MLB – Atlanta Braves/Pittsburgh Pirates Box Score Sunday May 13, 2007 – Yahoo! Sports
This was not actually as bad as it looks, though it was very bad, especially considering that it was only the Pirates. Braves pitchers allowed every leadoff man to reach base, and 25 Pirates in all reached. A lot of those were against the back of the bullpen, in one of Bobby’s “I am not going to use a real reliever” specials. We finally found out what the situation is for Kevin Barry to get a chance to pitch, though.
Tony Lerew did not pitch well but was better than Villarreal or Barry, and did not get a lot of help from his defense. He walked the first three leadoff men, allowing two of those to score. It was 2-0 entering the fourth when the first two men singled, then whatever pecan-sized organ PTG Orr uses for a brain caused him to throw a bunt into left field, allowing both to score and let the Pirates break the game open. It was 5-0 when Moylan finally came in to put out the fire.
The Braves answered back with two runs in the fifth, and actually got the tying run to the plate after Willie Harris doubled again, but that was all they’d get. It had to be a little dispiriting too, when Villarreal allowed three runs in the sixth, his second inning of work. Bobby then threw in the towel. “The Towel” should probably be Kevin Barry’s new nickname. He allowed five runs on six hits and two walks over the last two innings. He did strike out four, so I guess that’s a positive.
Chipper was still out and McCann took the day off. The Braves had seven hits, two by Harris. Andruw struck out three times, so of course it’s all his fault.
Does this mean you’ll have to write-up Kevin Barry now?
At least the Nationals are next.
Awful game…
Ok, this is not related to the game..but it’s still somewhat Braves related.
I was wondering if any of the ppl that post here and that are “bloggers”…would like to make a guest post on my site.
Details are a href=”http://www.blowncoverage.com/2007/05/looking-for-guest-authors.html”>here if any are interested.
Ok Mac, I will stop spamming now. Don’t ban me pls…
here
Should remember to open that tag next time
Davey asked me to fix his link cause he left.
If you are interested, here are the details.
And if you want to contact him another way, here’s an email address.
davey@blowncoverage.com
Hopefully that worked.
Yes…awful game indeed but I can say for certain that PNC is a gorgeous stadium and there were lotsa odf Braves fans there with us.
They left early too.
Miserable game. I do enjoy a nice Willie Harris double, though.
Well, I guess we now know why Kevin Barry hasn’t been pitching (not that we didn’t already). I like “The Towel” as a nickname for him. Too bad he won’t get in another game to give us the chance to use it.
I can see Bobby going with The Vulture when we were down 5-0 and The Towel when we were down by however the hell much we were down by at that point (8-2, I think). But I am a little perplexed as to why he didn’t use an actual reliever after we had brought it back to 5-2. Although, to be fair, we have been overworking all of our real relievers recently (with the exception of Moylan, who had already pitched). Even so, I would’ve been awfully tempted to put Yates or Paronto in in the sixth and at least see if we could make a comeback.
As far as Lerew goes, yes he was bad, but I think we now see the change for the better between him and Redman. You expect your fifth starter to have a bad outing occasionally (maybe even 40-50 percent of the time), but the point is that with Lerew, it’s 2-0 for almost half the game and even at the point which he implodes, it’s still just 5-0. With Redman, it’s 5-0 after two freaking innings.
Also, if Orr wasn’t an idiot it’s probably just 3-0.
Orr is a defensive liability anywhere, including 2B. What is the latest status on Aybar?
“What is the latest status on Aybar?”
0.150
Zing!!!
One has to wonder how Orr and Woodward still collect a paycheck in the bigs. Barry was as bad as we thought, and while Lerew wasn’t stellar he wasn’t that bad. I’ve never seen him pitch before, but his motion to the plate looks really stiff and abbreviated. I hope he can work that out.
Maybe “The Towel” shouldn’t be Barry’s nickname. Maybe it should be his role. Whoever the last man in the bullpen is, the guy who only pitches when the team is getting blown out. You have your closer, your setup man, your LOOGY, your middle relievers and long relievers — and the towel.
You’re pre-ordained to win 54 & lose 54. It’s what you do with the other 54 that matters. This was one of the 54 you’re gonna lose.
Next.
Still, it was a good weekend. We got 2 good starts from guys not named Hudson or Smoltz. Bring on the Nats—and they do get to see No. 15 & No. 29.
Don’t we still have guys in Richmond and Double AA better then Barry?
Well, the Notionals are Not likely to win 54. Actually, they’ve got a real chance at losing 115 games or so.
