ESPN.com – MLB – Box Score – Marlins at Braves
From time to time I will complain about the so-called “unearned run”, how it magnifies one, often minor, mistake while ignoring the bad pitching that was the primary cause. This is not one of those times. Tim Hudson got screwed by his defense.
Leading 2-1 in the second, Francoeur lost the third out of the inning in the sun, turning it into a double. He then dropped the ensuing single, allowing the Marlins to tie the game.
Leading 3-2 in the fifth, with runners first and second, a one-out liner bounced off of Escobar at third base — it was a tough play but I thought he should have knocked it down — and Harris, apparently intent on trying to throw out the runner from second even though he had no chance — dropped the ball, allowing the other runners to move up. After a sac fly gave the Marlins the lead, Hudson got a strikeout to end the inning, only for it to get through McCann’s legs, everyone safe, setting up a single to add two more runs.
The Braves were hitting rockets off of Wes “Traded for Kolb” Obermueller. Seriously, Thorman hit one off of Obermueller’s back, only to have it bounce into the air for a 6-3 double play. It was that kind of game. The Braves outhit the Marlins 12-7 and outhomered them 2-0 but it just didn’t happen.
Escobar was 4-4 with his first career homer, missing the cycle by the triple. Renteria hit a late homer to cut it to two runs. KJ had a disastrous night, 0-5 with three strikeouts, everyone else reached base at least once.
It was 6-4, not 5.
I always hear people say how good the Braves are with 2 outs….but yesterday I saw a team that constantly was leaving runners stranded. We even did a good job of not grounding into double plays, KJ was the only one to do so.
I’m not sure what the numbers are and I’m feeling a little too lazy to look it up…does anyone know where we are in the ranks as far as leaving runners on base?
That was a plain old typo. I’ll fix it.
While I do tend to be a pessimist and I know it’s early and all teams go through bad stretches, I’m getting discouraged with the seeming mediocrity of this team. They are basically .500 since the first week of the season. There seems to be no one area in which the team really excels; the starting pitching is largely mediocre, the hitting is inconsistent at best; the defense is not as bad as most thought it would be, but it has its problems. Without Chipper and with Andruw having a lousy year through the first third, it’s hard to get excited about this team. In the last threat, Alex talked about meeting Boston in the World Series. Anything is possible in the weak NL, but I have a hard time envisioning this team winning the pennant unless Chipper gets healthy and they get some starting pitching. Granted, apparently the Braves were unlucky last night, but we are seeing too many games where they get completely shut down by less than great pitchers. (Other than the Braves, Oliver Perez has been pretty ordinary against everyone else.) I am very, very concerned about what is going to happen when we play Boston, Cleveland and Detroit (and five more games with the Marlins this month for that matter.) Oh well, maybe the reverse negativity will get the Braves going.
Any mediocre team in our division is unbeatable for us. If only we could play the Mets and Brewers all year. Well scratch that, play the Cubs year round.
Thorman has got to go! There is too much talent on this team for that guy to ever see playing time. He should be fired immediately and blacklisted from MLB forever!
wow, did he run over your dog?
Scott Thorman….Plain and simple he is killing us. I know Bobby likes to give people a chance, but this is ridiculous. He is down to .219. If a trip to Richmond is not in order, maybe a few days on the bench. He definitely cost us the sweep of Milwaukee and it continues. Welcome to 1st Salty.
As I stated earlier…should we be worried about McCann’s shabby defense and sudden lack of power? I forgot who said it, but have Salty catch Huddy only, b/c eventually Huddy is going to snap on McCann. Power issue goes for Francouer too?
Escobar looks great….
Thorman sucks and I’m tired of it already. We have Salty, Harris, and now this Escobar guy. C’mon, the Thorman era is over.
Somebody a couple days or weeks ago posted something to the likes of “Someone should tell Thorman that yelling, punching his bat, and acting like a bad-ass after striking out doesn’t make him a better hitter.” That still makes me laugh.
