ESPN.com – MLB – Box Score – Braves at Reds
As usual, the Braves went out to a lead, 2-0 in the first on a homer by Andruw. And as usual, they didn’t score after that as Smoltz allowed a run in the bottom of the inning, then had a Hudson inning allowing three runs on a walk and three hits in the third.
Then they put together a sequence of extremely frustrating innings. In the sixth, Aybar singled, then Giles singled, only to have it turn into not a single (breaking a hitting streak) when Aybar forgot to touch second base like a moron. And then Renteria and Andruw walked only to have McCann pop up and Francoeur ground out. Then in the seventh, they loaded the bases again only to have Renteria ground out on the first pitch. So I’m throwing things here.
Andruw and McCann led off the eighth with singles, but I’m figuring Francoeur is going to hit into a triple play. Instead, he hit a triple. (Really it should have been a double, but I’ll let it go.) Then he scored on a LaRoche flyout, and Diaz followed with a homer, and it’s 6-4 all of the sudden. Baez went 3-2 on the first two hitters but got them both. Wickman dropped a throw to get the second hitter of the ninth but rallied to strike out the last two. Braves win, for once. McBride pitched a 1-2-3 seventh for the win.
I’m not going to put up the Doghouse though Aybar clearly deserved it. I’m also not going to complain about Francoeur swinging at a 3-0 pitch at shin level with two runners on base in the ninth. Now the Phillies.
Baez and Wickman show their stuff.
Wickman has what 5 saves? No Blown Saves.
Baez 4 appearances, no runs.
Scant amount of base runners.
Story of the game, without them no victory.
You know, this probably isn’t the place for me to complain about Atlanta’s public education system, but maybe the problem with Jeff Francouer is just that he’s country stupid.
Let’s see if Ramirez and Huddy can keep us in this race. 3-3 road trip and we know need a great home stand. If we can finally keep Jimmy Rollins and Chace Utley off the bases we will have a chance!
know = now
I would also like to take this opportunity to start a campaign to call Adam LaRoche the Braves Clipper, because his sacrifice fly was the go-ahead run, and it’s becoming increasingly clear that he constitutes the bulk of our offense right now.
Also, I think it’s kinda funny. That’s my sense of humor for you.
I knew LaRoche wa sour offense, he has *powered*(literally) most of our wins over the past 2 weeks.
When he went down I thought we were going to tank it, I was half right.
Carnell didn’t mean no harm…
The Alabama education system ain’t that far behind Georgia’s.
I happen to know that first hand.
Can Francoeur count? Does he look at the scoreboard?
Isn’t he now 1-40 wth a 3-2 count?
“….Atlanta’s public education system, but maybe the problem with Jeff Francouer is just that he’s country stupid.”
Atlanta and country don’t exactly go together.
Atlanta’s a city? I always thought it was just a pitstop for American Airflight.
“Atlanta’s a city?”
With a population of almost 4 million people, Atlanta is the 10th largest city in the United States.
For the record: I don’t live in Atlanta and never would.
pit stop for amiercan airlines? i’m confused.
The University of Georgia is in Athens which is in Clarke County which is in Georgia which is in Atlanta.
Hallelujah.
I run off the the gym in the top of the 8th & look what happens.
Francoeur’s bizarre season continues…
Utley is 10-29 vs the Braves this season, 2 HRs, scored 8 Runs, and has driven in 6 RBI in 7 games.
.340+
Rollins, Utley, and Howard vs. Hudson, Ramriez, and James.
Pray. Pray a lot.
American Airlfight, Atlanta is a heavy airtraffic, lots of airfield to go to and from.
If you want to go from Mobile to San Francisco, you first go to Atlanta.
Or you could take I-10…
Hmm….let me see, which way do I want to die, at 500mph or 70mph?
I-10 goes through Mobile through Florida etc.
Gotta go North first on the Enterstate Of Death if I want to get to Atlanta.
Hey everyone… I just got back from Florida.
Hello, Braves kind of suck.
Jay,
We looked good and fell a part while you were gone. So I don’t think it is your fault.
