Salty Snacks on Dodger Cheese

Brave-O-Matic may have learned a valuable lesson today -- don't turn off the television when Saltalamacchia is in the game. Salty took over for McCann in the fourth inning today, and looked horrible in his first AB -- overswinging at pitches in the dirt, just as you would expect from a young kid in his first spring training game. Since the Bravos were down 7-2, I thought I'd seen enough.

Then come to find out he swatted a walk-off 3-run HR to complete an 8-7 comeback. Way to go, Saltman! One caveat -- he hit the homer off someone named Broxton, who may or may not be a major league caliber pitcher. But what the hey, it's his moment and I hope he enjoys it. Here's to more of the same.

Also homering for the Braves were Matt Diaz (who looks brutal in the outfield, by the way), and Jonathan Schuerholz, making daddy proud. Thomson started and struggled through two innings, and Obermueller got hit around a bit as well before I stopped watching.

One thing bugged me, though. Gary Thorne is a professional broadcaster for ESPN, and yet he mispronounced several names. Saltalamacchia I understand (he left out the "la", which is likely to become a common error), but Mike Remlinger has been around forever, and Thorne should know that the "g" is pronounced like a "j". And who in the world doesn't know that Diaz is "Dee-ahz", not "Die-az"? This is a pet peeve of mine -- the guy gets paid to pronounce names correctly.

And finally, apologies for my previous post. Tales of sexual peccadillos belong on our sister blog, "Brave-O-Matic After Dark". Please go there for future updates.