You guys are ruthless. (Thorman is Ruth-less, GET IT, cause he sucks. Not like Babe Ruth? HAHAha..ha…. To hell with you. ::watches wrestling on youtube::)
I think McCann is a .300 hitter with 20 hrs per year. He is off pace for that at this point, but I don’t see him as a big power hitter. Frenchy is probably a 30 hr guy at this point, but if he loses a little power in exchange for better plate discipline I’d be fine. I think that once his plate discipline is in the bag, then the hrs will come back with him. He is going to be one of those streaky type hitters.
Also, I was thinking this morning about next year. With Andruw gone, Do any of you think we could sign Mark Buerhle and Eric Byrnes for the 18 mil Andruw would command? That sounds good to me, but if I’m wrong I know you guys won’t hesitate to let me know.
lol…I thought I’ll never say I missed Adam LaRouche’s lazy, way too long swing, but this useless Hulk we have now…well maybe not. I’m still glad that sloth is gone. Too many bats to be suffering like this at that position is right.
It seems The atlanta Constitution,thinks that the pain in chippers hands might be a more serious problem than a bone bruise.
“I came in today and said, ‘Put me in a cast, both hands.’ I feel like they need to be immobilized because taking off my socks, pulling up my pants [hurts]. My 1-year-old, I can’t pick him up under the arms and lift him to my shoulders. Something is causing me a ton of pain. If it is a bone bruise and I’m re-aggravating it in everyday life, then I need to immobilize the area, stay off it.”
what the hell is going on with him?
Thorman is defintely struggling right now, which is about right. Scouting reports have identified flaws in his swing and major league pitchers are taking him apart ruthlessly. This happens to most young players. And historically (see Thorman’s minor league stats), he especially struggles when pitchers find his flaw. Good major league players then make adjustments. Whether Thorman will or not remains to be seen. That’s why the idea of getting Wilson was a good one (albeit a failed one after all). If they are not going to send him down for a bit, they really do need to get him a platoon partner to minimize the damage that he does as he attempts to adjust. Unless, of course, they are just convinced that the Braves offense will be okay with a first baseman that hits under .250 most of the season.
Going back to an earlier thread (I was unable to post-got a Word Press message for some reason)–I want to Thank Ububba for notifying us about the death of Clete Boyer. A good NYTimes obituary can be found here:
I guess that I am one of the ‘oldtimers’ on this list and I do remember Boyer. Boyer was regarded as one of the essential Braves which won the NL West in 1969–only to be upset by the Mets. Fans marveled at his glove and eventually became frustrated with his bat.
It was probably during the 1969 season that Boyer went into a slump. He was about 1 for 50 and it became a semi-public event. He received advice from disparate sources—newspaper articles, letters, talk shows, people he encountered in other walks of life—on how to end the slump. Eventually he did, but he never hit as much as people hoped: “Why can’t he hit like Ken?”
Long after Boyer left the Braves, he remained the standard by which many Atlantans measured defense at the `hot corner’. Darrell Evans was not regarded as a bad 3B, but he just wasn’t Boyer. Growing up in the 1970s in Atlanta meant hearing about the legendary gove of Clete—occasionally “Cletus”. The fans were right: correct me if I am wrong, but I believe that the next Brave to win a Gold Glove at 3B would be Terry Pendleton.
One final thought: at least by the time I became a fan (late 1960s) the Boyer brothers never received the attention which was given to the Alous.
The Chipper quote from post #12 does not sound encouraging. Let’s hope Escobar is a suitable replacement and the rest of the bats can pick up some of the slack.
I too am old enough to remember Clete Boyer and what a great fielder he was. His first year in Atlanta, he had a very good year but he was never really a good hitter, although he had some power. But, boy, could he pick it at third; he was like Andruw in the outfield. And then he was run out of town by Paul Richards, who also ran Joe Torre out of town.
