ESPN.com – MLB – Recap – Pirates at Braves – 06/06/2003
Remember when the Braves almost never were rained out at home? This is two in the last month. (There was also the awful game in New York that should have been called, the game in which both Andruw and Chipper were hurt on a wet infield. I say we should sue the umpires.)
The Braves will play a doubleheader with the Pirates in September. Shane Reynolds (who hasn’t pitched in ages) will start tomorrow. Horacio Ramirez is getting pushed back to fill Hampton’s spot Wednesday. The Braves aren’t going to disable Hampton for now, which is dumb, because at most he’d lose one start if they did — they’re thinking next weekend at Seattle — but if they don’t they’re playing short a man.
Mac
Any chance you could do an off-season moves evaluation thread for the first third of the season?
Or a rate the first third suprise, performance, whatever…
Appreciate what you do for us,
Jim
I keep meaning to do a “Season so far” post, but then I keep forgetting to write the darned thing.
Off topic, but with the Braves not playing last night, I watched the Phillies play the Athletics. Two comments.
First, having seen the Athletics and, before them, the Mariners… well, it will be pretty exciting to watch the Braves play these solid teams.
Second, the Phillies are a mess. I know that you are never as good as you look when you are winning (Braves), or as bad as you look when you are losing (Phillies); and that there may come a time when the Phillies do make up ground on the Braves this year; but… The Phillies do not have a clue. Their announcers spend all of their time bemoaning the fact that the players are not doing the “little things”–moving runners over, etc. What with the A’s in town, they had a never-ending stream of old-timers through, all of whom claimed that the big money contracts of today make the players unwilling to do these “little things.” Jeez, if the management even believes this for a second, we’ll never have any trouble with these guys, even if we do spot them a Kevin Millwood. An organization that would bat Doug Glanville (good guy, but the second coming of Omar Moreno as a low-OBP out machine) in the lead-off spot is always going to over value David Bell, Marlon Anderson, Jimmy Rollins, and so on (including big money on Jim Thome on what will inevitably be the back side of his career–he’s not exactly Gary Sheffield when it comes to keeping fit.)
Look, I agree that there is something about John Schuerholz that curls one’s blood, but you have to appreciate the Atlanta organization when you look at most of the others. It may be easier to win when you have a lot of money (or had a lot of money)… but it’s not easy, and it’s especially not easy to keep winning. Look at Cleveland, for example…
I have an old friend who is a Phillies fan, and he’s pretty much kept quiet the last few years. But after the Phils signed Thome, he, like many other observers, started talking about this being Philadelphia’s year.
My response then was that my only hope the Braves would win is that Larry Bowa is the Phillies’ manager. W., not only does Bowa over-value “scrappy”-but-punchless players (those that remind him of himself no doubt), but remember that he also ran Scott Rolen out of town last year. Now it seems that he’s completely lost faith in Pat Burrell (Burrell’s had a bad year, true, but he’s the best option Philadelphia has).
The Braves have achieved offensively beyond my wildest dreams this year, but the Phillies certainly seem to be making it that much easier for them.