It’s not just an American Airline hub, but most famously a Delta hub. Selta’s spokes man is somehow Jeff Francoure
I missed alot this week…by the way what happened with the ESPN thing?
Kyle Davies is making his second rehab start tonight….
I joined the broadcast late… I went to practice pitching but in the first he threw 9 pitches… two ground outs and fly out to right. The second didn’t go as well… he gave up a double then a homer (I joined the broadcast as the ball was going over the fence)
Going into the bottom of the third now… it’s 2-1 Montgomery
This should be Kyle’s last inning…
well… in the third…
*fly out to center
*he struck out the second batter but something happend in the bullpen (since it’s Davies final inning Lerew was warming up) and he had to throw another pitch to him …and he singled on it
*groundout
*RBI double
*RBI single (thrown out in a rundown trying to get a double)
that should be it… Lerew should be coming in
FYI – Hartsfield is all about Delta. You can’t even get a direct flight to Atlanta from NYC on American—you gotta fly through Chicago. Silly, I know, but I’ve done it plenty of times.
Today’s win feels like a reprieve, but I’ll take it.
Tough outing…
3 IP 5 H 3 R 3 ER 1 K 1 HR
I always like the Braves’ chance when they face Gary Majewski…and btw, he has an ERA of over 10 since being traded to the Reds. Nice deal Krivsky!!!
Has anyone mentioned this? Shiell has been sent down and Wayne Franklin will be called up.
http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news;_ylt=AtMxdF7IXFrtvLt5.QpVSTQR0bYF?slug=ap-bravesmoves&prov=ap&type=lgns
I saw that. I wonder how Franklin will do.
kc.. Chip Caray was talking about Franklin this morning on the radio..
He was also talking about all the “great moves” that Krivsky made for the Reds. Well, Majewski is great…for our offense 😀
“by the way what happened with the ESPN thing?”
What ESPN thing?
I think he means Smitty’s job interview…
BTW, has anyone ever seen an appeal play (when they got Aybar for missing second) AFTER a pitching change? Was at the game, and thought that was pretty weird!
from Mlb.com
MMMMMM, Bobby !!not funny.
I am suppost hear from ESPN sometime in the next two weeks about it.
The Hall of Fame game is on. NBC is going to do a great job with football. Listen to this, they have decided to broadcast the game and just tell you what is happening instead of throwing stupid sound effects and terrible announcer at us. It is crazy, I don’t know what to do without space shuttles blowing up on the screan to show me the score.
Wow, is Cox willfully oblivious to the fact that Francoeur can’t hit when he needs to all that well or does he still have that walk-off granny in his mind?
Well, he also said it on the radio this morning. That Jeff is one of the best in the game with 2 outs and runners in scoring position.
Either Bobby has become blind, has very selective memory, or he just really doesn’t want to say anything negative about his players in public.
Bobby won’t say negative things in the meida. I mean it isn’t like the media would take anything he says a blow a huge ordeal about it. Nah never!
Yes, I forgot about that. They probably do know he has a problem.
I will defend Cox here, he never blasts or criticizes his players publicly and that is why they respect him and also why he gets results. If a manager rips a player publicly with the media today it becomes a feeding frenzy and is not worth it, look and Andruw Jones crying about the waivers thing, would you want a 22 year old kid with potential dealing with that?
It’s one thing not to criticize a player publicly, it’s another thing to blow smoke up the public’s ass all the time as Bobby does. Bobby may honestly believe that since I don’t he ever looks at a statistic and he always sees the glass half full. People think Ozzie Guillen is a jerk and I’m sure the players don’t like it when he criticizes them, but I sort of enjoy a manager actually being candid once in a while instead of treating fans like we are complete idiots. The Braves organization in general operates like the Defense Department, where the only information you get is canned press releases and feel good statements. I get tired of it.
Where does everyone think we stand w/ Andruw now? Have we burned the bridges or are we capable of resigning him. I bet we offer a 4yr/46-50 w/ a 5th year option and get turned down by Boras. Then we trade him in the offseason. I think its going to take $13-17 per year to keep him. Just a hunch though….
