ESPN.com – MLB – Recap – Phillies at Braves
I’m disgusted. I’m disgusted with Horacio Ramirez, who keeps throwing the same pitch to the same spot to every batter; is it any surprise when they start hitting it? I suppose it’s not entirely his fault. How many singles to the opposite field do you have to give up before you change your approach? Apparently, eight in 3 2/3 aren’t enough. After Gryboski’s triumphant return to allowing inherited runners while lowering his own ERA, Ramirez had given up seven runs.
I’m disgusted with Adam LaRoche, who hasn’t figured out that you don’t try to cut down a runner at the plate with one out and a tie game in the fourth.
I’m disgusted with Bobby, who after getting one scoreless inning out of Bernero, but one in which he gave up two hits, left him in for the ninth only to see him walk the bases loaded and allow a two-run single to put the game away. I’m disgusted with Matt Childers for allowing a three-run homer after that just to make the game look even worse.
I’m disgusted with the Braves’ outfield, collectively. With Andruw still slumping (he did have a hit today but also hit into a double play) they’re pretty hapless as a group. They went 2-12 collectively today. The rest of the starting lineup was 9-19. You do the math. Chipper had three hits, Marcus doubled twice and scored twice, Brayan Pena was 2-4.
Sosa had a couple of good relief innings to keep the Braves in it. Kolb needed only nine pitches to get through the seventh, though he did allow a single.
The Braves stand one out awaiting tonight’s Marlins-Mets game; with Willis pitching for Florida against Kaz Ishii I’m not optimistic. Tomorrow they’ll try to salvage something but will have to do it against Brett Myers, with Hudson going for the Braves.
Mac,
Methinks you need to tone down your negativity. It’s constant and becomes a distraction. Just compare your description of today’s game with the one written by Andy. For God’s sake, I have no idea why we constantly have to have both articles back to back as it’s just repetitive about a game (s) we all watched already. Also, please don’t tell me that they give us different perspectives because it’s the performance of the Braves that dictates much of what is written by any Braves writer. All this is meant constructively and from a fellow writer and friend.
I also often find myself seeking out distractions and then complaining once I find them. I want them to go away. I mean, if they weren’t there, I wouldn’t have found them no matter how hard I tried.
Mac, I value your cynicism. It makes me laugh on almost a daily basis. I enjoy the differences between you and the Bravesbeat guys. Michael is simply wrong about the game dictating the writing afterwards. Obviously the physical results dictate the piece to an extent, but personality makes the writing. You and Andy and David all approach analysis differently. If what Michael says about writing is true, then human literature would never develop and read awfully boring.
I think Ramirez has some physical problems, probably lingering effects from shoulder surgery. His pitches are so flat. You’re right Mac, he throws the same tired junk all game. Ramirez used to be a lot better than this. He must be hurting. With Smoltz scuffling with back injuries and Hampton having a tight arm, the staff is banged up. We need to play it cool and not endager our pitchers, they are the backbone of the team right now.
Adam Bernero is coming back to earth, which throws the bullpen into even more uncertainty. I didn’t mind Bobby leaving him out there. Bobby’s trying hard to find a stud out there in the the bullpen and everyone has let him down at some point. Except for Grybo, but he’s not the most versatile pitcher.
Adam LaRoche needs to find his swing and hit at least .270. The Braves are missing power from players other than Chipper and Andruw, and Druw’s back on the snide.
These problems don’t disgust me really, but the outfield does. Andruw’s fine. He’ll hit at least .270 this year. I thought it was the year, but Andruw duped me again. His inconsistency hurts when the rest of the outfield is worse. I don’t see Mondesi hitting much better than he has all season and Jordan’s done all he can. These two are deadwood and need to be replaced. I was willing to wait, but now it’s time. The top of our order is the only danger spot and it’s been inconsistent, except for Chipper. We have the centerpiece JS, now make some outfield moves.
For those of us who live outside Atlanta, Michael, and don’t get TS or FSS or the FOX regional game and thus miss a lot of Braves games, we need these recaps in all their repetitiveness! AP recaps are boring and impersonal. And I can understand Mac’s frustration. I don’t think it’s too much to ask that both the offense and the pitching somehow find a way to function on the same day. It’s nice to see Furcal and Marcus hitting again (is Marcus going to break his own doubles record?), but that doesn’t do much good if your pitching totally collapses and gives up 12 runs. Sadly, the best pitcher today seemed to be the Dank Lob. How ironic.
Dear Mr. President,
There are too many states. Please eliminate three.
