ESPN.com – MLB – Box Score – Phillies at Braves
A nice debut for Jarrod Saltalamacchia, great work from the bullpen again, and Willie Harris has already produced more offense than Ryan Langerhans had all season. It all adds up to a squeaker 4-3 win that seemed strangely comfortable nonetheless.
The Braves took the lead in the first, Andruw driving in Renteria on a groundout fielder’s choice that would have been a DP had Andruw not hustled to first. They stretched it to 3-0 when Chipper doubled home KJ and Renteria with nobody out in the third, but he was stranded at second.
Chuck James was pitching behind the batters but avoiding major damage and not walking them. It all came crashing down in the sixth, with a single by Rowand, a double by the Dark Lord, and a homer by Howard, and suddenly the game was tied up. Paronto came in and walked the first man, but erased him on a double play.
This began a string of ten in a row retired by the bullpen. The Braves loaded the bases in the bottom of the inning, getting one run on a single by Harris, but Saltalamacchia was thrown out at home trying to score on a flyout.
Kali blew away the Phillies in the seventh on ten pitches, notching a strikeout. Gonzalez needed 13 pitches in the eighth, striking out the Dark Lord and Howard. Soriano closed, and allowed a two-out single but a popup to finish it. Harris made a nice catch in left on Wes Smelms’ one-out line drive.
Saltalamacchia was 0-2, but his first PA was a long drive to dead center that reached the warning track. He walked once and was hit by a pitch, and threw out the only baserunner who tried to steal on him… James threw 102 pitches, and he had to work hard. He needs to be a little more efficient. Luckily, tomorrow is an off day before the Braves In Exile (Furcal, Betemit, Seanez, and Schmidt) come to town.
Great debut, I hope we see more of him..man, he can work a count.
so…langerhans now 0 for 4 on the year for the a’s. how long before he gets to the mendoza line?
Man, do I love beatin’ me some Phillies.
my last post from the game thread, just wanted to make sure everybody who cares saw it.
http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/blog/mlb_experts/post/Five-and-Fly-A-s-shop-Harden;_ylt=AilSeGzyk_MfI1hJBMmJYSYRvLYF?urn=mlb,30852
Ok so he probably won’t be the “player consideration”, but maybe we can throw another bone or two their way and grab him.
Ryan Langerhans got traded again..to washington in exchange for Chris Snelling..i’m not shitting you.
Where in the world is…
Ryan Langerhans.
Welcome back to the NL East.
don’t know how long it’ll take Langy to get to the medoza line but he won’t do it in oakland–he just got traded to the Nats
Langerhans is back in the division/NL, I hope he doesn’t decide to hit when he plays us.
Maybe Snelling is the PTBNL and this was a con on the Notionals?
Snelling is only batting .204 this season, staggering compared to Langy. But, The Hans Device is way more mobile…I’m not sure if this is a good straight up trade. The A’s are a moneyball team, so why did they ever go for Langerhans?
For a guy who has never been traded in his life, being dealt twice in four days is incredible.
2 to 1 odds Langerhans has two hits when he plays us
Billy Beane remembered that he liked the guys that can hit and not field….not the other way around.
James: What’s the line on a cycle?
A couple of Gonzo’s pitches, like that wicked curve to Utley, made it on baseball tonight’s “That’s Nasty”
I can’t think of the last time a guy actually suited up for a team, then got traded again within a week. And I remember some short stints. Piazza with the fish, Hampton never actually playing for the fish, Homer Bush getting traded to the yankees for himself (he was the player to be named later).
on a cycle you gotta give me a little room to work with, I’d say…2 to 1 against
Anybody got a link for the Hans trade?
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/transactions
Not much there, just a note.
i have to ask again, Mark Redman Pitching, Ryan Langerhans batting, 100 official at bats, what are the stats, i mean if you think about it, its very difficult to decide!
I’ll also note that Washington is in game right now out in San Diego and Snelling is not in the lineup, so it’s hard to tell when this trade took shape.
