No recap until the morning. Everyone play nice.
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No recap until the morning. Everyone play nice.
Use code “Journal” for a 5% discount.
Embree’s DFAed.
LEFTY ON THE WIRE
LEFTY ON THE WIRE
Stand pat
Since Foster’s grown to the point of general reliever, we need a situational lefty.
He’s also, generally, a decent pitcher, though he hasn’t shown it this year.
I’d be all about trying to nab Embree on the cheap.
The Natural: does anyone else think Embree reminds them of the reliever in the last scene in The Natural. Im not sure i want anybody that’d brush back Roy Hobbs.
If the free and clear rights to Adam Stern would get him and a decent chunk of his salary, it seems like a good deal (I’m assuming they can’t hold Stern on the 25-man all year, but maybe they can). I don’t know who he replaces, though. I’d imagine that Boston can make a better deal than that. But maybe not. They probably don’t want him going out on waivers and ending up in New York, so they’re probably motivated.
Didn’t really finish my thought…
The problem with picking up a guy another team doesn’t want is that we already have two of them (if you don’t count the ones we had coming into the year, that is). It just makes the decisions harder. (Which of our orphans goes to make room? Or does it cost a rookie like Boyer?) But if he can be had essentially for free, I guess it’d be hard not to take the chance.
Nationals beat the Rockies 4-0.. it’s the Rocks, don’t get emotional.
Broadcast kicks off at 10:10 PM ET. There’s something wrong with that.
Dammit, Marcus, don’t swing at the first pitch!
Oh, never mind.
Chipper’s at third?!?! BP said he was moving to the outfield!
We need to score alot of runs early, i have to go to bed.
Everybody else wants him to move to 1st.
First ball in play was hit hard for an out. Base hits with the second guy and the third. They’re getting some licks.
Ha, of course, immediately after my post, double play.
Wow. Marcus saw 4 pitches that at-bat. A record!
Is there something wrong with this guy? I’ve never seen someone take so few pitches as he does. He doesn’t need to press, he’s doing fine offensively. And he’s driving me nuts.
Note to anyone here who drives an Acura Integra: your car is the most-stolen in the country.
Was that a suicide squeeze or an error?
I think they originally called it an error but changed it to a hit.
And I think Marcus may be free swinging in this case because he has Jason’s number. .750 lifetime, or something like that.
All right, I’ll concede that, but what about yesterday? He’d never seen Correia before.
THANK YOU, JOHNNY!
Oh, I totally agree, Giles doesn’t have enough patience at the plate. But tonight it doesn’t matter so much.
I think he’s just naturally impatient. Imagine him sitting in traffic? Ha! But sometimes, he works counts, and sometimes he hacks away. It’s so frustrating!
But tonight, yeah. Whatever.
A man with no patience in traffic has no business living in the ATL. We went up there last night to visit with some relatives and it was still packed on the roads at 10:30. But, then again, anyone living around DC/B’morz understands.
Bad throw, even worse slide.
Um, yeah. The traffic here is unbelievable. I got stuck in a traffic jam a few days ago on the Beltway at 1:00 PM on a SATURDAY! Unbelievable.
Marcus’ OBP, relative to his BA, is basically the same as Andruw’s. Pitches per plate appearance, Braves regulars and semi-regulars:
Julio 4.08
Chipper 4.07
KJ 4.06
Betemit 4.01
Furcal 3.8
Marcus 3.77
Andruw 3.74
Langerhans 3.68
TEAM 3.67
LaRoche 3.4
Estrada 3.19
So if you’re going to accuse anyone of being impatient, it’s the catcher and the first baseman, and not the second baseman, you should be focusing on.
Once you get where you are going it is worth it, though. We thought about moving to B’morz but finally decided on Portland because of family/friends. It’s not like the traffic is any better there, but at least they have good public transportation if you want to use it.
Thanks for the stats, Mac, but what are they for the last 2 nights? That’s what I’m screaming about. He saw a total of 8 pitches all last night, and that’s only b/c he took 5 in the last AB. That just bugs me.
I’ve always thought Rochie was a free swinger, especially with runners on base, but had never seen the numbers.
Pitches per PA, NL second basemen:
Castillo 4.01
Utley 3.98
Counsell 3.98
Marcus 3.79
Mackowiak 3.72
Kent 3.63
Durham 3.54
Biggio 3.49
Grudz 3.38
Again, lay off Marcus.
He’s not as patient as I’d like — he’s shown a tendency to hit a LOT of FB9s on 3-1 counts over his career — but he’s okay.
Hey, Mac, Marcus is my favorite player. I’m not down on him. I’m just temporarily annoyed, that’s all. You can’t say 3 pitches in 3 ABs last night isn’t ridiculous, can you?
That was a great at-bat by Andruw.
You could tell it was a great at-bat even on GameCast
That was bad. But he doesn’t compare with LaRoche and Estrada for overeagerness. For that matter, Marcus is tied with Andruw for the team lead in walks. LaRoche’s low walk rate — and Estrada’s very poor one — are big problems, while Marcus’ occasional overeagerness is merely frustrating.
Chipper still looks gimpy. I’m not plussed about his chances to stay healthy for the duration.
Hit it hard LaRoche
Is it my imagination, or is Chipper starting to walk like John Wayne?
