Damon was way, way better in 2009 than Anderson was in 2008. Anderson was a below league-average hitter in 2008, as he'd been in 2005 and 2006, so no one expected him to do much more than OPS .700. When he wound up at .701, it was hard to feel surprised.

The problem is that Damon literally had a career year as a 35 year old, and teams are smart enough to be nervous about paying him to repeat that.

Bill Shanks should know better than to allow himself to get drawn into Bruce Manno's quote. As Crash Davis would say......don't think, it can only hurt the ball club.

That said, the Braves don't need anymore offense and the numbers support my hypothesis. The following six players accounted for roughly one-third of the Braves offense in 2009: Kotchman, KJ, G.Anderson, Frenchy, LaRoche and Church.

They totaled up 46 HR's and 224 RBI. Glaus, Hinske and Cabrera can match those totals all by themselves as their resent careers numbers suggest a total of 50 HR's and 195 RBI. Not to mention that Nate McLouth will play for the full season in Atlanta, and the potential of Jason Heyward/ Jordan Schafer brings even more to the table.

Chipper's numbers should improve with Glaus hitting clean up while McCann will be anchored in the five hole. But the one guy who I think is going to explode is Escobar. The young Cuban SS has the potential to do the kind of damage only seen from Hanley Ramirez.

I said all that to say this: The pitching and offense is in place, all that is needed for the Braves to win is stay reasonably healthy and play defense. For someone like myself who has been so critical of Frank Wren I must admit, he has built a solid roster. I just wish that the rest of the fans knew this.

Whoa! Here's my shocked face. I can't believe that I just read those words from something that Coach wrote. I'm obviously referencing the second to last sentence. Holy Geez man.

Who are you and what did you do with the real Coach??

so, is damon>heyward?, because that is what it will boil down to unless melky cabrera is traded. johnny damon, if signed, will be on the roster in place of jason heyward, and while that might be better for the future, it will not make us a better team out the shoot in 2010.

now, if johnny damon were signed and melky cabrera were traded, it would most definitely make us much stronger.

Will Damon necessarily be better than Heyward in April and May? Hard to say. But I think there's a very good possibility. Heyward is by no means guaranteed to start his career with an OPS+ over 100, especially with almost no reps in AAA.

with diaz playing a well below average right field and damon playing a below average left field, the defense would be the most obvious downgrade. offense might be a push.