ESPN.com – MLB – Box Score – Padres at Braves
Another one of those games where the Braves decided not to show up. They had only three hits, only two in the first seven innings. Both of those were by Chris Woodward, whom for some reason Bobby has decided needs more playing time, this time in Renteria’s cement shoes. Their only other hit was by Willie Harris in the eighth. Down two runs in the seventh and eighth innings, the Braves each time let a reliever get through on eight pitches. Hoffman needed all of ten for the ninth.
Oh, and Chuck James was awful. He wasn’t so bad the first couple of innings, though he allowed a solo homer leading off the second. He couldn’t finish the fourth, leaving down 2-0 with 94 pitches thrown, only 54 strikes. His control was terrible, though he managed to walk “only” four.
Villarreal got out of Chuck’s jam that inning but gave up an unearned run in the fifth when Woodward tried to turn an unturnable 3-6-1 double play. Woodward redeemed himself with a triple in the bottom of the inning that cut it to 3-2, but the even more useless Pete Orr struck out with a chance to drive in the tying run with a fly out, and the Braves essentially never threatened from there. Paronto walked in a run to make it 4-2.
To give you some idea, Chris Young, a 6-10 pitcher, was walked twice and hit by a pitch. I don’t know that that’s ever happened before. Very rarely do you see a supposedly competitive game this one-sided, but the Braves didn’t look like a major league team. The only guys who played well were Woodward and Harris, who probably should both be in Richmond. Andruw is trying to pull everything, and not to sound like Joe Simpson, you have to hit some pitches to the opposite field or you’ll wind up with a lot of 6-3 and 5-3 putouts.
Time to root against the Mets in San Fran.
The Braves were really sleepwalking tonight. They’re going to need to try to get the next three, but Lerew is a real wildcard.
I don’t know about you guys, but I’m getting a little tired of the mediocrity of late. We’ve played .500 ball since getting out of the gates at 7 and 1 and can’t seem to break out of the win one-lose one cycle. It’s amazing how flat this team can look on certain nights.
Lets hope Barry does well on Tuesday….
The Braves site lists Lerew as the starter for tomorrow night.
http://atlanta.braves.mlb.com/news/probable_pitchers.jsp?c_id=atl
Cox says Lerew.
Nice find Leah, hopefully he can pitch well and earn himself a few more starts.
If he pithces well, I don’t see why we shouldn’t put him in the 5 spot at least for a little while to see how he does. I don’t think it could hurt considering the former guy in his spot.
Orr should have bought himself an all expense paid trip to the capital of Virginia. We really only need one of him and Harris, because their skill sets are so similar (some average, some patience, zero power, lotsa speed, ability to play 2B).
As I mentioned earlier, I had a feeling Lerew would be the starter tomorrow (no inside info though). It’s amazing to see how some top prospects have turned around an awful 2006 season. Lerew has been almost unhittable at Richmond after struggling big-time last year and Salty also had a bad year last year. I know injuries played a big part in things, but it makes me feel better about guys like Willie Harris and their ability to revive their careers.
I don’t think calling up Lerew is a good idea. He does have a 5/1 K/HBP ratio working.
Free Joe Winkelsas
Good point about Harris and Orr, Mac. They basically have similar skill sets, but Harris should be up over Orr. Harris can play more positions.
I know it’s hip and puts you in the “in crowd” of Braves Journal to make fun of the announcers, but the idea of hitting the other is very true. Andruw has hit all of one flippin’ base hit to the opposite field this year (if you call center the “opposite field”), and he’s hitting .229. You see a correlation there? We love to praise Andruw when his ugly swing ropes a ball down the lane or crushes a ball into the left field seats, but his approach does not help the Braves win baseball games right now. His line is .229/.376/.457, and he wants $18M a year? Please. The best hitters in baseball hit to all fields.
Oscar Perez & the Mets having a meltdown inning in the 5th. Already down 2-1, Easley fumbles a 2-out grounder & Green drops another fly ball—Aurelia follows with a 3-run HR. It’s now 6-1 SF.
Oscar, hah.
“Oliver, Oliver…”
Benji Molina hits his second HR of the inning (the first was bogus), but it’s a 3-run shot and the Giants have scored 9 runs in the inning.
