No formal announcement as yet, but it appears that Johnny Estrada is headed for the DL. McCann would presumably take over as the everyday catcher. There are two possibilities on the 40-man to take over as the backup. The choices are a guy who can’t throw and can’t hit, Eddie Perez, or a guy who can’t throw but might hit, Brayan Pena. I think it will be Pena, but I can’t be sure. Since Perez hits righty and Pena is a switchhitter, they could platoon, but more likely the replacement will be assigned one starter to work with. If it’s Perez, I think they’d team him with Sosa. If it’s Pena, maybe Ramirez, maybe Hudson. Since Hampton holds runners the best, I’d go with him with the bad thrower, but then we don’t know if his back is up to snuff.
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Should be tons of fun. I guess this means that Estrada will serve his suspension immediately after being activated. Since it wasn’t just some steroids violation, he can’t serve it while on the DL like Rafael Betancort did (what a joke).
This should be interesting. I want to see how McCann works out every day. I wish Johnny would have an MRI; back injuries, especially after that collision, scare me.
Thursday would be a logical day to insert a new catcher since it’s a day game after a night game. That would be Hampton, if healthy. Assuming only the minimum time (a big assumption at this point, I’d guess), there’s really only two Sunday games to cover. That would be one way to go. Depending on Eddie Perez’s long-term health, I wouldn’t be surprised to see a veteran catch-and-throw guy brought on board. Too bad Salty doesn’t need to be protected yet. That would be something, wouldn’t it? The way things have been going, it wouldn’t surprise me (other than the roster stuff).
I am not sure why Johnny hasnt already served his suspension, maybe because he believes he is right in this situation. He has already missed back to back games twice since then, why not one more game and it will be over with.
Im not sure who I would want as a backup behind McCann. Its either Pena or Perez! Pena wasnt very impressive when he was up earlier in the year, but he has good numbers in AAA. Perez on the other hand just needs to retire. On the other hand what has Estrada done this year, matter of fact what has he done since the Allstar break from last year
This is make or break for McCann. We can be sure that if it is Perez is activated, Pena is on the trading block.
I am not sure why Johnny hasnt already served his suspension, maybe because he believes he is right in this situation. He has already missed back to back games twice since then, why not one more game and it will be over with.
From what I read the braves were adament about using the appeal to try and bring about the punishment on the umpire that he deserved.
This is make or break for McCann
I don’t really see that. Unless he hits .200 this is not going to “break” him.
Why is it make or break for McCann? Javy didn’t do too well in his first season as well.
In respect of Perez or Pena, I believe it will be Perez (if he is actually healthy enough to play) as Bobby always like to have a veteran catcher playing behind a young catcher.
“Always”? He did with Javy and Charlie O’Brien… But then, the Braves didn’t really have a young catcher of quality to team him with. In his first Braves stint, he mostly used young catchers. With the Blue Jays, he inherited an experienced platoon. Estrada was already 28 when he took over last year, plus none of the youngsters was ready so they had to sign some veteran. (I wouldn’t have chosen Perez, and I certainly wouldn’t have given him a two-year contract.)
He’ll use Perez if he’s healthy, of course. That’s simple, plus it’s cheaper because you have to pay Perez anyway but you don’t have to pay Pena major league money if he’s in the minors.
“Kyle Davies won his first start after returning to the Class AAA International League, allowing five hits and a run over six innings against Durham. The right-hander struck out seven and walked one.”
Glad to hear it took Kyle this long before making his first start at Richmond. This means the Braves are realizing they have over-used Kyle earlier in the season.
Anybody knows how Colon is doing at Richmond?
I’ve missed something – why does Estrada have to serve a suspension?
He said “F*@K YOU!” to and chest-bumped an umpire. It was quite amusing.
Salty is tearing up the Carolina league (two dingers last night, he’s hitting over .300 with 11 dingers and about 25 doubles). Doesn’t have the K/AB or K/BB ratio that Brian did. He’s certainly not ready to be a MLB backup, but it might be time to try him in the Southern League in Mississippi. They could use another decent prospect or two there, after having the entire team raided. Chuck James could pitch to him.
Nomo is released!
BETTER THAN PRESTON WILSON!
hmmmmmm… I’m not completely sure on that. Preston might even be a better pitcher that Nomo 🙂
I wonder why Salty hasn’t been moved up yet. I guess if you have a guy tearing up that league in that park, maybe it’s not so bad to let him enjoy it a little. Although I imagine he’d rather be in AA, that’s got to be a bit of a confidence boost.
Well, the Missisippi catchers are the legendary trio of Iker Franco, Ray Serrano, and Miguel Bernard. Minor league lifers all. I think there’s room there for a real prospect.
