Saltalamacchia and Escobar continue to impress

The first game of the Braves double-header against the Florida Marlins just went into a rain delay with Atlanta leading 3-1, thanks to a Jarrod Saltalamacchia two-run homerun in the bottom of the seventh inning. Yet another reason why I want the Braves to keep Salty instead of trading him for pitching help. Sure we need the help, but guys like Salty don't come along everyday and with the saddening and almost definite departure of Andruw Jones after this season we are going to need someone to help fill the hole left by him, power wise. And no one is better suited to do that than Salty.

But then that brings up the next question, where does he play? He is a catcher by trade, that's where all his "value" is, but he has experience playing first base and seeing as how Scott Thorman is doing everything in his power to suck, and he's doing a might fine job at it, I must admit, it wouldn't be that big of a deal to put Thor on the bench. There was talk about switching Brian McCann to first base and play Salty at catcher, but there is no way in hell that is going to happen, McCann is our catcher and nothing is going to change that, he's the best offensive catcher in the National league, maybe in all of baseball and he just signed a fat new contract a month or so ago.

Here is Salty's numbers as of right now, note these don't include his performance today in which he went 2-3 with a game-winning two run homer.

Another player that was recently brought up is Yunel Escobar and he, much like Salty, has been playing extremely well and opened a lot of eyes. Escobar has only played in four games but he's hitting .438 and just hit his first career homerun last night against the Marlins and just to cap off that night, he went 4-4. Escobar has been playing third base while Chipper is on the shelf and it isn't known what his role will be when Chipper does come back, i'd anticipate he'll return in two to three weeks. Escobar could stay on the roster as a super-utility guy much like Wilson Betemit was before he was traded another possibility is let him keep raising his trade value and then try and find a bidder, such as the Cubs or the Giants who could really use a middle infielder. But it's hard to say what we should do, Chipper is still injured, and he has a history of getting injured and no one wants to see Prado, Woodward(eww) and Orr playing on a regular basis. But that's why i'm not paid to make those decisions, that's John Schuerholz's job.

Here's Escobar's stats as of right now, once again they don't include today's stats where he got one hit.

Side Note wife, Ashley, is a total : Both Saltalamacchia and Escobar have very hot wives, i've posted before that Salty'smilf and last night I learned Escobar's is too, both men are doing quite well for themselves and uh...they play baseball really well too. I'm still trying to find pics of both women.