Go to bed now, it’s 9-1 Giants.
If the phrase, “Where were you when Sid slid?” means something to you, then you might like this YouTube montage I stumbled upon.
It’s a highlight reel of the 1991 season (I completely forgot about Ron Gant for some reason) that ends with Sid’s slide. It might hold you off until the Braves start playing better ball. The link is below. Night all.
Thanks Kyle. I saw that a couple weeks ago looking for Sid’s Slide. And speaking of which, two things about Barry Bonds:
What a TERRIBLE arm that guy has. I’m not one of those “I could do better than that” baseball players, but I swear I could have thrown Sid Bream out at the plate there. He was just barely rounding third, Barry was at medium depth, and he couldn’t hit one of the slowest runners in the league. I heard stories about how Barry Bonds when he was at Arizona State wouldn’t throw to the plate on close plays because the scouts would see that his arm sucked.
I was also watching Rookie of the Year today (I don’t know why) and they show a spot where Pedro Guerrero, Bobby Bonilla, and Barry Bonds whiff on Rowengartner’s fastball. Barry looked SO SMALL! I mean, he didn’t even look like the guy that we’re watching today. Like, seriously, he looks like a different person. I couldn’t believe it!
Rob – I agree on all fronts. That’s probably why Bonds “bulked up,” he was struck out by a ten year old.
I also want to add that Otis Nixon’s catch is in that clip, and it often gets overshadowed. I know Andruw is Andruw, but Nixon’s catch will always be THE catch.
Mets are toast. Braves in first for another day.
Saw that video recently also. I never get tired of watching Francisco Cabrera.
Although I’ll never feel sorry for the Pirates, it’s interesting to note that the Cabrera game in ’92 was the second time the Bucs entered the final inning of an ultimate NLCS game with the lead only to lose in dramatic fashion. They coughed it up in 1972 also (to Cincy) on a Bob Moose wild pitch.
Going back to Rob’s observation about Barry Bonds, I recently saw the Dire Straits video “Walk of Life” which came out in 1985-86 and it had a little bit of Roger Clemens footage. He is also much smaller and looking like a different person….
umm Barry was a pretty good CF and a very good LF. As for how good he was,
see seassons , 92-97
I forget who it is on here who advocates Andruw trying to pull everything, but this is an example of why that doesn’t work. He will never hit an outside pitch swinging like this…and guess where pitchers will be pitching to him? I’m not suggesting Pendleton turn Andruw into an all-fields in all situations hitter like himself (which seemed to be the issue, as I recall), but Andruw has at least got to be able to drive the outside pitch to right-center. If he doesn’t, we’re looking at a .220 batting average, at best, with 30 homers, at best. Just because he drives the outside pitch to right center isn’t going to take away any of his power. I’m not advocating him punching the ball through the infield, necessarily, but even Bonds and Howard can drive the ball to left center. Legitimate power hitters must be able to do this or they will suck…very badly.
I agree with J.C.–I am not that keen to call up Lerew at this point. I would have been more conservative because I believe that Lerew has become again a credible prospect and think that a little more time at Richmond would have been beneficial. I really hope that I am wrong….
Otherwise, Harrison got pretty hard last night, but his season’s stats are still pretty impressive. Given our starting pitching, I would not be surprised if Harrison gets a phone call and ticket to Atlanta in the near future….
I’m a big believer that hitters have different styles, and what works for some doesn’t work for others. “Going the other way” isn’t that simple. If improving through changing your hitting style was matter of taking some simple advice, Joe Simpson would have had a much better career.
AJ is a pull hitter. He can’t hit to the opposite field, nor should he try. Go look at the data at MLB.com. Right field is littered with outs, left field is covered with hits. When he lays off the outside pitch is when he gets things going.
Free Joe Winkelsas.
Good news: EVERY NL East team lost.
The bad news, of course, is if the Braves won, they’d have gotten a game on everybody.
Chad Paronto should not be hitting people on purpose if he can turn around and get the next guy out.
“Chad Paronto should not be hitting people on purpose if he can turn around and get the next guy out.”
can=can’t
As much as I’ll miss his defense, I’m not sure losing him will be the worst thing ever. He sure isn’t batting cleanup right now.
