ESPN.com – MLB – Box Score – Braves at Mets
This horrible nightmare just keeps going on. The only good thing is that you assume that eventually the one-run games will even out.
Tim Hudson was cruising in the seventh, having settled down after giving up a couple of early runs, and having finally gotten a lead when LaRoche, of all people, hit a go-ahead homer. Suddenly, without warning, he couldn’t get anyone out. Four runs later, it was 6-3 Mets. A comeback attempt fell short in the ninth (the Braves had runners first and second one out and Jorge Julio was attempting to close it).
Mets starter Victor Zambrano left the game with one out in the second after striking out Andruw. Even this is good news for the Mets, because (a) Zambrano sucks, and (b) they were able to come back with a lefty long reliever against a lefty-heavy Braves lineup. That reliever, Darren Oliver, got a no-decision but held the Braves to two runs in four innings.
Renteria kept his hitting streak going and scored a game-tying run in the sixth, but hit a broken-bat grounder to end the game. Of course, even if the Braves had come back Reitsma would only have lost it. Andruw left the game after tweaking his back, forcing Langerhans to center. Hopefully it isn’t serious, because that’s all we need.
Tomorrow the Braves try to save at least one game in the series. I’m looking for a bridge again.
We need to win badly tomorrow (how many times has that been written now?)
John Smoltz vs. Jose Lima. Normally you think easy win, but the Braves were thinking sweep when they were going to face Trachsel and Zambrano.
Who knew that a bases-loaded walk from Moylan would keep us from tying it?
Fire Reitsma and McBride now!
when are we going to start make a trade and fix up pen?????
Between the Braves & the Devils, a tough sports day for me.
But…I’ll be at Shea tomorrow facing the black-&-blue Metmob.
It’s Lima Time!
Let’s go Canes beat the Devils
Yeah, kind of a flukey Car/NJD game today, but I can tell you from experience that no team can forget a playoff stinker as fast as the Devils. You’ll see a different team on Monday. Guaranteed.
For everyone who is demanding some sort of a trade: trade for who with who?
In spirt of the Kentucky derby:
Place your bets now, will the Braves make a ?4-12? pitcher who had the second highest ERA in all the majors last year behind Eric Milton look good? Will the bullpen give up another four runs in the seventh inning? Will we lose by one run after blowing three different leads during the very next Mets’ at-bat?
Rob,
I don’t see it either.
Our crappy guys gotta get good quick & our good guys gotta be better.
Kelly Johnson and Jarrod Saltalamacchia for Eric Gagne.
I’m still available.
I really don’t see any significant changes to be made. We can complain about LaRoche, but there’s really no one better to stick in there. Same with Reitsma. He’s not a closer, but no one else is either. Joey Devine may have been a great closer at NC State, but the ACC is a lot different than the MLB, and you would think we would have noticed that after he’s given up bomb after bomb.
Trade to make the pen better
I know I’m running out of ideas. I have only one thing left in my arsenal… There. Hope to God it works.
I want to be careful of being nearsighted, but I wouldn’t be totally angry if we dealt Saltalamacchia for a proven closer like Gagne. Maybe we can do a Saltalamacchia for Lidge deal.
If we’d made that trade in Spring Training, I couldn’t be upset. However, a closer can only help so much at this point. I don’t want to mortgage the future for a chance to compete for the Wild Card this year. Salty’s too valuable, in my opinion.
Getting Gagne would be about as useful as getting Ron Perranoski or Sparky Lyle–none of them can pitch at all right now.
Hey, if this team is going to be any good at all the guys we have must play better.
Unless Mac’s arsenal includes downloading reincarnations of 1984 Willie Hernandez, 1950 Jim Konstanty or 1974 Mike Marshall, there is no quick fix here.
We don’t score enough and our bullpen seems just bad enough to lose, given the situation. That is not a recipe for success.
Nonetheless, we know that this team is capable because, rosterwise, it’s very similar to last year’s team. We’ve gotta put our heads down, do the work and squeeze out some wins. Winning breeds winning.
