Sunday thoughts

Alright, so the Braves are done with their season-defining stretch, let's review.

Overall, they finished 8-8, finishing with a three-game sweep of the division-leading Phillies. However, let's look at this weekend's series against the Nationals. You just swept the team that leads your division, you stand two games out. Now you have a three-game set against the worst team in baseball. And you lose two out of three. Jeez.

Now, the Bravos stand four back with seven to go before the All-Star break (three at the Cubs, four at the Rockies).

So, after these 19 games, where do we stand? At the very same place we were before the stretch: one piece away from being a complete team. That piece is a hitter who can bat cleanup and knock in runs. Take today's game, a 5-3 loss at Washington. The Braves were 1-10 with RISP, the lone hit being a Nate McClouth two-run homer in the 9th. That will not get you into the playoffs.

There needs to be a trade made. Move Jeff Francceur, move Yunel Escobar, do what you can to get a big bat in between Chipper Jones and Brian McCann. But, don't do it at the expense of the farm system.

Other than that, the Braves have the pieces. They can get on base, he starting pitching is fine (although I am worried about Derek Lowe's recent struggles), and the bullpen -- albeit frustrating at times -- is solid for the most part. We just need to generate more runs.

WWE stuff

Some interesting things going down in the WWE world, namely a roster trade that saw the following moves:

Moving to the Raw roster: Gail Kim, Alicia Fox, Jack Swagger, Evan Bourne, Mark Henry.

Moving to the SmackDown roster: Matt Hardy, Finlay, The Hart Dynasty - David Hart Smith, Tyson Kidd & Natalya.

Moving to the ECW roster: Shelton Benjamin, Goldust, William Regal, Brie & Nikki Bella.

Raw obviously gets the best of this deal, with two great young talents in Swagger and Bourne coming over. It should be interesting to see how they're used, but mainly I see them bolstering the mid-card. I'm also interested to see how the Hart Dynasty is used on Smackdown, and if the tag-team division will get a boost from them.