If Cox wasn’t so loyal, I’d think Andruw Jones was on the edge of losing that #4 spot. Pitchers are just throwing around Chipper now.
I agree Dan. It definetly says something when you intentionally walk a batter to pitch to the cleanup spot.
The question is, where else do you put him?
Keep in mind it’s just early May. At the end of the year, Andruw’s numbers should be in line with what he’s done the last few years.
That said, I can see a good case for moving McCann to the 4 spot. Having your four best hitters in a row at the top of your lineup should give you your best chance of scoring runs.
For that matter, you could even argue that Andruw should hit behind Francoeur right now, although Andruw is still a lot better at getting on base than Jeff.
Andruw has always been one of my favorite players while simultaneously making me pull my hair out at times. I’ve said it before, all you have to do with Andruw is throw him junk. Especially junk on the outside. He will pull off of it every time. That said, he will end the season with 40 hr and 130 rbi. Of course his average will be approaching the 250 mark, which always makes me cringe a little.
Andruw will get out of this funk, probably around the time Chipper gets hurt.
To borrow for O’Brien’s blog:
The ‘Druw Jones Index is at .220 and falling fast. Sell now.
Shut up, Smitty.
$18 million for a guy who is a dead-pull hitter and strikes out on garbage. Amazing.
We’re not trading Andruw unless we have another June-2006-like fall-off.
If we’re gonna end up with a record that gets us into the post-season, Andruw’s gonna be in the middle of it. Don’t worry about Andruw.
Just look at his history. He has long, pronounced slumps followed by blazing, hot streaks. He ends up hitting .265 with a lotta HRs, RBIs & Ks. Every year.
Even at Andruw’s best, he’s not worth $18M. He’s a great power hitter, but he’s really not a good enough hitter to make $18M per. Plus his defense is slipping.
I’d love to get a $5M per, Mike Cameron-type centerfielder. A guy with good power, good defense, and good speed. There’s no sense in paying for a .290/.310 BA and 50 HRs with our offense. Plus, Francouer is an above-average RF and whoever is in LF should atleast be average, meaning we don’t need a lights-out centerfielder. Now, if we had Klesko in LF and Sheffield in RF, that would be a different story.
Rob,
Not to bring up this whole thing again…but how can you say Andruw’s defense is slipping, yet you defend Renty’s defense?
As far as I know, Andruw is still saving runs by both running down balls effortlessly and making runners think twice about trying to take an extra base by reputation alone.
Jay,
Because of perception. The perception, atleast with most, is that Andruw is still the amazing defensive centerfielder that he was in the late 90’s-early 00’s. Renteria’s perception, atleast with most, is that he’s a strain on the defense, he’s terribly below-average defensively, and he’s hemorrhaging runs by the barrel-full. Neither of those is the case, so while I downgrade Andruw’s “Willie Mays” perception, I elevate Renteria’s “cement shoes” perception.
I’m not putting them at all together with that statement. Renteria is average. He’s not a good defender, but he’s also not a bad defender. Andruw is not who he used to be, but his reputation has not caught up with his actual value.
Rob,
I agree with you that Andruw’s slipped some (though I still think he’s a fine CFer), but if Renteria’s “average,” who is “below average”?
Renteria’s gotten pretty bad defensively, dude.
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/baseball/mlb/05/07/injured.mets.fan.ap/index.html
The Mets are struggling to get the monkey off their back it appears.
Jessee Jackson needs to die in a fire.
Let’s not go there.
Doublethat.
I’m really not sure I get your statistic, JC. Right field is littered with outs because he never tries to hit the ball there. I haven’t seen it since the last time we had this discussion, but on your little chart you had in your write-up on the subject, I seem to remember that there were like four balls hit over there total, so most of those were probably little bloops that he accidentally hit that way. Two years ago when he was tearing it up, he was driving the ball to all fields, and it was the best year of his career. Even hitters who have the over shift played on them because they never hit a ground ball to the opposite field are able to drive the outside pitch the opposite way occasionally. And Andruw doesn’t even have the over shift played against him (because of that year when he was hitting the ball everywhere). There is not a seriously-feared power hitter in this league who cannot hit the outside pitch…and it is impossible to hit the outside pitch unless you can drive it the opposite way.