.287/.340/.485
It’s not that difficult–Langerhans would get about 95 line-drive hits. Redman’s that bad.
That’s the Gonzalez we payed for. We are going to need that going forward.
Salty looked good at the plate, but man is he slow for a guy that young. I never dreamed he’d get thrown out at home on that play.
That was one heck of a throw though, and he is a catcher so you can’t expect too much.
It wasn’t his speed. It was his slide. He beat the throw, but his lead leg was bent and didn’t get to the plate. The credit goes to Victorino on that play. That guy has a HOSE.
All those sewed up Langerhan’s jersey’s will go to waste. I bet he never even got used to the time change. “Jet Lag Langy.”
When the MLB 07 the Show roster updates have to move you twice in one week, it’s time to reevalute.
Nah, what you’d see is lots of hit batsmen and walks.
I’m guessing Langy would probably get the better of that. The prediction by Rob seemed pretty right on to me, but he would hit at least .250 and might get as high as .300. You have to remember, Langerhans is a player in his prime who isn’t great, but at the moment is going through the most horrific streak imaginable. Redman is a washed up junkballer who just plain sucks. I’m guessing over 100, Langy would figure it out. Let’s hope we don’t have the opportunity to find out BTW.
Also, Yates and Gonzo…yowza! Yates did always seem to me to be the one guy out of our execrable bullpen last year that had the greatest potential (although admittedly, that wasn’t saying much). But sheesh, two of his last three outings have been just lights out. I don’t think any of us ever dreamed we’d eventually be seeing outings like that from him watching him last year. If he can continue pitching like that and Wickman comes back, one would need to score before the sixth inning to have a prayer in hell against us (assuming Bobby doesn’t leave the starter in too long…which he undoubtedly would).
And there’s not much you can say about Gonzo. That was so ridiculous I didn’t even yell or anything. I just laughed and shook my head.
I like our bullpen right now. Our mop-up man aren’t bad, and Paronto, Yates, Gonzalez, Soriano, and Wickman are quite the top 5 I say. Does anyone else deserve to be in that list, and I missed it?
Kick-ass. Nice win. Was out in the city tonight & missed all of it.
My cousin from Eastern Pa. is visiting NYC this weekend. He’s a big-time Phillies fan (although, I must say, he doesn’t hate himself) & I’m very glad that I’ve got the big 5-outta-6 thang hanging over him.
Thank you, JS, for a bullpen.
Word.
I missed the game too, due to the fact that we have started a weekly farmers market in our teeny-tiny little town (big fun and a lot of work), but it sounds like things are going as planned, for a change.
I’m really having a tough time not getting just plain giddy about the season. Want…to…get…so…excited…must…not…want…
another good game, i just love beating our division rivals. Salty and the pen had a real good game, but how about Willie Harris. It might be his only contribution to the team, but good job today!
Spike,
Soundpedia.com is totally great. Like a massive in-touch library where I can check out any song that I might want to hear. Nice. Now that I think about it, I think it was Smitty that posted the link to it. Anywhooo, awesome link. Thanks to whoever posted it.
I don’t know if Harris will stick around, but I really like for the Braves to have one guy who can fly. Mac’s point about Blanco is well taken.
I love it that Redman was put on the DL for an ingrown toenail. Since we got Soriano for HoRam, I wonder who the Mariners would give us for Redman- Ichiro? (-;
No offense, but the Mets are my division rival.
All day, every day.
Of course the Phillies suck rotten eggs too, so I know what you are saying.
Which is…. BRAVES RULE!!!
just a interesting stat for today…
Jeter has a hit in 57 of his last 60 games
What is the record for most games safely hit in during a season?
After hitting .343 last year, Jeter’s at .340 now. Not bad for a guy so over-rated.
I don’t think I could put him into the top 5 ahead of Paronto or Yates, but Moylan has been great ever since we made the Foster’s jokes in his first outing.
Really and truly, there’s nobody out there right now that hasn’t impressed me at least once, and made me thankful that we have a pen this year.
At this point, I just don’t know who has nastier stuff, Gonzo or Soriano.
