2010 Atlanta Braves Opening Day

April 11, 2010

The Atlanta Braves start the 2010 season with high hopes and with six games on the road as they open tomorrow afternoon with a 4:10 pm game in Philadelphia.

Derek Lowe (14-8, 3.25 ERA last year) will start on the mound for the Braves and will probably be facing the Phillies' veteran hurler Brett Myers (14-9, 4.22 ERA). Braves' fans are expecting Lowe's sinkerball to keep the Phillies sluggers beating the ball into the ground, while Phillie Phans are looking for Myers' curveball to keep the Braves' offense off balance.

Several new faces are will be seen on the Braves' roster this year, including GABA's premier closer Joe Nathan (3-3, 37 saves, 1.12 ERA). Nathan is the headliner in a largely re-vamped bullpen which sees Josh Kinney and Scot Linebrink join returnees Brian Moehler, Boone Logan, and Danny Hererra. None of the pen spent the full year in 2009 with Atlanta. Manager Bobby Cox, who carried 12 pitchers on last year's roster, has elected to begin this season with 11. This writer would not be surprised to see Chris Perez and perhaps others brought up from AAA before mid season.

Rookie Tommy Hanson gets the nod as the #5 starter in a rotation with Lowe, Javier Vazquez (8-15, 4.53), Jair Jurrjens (13-13, 4.56) and Tim Hudson (5-0, 3.42). Hanson has come with a lot of hype, including a couple of national articles projecting him as 2010 Rookie of the Year.

The expected opening lineup for Atlanta looks like this:

1. Nate McLouth, lf (18 HR, .318 BA) He hopes to build on a breakthrough season in '09

2. Jordan Schafer cf (14 HR, .300 BA) 2009 Rookie of the Year moves up in lineup

3. Chipper Jones 3b (27 HR, .330 BA) 37 year old stayed healthy last year & put up the numbers

4. Brain McCann c (17 HR, .308) Looking to crash a few more dingers

5. Jeff Francouer rf (12 HR, .283) Injury limited him to 109 games; still made strides in reviving his career

6. Mark DeRosa 2b (13 HR, .274) returns to Atlanta to fill second base role

7. Yunel Escobar ss (13 HR, .294) will hit higher in line-up against left handers

8. Freddie Freeman (29 HR, .283 in minors) The rookie first baseman struggled in the spring; but Cox says he was hitting with greater authority at the close of spring training.

Observers expect the Braves to continue to be among the leaders in runs scored and expect to see improvement in both their rotation and pen in keeping their opponents away from home plate. But, the Braves acknowledge that it will take a prime effort to overtake the Mets, who most prognosticators say will repeat as NL East Champs.

Cox said, "The Mets are the class of our division, no question about it. But, this is a club that could take the division. We're definitely going to give a real run for the money."