Our everyday first baseman can’t have a career OPS of .800; it just won’t work. Laroche is a decent — if overrated — defender but can’t be starting and hitting fifth in the lineup anymore. Mr. Cox, I thought that he would be good too, but he’s not. A proven closer is a luxury that the Braves absolutely can’t afford as this point, not with an awful hitter at a spot that is the easiest in baseball to fill. We can talk about a closer when our first baseman and corner outfielders can slug 450.
Sosa is a proven bat.
How about Scott Shields?
Sammy Sosa, no. He’s washed up.
Scott Shields, yes, but why would the Angels ever trade him? Makes no sense.
“Case in point is Billy Wagner, a Virginia native who would’ve been a cultural and professional natural fit in the Braves’ clubhouse. To say the Braves needed a closer this winter is like saying Nolan Ryan had a fastball; not only did the Braves need Wagner, he told friends he was waiting for their phone call.
But when Jones says he was “surprised” the Braves never negotiated in earnest with the closer, he was speaking for the entire clubhouse. Jones ruefully said, “We haven’t spent much money on our bullpen” — and that was before the Braves blew a four-run lead in the seventh inning Friday night, paving the way for extra innings.”
K-rod’s arm is going to fall off any day now, and the Angels know it; I don’t think they’ll be open to trading Shields, especially when he has eaten innings so well for them.
I think it’s virtually impossible to make a fair trade to bring in a closer since “proven” ones are so rare and overvalued by their teams. If the Braves want to make a run at somebody like Rafael Soriano on the Mariners, who is a phenomenal talent who hasn’t yet locked himself into the closer role. Once he and similar players do, they get too expensive.
Where was that from?
A young prospect may get Shields, who is healthy and would cost less to get than Eric Gagne. Though it could be another Doyle Alexander for John Smoltz type thing.
http://www.northjersey.com/page.php?qstr=eXJpcnk3ZjczN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXkxMTQmZmdiZWw3Zjd2cWVlRUV5eTY5MzA0MTImeXJpcnk3ZjcxN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXk2
Wagner is a southern and would have been a perfect cultural fit on our team. I guess he, like Todd Jones, never got that phone call, though I imagine we couldn’t afford his overrated pitching.
The Braves definitely do have a lot of the game’s top prospects — Salty, Andrus, Lerew — but they’re all struggling to start the year. It’ll probably take more than just a prospect to bring in a pitcher like Shields.
For those that forgot, our starting pitching gave up the runs in this one. Our second-best starter.
I think it might be time to think about moving Smoltz back to closer. Hudson, Thomson and Davies have pitched pretty decently in games and if HoRam gives us anything (that’s a big if) I think we can piece together a 5th starter. Sosa or James (after he comes off the DL).
Also could someone tell me what’s the deal with Anthony Lerew?? Last I read he was hurt. When I saw him last year and in spring training this year, I liked what I saw and thought he would be a great 8th inning guy. Was he hurt as a starter??
I think if we fix the bullpen we can start to get the team turned around. The Chris Reitsma closer experiment as far as I’m concerned must end right away… That pitch to Floyd last night hurt real bad….
Just got back from Shea. Some choice slurs coming from the stands…
After Chipper had a 2-0 count…”If you’re going to put him on hit him in the head!!”
When Chipper first came up to bat “When Shea gets old enough we are going to F him in the A just you’ve been doing to us!!”
They also developed a pretty funny mocking version of the Tomahawk chant that starts D’oh ohhhhhhhhh…
At times it was louder than I’ve ever heard it at Turner. I walked out with some fellow NYC Braves fans and the metropoliton chapter is as down as all of you.
Going again tomorrow. I’ll try to wear a different Braves cap for luck.
Jason,
I’ve heard it a million times. Met fans are like a school in the summertime: No class.
Good gosh, this is stressful.
This braves team isn’t built to withstand 4-run innings. That nonsense has to stop.
Jose Reyes looks like furcal (the good version). He really pisses me off.
