Sanctity of Human Life, Justin Upton, and the Pro Bowl

This past Sunday during Sunday School at my church, we talked about a very controversial topic that a lot of people like to disagree on: Human Life. Some believe that it is completely worthless. Others, however, treasure it more than anything. The way that I see it is that God created us in His own image, and that even though we don't know exactly what that means, we do know that God loves us. Most of the time on Sunday was spent talking about abortion. Personally, I believe abortion is completely wrong. I know if there is a liberal reading this, they are probably thinking that I'm just some conservative nut-job. And that may be true, but just hear me out. The Declaration of Independence makes it very clear that we, as humans, are given 3 inalienable rights (those which cannot be taken away), those being life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. To everybody reading this, did you see that first right? You know life. If you choose to take an abortion, you are depriving that child of his/her inalienable rights that people fought and died for just because it's an "inconvenience" to you. You are taking away that child's right to life before he/she even has a chance to obtain it. Recently, the National Government has been trying to put a limit on the 2nd amendment and has encouraged gun-owners to sell their guns back. A lot of people die from shootings every year. However, that number does not even begin to compare to how many children have their chance at life ripped away from them before they even get a chance to live it. I saw this picture on Facebook the other day and it definitely surprised me. If you didn't pull it up, it just said that less than 2000 children under the age of 19 are killed every year by guns; however, more than ONE MILLION babies are aborted EVERY YEAR. Those numbers are very eye-opening to say the least. For more info on the subject, I suggest you check out this blog. Now I would also like to clarify something. People may think my beliefs are inconsistent as though I'm 100% pro-life and not necessarily against the death penalty. To those liberals that are reading and seeing this, may I invite you to look at your own stereotypical beliefs: pro-choice and anti-death penalty. To me, I don't see a problem with letting babies live and putting to death convicted criminals. I do, however, think that the death penalty should be absolutely necessary. Don't just kill them for single offenses. It should be used for serial offenses. Now your stereotypical liberal, who is pro-choice and anti-death penalty, is in favor of killing poor innocent babies and letting the convicted serial-criminals live. Think about that for a while. Based on that, my beliefs are not nearly as inconsistent as that of the stereotypical liberal.

And now, for something completely different. Earlier this week, the Atlanta Braves made a blockbuster trade. They sent fan-favorite utility player Martin Prado, SP Randall Delgado, RHP Zeke Spruill, SS Nick Ahmed, and 1B/3B Brandon Drury to the Arizona Diamondbacks in order to obtain OF Justin Upton and 3B Chris Johnson. At first, when I saw this trade, I absolutely hated it because they were giving up Prado. But the more I looked into it and read about it, the more I liked it. The Braves managed to get another potential 30-30 threat (in addition to BJ Upton and Jason Heyward) for an aging utility guy, two starting pitchers who I have never been completely sold on, a SS prospect who would never get playing time in Atlanta and was 22 playing A Ball, and a 1B/3B who is coming off a terrible year. Looking at this now, I see that we absolutely stole this trade, unless one of these prospects becomes the next 5-tool beast. As for the batting order, what I would suggest is this:

SS Andrelton Simmons R
RF Jason Heyward L
LF Justin Upton R
1B Freddie Freeman L
CF BJ Upton R
C   Brian McCann L (once he comes back from injury)
2B Dan Uggla R
3B Juan Fransisco / Chris Johnson R / L
C (until BMac comes back) Evan Gattis R

This lineup has the potential to be one of the best the Braves have ever had. The only problem I could potentially see is strikeouts, but if you are concerned with that I suggest you check out this article from FanGraphs.

I'm going to keep this section about the Pro Bowl rather short, because it will not take very long at all to tell you how I feel about it. I feel that it is absolutely the BIGGEST waste of time in all of football. The game itself is an absolute joke. If you want to watch some decent football this weekend, I would suggest the Senior Bowl.

I hope you all have a good week. Thank you for reading my blog and God Bless!!