On another note, Harrison is not long for AA:
http://www.minorleaguebaseball.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?gid=2007_05_02_msbaax_monaax_1&t=g_box&did=milb
Maybe he gets the call to Richmond after Barry’s departure….
Gonzalez is, barring injury, the Braves closer in 2008. I remember hearing Schuerholz say it. I think it’s a great idea watching these last two games.
Anyone else see the upcoming Dodger series pitching match-ups on Yahoo?
Fri, May 4 7:35 pm EDT J. Smoltz vs. B. Tomko
Sat, May 5 7:05 pm EDT T. Hudson vs. D. Lowe
Sun, May 6 1:05 pm EDT T. Hudson vs. R. Wolf
Two days of Hudson might not be a bad idea with the way he is pitching.
Yeah–that would be pretty neat. Is Davies going on Saturday or Sunday?
As reported by Matthew Cerrone, Willie Randolph may start Jorge Sosa this weekend in the Mets’ series against Arizona.
I’m afraid the Redman toenail injury isn’t a ploy. In a story up now on ajc.com, Bobby indicates he will give Redman at least one more try.
Direct quote: “I think he’s still got some pitching in him. We’ll see.”
Does he honestly think Redman’s apocalyptically bad pitching was caused by an in-grown freaking toenail? From my experience with the same condition, I can tell you that it doesn’t really interrupt your day-to-day life in any way. Occasionally it bothers you, but it doesn’t really stop you from any physical activities whatsoever. It hurts when you stub it…that’s about it. Now of course, it’s certainly possible that Redman’s was worse than mine, but I still say this is either the lamest excuse ever and Cox is falling for it hook, line and sinker, or Redman is the biggest wuss on the planet.
Might it affect him a little? Sure. But honestly speaking, how in the hell does Bobby expect for him to get anyone out on that horseshit he throws in the first place??? What great mechanical flaw was the toe causing that obviously ruined the work of this potential Cy Young award candidate? Someone (I think it was Mac) posted a link to an article several weeks ago proclaiming Redman’s pitching motion the worst in all of baseball. A healthy goddam toe ain’t gonna fix that!
We all know he will be shit-canned by June. Why don’t we just get it over with now and save ourselves the freaking headache?
How about a new Bermanism…
Jarrod from Subway Veruca SaltaEastLARalphMacchioa.
Who choose Kevin Barry? The Braves, according to David O’Brein, were considering him, Lerew and Dan Smith, and the Braves went with Barry. Why? He’s so bad no other team would even take him free via waivers last offseason. Ken Ray got a home, but not Barry.
Saltalamacchia is something special. I’d prefer to keep him (McCann is going no where, hell would freeze over before the Braves traded him or any Braves’ fan even wanted him traded). Trading him for an average pitcher (Nate Robertson) just because Redman/Davies/Barry sucks is dumb. He’s something every team wants. I don’t know what the Braves can do, have both catch, move one to first or whatever, just find a way to keep both McCann and Saltalamacchia. Just my opinion.
Speaking as someone who’s had a big toenail permanently removed (and how’s your breakfast, by the way?), I can say that an ingrown toemail can be quite painful indeed. Now, whether Redman actually has a badly ingrown toenail is another question, and shouldn’t detract from the fact that he is terrible.
Nick–I suspect that the toenail injury is Bobby’s way of talking to the press. He wanted to give Redman an alibi…that said, I would not be surprised to see Redman at least one more time.
To be perfectly fair, Dizzy Dean’s toe injury had a decisive impact on his career….so you never really know…
Otherwise, I think that Barry is a stop-gap. Lerew and Dan Smith (and Harrison) are real prospects and the Braves are being patient with their development. I have no problem with that approach. We may only need Barry or Hodges or Carlyle for a couple of months until one or more of these pitchers is truly ready.
I just hope that Barry is up to it….
Will Barry be starting? Or will he take Villarreal’s long-man role once The Vulture moves into the rotation?
Bobby said I could start, but he was drunk
What’s Latin for ‘Redman is on life support!’?
