Nate McLouth

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.

Does anyone else remember the hype machine surrounding Jordan Schafer from about, say, 2007 up until 50 games into the 2009 season?

The sky was the limit for this kid.

He was (and still is) a superb glove in center and has the potential from a speed/contact standpoint to turn into something resembling an above-average Major League talent.

Pretty amazing what a 50-game suspension and a broken wrist can do to a career isn't it?

That was rough, wasn't it?

Count the layers of the L-sandwich: W-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-L-W.

After a stretch of futility of nonagonal proportions (bad geometry joke), the Atlanta Braves scratched out a win (and their first save in 20 games) Friday night in Atlanta as Billy Wagner induced a double-play to Houston clean-up hitter Carlos Lee.

Timely offense, superb pitching, and mostly clean fielding (we'll forgive J-Hey's boot in right field) netted the 'Bravos' what had so eluded them for over a week.