I am taking suggestions for the Joe Simpson Drinking Game. So far, we know:
Every time he talks about hitting the other way, drink.
That may be all we need, actually… Here’s a video.
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anyone think Sturtze might become a starter when he gets healthy? Or do we just not want to see him at all?
Every time Joe or his co-announcer talks about how great an opposing player is, drink.
Every time there is any reference to Joe’s playing days, drink.
I don’t want to see Sturtze at all. Smoltz, Hudson, Cormier, James, Davies should be an adequate rotation.
Every time Joe gets in his little high-pitched giggle or gets excited during Sciambi or Caray’s call of a long fly ball, drink.
The drinking game of Mark Lemke in the pregame show on radio would be a lot easier to do. I can almost tell what Mark is going to say BEFORE he says it on radio.
there are some rumors that Brian Fuentes might be available. Should we go after him to replace Gonzalez for the rest of this year. he’s owed 3.9 this year and is a free agent after 2008. Might be good to get him and trade Wickman, save some cash at least. I dont know if Wickman will be back next year anyways
Well if Fox is correct we have the same lineup as last night’
Johnson
Harris
Renteria
McCann
Jones
Francouer
Thorman
Orr
Hudson
more game notes…
Bush has only three quality starts in 10 outings this season. No coincidence, the Brewers are 3-0 in his quality starts and 0-7 otherwise.
The only other video I can think of to dedicate to Joe:
Aerosmith’s the other side video for some reason has a bizarre 50 second mandolin introduction. Oh, well. Cool song.
In my opinion, Fuentes is an excellent reliever. He’s not quite Gonzo or Soriano, but definitely better than Wickmania I think. What would we have to give up though? I’m pretty sure the Rockies front office is smarter than Bavasi and Littlefield. I would suggest offering someone like Pena up, but the Rockies appear to have some decent young catching already. I have no idea.
I sound retarded in that post. I’ll chalk it up to first day of work.
I wanted to see this lineup today
KJ
Harris
Renteria
Jones
McCann
Francouer
Salty
Diaz
Hudson
I also wanted to hear than Orr or Prado had been dropped and Pena recalled. Thats to much to ask for I guess
you can flop Harris adn Diaz, doesnt matter
I’m guessing that’s putting Harris at 3B?
http://atlanta.braves.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20070529&content_id=1993410&vkey=news_atl&fext=.jsp&c_id=atl
Smoltz said he just didnt want to take a chance, probably a good move. Him and Bobby said he most likely would not miss his next start
josh, yes
I really think the Braves need a bat or at least for a few guys to start hitting. The pitching hasn’t been great, but some of these games they are losing were winnable with some more offense–eg., the Saturday game against the Phillies and last night. They need to put up more runs–it’s amazing that they have won two 2-1 games in the last week. However you cut it, this isn’t the Maddux, Glavine, Smoltz teams and they just have to score more runs.
Fuentes would be a nice addition, but a bit superfluous at this point.
Hudson needs to get back on track today. CSG, thanks for the Smoltz update. I will be enjoying gamecast at the office today. It is time for a series victory.
Now that Harris can apparently play 3B, Orr and Prado are even more useless.
I say demote Orr, bring back Pena. I know its odd to have 3 catchers but at least Bobby won’t be so hesitant to use Salty.
For no particular reason I wasted some time this morning with a stopwatch and a calculator. On SportsCenter on ESPN this morning they spent the following percentages of coverage on baseball topics:
Mets 14.5%
Yanks 21.5%
Barry 4%
Sox 6%
Everyone else 54%
ESPN: The Worldwide Leader in Ennui.
Petros, I agree with you 100%.
so 36% to the NY teams, imagine that. Actually Im surprised its not higher than that, just wait until Roger returns.
how many teams carry 4 util infielders in which three of them are utterly useless. Woodward can play anywhere, Orr only has speed, Prado ???. I’ll take a 3rd catcher who is a switch hitter and a better hitter than these 3
Sportscenter is just a waste of time. ESPNews is the only way to go. Actual scores, stats and highlites.
CSG, it’s worse than that. Orr can only play second, and has less speed than Harris and not much more than Prado.
I guess the idea was to promote Prado over Escobar so as not to disrupt the latter’s development. But it’s not hurting Salty to be up here, so why would it hurt Yunel?
Neither injury was serious, and Smoltz and manager Bobby Cox expected the 40-year-old to make his next scheduled start. Smoltz said that in past seasons, he would’ve continued to pitch with pain. “I just wasn’t willing to take a chance,” he said. “In the past I’ve stayed in games, and it had a lingering effect. This season’s too important for me to mess around with that. I hated [leaving] but at least I’ve learned a lesson or two.”
