Well, here we go again. A four-hit shutout at the hands of a rookie. Byrd pitched pretty well for six innings, keeping them in the game with two runs allowed, but was lifted (having gone over 100 pitches) with one out in the seventh for the newly called up McConnell. The latter showed himself to be a fine replacement for Almanza, allowing one inherited run and one of his own. Then Gryboski allowed a run, because that’s what he does. Remember that low ERA he had? It’s now at 3.47.
All the hits were by Drew and Julio. But with two on, nobody out in the fourth, when the Braves had their one real scoring possibility, Julio didn’t get a hit, and Andruw hit into the first of his two double plays.
Charles Thomas got his first career start, but of course didn’t get a hit. Hessman started at first (Julio DHed) and was what you’d expect. There’s no call for him being on the roster.
I met daniel cabrera on fuji film day (also got my picture taken with bj). who knew he would come back to haunt me? going to baltimore tomorrow to see the game. gah.
I do not understand Bobby’s use of the roster. We have a DH against a team that scores runs. Bobby responds by sitting Estrada so that Perez can have his spot, but doesn’t use him to DH. Instead he uses the opportunity to put Hessman in against a RH pitcher. Isn’t Estrada a switch hitter Bobby? A GOOD switch hitter. So, in the end the move puts three RH bats (Perez, Hessman, and Julio) over a lefty. You can’t find one spot for him Bobby? Come on.
Mac;
As a lifelong Braves fan living here in Wisconsin I wanted to ask you about a trade I am hearing rumors about. The Chicago sports stations are saying that the White Sox are close to acquiring Russ Ortiz. In return the Braves would get John Rausch and two minor leaguers. Have you heard anything?
JC, you’ve voiced by biggest concern and I am a big-time Bobby bobo. I worship Bobby as much as one heterosexual guy and worship another without it getting wierd, but his string may have run out. He’s still a solid manager, but he might not be the guy for this new era of Braves’ baseball. It’s clearly different managing a team where everyone is mentally prepared for the tomorrow’s game five minutes after today’s game ends and that clearly isn’t this year’s team.
Granted, Bobby has been putting patches over patches with all of the personnel changes and injuries, but I watched the same thing happen with Tom Kelly up here in Minnesota during his last couple of years with the Twins. When the manager and the team are on different “planes of understanding,” things can start to look odd.
One of my pet sayings has always been, “Look out when the manager starts ‘managing’.” To me, that usually means that the manager has a lack of confidence in his team, the team lacks confidence in the manager, or the brass lacks confidence in both. I don’t think it’s the latter two in this instance, but Bobby is clearly thinking too much these days and maybe to the extent he’s out-thinking himself.
Sean, I haven’t heard anything, but something is going on. Brad at No Pepper noted that the Braves did a lot of shuffling of their minor league pitchers yesterday, so it sure looks that way.
I did say that the White Sox were an obvious destination for Ortiz if the Braves gave up on the season.
I like Bobby Cox a lot. But there is absolutely NO EXCUSE for giving Mike Hessman 80 at-bats at this stage of the season. Most anyone could have figured out that MLB pitching is not for Mike, well before that. We have alternatives in Richmond, that are hitting, and someone should have had the courage to give it a try. We have taken the premiere hitting position in the order (1B), and made it a pitcher-level quality hitter.