Drastic times…
Here’s Sunday’s lineup:
Smitty
Stu
Kyle S
Jac H
Mac
Ububba
Jenny
Alex R
JC
the rest of us can fight for bullpen spots.
We’ve got to get back to .500. The Mets are bound to hit a rough spot in the next 130 games. We just need to be there when it happens.
Mac,
That lineup make you LaRoche.
Good game braves fans. I just got back from the studio and to my surprise the mets won. Even with zambrano pitching. Honestly I never saw that coming. I went back to read some past posts by some of you and you guys need a vacation, or something. I never knew I could get you all so upset by being nice. Funny really, I should put some of you down and make you look like the retards that you are but I will save it for another day. Im tired of the same old crap with some of you. I come here to talk baseball and you want to make a war out of it. Grow up please.
Anyway……Next game is another big one. I know a sweep would only hurt your team that much more so please don’t tell me it’s early and means nothing. It is huge for team moral and not having “that feeling” we as mets fans have had everytime we faced you. On the other hand a sweep my prompt your team to make a trade for some pitching help and it could prove beneficial. Im not sure who is out there for a closer as your team kinda missed the buss on that on this summer. All I know is the price will be high, all the other teams know your desperate and they will use that to their advantage in future trade discussions. Since you have plenty of offence I would think you would deal from within your strength and trade away a hitter or two. Problem is who?
As for the mets. My team simply kicks ass this year. We are going to win our division and I honestly only see the cardinals as our only true rival. If you make a trade or two the braves are right back in the mix, but as for now thats just the way its turning out. We have now beaten the braves when we needed to( something we have never, ever done) and everything just seems to be clicking for us right now. Its been a long time coming for us, its just our time. Please dont take that as me being a dick. It’s just my personal opinion.
Cheers
Dan
Now step on up and feed the troll. As some of you need someone to let out all your frustration on. I suggest anger management for some of you.I think a few of you could use it with all the angry little remarks some of you make towards me. If at the vey least you feel better by talking shit to me then fine. at least I could help in some way.
Dan
I get to hit third! Wuhoo!
Fuck you NY METS.
Am I the pitcher or do I just bat ninth? 😉
Nice, I appear to be Brian McCann. So I should be hitting higher in the order!
Okey, I made up that part about the studio. My mom grounded me for spending all my time on the computer insteed of taking a shower or gettign a job. Im back now so it’s ok.
Cheers
Dan
I didn’t crack the lineup. I’m Matt Diaz! Ewww!
Crap, I guess that makes me Pete Orr…
Okay, I’m breaking out all the Turk Wendell superstition crap I can think of. From now on, I’m tucking my pants into my socks, never stepping on any lines in the road or cracks in the pavement, changing underwear once a month, and making three right turns instead of ever turning left. If that doesn’t work, I’m prepared to change deodorant, toothbrush, and breakfast cereal brands.
Mets fans, just remember this: my name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. PREPARE TO DIE!
This loss wasn’t nearly as bad as last night, although they’re all bad at this point, I guess. There’s not much you can do about it when Hudson gives up the lead, and it’s not nearly as annoying as when the bullpen does it, in my opinion. Plus, I went everyone who thought we were gonna win after LaRoche hit the home run to raise their hands. I know I didn’t. If I had to put a percentage value on it, I would’ve said 75% chance that the Mets would at least tie it.
As far as the bullpen goes, I agree, we’re stuck to a certain extent, at least until some teams fall out of it and we can make a deal near the deadline. Nobody’s gonna be making those deals now, however. I would say June at the earliest for that. A couple years ago the Royals traded Carlos Beltran to the Astros in mid-June and I think that’s the earliest major deal I’ve seen, so unfortunately we’re probably stuck at least until then. However, that doesn’t mean we just stand pat and say, “Oh well, they suck. What are ya gonna do? Guess we have to throw them out there anyway.” First of all, you yank Reitsma out of closer spot and put someone with better stuff in there. That would be Sosa (when Ramirez comes back), Villarreal, Moylan, McBride or Ray. I realize a lot of these people have no business being the closer of a major league team, but at least their stuff is better suited to the task than Reitsma’s. I still think Sosa would be the best, but I’m not sure we can yank him from the rotation now until either James or Ramirez gets back. Until then, maybe McBride against lefties and Moylan against righties or something. If Villarreal could find the form he had in the World Baseball Classic, I’d put him over those two.