Salty hit another homerun tonight in Myrtle beach. Marte and Juries hit one in Richmond and Andrus (16 yo ss hitting .346)hit his 1st in Florida.
Well, the Missisippi catchers are the legendary trio of Iker Franco … Minor league lifers all.
Hey now! Iker played in the Rome Olympics as the Catcher for the Netherlands, a true baseball powerhouse!
I think it should be Perez, he has earned being the backup, and his contract is over at the end of the season anyway. He was upset when he left the Braves the first time. Eddie can hit, he just needs to play more to get into a groove.
Don’t forget Andruw represents the Orange. Granted, via a colony.
Eddie can’t hit. He was okay for a backup, once. Now he’s hopeless against righthanders and has a bad shoulder.
I’m no prospect analyst, but Elvis Andrus could be a really good player in a few years. .345 as a 16 year old at any professional level? Color me impressed.
Who the hell is SALTY?
What’s Greg Olson doing?
Saltalamacchia, Alex. I have no idea if I spelled that right.
Alex, Salty was one of the two first round pick last year. Remember now?
I’m bored so I just reread Keith Lockhart’s “journal” again. Great stuff, Alex. And a reminder that things could be SO much worse.
Um, going back to Mac’s post, I would point our that Ramirez holds on runners well, too. So he might be a good match for Pena; that is, if Hampton is unavailable. Otherwise I would go with Hampton in a heartbeat.
Jenny, where can I find that “Keith Lockhart journal”? Is it a book or is it on the web?
Both the Mets and Phillis lost. Good stuff, and I heard Jose Guillen will miss the Braves series, even better!
It’s one of the “Old Articles on BravesBeat”, back when there were more one-off pieces done on their own webpages in my Compuserve days. Alex wrote most of this one, except for one entry.
Keith Lockhart’s Journal. It’s more literate than the Bolg but probably meaner.
The Nats want Barry Larkin to play short for them!
You hadn’t heard that, Smitty? It’s been floating around for awhile. I think they’ve just had it with Cristian Guzman. And I can’t say I blame ’em. .185? In JULY? Furcal was never that bad, even at his very worst. But it does show desperation.
Maybe Jim Bowden should play short.
I had heard something about it the other day. Now it seems that he might consider it.
hey why don’t the nats give Lockhart a call? Bobby could put a good word in for him.
They get Big Nick Johnson back today. I hope he is a little slow at the plate like Chipper has been. People are going after Chipper right now, when he gets his swing back he is going to make some people pay. There were some pitches in Arizona he was just a little late on. Anybody think the Natspos will agree to wear Mets Uni’s for these three games? That should get Chipper going!
I know it is still early in the season and this is going to sound odd, but I am pumped about the Natspos being in town. I hate these guys and I want a sweep where we win all three games by four or more runs. I just read the AJC preview and it got me a little hyped. These are three big games for us, but they are three HUGE games for the Nats. Can we start a new thread about how much we hate the Natspos?
Well you should be pumped. They are tied atop the NL East in late July. Big series here. Can’t afford to screw up with the rest of the division playing pretty good. We’ll see how the young guys handle it.
Maybe Smoltzie can put Johnson back on the DL by plunking him on the foot. That would be entertaining: watching a pitcher deliberately throwing at a batter’s feet. Dance, varmint!
I am SO mad. MASN is only picking up ONE of the three games! If they black out TBS on Thursday I will call DirecTV and complain. Of the several million people in the DC area, maybe 100,000 have DirecTV/RCN. So of course they put it on those channels. This is all Peter Angelos’s fault, him and his autocratic TV deal. RRRGHHH!
Sorry. At least I can pick it up on radio for the first time.
And if stuff is coming out the bottom of your car, that’s a bad sign, right?
Depends Jenny, What color is it?
Uh, yeah, usually it is. Especially if it’s all sludgy, or if it looks like water with some weird day-glo food coloring in it.
If it just looksl ike regular old water, then it’s just because it’s too damn hot and your running your AC.
If it looks like water with some weird day-glo food coloring in it. It has to do with your cooling system. (i.e) radiator, water pump, over flow container, or a simple hose.)
If it is black it is oil. Could be your stoper is cross threaded, a bad hose, or oil is leaking into the intake. Just check your oil, if you have enough, you will be ok for a while, just keep filling it up.
If it is water, creynolds is right, it is just the air and that is good
I’d like to sweep them and have Florida, and Philly lose two of three
Dang, Smitty. The next time Click and Clack don’t get to my call, I’m looking you up 🙂
Wait – are the games going to be on Channel 20, fellow DC area residents? Our satellite dish still doesn’t get MASN.