Soriano wants to be a closer or starter next year
http://www.ajc.com/sports/content/sports/braves/stories/2007/05/30/0530bravesnotes.html
Robert, I agree about Espn news.
Brian J, yeah I know. I was trying to think of something that Orr brought to the team, however thats the best I could do. They always talk about his speed, but when he rarely reaches 1st he never steals. I say drop Prado and Orr, call up Pena and Escobar or Stockman
Nice start–lets get some runs…
cmon Mccann, come to life
can we drink if it’s chip that talks about going the other way?
More bad hitting with runners on base, whoda thunk?
Another opportunity squandered….
whatever happened to that 2 out batting avg?
http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news;_ylt=AlXVBZvDenVqL_7L4sZDG9ARvLYF?slug=jp-contracts052907&prov=yhoo&type=lgns
Hudson and Smoltz on the All-underpaid team…. Hampton on the All-overpaid side
I wonder if we hit every ball the other way in a game if Joe Simpson’s head would explode.
It’d be gone by the third inning, Smitty.
i didn’t recognize corey hart with out his sun glasses
J.D.Drew on the overpaid team. I am shocked – shocked! – he’s not working out in Boston.
and Chip’s afternoon is off to a great start…
It pays to advance baserunners….
I though when you got base runners on the best thing to do is strike out.
we are rounding into form for June
We can just as easily strikeout without baserunners….
Sheets 21 pitches in the 1st either 9 or 10 in the 2nd. We really like to work the count dont we….
A fastball up and out to Thorman…
It’s an ugly thing to watch.
KELLY!!
KJ!
KJ!
For some reason TBS shows a random commercial during play and I missed the KJ homerun
Just when you thought it couldn’t get any worse for the Yankees…
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18937267/
And don’t bother going on the NY Post site—way too much traffic.
I had problems with the Stray – Rod article on the Post too. I love it. For non-yankee fans and yankee haters, A-rod never disappoints. I can’t wait for him to opt out of his contract.
Wow. Nice play, Renty!
Uubba–I liked your observation a few weeks back that watching A-Rod in NY was like Reality TV. I have a feeling that its going to be an interesting summer in the Big Apple….
The Brewers are holding a demolition derby today, apparently.
Is there an injury? MLB gameday is reporting an injury delay.
To be fair, the A-Rod article should have mentioned that it is hard to walk in Toronto without tripping over and falling into a gentlemen’s club or similar place of adult-oriented entertainment.
mighty thor with another K
Well, this year’s Yankee show has been a train wreck. The best description came a few weeks ago in the NY Times in the game story about Phil Hughes’ near-perfecto—the one where he got hurt.
It was described as “karmically cruel.”
Bizarre injuries, pitchers getting hit with line drives, the worst bullpen this side of the ’06 Braves—it’s been a luckless disaster.
But, considering things like the Jeffrey Maier incident, if there is something to the notion of karma, the Yankees are paying up in a hurry.
These papers are a rag. No matter what you think of A-Rod as a player, it’s no one’s damn business what he does off the field, especially since it’s all circumstantial evidence. It’s rumor and hearsay. It’s yellow journalism and it’s cheap to take pleasure in something like that. Let A-Rod live his life. Even if A-Rod is fooling around, there are a lot of athletes (and non-athletes) doing a lot worse things than he is doing.
Mark,
Three words for you: New York Post.
P. Orr 3B .171
T. Hudson P .154
That is all.
Time for Harris to go deep again, just kidding, that may never happen again
Hudson should probably be in the 8 hole
I just noticed that too, Chuck. I was going to post it as well. Orr is pathetic.
at what point do the Braves feel like Orr is as bad as Wilson?
I think I might like Woodward more if we didnt have Orr and Prado, then again maybe not
I guess the idea is that Orr is “speedy & versatile,” but rarely do you see a guy so overmatched at the plate so often.
Let’s…get…some…runs.
My quick “Braves on the bubble” analysis:
THORMAN: Needs to be platooned, if only to ease some of the pressure he’s put on himself. I never saw this HULK SMASH routine after every overswinging strikeout while he was splitting time with Wilson. But I think he’s still a viable ML player.
DAVIES: Would be a league-average #5. He’s not the problem – the lack of a #3 is.
WOODWARD: Worthless.
PRADO: Worthless.