I wish we knew. There’s so much bantering in the media about this thing with Andruw. I do think we’ll offer him 4 or 5 for 12 mil a season. Although, like csg, I just doubt he or Boras will think that is good enough. I’m real conflicted about the whole thing. Andruw is one of my favorite players, so I’d hate to see him leave. However, I have to wonder if we wouldn’t be better off in the long run by trading him. We would get some tough shelf players in return. I’d also like to see us lock up McCann in the offseason or asap just like the Mets just did with Wright.
I don’t know… The Mets paid a pretty high premium to buy out two years of free agency.
How much do you think it would cost to lock up BMAC?
Hopefully we would get a hometown discount for him and Frenchy.
I love it how we just assume guys are going to give us “hometown discounts”. Chipper and Andruw did it! Everyone else will! This is Atlanta, dadgummit!
I hope they give us hometown discounts too…
My wishlist for the offseason.
Re-sign Andruw.(If we do trade him this offseason we should get ALOT back.)
Re-sign BMAC
Re-sign everyone we traded for.(Bob Wickman, Danys Baez, Willy Aybar) I would prefer both Wickman and Baez because I am tired of the rental stuff.
Sign/Trade for a proven lead-off hitter.
I understand you perfectly Marc, but we have been winning for fourteen years so I guess the system works well.
Anyone else have some offseason wishlists?
Oldtimer?
I agree it has worked well, but it gets old.
As far as Andruw, I think you have to look at not whether he is worth the money now, but whether he will be worth it at the end of the contract. If we sign him for 4 or 5 years, he will be in his mid-thirties by then; this might be a risk for a player that seems to be putting on weight and seems to be getting increasingly banged up. I think it would make more sense to give him two years with an option, but there is no way that Boras will go for that. It was one think to sign Chipper to a long contract when the team had more resources, but with the limited payroll, I don’t think they can afford to risk Andruw breaking down (either physically or in terms of performance) like Chipper has.
my wish is we dont go into next season without a solid bullpen. I dont mind a few retreads or projects, but for gods sake, have an established closer and set up guy
I’d like to trade for David Wright.
Mets locking up there young guys…David Wright 6yr 55mil w/team option for a 7th and Jose Reyes 5yr 23.25mil w/team option for a 6th.
It would be nice to sign Baez and Wickman for stability in the pen, maybe Hudson will retire and spare us another year of him throwing BP, one of our young arms proves worthy and pitches a full season for us.
I agree with Marc. Any longterm deal we sign Andruw to needs to make the assumption that he’ll be a right fielder in two or three years. His offense is still plenty good enough to carry the position, and I expect it to age well, but he won’t be a superstar.
Sign McCann to as long-term a contract as possible. Our catcher of the future.
Resign Wickman for one year, and Baez for two or three.
Give Gregor Blanco a tryout in September. Give Frenchy a trip to Virginia in 2007 if Blanco’s tryout goes well.
Extend Renteria’s contract by a couple years; he’s proven this season that he can still play at a high level.
Give Giles and Langerhans one more year to find their stroke.
This off season could be bad. I could see Bobby and JS stepping down if the new owners are what we think they might be, payrole slashers. If that happens, bye-bye Andruw and Smoltz. Next season could be our last with them.
The only AAA Frenchy is ever going to see will be durring some sort of rehab.
lol
Oh, and when he hangs out with memebers of our bullpen or we play the Pirates
Pefect player to get this offseason would be Carl Crawford. He an athlete plain and simple. He is 25 years old, he can hit and is one of the fastest players in baseball. He can play CF but is currently playing LF. I got a chance to see him play last Friday against Boston and I like what I saw. 3-4 HR and he played great defense.(he caught what could have been a grand slam running into the wall.) He is showing this year that he can hit .300 20HRs 75RBIs and 50SBs. He would solve our lead-off problem as well as our speed problems.