Barry was pitching well in AAA. He had been on the bullpen bench for almost two weeks and frankly it’s not surprising that he pitched poorly. Not that he has much of a future.
Barry will be gone by Tuesday when Wickman comes back. I think he was basically called up indeed for situation like today. So, we should be happy to see Barry NOT pitching. The guy is 29 years old now, and the Braves seem to have no plan for him. Poor guy.
…I forgot to mention…I hate Oliver Perez and good job by HoRo today.
…and the Mets stole five bases today…has Estrada gotten this bad defensively?
Lerew may be an improvement over Redman but this game should silence the “Free Lerew” crowd. Lerew doesn’t have a strong claim to be in the show (though he might still develop)–he’s just less bad than the noodle-armed lefty he replaced.
And what gives with keeping Barry and dumping Colyer? Colyer’s nothing special (no “Free Colyer” crusade here) but where’s the gain with keeping Barry?
I’ll join in the piling on Orr–he’s rotten. L’il Tony or Betemit would be better. Of course it’s all an excuse to get L’il JS his big league cameo.
Ha ha, very funny, Frank.
The nepotism act is getting so old it’s starting to smell.
I suspect Betemit will be available cheap very soon (i.e. when LA trades for a 3b).
Nah, they’ll just go with Andy LaRoche, who has been playing regularly the last week.
Then even sooner.
Mark Redman was suppose to pitch today for the Richmond Braves in a rehab start. The game was suppose to start at 5:00 EDT. I wonder how he did.
Nats are an exception. They’re on a 52-win pace. So they’ll lose all the 54, plus a couple more. I’d like to contribute 3 or 4 this week.
It was HoRam the Good in Seattle today. Had the Yanks off balance & lunging at everything. I think he had 1 K. Typical.
The Yankees radio announcer, Suzyn Waldman, was trying to explain the Yanks recent hitting funk & said, “OK, Jared Washburn pitches a good game [a 3-0 shutout Friday] and you can accept that, but Horacio Ramirez? He’s been getting lit up by everyone in the league!”
Guess she’s forgetting that gem HoRam spun in the Bronx last summer. Could be he’s just got the Yanks’ number.
Redman in Richmond’s 8-1 win:
5.2 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 6 Ks.
Question:
If Ian Snell reached on an error, why is the run he later came around to score counted as earned against Lerew?
Maybe we can give them Aybar back and a Dannys Baez baseball card for Betemit.
Hopefully Lerew was just trying too hard with all his people in the stands. Colyer should have never been picked up, and Barry should start looking for a realestate job somewhere cuz the MLB is not calling. Redman will get a couple more shots then will be released.
We need to get rid of Orr and Woody and maybe Wilson. Yes they’re vets but they’ve hardly been clutch. They are easy outs for the most part and below average in the field, let the kids play and cut a little payroll.
My biggest concern now is getting the offense going for the the BoSox and Mets series.
beedee,
We have four games against Washington. I think that will be a good-enough tuneup.
Maybe while they’re in Washington, someone can buzz down to Richmond and kneecap Redman, just so nobody gets any ideas.
Then we’d be stuck with Tony, who might do bad again.
Wilson has a bit more of a track record than Orr and Woodward – I’d give him a while longer.
Either Lerew or Redman (highly doubtful he’ll be ready that soon) is starting that first game against Boston.
Lerew’s start today wasn’t great, but it was fifth starter material and was better than pretty much anything Redman would do or has done this season.
The only thing Redman did good this year was that 7IP and 3ER game against the Cubs. And the Braves still lost.
I think it’s too early to add Wilson to the Orr/Woodward/Redman “useless” camp.
My 2 Cents. . .
Wilson > Woodman > Orr > Redman . . .
In Orr’s defense today, Edgar could have cought that throw, it was exactly terrible.
And Lerew has pitched OK for a 5th starter. Much better than Redman, at lease he isn’t throwing BP. The Pirates just got some seeing eye hits today, Lerew wasn’t exactly getting tagged.
Any thoughts?
caught* not cought.
and “wasn’t exactly terrible.” not “was.”
Sorry, I should really working on the whole proof reading thing. My apologies
Lerew’s gonna have to pitch drunk & wearing an eyepatch before, I believe, he approaches Redman Territory. However, he was not good today by any standard.