ORR: Whipping Boy!
(Seriously, it’s one thing to have three deadweight bench players, but three deadweight bench players who all allege to fill exactly the same role? Huh?)
This offense stinks.
Can we squeeze one out here?
Please?
Orr is putrid.
come on Huddy keep it goin’
Letting Orr bat there is inexcusable. Why carry two other useless infielders if you are not going to pinch hit for your starting useless infielder in key situations?
the only way a loss here would be satisfying is if Orr is released
need a K here
Somebody needs to say it—McCann is a pretty big defensive liability.
please tell me thats not how we are going to lose this game! unbelievable
Stu,
You on crack? THat was a passed ball, it hit in the left handed hitters box. Yeah it COULD have been blocked but it was a tough play.
I thought the ball took an awfully small bounce necause of the spin on it…but McCann should have still gotten some glove on it
It’s a shame if Hudson gets a loss after his performance.
Then agian if Salty was behind the plate he would have blocked it and it would have deflected to 3rd base to get out the runner. 🙂
That’s not the only terrible defensive play he’s made lately, Unknown. Take the blinders off and you’ll see that I’m right.
Also, apologies to sansho1 from yesterday—it was your one-liner about which I laughed so hard.
McCann has never really impressed me with his ability, or lack thereof, to block balls in the dirt.
just un-freakin believable, we’re justheating up for June. Its going to be a long season Im afraid
The pitchers do like throwing to McCann, though. It seems people talk him up as a great receiver. What do his throwing out base runners numbers look like?
I blame Orr.
Yeah, it’s just easy to get on a guy when he’s down. Frency, McCann, Thorman, AJ. You guys always get on players when their down and the fact is if you tried to hit a ball or block a slider in the dirt your beer belly would prevent you from doing so.
As a braves fan I get so tired of fans being so fairweathered.
only 1 hit from our 4-9 hitters against someone with a 6.50 era, without Chip our offense is terrible, make that 10 hitters with Diaz
Chuck G,
I don’t think, given the composition of the roster, that Prado or Woodward would be “worthless” if they were the only utilityman on the team. Especially Woodward, who’s the only non-Renteria able to play shortstop on the roster.
Orr’s completely useless, no matter the make-up of the team.
Hate King, i believe it’s in the twenties.
unknown, then go away
nice at bat by KJ, their relievers have worked alot lately..hmm
come on Willy
time to find one
And you might want to learn how “fair-weather” is spelled and/or defined before you come back.
Stu,
Good point. One of them would be acceptable. Three of them just forms a Voltron of suck.
Does everyone realize that drugs/alcohol are the reason we don’t have more than one Willy/Willie on this team? Now, that’s a tragedy.
Stu, your awesome, how much of a loser do you have to be to correct peoples typos?
I dunno. But I do know that your sentence should read:
“Stu, you[‘]r[e] awesome[;] how much of a loser do you have to be to correct people[‘]s typos?”
So entertaining.
classic.
I do not enjoy watching Turnbow pitch. He is goofy. Let’s get some runs off this homeless man. Come on Mac!
MCCANN!!!!
BMAC!!
We can’t blow this, can we?
C’mon, B-Mac…
hahahhahahahaha
He’s certainly no offensive liability.
Come on Braves!
Unknown, you do not need a period after the word classic.
That was beautiful.
Kick-ass!
Should have took him out b/c of that wild pitch!
McCann!!
Can someone describe the double? I am on gamecast.
Left center, hit off the wall on one bounce.
Thanks.
ANDRUW!
Crushed.
Bill Hall looked like a 2nd baseman playing Center on that route.
Andruw!
More runs!
Boy, do we need this.
And I’m so glad for Huddy. Let’s hang onto this one.
This is fun–the Braves ought to do this more often….
Come on San Fran, give us some help tonight!
I’m glad Hudson will get this win if we hang on to win (and we darn well better). He pitched a great game.
well how about that, Kelly walks…I have a customer come in and then we score 5…GO BRAVES!!!!
If Orr hits, then we are truly blessed.
oh no, an Orr single. We have him for another month
Diaz!…this is just plain fun!
Now this is fun!
KJ! Simply unbelievable.
The Braves are very fortunate to have RBIs spread throughout the lineup. Makes me feel good whenever we get to the late innings.
that officially puts us out of the ‘too close a score to put any of the scrub releivers in, need to waste soriano/wick’ and I’m glad to see it.
let Carlyle get another inning, he isnt going to pitch again until June 5th. Im sure he can hold this lead
Finally the bats wake up. This is good to see.
aside: does anyone know if it’s possible to watch MLBtv but listen to the braves radio feed at the same time?
