Well, about time. Horacio Ramirez had a terrific start, going the distance and allowing only three hits, one run on an eighth-inning homer. He also had two hits and and RBI. He needed only 94 pitches, struck out five, and walked two; his ERA for the season dipped under 2 before the homer and is now 2.04, third in the league.
Chipper, breaking out of his slump, had two hits and a walk. Nick Green had two hits and two walks and is hitting .313. Mark DeRosa, on the other hand, is hitting .191. The Braves have to seriously consider letting Green stay in the lineup whenever Furcal gets back. If that ever happens. (By the way, Eli Marrero sure has one tough respiratory problem, doesn’t he? What is it, plague?)
The Dodgers, losers of seven straight, next. Somebody has to win; these are the rules.
DeRosa sucks even worse than I thought he would. I knew he would be the weakest link, but this is just hideous.
Remember, we got two real quality starts this series, and the bats started to come around in the last two games. The comeback in Game 2 was a positive sign, as well.
Believe me, I’m very optimistic. But I realize that DeRosa is not going to cut it.
Ladies and gentlemen,
meet your putative ace / real ace.
Ramirez is clearly our top man.
Time to grab a couple from the reeling Dodgers before our first series with Philly.
I think Marrero has the Black Lung. I read where he said to a reporter, “You can afford to lose 15 pounds, I can’t.” He really would have come in handy when Chipper and Drew were out, though.
Real Ace? He’s doing this with smoke and mirrors. His K/BB ration sits at 30/27, aka, terrible. His DIPS ERA is 4.45, which should be much much closer to his real ERA at the end of the year. If he keeps this up without lowering his walks, well I’ll be damned. Right now he is the lefty Russ Ortiz without the K’s. Also, the team’s whip is 1.448. That’s UGLY (worse than last season).
I have to agree somewhat with andy. Horacio’s peripherals aren’t those you would associate with grandiose expectations of success in the immediate future. Don’t get me wrong–I like the cut of his jib, he reminds me (and Brenly) of a young Glavine, or maybe Moyer if we want to dial it down a bit. If he ends the year with an ERA under 4.00, I’ll consider it a successful year and look forward to further improvement.
I’m not a total DIPSomaniac, but the peripherals are worrying. To look on the bright side, in his last three outings his K/BB is 2.0 — 16 K, 8 BB in 23 1/3 IP. Of course, that’s a really small sample. I stand by my comparison to Kirk Rueter, though maybe he’ll break through to Moyer levels. If he keeps the control he had last night, he can do it.
The ERA is largely an illusion. If you’ve forgotten, he gave up eight unearned runs in Colorado. Okay, it’s Colorado, but eight runs in 3 1/3?
I have never seen Horacio as ace material, but he’s pretty good. I doubt he is ever going to have a “shut down” WHIP, but he is extremely competitive and appears to be a “knows how to pitch” guy.
Mac, I’m with you on the unearned run thing. Maybe an error opened the flood gates, but it’s the pitcher’s job to stem the run flow. I don’t think enough is made of that fact.
I was open to the experiment, but DeRo (and I seldom ever say this about a player) needs to go back to what he was doing last year. He’s a utility guy and very good in that role. The clincher for me was the bad throw Saturday night against the Brewers. He hot-dogged the throw, short-hopped it to LaRoche (it was catchable on LaRoche’s end, but it was a tough play) and once again the team is in the soup. DeRo, you are not at a level where you can nonchalant it.
What is DIPS era? Horacio is lucky. Sometimes better lucky than good. I know that the odds of this performance being sustained are not good, but I’ll take it at this point.
Can someone please tell me why we are leading off Jesse Garcia?
I noticed that Nick Green has already walked as many times as Adam LaRoche. Wasn’t one of LaRoche’s strengths his ability to get on base?
I was really pulling hard for DeRosa to contribute this year. 29 games into the season except for a brief flash in April he has not. However I don’t see an alternative. Certainly not within the system. What do you do? Can a guy hitting a buck 90 turn it around?
Maybe Derosion’s not 100%, but he’s not going to take himself out of the lineup because he would hurt the team if he wasn’t in there. I’ve got news for you Derosion, you hurt the team a lot more by being in the lineup by JD Drew not being in the lineup.
Nick Green showed some real hustle out there yesterday on theat hit by Ramirez.
As for the 8 runs scored by Colorado, it was 5 erros and a balk. How does a pitcher overcome 5 errors?
The thing about Green is that he was pretty much “Hessman-lite” throughout his minor league career. His K rate wasn’t quite as high and his K/BB was a bit better, but if I recall correctly, he was always touted as a guy who would provide more power than average at this position and that was his primary selling point.
Maybe that has changed. His Richmond numbers from this year seem to indicate more patience and less free-swinging.
Heck, I’m willing to look at him for a while longer.
Maybe an error opened the flood gates, but it’s the pitcher’s job to stem the run flow
I completely agree on the sentiment, but let’s not make too much of Horacio’s 8 UER day. He didn’t have just an error that opened the floodgates. There were two errors in the first two innings (and two mental errors not formally scored as errors in the first), then two more once Alfonseca came in with Horacio’s inherited runners. Yeah, he should be penalized in some way, but how much do we hold against a guy 8 unearned runs when they were scored with help of 4-6 free outs in Coors field?
I don’t buy into DIPS completely either, but I think it’s an interesting thing to look at. As for the comparison… I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. The similarities between Damian Moss’s first full year with the Braves and Horacio’s are absolutely uncanny. I can only hope that Mac’s cited numbers from the last 23 innings are a sign of improvement.
As for Nick Green, I hope he sticks.
I don’t think Ramirez is another Moss. But Moss got off to a great start in San Francisco last year before he unraveled. That would suck if it happens to Horacio. But I’m a Horacio fan and I think he will be fine. He is certainly paired with the right pitching coach.