College Football and Braves Meltdown

Braves outlook:

Looking back now at the awful September the Braves had, moving forward there are going to be several big decisions to be made by Frank Wren. Sure, the JJ/Hanson injuries set the team back a bit, but St Louis didn't have Wainwright all year. This offense needs some stability with another bat as it appeared to be too easy for Fredi to juggle the lineup from day to day.

Wren has said that Heyward and Lowe are not guaranteed their jobs, but neither should Prado. I want no part of Jose Reyes, but if the money is there, I would be interested in Prince Fielder (Freeman to RF?). The guy I would look to deal is Beachy...Go with Huddy/Hanson/JJ/Minor/Teheran to start, knowing Delgado/Medlen will have to make plenty of starts with injury concerns for JJ/Hanson and inning limits for Minor/Teheran.

I think Heyward needs to go back to RF to start next season. He is too promising of a talent to demote him to a 4th outfielder at age 22 and I believe he will improve. The guy I would move, as you may have figured out above, is Beachy. He should have good value on the trade market and Wren would be dealing from the team's strength. Maybe a corner outfielder that is an OPS guy? I'd call our trading pals in KC and see what it would take to get Alex Gordon.

College football notes:

What is the deal with Texas A&M? Another week, another 17+ point lead at halftime vanishes. The Aggies were a pre-season top 10 pick by most, now they may struggle to get to 8 wins.

Apparently Bob Griffin is human...The Heisman front-runner threw a late pick that led to a Baylor loss, hurting his Heisman hopes, but adding 5 TD passes to his season stats.

South Carolina's SEC East hopes took a big hit with their slip up at home against Auburn yesterday. After hosting Kentucky next week, the Cocks have 3 straight road tests that will determine their fate this season (MSU, UT, Ark). They need to win at least 2 to stay in the race.

What about Clemson? The high-powered offense was held to 23 on the road, but the D stepped up and got the Tigers to 5-0. Now, 3 weeks against the horrid likes of BC, MD, and UNC before the next test, in Atlanta vs GT.

Speaking of the Jackets, they should be unbeaten as well for the 10/29 game against Clemson as they have MD (crushed by Temple at home), UVA (squeaked by Idaho in OT yesterday), and the U (it's all about them) before the showdown in Atlanta.

The RSM pre-season top 3 teams have all passed their initial tests with flying colors as Oklahoma took out FSU on the road, Bama crushed Florida again, and Wisconsin beat down Nebraska in Madison...Look out for 11/5 in Tuscaloosa when LSU comes in town.

Top 25 for 10/2

1. Alabama
2. LSU
3. Wisconsin
4. Oklahoma
5. Boise St
6. Oklahoma St
7. Stanford
8. Clemson
9. Oregon
10. Michigan
11. Texas
12. Arkansas
13. Illinois
14. Florida
15. Auburn
16. Florida St
17. Nebraska
18. Texas A&M
19. Kansas St
20. Georgia Tech
21. South Carolina
22. Virginia Tech
23. Arizona St
24. Texas Tech
25. Michigan St