We really need to fix our pitching problems
Well we will have alot guys coming back from injuries. Mike Hampton, Blaine Boyer, Kyle Davies, John Foster, and Blaine Boyer. That will help some but I would like to see us get at least 1 more starter.
Wow, aren’t we the negative one, Smitty.
I thought that Liberty Media said they wouldn’t slash payroll.
For all you Dawgs fans.
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=2540966
And that’s really funny, saying that Cox will be fired by Liberty. He always has a small one-year contract, Smitty! That’s hardly a dent in the payroll! A pitcher recovering from Tommy John that we’re paying millions is!
I hope they don’t slash our payroll. Of course as everyone may know Owners tend to fib a little, so you never know.
Yes, I know I don’t know.
But saying that Cox and Schuerholz will be fired because of payroll cuts is absurd. That’s bad PR.
Hell will be raised if Bobby is fired. He is in my biased opinion the best Manager in my lifetime.
My offseason wishlist is for Mark Cuban or somebody similar to buy the team instead of Liberty so we would actually have ownership that cared about winning and understood that spending a few measly millions on one or two quality relievers would result in a much better team that would bring more fans out, increase TV ratings, and therefore increase revenues.
Barring that, I’d like to see a makeover of the starting staff. Ship Hudson to the Yankees. Ship Ramirez somewhere. Get a dominant starter in free agency and not somebody whose closest matches are pitchers who turned to crap in their early 30s. Then resign Wickman and Baez to multiyear deals. Turn over the coaching staff. Bring in a batting coach who doesn’t preach “aggressiveness” by which he means popping out on the first pitch and swinging at sliders 3 feet off the plate. Bring in a pitching coach who knows what’s he doing and won’t make every pitcher on the staff not named Smoltz worse than the previous year. Add a starting lineup coach and a late innning pitching change/pinch hitting/defensive substitution coach so those parts of the game are in the hands of somebody who has a clue and Bobby can focus on what he does best which is getting all the players to love him.
I wouldn’t mind having a Owner with the mindset of you have to spend money to make money.
“a” was supposed to be “an”
Is Wayne Franklin going to attempt to be our 5th starter or are we going back to a 4 man rotation?
They won’t ever get fired, but I could see them leaving rather then dealing with the new owners.
No no no, they won’t get fired. I am saying they are going to saty around and watch us become the Marlins, they could retire.
I think we need to let the vulture get a start and see what happens. he’s better than Cormier and Shiell…Franklin will be another reliever.
Yeah, if we let Villarreal start it will give our “starters” another day of rest and whats the worst that can happen…he’s good…
he’s not good, but he’s a better option
I wasn’t saying he is good, I was trying to say the worst thing that could happen is he turns out to be a good starter….I guess it didn’t turn out as good as it sounded in my head..
My biggest wish is to get Wickman back if he doesn’t retire. Hopefully he is enjoying his time with the Braves and won’t run back to the Indians. Baez too. No more of this “Boyer, Devine and Foster would have made our bullpen better” BS, because it still wouldn’t be any good with them. Schuerholz SURELY has it jammed into his thick skull now that you can’t go into the season with no real closer.
And someone correct me if I’m wrong but doesn’t Mike Hampton have a no trade clause and has said he’d veto any trade? I know I read that somewhere. I don’t think the Braves should trade unless you want Hudson to be the Braves’ #2 starter again. I trust Hampton.
Bobby said in some article I read that they wanted to look at Franklin and would decide whose goes down when they need another starter on the 15th.
Either Davies or Cormier will start the next time the Braves need a fifth starter.
There’s no use hoping for a free-spending personal owner. There are other people who want to buy the Braves, but it’s impossible for a cash transaction to have the benefits to TW that the Liberty Media stock swap does. The only way to kill the Liberty acquisition is for either the owners or the government to block it.
I guess Liberty will have to keep the Braves for two years to avoid taxes or paying capital gains. Is that a correct statement? If so, I think they will keep everything how it is for two years and then flip them over to Blank or someone like that. I highly doubt they change the management or payroll if they are wanting to protect their investment. I could be wrong….
I agree csg. I think if the braves are winning or in contention then they will be worth more.