I’m fairly certain Barry is starting and Villarreal ain’t starting. I think Joe Simpson mentioned that during yesterday’s game too.
How did Renteria get driven in by Chipper & Andruw in the 1st?
I’m assuming it was someone else, but I missed most of the game…
Never mind, I can’t read. Andruw was in the 1st & Chipper drove them in in the 3rd.
I see it clearly now!
Since the Yankees season is in the toilet I guess that means that our 14 season division streak won’t be broken anytime soon.
couple of things:
(1) ingrown toenails ARE enough to affect you. as a pitcher you pivot and push off with your foot, the majority of the pressure ends up on your big toe as you rotate, push, and land. If it’s bad enough to have surgery and remove it (not just fix it yourself) then it’s likely it was throbbing with every pitch, which would result in altering the delivery to lessen the pain.
that said, I don’t think methodman is worth a crap.
(2) The Braves called up Barry because–
(a) They want him in the pen. Putting Harrison and Lerew somewhere other than SP is detrimental to their development
(b) the braves didn’t want to start their ML service time (which would mean they lower their # of options and hasten their trip to free agency/arbitration).
since this is a temporary move while Wick recovers/attends the grand opening of every new Krispy Kreme location in the SE, they did’t want to wase either on a 20 game assignment.
I apologize in advance for not pointing this out earlier, but ‘Bama gymnastics failed to make the Super Six in gymnastics and has been eliminated from their pursuit of a national title.
I guess that just leaves “Rock, Paper, Scissors”
——————————-
Some have been wondering what excuse Bobby will come up for when, if ever, Redman comes back to pitch again and stinks miserably. My guess? “Mark’s a good pitcher, he just had a bad case of gingivitis tonight and that slowed him down”
I think “ingrown toenail” is bobby’s nickname for redman.
I think they should have brought up Smith. I can only assume it has something to do with the arbitration/waiver/free agency rules that I’ve never taken the time to understand.
I think we keep Salty. Though, I think his presence in Atlanta is as subtle as having Rod Roddy (post-humously) announce “Come On Down!!!” every time he bats.
I’m just excited because Vandy Baseball comes to Athens this weekend and I get to watch David Price pitch tomorrow night.
The thing that I noticed about Salty is that he didn’t look overmatched. Good patience and smooth mechanics. Can’t blame the kid for the play at the plate. That was a heck of a throw from RF.
I sure hope that we don’t trade him unless we get some stud young pitcher in the deal. He is a keeper.
I think they mean the National League’s toenail has been ingrown in Redman’s hind parts all season 🙂
Don’t know if anyone’s seen this, but Langerhans was actually the starting center fielder for the Oakland A’s last night in their loss to Josh Beckett and the BoSox. Here’s his line:
AB R H RBI BB K LOB AVG
R Langerhans CF 2 0 0 0 1 0 1 .000
The more things change, the more they stay the same, ya?
(That might be hard to read. It says that he went 0 for 2 with a walk and one man left on base. His AL batting average for all time will likely remain .000.)
So Langerhans is returning to the league where his batting average is better. What’s surprising about that?
While we’re–ok, I’m–on the topic, how about a David Price update?
90.1 IP
2.69 ERA
8-0 W-L
135/22 K/BB (!)
0.92 WHIP
Go ‘Dores.
Johnny, What do you expect we’d do with him if he’s a keeper? He’s not fast enough to play LF? Thorman looks pretty good at 1B. He might be worth the trade b/c we could get a good SP and a LF for him later in the year.
Here’s the official MLB story on the sequel to the Langerhans trade, from here on titled, “Langerhans Strikes Back.”
http://washington.nationals.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20070502&content_id=1943606&vkey=news_was&fext=.jsp&c_id=was
It’s complete with a nice picture of Langerhans in an A’s uniform for anyone who scrapbooks.
Langy’s reaction to being traded again…
“I’m excited about joining the Nationals,” Langerhans said via phone. “I was getting to know the players in Oakland. They are good guys, and I’m going to join good guys in Washington.”