Plus, I might add, you say if he hits the ball the opposite way, he’ll make outs. I don’t see how that’s any worse than what’s happening now.
Andruw has never driven the ball to all fields. When he struggles, people start to complain about it and when he’s hot, people never complain about it. The only real difference is that Andruw’s not squaring up the ball and driving it up the middle (his opposite field).
http://www.sabernomics.com/sabernomics/index.php/2005/06/the-myth-of-andruw-jones-and-the-other-way/
As usual, JC’s got my back without even knowing it.
By the way, Renty was out of the lineup because of “a touch of the flu,” according to the British Bobby Cox. Sounds to me like someone got drunk Sunday night.
Two years ago when he was tearing it up, he was driving the ball to all fields, and it was the best year of his career.
I’m looking at Andruw’s hitting chart for 2005 at mlb.com and it just doesn’t bear out this assertion. Virtually all his hits are to left and center. In my opinion, if Andruw needs to change anything it should be his cartoonishly wide stance that causes him to fall down, even on check swings. But I’m with Ububba–he’ll come around like always.
Deadspin on Bobby closing in on the all-time ejections record.
http://deadspin.com/sports/take-the-rest-of-the-night-off/bobby-cox-likes-to-leave-early-sometimes-258632.php
Stu,
Range-wise, probably no one. He’s probably at the bottom or very near. But on arm and hands, he’s up there. There’s a TON of shortstops without his arm. Just watch him and others.
I think we think Furcal’s ridiculously strong, Shawon Dunston-type arm isn’t the absolute best for shortstop arms. It seems like we expect Renteria, who makes half of Furcal’s salary, to not only match his offense (which he does), but also match his range and arm. Furcal’s a near Gold Glover, and we can’t get over that when looking at Renteria.
Renteria has a noodle arm. Do you ever recall him throwing someone out at first from the hole? I don’t.
As for Andruw’s approach, JC’s comment “I’m a big believer that hitters have different styles, and what works for some doesn’t work for others” isn’t a very valid thing to say about Andruw. Andruw hasn’t hit .270 since 2003, so his approach isn’t exactly working. His ability to crush 35-50 mistakes to left field is his approach. That doesn’t make him much of a hitter. Now, he does have a good eye, but he still K’s 120 times a year. Andruw Jones is a mistake hitter who has used his 50 HR year in 2005 to be able to skirt by with having a mediocre BA. Andruw wouldn’t lose his ability to hit 30 doubles and 35-50 HRs a year if he started to be able to handle the outside pitch.
As for his defense, that’s another story. He’s still one of if not the game’s best out there.
Umm, actually yes I do, Mr. Swings @ Everything. He’s made a ton of good plays with his arm. Now, people will say the reason he has to make those plays in the hole like that are because he doesn’t get there in time because he’s slow, but at the end of the day, he does have a good enough arm to make the plays from the hole.
Also, I don’t recall Renteria ever really throwing a ball away. I’m sure it’s happened at some point in the last year, but his arm seems to be extremely accurate. I agree with Rob on this one. Furcal is one of the best defensive shortstops in the game. Comparing his successor to him is patently unfair. And if anyone says they wouldn’t rather have Edgar batting than Furcal, they’re not being honest with themselves.
Whoops…double negative. You know what I mean.
On the bright side, maybe Andruw is giving us the hometown discount with his numbers. Maybe he’ll re-sign with the Braves cause no other team is willing to pay $18mil for a .230 hitter on the decline.
i’m being very honest with myself, and i would rather have furcal in our lineup than renteria. i like renteria’s stick, but furcal’s numbers arent too far off from renteria’s, and furcal has obviously better speed.
32 9 15 63 291 73 98 37 13 .369 .445 .300
40 2 14 70 261 62 89 17 6 .361 .436 .293
2b 3b
didnt finish my post. sorry. 2006 stats compared. top is renty
32 9 15 63 291 73 98 37 13 .369 .445 .300
40 2 14 70 261 62 89 17 6 .361 .436 .293
2b3b hr rbi tb bb k s cs obp slg avg
pretty much the same… except furcal has 20 more stolen bases and 13 more runs.
Orr was safe.
Renty!