Albert Hall is No Longer a Trivia Question

Q: Who is the last Brave to hit for the cycle?


9/23/87? Nope. Sorry Albert.

8/14/08 Mark Kotsay.

His double to complete the cycle was also his 1500th hit of his career. Lord knows we needed something exciting to happen after going 0-for-the-Cubs this year. Congrats Mark!

Now, sadly, this is probably the last time I can sneak this reference into a baseball card post.

I Love This Kid

First of all, Kotsay is a Brave, pending physical. Good move as long as he is healthy. Braves get solid D out in center and a #2 hitter in the lineup. It stinks that we had to give up Joey Devine, but the Braves really screwed up his development by rushing him the way they did. He's one more casualty of the "let's go cheap on the closer" strategy of the past few years that completely blew up in Schuerholz' face. He'll have a good chance at success in Oakland either mentoring under Huston Street, or taking over for him if Street is included in the fire sale. The A's are picking up most of the salary too since they got the high-level prospect they wanted. Now if the Braves use that money they saved to good use... say, long term deals for a certain First Baseman and Right Fielder, then this could be very nice indeed.

But forget all that, the trade is not the focus of this post. in David O'Brien's blog post that goes over the Kotsay deal, he added this little gem of an incident that occurred today at the Braves Fan Fest:

Before I forget, you guys would’ve fallen on the floor if you could have been there for this moment today. (I’m sure you’ll hear about it as the story makes the rounds). This little kid said in the microphone, over the P.A. system during a Chipper Q&A today: “The Mets suck (expletive)”

Four words. Jaws on the floor, including Chipper’s.

I friggin' LOVE that kid. Oh dear Lord, I hope someone there had a camera phone. I so want to see that on YouTube.

Kotsay a Brave?

Via MLB Trade Rumors, Braves beat writer David O'Brien is reporting that the Braves are close to trading for A's outfielder Mark Kotsay to fill the center field position left open by Andruw Jones. Apparently Kotsay actually called David to confirm the deal was close. As long as Kotsay is healthy and the Braves don't give up too much, I'm happy with this. He's a good defensive player and can hit at least as well as Andruw did last year. O'Brien also thinks he could also be a replacement for Renteria at the #2 spot in the lineup. I've liked Kotsay as a player for a while and even if it turns into another Raul Mondesi or Craig Wilson debacle it's not like we don't have 4 other guys in the minors who could step in to play center. The contract isn't a problem either since he's a free agent next year. Of course the whole thing could fall apart like so many Johan Santana rumors so we'll see.