I think it’s a little premature to get excited by Escobar after a couple of games. I think McCann’s year last year might have been a little misleading–he is a good hitter but not likely a .330 hitter. What is really missing is the power; given McCann’s lack of speed, I would prefer to see more power and less batting average. As for Thorman, the Braves pretty much said he would struggle for a while. He isn’t any different than LaRoche, who also struggled. To say that the Thurman era is over after two months is a bit silly. I guess Yankee fans could have said the Mantle era is over after he was sent to the minors in 1951. (No, I’m not comparing Thorman to Mantle.) But I think Thorman’s type of swing probably takes more time to get adjusted to major league pitching. Let’s face it, there aren’t a lot of Albert Pujolses around that hit from day one. The problem is, with Chipper out and Andruw struggling, it’s awfully hard to carry a first baseman that is struggling too.
What Met fan has put the Voodoo hex on Chipper?
Well if Chipper is out for a long period of time…and let’s be honest we are not surprise are we? Once your body starts breaking down, it’s never stops until retirement. See Jeff Bagwell, Nomar, etc. Anyway ANDRUW has to step up, along with powerless clean-up hitter, and our singles and doubles rightfielder. EDGAR CANNOT DO IT ALONE.
anyone want to start a pool on when and is the vinny castilla rumors start flying 😉
That was a tough poll question, Mac. So many good answers. It came down to Torborg or Reitsma for me. I picked Reitsma since at least Torborg didn’t cost us wins however painful he made watching the team on TV.
I really didn’t mind Don Sutton as a color guy. That probably has ostracized me.
I say if Andruw is going to cost $18MM, then we try to sign Ichiro.
Thorman should definitely be in a platoon now, but if you look at his history through the minors, he struggles the first year he is at a level and rebounds to be pretty decent his second time. Since he came up at the end of last year, I wouldn’t be surprised if he picked it up after the All-Star Break this year. Not everyone tears it up their first time in the bigs.
fellas, hurting hands is, medically, not a good thing at all…
let alone baseball-wise
if the bones in his hands are brittle it could be early-onset osteoperosis…or worse
leukemia…
i hope to God not, but these are some symptoms.
ichiro? sure, but he will either go to san fran or ny or seattle (large japanese populations)…perhaps la, but doubtful.
i say we sign eric byrnes and tell him to slow down to .75 speed and then go get a LF bat in trade and put salty at 1st and try to sign/trade for some 3s…
hudson smotlzy and 2 3s will be a formidable rotation with anyone at the 5
Ichiro….wrong answers. Why waste money on a slap hitter? Plus how strong is the Asian-American community down there in Hotlanta?
The thing that gets me about Chipper’s injury, is that when he initially came back after missing a few games against Pittsburgh and Washington, he was crushing the ball. I think in his first game back he hit a bomb to dead center field.
It was in the Mets series, the middle game I believe, that he struck out late in the game and the cameras caught me struggling to take his batting gloves off.
I want Chipper to play as much as anyone. I just don’t like being disappointed every year. He was well on his way to an All-Star caliber season. Let’s hope we see him soon.
leukemia? osteoporosis? I’m no doctor but that seems far fetched, especially since we know he hurt his hands during the collision/fall in Pittsburgh. Again I’m not a doctor, but based on how long it took my hands to feel better after a mountain biking wreck it could be a couple of months before Chipper’s healthy. Reading his quote about not being able to pick up his kid reminded me of how badly my hands felt after my wreck. Like an idiot I never went to the doctor so I don’t know if it was a bone bruise or something else. Nor do I know if I would have recovered faster had I seen a doc.
Frank I am trying so hard not laugh at that leukemia comment since that Senator from Wyoming jus died from it and sadly Bill Walsh will also die from it, but it was funny.
Chipper is just fragile now, that’s it. Can we say after all-star break….???
new poll: what’s really wrong with chipper
I don’t know why people say he’s fragile. He had a fluke play where he jumped over a 3rd baseman and landed on his hands. Try doing that yourself and not coming away with an injury.
ron, it think it has to do his his love for the DL
Maybe the problem is that without Brian Jordan we don’t have enough veteran leadership on the DL.