Okay, they bug me anyway. But why do they keep talking about how the Braves miss Gary Sheffield, when Drew has been far better than Sheffield this year? (For that matter, Johnny Estrada’s been awfully good himself.) The Braves offense is down because of the guys who are still here playing worse. (And to a lesser degree they missed Vinny.) The new guys have been carrying the team all year.
6-0. Looks good so far.
But Sheffield had a much better year last year than Drew is having and is still probably a much better hitter. Sheffield switched leagues and got hurt. It’s likely that if were still here, Sheffield would be having a much better year than he is having. However, Drew is a better all around player. But you are right–if Chipper and Andruw had been hitting, the team would be ok.
I know I haven’t missed Vinny. Even when Erosa was booting the ball all over Denver and Vinny was beating the Braves with a homerun, I still couldn’t find it in my heart to miss Vinny.
Drew’s percentages so far are a little better than Sheffield’s (year-end) percentages from last year. Drew’s second among NL outfielders in OPS to Bonds. That doesn’t even take into account the huge defensive upgrade. Now, Drew missed a little more time than Sheffield did last year, but not that much more. Right field is the least of the Braves’ worries.
Hey, what happened to Nick Green? I saw that Garcia came in for him in the 2nd. Just a defensive sub, or is Nick injured?
Green has a muscle strain in his back (according to a guy on the forums, who heard it on radio). Drat.
You don’t see the 4-6-5 DP every day, do you?
I agree with Mac. The announcers for the game just blathered on about things that were said at the beginning of the season. Its as if they were reading directly from Sports Illustrated’s Baseball preview or something.
Mac, noone should miss Vinny. A .310 OBP doesn’t cut it.
It’s a lot better than .225 or whatever DeRo’s must have been when he was starting, though.
Anyone waxing nostalgic for Vinny would be well-advised to look at his home-road splits this year. At Coors, he’s .355/420/704 (with 53 RBIs) — everywhere else he’s .195/264/376. Hack Wilson at home, Neifi Perez on the road.
We do miss his glove, though. He has 6 errors and 16 DPs, vs. Braves 14 errors and 8 DPs.
Did you see TBS’s slam on Andruw on Sun? The announcer was talking during Thomas’ at-bat about how he had won fans with his hustle and grit. Then, without any mention of him, the camera showed Andruw sitting on the bench. Sort of like Sesame Street — one of these things is not like the others.