Obviously the A’s didn’t feel the same way, at least not Dan Johnson, here’s his take on Ryan Langerhans…
“We just borrowed him for awhile, he was like a lease.”
Wow, that’s actually kind of cruel.
can thorman play left? He was a 3B originally?
maybe elijah dukes from Tampa for Glenn Hubbard b/c someone has to teach Upton how to play second eventually.
More key points from article:
“Langerhans, who is out of Minor League options, is expected to make $410,000 this season.”
That’s about 125,000 thousand per hit.
“For the season, the left-handed-hitting Langerhans, 27, is a combined 3-for-46 with one RBI.”
And at least Langy started in center for the A’s, but it reads that the Nats want to improve their defense by putting The Hans on the bench.
“General manager Jim Bowden said he made the deal to improve the team’s defense. The Nationals are last in the National League in that department. Langerhans is expected to be one of the club’s reserve outfielders.”
By the way, here’s some vintage LaRoche from the ESPN recap of the Cubs game:
“Jacque Jones doubled and scored an insurance run with some heads-up baserunning in the eighth. Rocky Cherry (1-1) got two outs in the sixth for the win.
As Matt Murton beat the throw on a two-out single to third baseman Jose Bautista, Jones kept running and scored before first baseman Adam LaRoche realized Jones had not stopped at third.”
ummm…..
“I’ve hit the ball hard, but the hits haven’t been falling,” Langerhans said.
I am thinking Salty need to learn first base. He has the size and from the swings he took we would be stupid to get rid of him.
How long will it take for him to learn 1B. We wouldn’t want him to learn on the job in Atlanta would we?
I think I’d favor a trade. His value is as a catcher who can hit. We’ve got that already. So we could trade him for a LF who can hit about as well and actually play decent defense, and maybe get a pitching prospect thrown in.
Smitty, not a bad idea.
I’m going to ask what, I’m sure, is a very stupid question…
Why did Salty slide into home? He beat the ball there, so the catcher can’t block the plate. Why slow yourself down? Just keep running. You don’t slide into first base…
KJ learned how to play 2B at an All-Star level in a short time, I’m sure it wouldn’t be hard to teach Salty how to play 1st. Can you imagine that line-up…
2B Johnson
SS Renteria
3B Jones
CF Jones
C McCann
RF Francoeur
LF Thorman
1B Saltalamacchia
I think that should be our priority this winter: Moving Salty
I too would like to see Salty at 1B. I’m just not sold on how great of a pitcher we would get for him. If it’s someone of Bonderman’s level, then we keep him.
Either way this winter will be the time the decision is made for good. We’ll either see him working at 1B or traded at the winter meetings. If we lose Andruw, I think Salty immediately helps us replace some of the slugging we’ll loose.
*loose* should be lose
They shoulda just had some fun with it and put Redman on the DL for “inability to pitch” or “inability to stop sucking” or “inability to keep his ERA under 10”.
How’s Salty’s mobility? Maybe move Kelly to short (once his arm strength is back) and Salty to second (hey, it worked for Craig Biggio)
@66 Thought I said if we could get a pitcher to trade him. Anyway the short answer would play either him or McCann at first. Thorman, and this is assuming that Scott’s April is legit can play left. I actually thought that Thor looked better defensively in left than KJ did.
My fear is that the Braves will do something dumb and trade Salty for a left fielder.
I’m just going to assume that comment about moving Salty to second was a joke.
I don’t think I’ve heard anybody mention this yet, but who says we have to keep Thorman. He’s certainly tradeable, especially if he has a good year this year.
Why does moving him to first make more sense?
I like Salty as much as anybody, but we have two young catchers and gaping holes in the rotation and in LF.
personally I like my suggestion of getting Miggy Cabrera and a pitcher for Salty and the pu pu platter
I think it’s a cheap shot to jump on Langerhans when he is down. I don’t recall people criticizing him a couple of years ago when he got a hit in the 9th to beat the Mets. Ok, he isn’t a very good player, but there seems to be a lot of schadenfreud here about his struggles.