About the sweep or the car?
Why did TBS cut back so many games? Theres only one a week anymore. There is no way Seinfeld reruns are getting better ratings…
The car. Although I like the sweep idea very much.
Mike that has been the debate over the last few days on here (everone decided we weren’t trading LaRoche.) MLB will only let them show so many games and at the start of the season they pick which games they want. I don’t think they realized the nats would be this good or they might have picked up tonight’s game as well.
I have learned a lot about cars over the last few years. I have an 89 Honda Accord and I have had lots of diffrent colors of liquid come out of my car. I usually can fix what is wrong with it, but now it needs a valve job and I have decided to up grade to a new model.
I am glad we held Smoltz back for tonight’s game. Bobby really wants to win these, I hope the young guys respond well.
Depends Jenny, What color is it?
It would have been priceless if Jenny had said, “What color is it? My car is blue. What does that have to do with anything?”
I think I was a sitcom writer in a previous life. A bad sitcom writer . . .
Haha. Thanks Smitty. I’m glad we’ve come to agree that LaRoche is not going anywhere. Like i said a few times, if theres a trade, figure it to be a for a reliever. I don’t expect much else.
As for the limited TBS programming, I wish I had the time to research why exactly they do that. I’m assuming it has to do with them taking fans away from other games. (for example, if the O’s and Red Sox are on espn and the Braves are on TBS, some fans would choose to watch the Braves thus hurting espns ratings, which could potentially cost the MLB money when it comes time for a new TV contract with ESPN. Sounds complicated, but it makes sense i guess.
Actually, the car is silver 🙂 And I noticed stuff dripping out of it in the parking lot of Safeway, so I don’t think it was water since the AC wasn’t running. I’m guessing oil or transmission fluid. It was pretty dark.
Kyle, as far as I know, tonight’s game is only on DirecTV/RCN. Tomorrow I believe is on channel 20 and Thursday is on TBS and DirecTV/RCN unless they black it out, which they’d better not! But it’s also on 104.1FM and I think 1050AM.
Correction: None of them are on UPN20. Thursday is on TBS. If they black that out we should call and complain.
I hope Smoltz’s back and hammy are ok
Water often runs out of the car AFTER it has been shut off. It’s condensation runoff. If you can bear it, touch your finger in the stream next time. Coolant is green and smells sweet. Motor oil is black (or brown if you just changed it), and feels really slippery (duh). Trans fluid can be a number of colors, but unless you own an automatic, it probably ain’t it.
It’s an automatic, spike. Toyota Camry. I think I’ll let my mom figure it out 🙂
Completely unrelated (BTW – good approach, jenny):
For those of you who pay for BP, the only guy actually worth the money (Will Caroll) has a running rumor blog heading into the deadline. I don’t know how true any of it really is, but I can guarantee you that it’s better researched than any other one out there.
Note to those who don’t subscribe: He says the Braves are working on something, but he doesn’t know what. If he figures it out, and I guess the chances aren’t great since he won’t go writing up pointless and silly speculation (I’m looking at both of you, ESPN and Ken Rosenthal), I’ll post it unless somebody beats me to it.
Keep your fellow Dan Kolb fan club memebers posted creynolds. (See we forgot about the other night already!)
creynolds – do you think BP is worth the money? $40 is pretty steep, but I’ve considered signing up.
ESPN and Fox have exclusive deals where they are the only ones that show games at certain times, that is part of the reason Fox Sports South has all the Wednesday night games. TBS and TurnerSouth share the season with TBS having the majority of the games, it doesn’t seem that way right now, but I think we will see a lot more on TBS as the year comes to an end. There have also been a couple of weird events this year where FSS got an extra game or two b/c one of theirs got cancelled, so they had a couple of Friday night games.
For any better explanation than this, I would suggest hiring an army of lawyers, who might be able to break down the contracts by the end of 2052.
I don’t know, Andy. I really do like Will Carrol’s injury column (Under the Knife), and he writes at least 4 times a week… usually five, I think. But once you get past that, there’s rarely anything that’s more than mildly interesting. Even with the more detailed stuff there’s usually a very similar (and sometimes better) take on the subject elsewhere (usually The Hardball Times). To be perfectly honest, a friend and I “share” subscriptions to both ESPN Insider and BP (and my mom bought the ESPN one… sad for a 33-year old, I know, but it was xmas). If/when the time comes for me to shell out my own $40 to keep BP access, I probably won’t do it.
Thanks for the comments creynolds. I think I’ll wait on it. No shame in having your mom buy you stuff – I’m 32 and we always go shopping when she’s up for a visit.