Nationals send Livan Hernandez to the Diamondbacks for a couple of minor leaugers…
I thought he was pulled from the waivers?
At least the Mets didn’t get him.
Actually, we are now Met fans. If Livan Hernandez can keep his form, then maybe he will kill the D-Backs
ARZ- Livan Hernandez
WAS- RHP Garrett Mock
LHP Matt Chico
If so, I think they will keep everything how it is for two years and then flip them over to Blank or someone like that.
I think they get five years to depreciate half the purchase price, so they’ll probably be around for at least that long.
That’s true Smitty.
For the next three-four days we are fans of:
St. Louis
San Fransico
Colorado
Washington
Chicago
Those teams, along with us taking care of our own buisness, could moves us up to 3rd or 4th place
Y’know, 15 of the next 22 are at home. Why does that scare me?
Of course, if we take 15 of 22, that puts us at .500 with one month to go.
The Dodgers worry me, unless they can pass the Padres.
I am worried about the Dodgers too. I am still not sold on the Reds, D-Backs and the Phillies though. I have a good feeling that the Dodgers will win the West. That makes me happy because I have faith that we can beat the Pads over the Dodgers.
So the Dodgers traded for Betemit last Friday. Including that Friday, they’ve won every game since the trade.
Can’t argue with what we got from the trade. Aybar and Baez have been gret (save missing SECOND BASE!)
The Dodgers are about to cool way down. Kent and Nomar are about to come back. This will cause a log jam in the infield and will also ruin the chemistry of the hotter younger line-up they have been winning with.
I heard last night that they are planning to use Julio Lugo as an utility man. He won’t be happy.
I wonder if Aybar can play left.
How come?
Reds get Ryan Franklin and cash from Phillies for player to be named.
Damn the Reds’ just keep getting pitching.
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=2540966
RENTERIA!!!
Aybar has been playing well and when Chipper comes back I would like to see him leading off still. I know he isn’t moving to second and Giles doesn’t need to go back to leading off.
Aybar LF
Giles 2B
Chipper 3B
Andruw CF
McCann C
Renteria SS
LaRoche 1B
Frenchy RF
Piching machine P
Looks good Smitty.
At least the Pitching machine would throw some strikes.
Bobby seems to like BMAC and Frenchy hitting behind each other. No matter what.
It is nice to have a lefty behind Andruw, but he isn’t hitting lefties well this season (.222)!
Renteria can hit anywhere in the lineup
Aybar has been playing well and when Chipper comes back I would like to see him leading off still.
Aybar is batting .267 with 0 extra base hits and a .333 OBA since coming over. Take out the first game’s 4-4, and he is batting a smooth .154.
Woops, that should be .167 after his first game as a Brave.
Bamadan Aybar has only played 7 games with us, try giving him a little more time, we given Giley close to 100 games and he is hitting .267.
*we have given*
Aybar has walked a lot, it seems.
3 walks for us.
On line up order.
1. The Hardball Times did some great stuff on lineup order earlier this year. The 6 hole has the least need for on base percentage of any spot. SLG is the only thing that matters in that spot. It is the best spot for Frenchy, if he is playing.
2. Bobby Cox will never again stack multiple left handers (or even right handers unless it is from a “fielding position”) next to each other in a line up. That is a dead issue. If you saw and remember the 1997 post season with Chipper (before he went back and re-built his right handed swing and became and MVP) McGriff, and Klesko.
3. Way too much emphasis is placed on “the lead off hitter.” Granted, it seems to spook some of them (liek Marcus Giles, maybe). Basically, if you can get on base and somewhat work counts, then you are a fine candidate.
Atleast Marcus has a sense of humor:
Atlanta’s Marcus Giles was asked how he was able to constantly beat up on the Reds and he said with a smile, “Corked bat, steroids and I bet on games. I’m kidding, I’m kidding and I’m kidding.”
bamadan, didn’t Aybar lead off w/ a double against the Pirates and then Giles beat out a bunt to get him over to third. I know for a fact that he has at least 1 extra base hit
That’s an interesting thought to put Aybar in left, but does he have experience in the outfield? Sadly, I think he’ll go back to the bench when Chipper’s back. He is our new Betemit after all.
why leave chipper in the #3 position? He use to be a ideal #3 guy due to his power and speed, but now his speed is non-exsitant. I’d rather see him in the #5 hole and leave renteria as the #3 guy.