I guess Soriano was warmed up. Off day tomorrow so I’ll just sit back and enjoy the show without second guessing.
Pete Orr getting a hit and a run reminded me of something. Apparently one of Pete Orr’s friends from Canada didn’t like how hard Davey is on Orr and he sent an e-mail to him. Here it is…
hey hey petey orr is a friend of mine and one of the best guys you’ll ever meet in your life….i admit he’s struggling at the dish this season, but part of the reason is he gets 1 AB every 2-3 games…pretty hard to get in a rhythm
i do love the site..keep up the good work…just go easy on the last of a dying breed of nice, hard working, NON arrogant athletes
peace out,
chris
burlington, ontario, canada
Fielder certainly is fun to watch jiggling as he rounds the bases.
Prince Fielder can just plain mash.
Prince Fielder is a cyborg of some sort. They should seriously check his blood to make sure it’s actually blood and not oil or acid or something running through his veins.
Prince Fielder is a big masher. Soriano is not so good in blow outs.
Fielder is a beast! Soriano’s streak had to end it might as well be when we have a big lead
Prince Fielder ate his dad, and that is a ton of man!
Man, if only we hadn’t traded Marte for Renteria! 🙂
And we need to get Pete Orr’s buddy commenting here. This needs to happen.
Stu, easy there. Some people here still think that was a bad trade…Marte might be the most overrated prospect we’ve had in the past 10 years. Ill apologize in advance, Sorry I shouldnt have said that!
If I were the Cubs, I would be watching Andruw Jones in this game and saying to myself, “Oh crap…”
Might be time to move Andruw back to the 4 hole
good outing by Huddy, we needed to take this series with James, Smoltz and Huddy on the mound.
Marte was going to be the next Eddie Mathews! Makes you wonder what we should do with Salty.
We need to hook Petey’s friend Chris up with Jason Sheill’s wife.
any reason why Wick is coming in?
Let’s not pronounce AJ fixed after hitting off a scrub pitcher.
just shows you that most people here would be a terrible GM
Jeff I wouldnt say he’s fixed, but he looks like he has his balance back. he had a good series, I’ll give credit where its due
Well, I do agree I haven’t seen him fall into the left-hand batters box for a few days.
I always heard Marte compared to Manny Ramirez.
That trade and the Hudson for Cruz, Meyer and the incredibly useless-yet-likable Charles Thomas are two of the shrewdest deals Schuerholz has ever pulled off and yet, up until this year anyway, there were a ton of people who thought they were terrible deals. I’ve never understood it, quite frankly.
We traded the top prospect in our farm system who turned out to be nothing several years ago (Bruce Chen) in a far worse deal (was that the B.J. Surhoff deal?) and I don’t recall there being near the outrage.
And the degree to which everyone bashed the Hudson deal is still hilarious to me. Even if Hudson had never rebounded, we still gave up absolutely nothing for a chance at someone who used to be one of the game’s premier starters. I don’t give a damn if Charles Thomas personally saved you from a burning building…he was useless!
OK, 2 out of 3 on the road. I’ll take it.
Off day tomorrow. Don’t go crazy about the relievers—no big deal.
And I have no problem with relievers giving up solo homers in blowout. Throw strikes, don’t walk people.
Agreed, ububba.
This was a really great win for us. I’m not saying it will be, but this is definitely the type of game that can turn an entire season around (not that ours was lost or anything, but we were sliding, obviously).
Now with Andruw crushing the ball and the offense getting back in the swing, if we can take two of three from the Cubs, we’ll be back in business, I think.
As I said last night, I’m not sure we’re catching the Mets, but there’s absolutely no reason in the world why we shouldn’t win the wild card.
I wish we could trade Parado and Wooward for Nick Green
I’m not giving up on first place. Not where I live…
I’m not sure we’re catching the Mets, but there’s absolutely no reason in the world why we shouldn’t win the wild card.
I completely agree. And that would be just fine with me, since it’s clear we could take the Mets in the NLCS.
We know exactly what we are getting with Orr and Woodward, the problem is, with Prado now up, we have too many of the same players. One guy must go. Since Woodward plays SS he stays, and it is between Orr and Prado. I think Prado is better, but since every player and coach loves Orr he should stay. Prado should be sent down for Pena so we can effectively use Salty and get him the at-bats he needs to continue developing.