Sincerely,
Grandpa Simpson
Michael:
One caveat: Mac is the only writer I read on this Braves Collective site. I know there are others, but I started with Mac way back, and have never bothered checking out the other authors. Perhaps that is my loss, but I’m old, and set in my ways.
So, my “insider” Braves news consists solely of what I see here, via Mac’s postings and the responses to them.
If you are in the region and can get more than 50 games a year on your tv, or if you read multiple sites which provide commentary, more power to ya.
Since I live 10 miles from “Dolphins Stadium” I depend on Mac to give me insight that a Braves fan living in South Florida might not otherwise expect. He has never failed to deliver.
Completely unrelated, but if anyone has absolutely nothing better to do and is not offended by a lot of foul language, you might want to check out David Wells’ “Perfect I’m Not.” I never thought I’d get through it b/c, you know, it’s David Wells, but there’s a few really good segments in there about how the Tomahawk Chop drives him absolutely bats with all the fans “moaning.” To that I say, shove it, David! We may have an unintended weapon here!
I could point out that I’ve been doing this a lot longer than Andy. But there’s room for everyone. And if you can’t be negative about a 12-5 game, when can you be negative?
I concur. I didn’t really read much of the other writers stuff until this year. Especially with the site redesign I’ve really been enjoying the content on all of the various channels of the network. So, keep up the great work guys. And if someone out there doesn’t like what they are reading, you can always stop reading it and write your own. I’ll probably read it. I’m like that.Jenny, I’ll have to keep an eye out for that book as I do my thriftin’. I’m currently working through “Don’t Look Back”, the Satchel Paige book. Not the best written book in the world but a great story nevertheless.Anyone else reading a good baseball book?
Must’ve hiccuped when I was typing my name
Yeah, there’s a good bit to be disgusted about from that game, but you gotta keep it all in perspective too. On a good note, Sosa was throwing almost all breaking balls today and he did pretty damn good. This was a change from his normal outing where he usually works off his fastball. Leo’s doing perhaps? Whatever the case may be, working in more breaking stuff may take him to that next level.
Stay the course Mac. Cynicism, wryness, disgust and yes, even anger are by products of passion. Who wants to read a mild account of the exploits of a team we all kind of like?
Urlhix- I just finished The Teammates by David Halberstam (Summer of ’49, also great); a Brilliant and beautiful book about the friendship between Ted Williams, Jonny Pesky, Dom Dimaggio, and Bobby Doer.
ASG, Another one I’ll have to add to the list. Sounds great. Although, I’m surprised to hear that Ted had any friends. *grin*
The Braves performances of late haven’t offered much to be upbeat about, but seeing the same carping day-in and day-out does get a bit trite. If one reads newspapers you’ll notice every columnist doesn’t do the same thing, they all try and offer different angles. I believe that’s what’s getting Michael. You open the BravesBeat site and immediately read the same type of game accounts, back-to-back. Being negative is a popular schtick these days. When the games offer little of a positive nature to write about, you either dig a bit deeper, work a little harder or just state the obvious.
While I haven’t seen much to be positive about, I have noticed Furcal is probably playing the best shortstop of his career. While Andruw seems to be struggling at the plate, I see he is still staying with his better approach and still hitting the ball to right, it just seems more are “at ’em” balls. That happens. Chipper is still playing the best defense of his career and hitting the best he has in awhile. LaRoche is having the same type of struggles most second year players have, but his are aggravated by Cox’s insistence on playing Franco, who seems to be showing his years at bat and in the field. Jordan and Mondesi shouldn’t be blocking anyone’s path. I’d love to see them call up Kelly Johnson and demote Ramon Colon and let him pitch enough to get a grip on his stuff. I’d also like to see Pena catching a couple of games a week. Estrada may produce better with a reduced workload. Both have the rep as good bats with little power, so spot Pena in a coupla games a week and see if they both produce. Eddie Perez isn’t worth hindering Pena’s development for, even if Pena only projects as a backup. Let him get started learning the league and the hitters now. There’s no point wasting any more atbats on Perez, if he gets healthy enough to return. He’s past it. He should be a coach.
I guess I’m not as disgusted as Mac, just frustrated. I don’t know why because this is typical of Bobby Cox coached teams. Cox is quite limited at running a game. His strength is in personnel management. He’s content to let players struggle and fail for prolonged periods before making a change. This series may be the point in time that Cox decides some moves have to be made.
I figure he wants to wait on the weather to heat up and hope that it heats up Mondesi and Jordan. Good luck with that!