LF – Aybar
2B – Giles
SS – Renteria
CF – Jones
3B – Jones
C – McCann
1B – LaRoche
RF – Frenchy
seems like our best lineup.
CSG, I think the double was against the Mets.
Renty is contact hitter not a power hitter.
It was against the Pirates, and was scored a double then changed to hit-and-error, or just an error. I’m not sure which. I was writing off the play-by-play and thought it was a double, then someone corrected me in comments.
Oh, ok.
Chipper hits better in the three hole and won’t be too happy hitting 5th. Chipper has been around long enough to say where he wants to hit. Before he got hurt he was hitting well.
I would keep the 3,4,5 the way it is. Chipper Andruw McCann looks good to me.
OneEye, when Chipper is in the lineup he’s still the best hitter on the team. McCann is the only player who comes close. So you have your two best hitters hitting fifth and sixth, which makes no sense. For that matter, LaRoche has the third-best OPS on the team now, though Andruw’s OBP is higher, so let’s say he’s your fourth-best hitter, and you have him hitting seventh.
Renteria
Giles
Chipper
McCann
Andruw
LaRoche
Whoever’s in Left
Kid Popup
Pitching Machine
You know, the only real problem in the lineup is Langerhans’ inability to stay out of slumps and KJ being hurt. One of them really should be hitting in the two spot. Instead, the Braves have two righthanders at the top of the order and no lefthanders who can run at all except Langerhans when he plays.
Aybar has walked a lot, it seems.
Per 600 PAs, he’s on a pace for 55 walks.
Bamadan Aybar has only played 7 games with us, try giving him a little more time, we given Giley close to 100 games and he is hitting .267.
So in more games, Giles has done better than Aybar. And that is a reason to give Aybar more time at the top of the lineup?
Anyone wanting to play around with lineups should take a look at this generator: http://www.baseballmusings.com/cgi-bin/LineupAnalysis.py
It suggests that the ideal lineup for the Braves — assuming 2006 stats so far are real talent levels — would be:
vs. RHP
Chipper
McCann
Langerhans
LaRoche
Renteria
Fancouer
Andruw
Pitcher
Giles
The problem is that only Chipper and McCann get on base with any regularity. To best leverage their high OBA, it is important to get them up as often as possible with as few outs as possible. In the middle of the order, a slugging becomes more important and reaching base less so. The #4 and #5 hitters should be better than the #3 hitter because they will more often lead off an inning and need the blended combination of skills that the traditional lineup places in the third hole.
That’s why I really want Carl Crawford.
Cliff,
I’m not saying it’s a good idea for this team, but we stacked left-handed hitters in 1995 & that worked out pretty well.
2- Lemke (B)
3- Chipper (B)
4- McGriff (L)
5- Justice (L)
6- Klesko (L)
Klesko was the only guy who really couldn’t hit LHPs & Devereaux platooned with him some in the post-season. But at that point in their careers, McGriff & Justice were still pretty scary.
I recall the Reds loading up LHPs in the NLCS. We didn’t tear the cover off the ball, but somehow squeezed out 4 wins against 4 LHPs.
Ububba,
I agree that the left hander thing could and can work, but Bobby will not go with a lineup without alternating. Even this past weekend, it made a difference because Cincinatti was bringing in lefthanders to face one batter and then right back to righthanders.
As I remember, Justice and McGriff basically hit lefthanders for similar average to righthanders, but with significantly less power.
aybar’s avg doesnt speak for what he has done for the team. he is actually taking a lot of pitches and that’s something we cant get with giles up there. i too would like to see willy in the lineup regularly when chip comes back, but i tried to research his outfield experience and could not find his minor league defensive marks. anyone else?