Just to give early warning: Redman was strong at Richmond last night and so it looks like he will get back to Atlanta pretty soon.
http://www.minorleaguebaseball.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?gid=2007_05_13_ricaaa_dubaaa_1&t=g_box&did=milb
I would like to believe that Lerew’s performance (in many worse than Barry’s–Mac is right he had not pitched in 10 days or so) was an isolated incident, but there is no real empirical evidence at this point to suggest that last night’s game was the aberration and not the nice game he pitched in Atlanta.
It would not surprise me to see that a normal Lerew start is somewhere between the two games–which might must be good enough to be a #5 starter….
Any news on the PTBNL from the Langerhans trade? Here’s hoping it might an alternative to Redman and Lerew. I’m also wondering if it might be Dan Meyer–who went to the A’s in the Hudson deal–though he might not be an upgrade.
Yeah–Meyer would be an interesting choice as would Charles Thomas–if he is still available. I have not heard anything though about the PTBNL….
BTW, did anyone notice Danys Baez’s contribution to the O’s meltdown yesterday? Glad he went where he could get a chance to close!? (He didn’t.) Good riddance.
FWIW, the PTBNL isn’t going to be anyone of consequence. So while Thomas might be a reasonable suggestion (except, why on EARTH would Atlanta want him?), Meyer probably isn’t coming back.
Thomas is long gone. Meyer is pitching well in AAA and the A’s won’t give him up. There’s speculation that it will be Brad Halsey.
oh please, please….
Halsey would be great for the Hans trade. Actually a used jock strap would have sufficed, but a young lefty is suitable. Of course until this is announced I’m expecting Beane to just pretend the trade didn’t happen. With the way Harris has played, maybe JS will forget about LangerHans.
Chucky T is with the Brewers somewhere.
I don’t think so, Smitty, I think he’s still with the A’s.
… I apologize, Smitty, you’re right. Thomas is playing in Nashville right now.
He got traded a few weeks ago, he is with the Brewers AAA team in Nashville.
http://www.nashvillesounds.com/clubhouse/Default.asp?playerId=179
And Meyer is doing okay for three starts:
1-0, 1.88, 14 1/3 IP, 16 H, 4 R, 6 BB, 10 K
A very revealing Frenchy saying the right things; Chipper may return tonight.
http://www.ajc.com/sports/content/sports/braves/stories/2007/05/13/0514bravesnotes.htm
Um…in case you haven’t noticed, Willie Harris is Charles Thomas. In fact, I don’t have the numbers in front of me, but I don’t recall Thomas ever even having a stretch as good as Harris is on now. Overall, though…same person.
I seriously thought we were over the Charles Thomas lovefest BTW. Must we go through this again?
The MLB Braves website says that Chipper was in the lineup on Sunday but told Cox he couldn’t go after taking BP.
When I was there Saturday he didn’t field or take BP. He just kind of stood around with Smoltz.
It says he may be in there tonight, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he sits both Smoltz and Hudson’s starts.
It says he bruised his hands when bracing his fall and he can’t grip the bat with any power. “Bracing his fall” should be in quotations because it was more of a nosedive. The quad isn’t the issue, even though he looked really gimpy on Saturday night. Probably just soreness.
Chipper is making headlines again. This time he attacks interleague play, not Bob Davidson. http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2869369
Although he’s gonna come off like a whiner to some people, I can’t say that Chipper is wrong about any of that, especially when he says that “MLB doesn’t care what’s fair.” Considering the post-’94 playoff format, that should be obvious.
Personally, I like playing the Red Sox and I like playing the other good teams. But fair, it’s not.
I want to know what’s going on with BMAC. Frenchy is actually ahead of him in almost every category. He only has 12 walks to Frenchy’s 11. Aside from the injury it seems like he’s not being as selective at the plate as we are used to seeing.
?
Meyer’s 3 starts in Sac may be ok (he’s averaging less than 5 innings per start), but his one start in Midland this year was awful (2 HR, 4BB, 3R) in 4 innings.
He was pretty lousy last year too. He had 10 starts (also less than 5 innings per start), yielded 10 HR and 20 BB, and compiled an ERA over 5.
Lando, Frenchy’s having a great year; Brian McCann is simply having a very good one. He’s still batting nearly .300, with an OPS right at .800.
He’s been slumping a bit for the past couple weeks. He’ll get hot for another spell and those numbers will boost a bit. He may not have a year as stellar as last year, but he’ll be fine.
I’m not concerned about BMac. Presonally, I think getting his hands/wrists beat up is contributing to his “struggles” at the plate. He’ll be fine.
I agree. I think it says more about Frenchy’s apparent leap forward & BMac’s nagging injuries.