Hopefully Chipper can heal up before the Cubs series, but if he doesn’t they should place him on the DL.
Do we get a crack at Marquis this series? I’d love to see him get lit up.
I miss Willy Aybar. Is he coming back?
yep theres nothing more frustrating than walking guys with a big lead, make them hit it
Fact of the matter is, there’s almost no difference between ATL winning the Wild Card and winning the NL East. Can’t play the Mets in the first round, no matter what.
It’s ridiculous, of course, in the sense that the division winner isn’t really rewarded for its excellence and the WC team is rewarded equally for finishing in second place.
But, my own misgivings aside, maybe this is the year the Braves victimize the division winners. Smoltz & Hudson is not a tandem anyone wants to see in a short series.
We need to play more day games during the week. Everytime I listen from work we seem to win. Good game.
Especially if you add Willis or Harden. 🙂
I always remember the 1987 Twins, which basically had 2 good starting pitchers—Frank Viola & Bert Blyleven.
They won the WS, going 8-4 in the post-season. In 7 of the 8 wins, Viola or Blyleven started. In 3 of the 4 losses, someone other than those 2 started.
It was a 2-man rotation and they won the World Series.
But it was a shorter post series then, easier to do with a 2 man rotation….
After barely finishing above .500 in the regular season, no less.
They finished the season 85-77, which up until last year, was the worst regular-season record of any World Series champion. The Cardinals won it with a record of 83-78 last year.
So I guess the point is that if you can get into the postseason, you can still win with two pitchers. Hell, the D-Backs did it in ’01, also.
I guess what’s frustrating is that today is proof that the Braves are a great offensive team capable of massive production.
Where is goes sometimes, is another question.
Lance,
For the Twins, the key was winning the first series in 5 games.
Point is, if your top 2 guys don’t lose, you’re in great shape.
FWIW, I think the Twins clinched first place at 85-72, then played scrubs the last 5 games of the season. They lost all 5.
the team needs an off day, hopefully Chip can play. Davies vs Zambrano should be interesting
speaking of Trades, where would you rate the Estrada trade these days. Villareal and Cormier have been good arms for us. Smoltz to make his next start.
http://atlanta.braves.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20070530&content_id=1994519&vkey=news_atl&fext=.jsp&c_id=atl
Good trade for both teams. McCann is much better than Estrada, and we locked him up to a very favorable deal.
Lance,
For the Twins, the key was winning the first series in 5 games.
Point is, if your top 2 guys don’t lose, you’re in great shape.
Simplistic. Viola and Blyleven lost back to back in Games 4 and 5 to the Cardinals, and the immortal Les Straker dug them a 5-1 hole in Game 6 when they were down three games to two. Their bats responded by pounding out a 11-5 win. Viola fell behind 2-0 in Game 7, but their bats answered (unlike say our bats in ’91 Game 7) and they won 4-2.
Wait… Cormier and Villarreal have been good for us? Are you kidding? Villarreal had an okay second half last year, but both have been consistently mediocre, and impossible to use in any key situation. Cormier’s best pitching was in spring training exhibition games, and he went and got injured for his trouble.
We’re lucky that we have a much better catcher, but it’s not like we got a whole lot of return for Estrada.
What other deals were on the table for Estrada?
Estrada wouldve been released, Ill take those two over nothing
Robert,
How many starters other than Blyleven and Viola won post-season games for the Twins in 1987?
Answer: Zero.
Also, you mention Viola in the 7th game of the WS like he pitched poorly—8 innings, 2 runs, 6 hits, 7 Ks looks pretty good to me.
How many starters other than Blyleven and Viola won post-season games for the Twins in 1987?
Those two started 9 of the 12 games. Teams don’t do that anymore. The ’87 Twins cannot happen today both due to the expanded playoffs and the new trend towards lighter workloads.
Great starting pitching helps a lot no question. We’ve had great starting pitching going into the post-season a ton of times and mostly gotten nothing for it. You need it all, pitching, hitting, and defense.
Saying “All you need is two great starting pitchers” is simplistic.
Two starting pitchers, expanded playoffs, sounds like the 2001 Arizona Diamondbacks, who played 17 post-season games that year.
They won 11 games—with Johnson & Schilling going 9-1 (incl. a Johnson relief win & FWIW, a Kim blown save for Schilling.)
My point is that it can be done, because it has been done. The Twins & the D-Backs are examples. Of course you need other components to go all the way—but it has been done with 2 horses before.
Robert,
Life is long. But it’s too short to argue about the 1987 Minnesota Twins.