Anyway, after you do that, you go to the waiver wire and the free agent market. I realize a bunch of those people are just as washed up as the people we have, but sign a couple of them. Give them a shot. It truly cannot be any worse than what we have now, and we might even manage to find somebody who can actually pitch.
Oh, and you guys passed over Betemit pretty quickly. I guess I’ll be him if you wanna be Diaz and Orr.
I didn’t make the team? I guess that means I’m Betemit.
If we lose to a complete reject like Lima, it’s over, and I mean it.
Somebody beat me to Betemit? Now what? Am I Brian Jordan?
Either him or Todd Pratt, Dan.
We need to trade for Willy Taveras and Oliver Perez…..
Show of hands — who thinks that I should just go ahead and delete all of NY METS’ contributions?
“If we lose to a complete reject like Lima, it’s over, and I mean it.”
You may have a point there Dan. If lima time is able to get the sweep it will be a bad day for braves fans.
HANDS!
oh mac, dont be mad. You can do that if you would like to, but keep in mind it shows you cant handle any kind of criticism or the fact that for the first time in 15 years, count them 15 years you may not have the best team in the nl east. My gosh what a baby. I would have killed to have the mets be that good for 14 years. I think you and everyone else here can handle a little friendly competition.
The problem I have with our young, ALL CAPS Mets fan is that he exhibits the same kind of neediness characteristic of all internet trolls. His taunts don’t disrupt the board so much as his “Look at me!” quality does. Like some kid acting up at the dinner table. It’s more depressing than anything.
Mac,
My hand is raised.
It’s not the criticism he can’t handle, NY METS. It’s the fact that you, personally, are an asshat. Constructive discussion is great. You, however, do not provide that. All you do is harrass people and then pretend like you’re the victim. When you visit someone, do you go into their house and rearrange all their furniture and tell them their cooking sucks and how much better yours is? Because that’s what you’re doing here.
He’s been polite, but yeah, my hand is raised. He’s ban-proof anyway it seems.
Nah, leave him. its easy enough to scroll by him.
Both of my hands are raised high, if it’s not too much trouble, Mac.
My hand is raised too, Mac.
And to Jenny’s point, Terry Tate, The Office Linebacker says it best: “You can’t come into my house and kick my dog!”
JC-
yes, you’re tomorrow’s pitcher. your skills with the numbers makes you the man for the job. any offense you can provide is gravy.
sorry to anyone who didn’t make the starting line-up. there will be opportunities for everyone. and remember, bobby cox had to go to AA last year to find a spark. who knows who’s next (rob cope, dan, NMS, Miranda, latnam, dix)? we’re loaded with prospects.
now who wants to be the closer?
I closed a door once
“Kick your dog”? I dont beat down the braves, nor do I look to be a victim. Very warped views here. Funny how all of a sudden when your team is losing how you turn to me. misplaced blame will not help you. And what is all your problems. I only come here when the mets play the braves which I find perfectly relevant for me to post comments seeing how you are all braves fans and I am clearly a mets fan. We should interact as our teams are. I can tell you right now if our teams were to switch places this conversation would not be going on. You would careless what I write and would laugh as you all should be doing right now. Dan: No I can’t be banned but he can try to erase my comments if he wants to. It’s his choice. I find it truly amazing how my comments can get you all this upset. Did I say the braves suck ass? Did I talk about your mom? What would you like me to say? I love the braves, Your so much better then my shit mets, I wish we had half talent your team has? Its not going to happen. Im no ass kisser. So if thats what you want your waiting for a lost cause. Erase away if you chose to. If thats what it takes to make you feel better then go for it. But it will only be a temporary fix. Who will you blame for the braves short comings after me? At least now you can direct all that to me LOL.
