in the bullpen. He will help out with the impressive, young core of arms the Braves already possess.

     The Atlanta Braves were one out away from completing another storybook come from behind victory when things fell apart in the top of the ninth. Earlier, in the bottom of the eighth, Alex Gonzalez singled and Eric Hinske hit a pinch hit home run off of Sergio Romo to the Braves up by a score of 2-1. Hinke's homer was just the fourth Brave hit of the night but it came at such an opportune time.

Atlanta Braves outfielder Eric Hinske is a career .254 hitter who never batted .280, never slugged 25 home runs, never scored 100 runs, and never drove in 85 runs.

Making matters worse, all of his career highs in those categories came in his rookie season, possibly showing he peaked too early.

Stats aside, he couldn’t be more valuable to teams hoping to contend.

When the Atlanta Braves signed Troy Glaus this past offseason, they hoped for an offensive spark that has been lacking at first base in recent years; they got much more than they bargained for. 

Glaus has been stellar this year, and last night was no exception.  Glaus hit a home run off Robinson Tejada on an 0-2 count to give the Braves a 5-4 victory over the tough-luck Royals Saturday night.

When Frank Wren replaced John Schuerholz as General Manager a couple of years ago, Braves’ fans were undoubtedly skeptical that he could come in and make such a difference. I think now that even the skeptics can be silenced by the performance of Frank Wren in building a ballclub that can be defined by words like "deep," "versatile," and "talented."

Tonight showed just how those words ring true about the 2010 Atlanta Braves.

It's June 1st and I have an alarming stat for Braves fans—this year's primary starting pitchers (Hanson, Hudson, Kawakami, Lowe and Medlen) are having a more successful year at the plate than the starting centerfielder, Nate McLouth. Through 51 games (nearly a third of the year!) the pitchers are hitting .184 and McClouth is hitting .179 with no signs of coming out of his slump.

I’m sure most of you have been in the following situation: You make a decision, it turns out bad, and when you look back at it you realize that you overlooked a major factor which likely led to your bad decision.

Well that’s how I feel about the Atlanta Braves left-field situation right now.

After an offseason of speculating players, platoons, and positions, I realize that I overlooked an obvious solution from the beginning: Eric Hinske.

Talk about a turnaround.

Just six games ago, the Braves were shut-out by the No. 2 man on the all-time homers allowed list.

Now, they find themselves dumping a high-powered Brewers attack out of a dust pan and into the trash after outscoring the Brew Crew by an unbelievable (keep in mind we're talking about the team ranked next-to-last in runs in the NL coming into this series) 21-run margin over three games. 

The Atlanta Braves are 10 games into the season, and they sit at 6-4 after winning their first game against the Rockies.

Here are some thoughts from the first week and a half of the year.

Martin Prado Keeps Hitting

Prado has been a hit machine thus far. At the beginning of the season, you could count me among those skeptical that Prado was as good as he showed us in 2009.