That works better. I am going to bed, you guys hold the lead. Don’t pull a Kolb
This inning is pretty neat. First Andruw wills his way into a double. Chipper flies out into shallow right, but Andruw grabs third on a weak throw. Then LaRoche bats him in while splitting his bat into a million little pieces.
We’ll do our best, Smitty.
Is this THE Jason Schmidt we’re beating or a watered-down version? I can’t see.
Your point about Marcus is completely conceded, Mac, I’m tired of arguing about it. What you’re getting from here is frustration hung over from yesterday. And the fact that the O’s just horribly blew a game when they could have moved into 1st place. But there’s always tomorrow…
Schmidt actually looks pretty good. I’m kind of surprised when I look at the corner of the screen and see three runs.
And Ramirez has looked pretty good after the first inning.
It just warms my heart to see a Neikro in the game again. Even if he is on the wrong team.
HoRam with a single, good work!
Come on, HoRam. You can do this.
Well, things just fell apart quickly.
It was going so well, too.
Low pitch count or not, pull HoRam!
That shot hurt.
Well, at least Schmidt’s out. That’s a plus.
At least we’re gonna get to the Giants pen now.
LET’S GO BRAY-AYVES!!! UH-OH, UH-OH!sorry…
Was that actually a strike on Marcus? According to GameChannel it was but they have a licensing agreement not to contradict the umpires.
Hawkins has no movement on his pitches at all. Slap one out here Andruw.
Yeah, it was a strike from where I’m sitting.
Then it was too close to take.
Maybe he heard us talking earlier :o)
LaRoche, Estrada, Langerhans. I’m not too optimistic here.
Ha! Go LaRoche!
And who wanted to trade Rochie earlier today? Whoo!
Roachy! Oh Yeah!
I am officially declaring myself our Good Luck Charm. At least for the next 30 seconds. Did I totally NOT predict that or what? Pessimism rocks!
I agree with the announcers. Langerhans needs to try and steal here.
Run Langerhans here.
Or draw a key walk. C’mon KJ, a hit gives us the lead.
Can we please score and put this thing in the bag? I need to go to bed.
Would have ended up being an unnecessary risk. Go Bobby.
Dammit! Strike three. I’m beyond tired. Guess I’ll have to check tomorrow. Good luck, Braves, and good night, guys!
Good night. I’ll stay up here in Arizona for you.
see my boy laroche is clutch…game in game out…clutch…and yet so many of you still want him traded…..*sigh*
C’mon Danny.
Kolb allowed the first runner on.
Shocker.
Furcal got confused for a second and thought he was playing lacrosse.
Kolb wasn’t getting that call.
Bobby’s doing a lot of pitcher subbing for a tie game. What if this goes another three or four innings?
Foster has been so solid this year I can forgive him being a DMB fan.
See, this is why the Braves need someone like Embree. Bobby had to burn up Foster in a situational move, and now there are no lefties in the pen.
Yourvit Torrealba (sp) is a total Scrabble name.
That was a strike.
Crap.
Estrada complete mispositioned himself.
Well, that sucked.
And it all started with Dan Kolb.
Estrada did a basket catch which didn’t allow him to get a good tag. And he didn’t do a good job of blocking the plate. Grrr.
“Cougar was a good man”… “He still is a good man”..”yeah, thats what I meant”.
the following exchange was about a former Ace-fighter pilot, who after an intensely terrifying run-in with an enemy fighter, could no longer cut it. Unfortunetely, its far too applicable to the Braves catcher these days. Johnny “Cougar” Estrada just blew the 3rd or 4th close play at the plate since being pounded by Erstad. The last two I’ve seen, he failed to catch the ball, this time he didnt adequately block out the plate. I know they are tough plays, but Im starting to wonder, is it time he turn in his wings, or chest protector, or shin guards,or….
That was Nats-like.
1) Kolb gets the first batter on base, as always.
2) Furcal decides to play lacrosse and turns a potential double play with a worst case of a runner on first into a runner in scoring position.
3) Foster does his job, but Bobby pulls him because he pitches with the wrong hand.
4) On a single to left, Estrada fails to adequately block the plate, allowing the runner to slide under him and score.
Any one of those things goes the other way, and the game goes to the 10th.
I, too, wonder how much the Erstad hit is in the back of John Cougars (love the nickname) mind. If he had caught the ball overhand he would have had a better chance to slap a tag but the positioning was not right, again. KJ’s throw was as on the money as one could ask for. Then again, that pitch was a strike.
Estrada’s quickly becoming my least favorite Brave. No willingness to learn the strikezone. Lackluster showings at the plate all season. No hustle at all on the base paths (c’mon, he can’t be THAT slow). And then stuff like that in the ninth inning. That’s the second time in the last month that he had a chance to prevent the winning run from scoring, and couldn’t do it. If he’s too afraid to block the plate, he has no business catching.
That ump called a terrible strikezone. That pitch KJ struck out on in the ninth was lower than the breaking ball he took for a ball earlier. Powell threw two straight pitches the exact same height, one of them was a strike while the other one was called a ball. I hate it when umps call an automatic strike on 3-0 but are afraid to call a close pitch with two strikes.
Oh, and Ramirez sucks. I can’t stand watching that guy pitch. And yes, I’m bitter.