Cheers
Dan
Watch, if the braves do start to win and pass the mets I can only imagine as I have already seen when I dont post that instant the braves beat the mets. “where is NY METS now?” “I wish he were here now to rub it in his face.” And countless other remarks similar to those. This has actually been written many times. Dont believe me go back and check. So basically there is no way to make you happy. Gotta love that logic huh?
Mac, you are the boss. I am skipping NY METS messages anyway. Go ahead and delete them. I still remember some people say you are wasting server space to write all those Murphy comments (which I still don’t believe how people have the heart to say such things), but I think NY METS messages are the biggest waste of server space.
My hand is raised high. This kid has problems and it brings the blog down by letting him in here.
Really, i dont know what logic is or means. You guys just wish you had signed a player in the ofseason as good as Mo Vaugn was when we had him. gotta love mo.
cheers
Dan
I believe in free speech, but this is a private blog. I’m not raising my hand but have no problem with deleting his posts if that’s what everyone wants.
I killed a guy with a trident.
Looks like I’m peter moylan. Crap.
I changed my mind. I don’t wanna be Matt Diaz. I’ll take Chuck James. The guy seems cool.
So did I understand it right that HoRam has been taken off the DL and that James has been put on it? I don’t look forward to having Ramirez back in the rotation. At least it’s better than Travis Smith being called up and pitching on Sunday. It’s a relief that Smoltz will be going tomorrow.
It’s obvious that this group of relievers isn’t going to work. We thought we would have a pretty deep bullpen coming into the season except not having a closer. As long as the bullpen is deep, the Braves can tolerate to have Reitsma as the closer. I am pretty sure that’s the plan of JS coming into this season.
However, the members of the once thought to be deep bullpen are depleting with injuries. Boyer, Devine, Foster, McBride, and Cormier are all injuried, but the Braves sit back with no adequate replacements and hope for miracles from Ken Ray and Remlinger.
Ok, I think the cases of Ray and Remlinger have worked well. However, nobody can and should possibly expect those two to carry the most important roles in the bullpen. Even back in the days of 1992 when everybody is talking about the miracle of Hammonds and Holmes, there were Smoltz and the young Remlinger to head the bullpen. The likes of Ray and the old Remlinger should be used in the less pressured situation for them to succeed.
So, it’s obvious that the plan of JS coming into the season isn’t going to work, and the Braves can’t afford to have Reitsma as the closer with a bullpen like this. It’s about this time last year when Kolb was removed as closer, so I fully expect the Braves will make some move very soon. Nobody would have guessed Farnsworth when JS traded for him last season, so I am not going to speculate on who. I am just predicting that a move should be coming. Adding that one closer and moving Sosa to the bullpen, the bullpen should be ok again with Reitsma being used in a supporting role.
This is pretty similar to the A’s a few season back having thought Arthur Rhodes would be a good closer but had to end up trading for Dotel. Ok, I can’t resist but to look for the choices…I honestly don’t see the Angels, the A’s, and the Padres will be willing to trade away Shields and Duchscherer, and Linebrink. My prediction is one out of Foulke, Williamson, and Rodney.
I’m Jason Saltalamachia.
At least I have some promise.
Foulke has always been someone i thought the braves would go after. but damn, i hope not. his fastball doesn’t break 90 and his head is all out of whack. he’s not the same pitcher he was a few years ago. we don’t want him in a braves uniform.
i know Bobby is easing Macay Mcbride back into the swing of things. i’m thankful for that. but by the all-star break, maybe he takes the spot. i really like him. last year he pitched really well in some tight situations.
Mac, I’d love to never skip past anything by that Met fan again. I don’t give a shit about freedom of speech or how polite he’s been (which is WRONG). Jenny is right–he doesn’t belong HERE disrespecting Braves fans, whether the team finishes first or last.