ESPN – Cubs vs. Braves Box Score, June 8 2007 – MLB
Lance Cormier is remarkable. I mean it, the man gave up four homers (three to the same guy!) and walked six in only three and two-thirds innings and only gave up five runs total. That’s actually very impressive.
Seriously, the man is a shame on my university and home town and must be destroyed.
Not that it mattered a whole lot; most any pitcher would have lost given the typical woeful outing by the home team. The Braves got one run in the third, KJ tripling with one out (after Bobby inexplicably didn’t hit for Cormier, who had only given up two of the three homers he would give up to Alfonso Soriano alone) and coming home on an infield single by Escobar. But Renteria and Andruw made outs, that was the end of the scoring threat and essentially the game after Cormier allowed a couple more homers. The Vulture gave up another run, then after a good inning from Moylan it was two runs off of Boyer and one off of Paronto. The bullpen sucks almost as much as the offense.
The Braves had six hits, two by Escobar, who I guess hasn’t been up long enough to catch the malaise. Chipper, if you have to strap the bat to your wrists, we need you.
Those who need to be destroyed, other than Cormier: Paronto, Woodward, Orr, Thorman (“Captain Popup”). Come to think of it, let’s just ban Canadians entirely. They may still be bitter about that whole upside-down-flag thing.
My god, that was an ugly game.
Horrible..
June sux
Finally get to watch a game and this is what I get???? Gross. Free Buddy Carlyle? I dunno what else to say.
We need offense, starting pitching and bullpen help. I can’t fathom being JS right now.
Well, we cut ties with Redman awhile back but I feel like maybe he just put on a Cormier jersey and started throwing with the other arm.
The two throw so similar it’s scary
I have been trying to give Roger time to prove his skills, but I am finally convinced that Roger is merely an average pitching coach at best. He can’t help Cormier and Davies to become a better pitcher. Every pitcher under his guidance will just pitch to expectation or worse. After seeing the success of Sosa and Perez this year, I am starting to believe Rick Peterson is indeed a pretty damn good pitching coach and McDowell is a pretty shitty one…
Sadly, I agree about the problems with McDowell. What pitcher on the squad is better after his tutelage?
Beyond that — this team needs some help…and fast! Tired of the woeful energy from the past few weeks.
johnny i feal your pain man.
And so the trainwreck that is Lance Cormier continues…
Oh, and here are some thoughts:
To solve 1B: Casey Kotchman. I love this guy. Once Juan Rivera comes back, Hillenbrand slides back over to first and Kotchman rides the bench. Not going to hit for great power, but he’s John Olerud with a goatee.
LF: Again, Matt Murton. We get to watch him play this weekend against us. His numbers this year aren’t great, but I love his approach at the plate and he plays adequately enough.
SP: This is tough, because SP is so hard to come by, but Pittsburgh actually has a lot of young arms. Duke, Torres, Maholm, Gorezelanny, VanBenshoten, Sean Burnett, etc. Trade some of our “hitting” for a young arm. Also…I always loved John Thomson as a finesse pitcher and Toronto is just kicking him around.
Otherwise, when was the last time Francoeur hit a home run?
Why do the Braves need Kotchman if they can play Salty full-time? When has LF become a problem? I don’t see how Murton is better than Harris/Diaz. Pittsburgh isn’t going to trade any of their young arms…JS can’t get one of them from the Adam trade.
The Braves aren’t going to play Salty full time at first and Kotchman is an excellent defender. Face it, Salty is trade bait.
LF is a problem. If you expect Willie Harris to hit the way he’s hitting as a career .230 hitter in the majors, then you’re crazy. Diaz sucks…he’s a reserve outfielder at best. Our offense needs a spark!
As for the arms, I was just speculating. Are you saying you wouldn’t want one of those young arms instead of the 2 left handed Cormier? Come on. Let’s face it, the Braves need some serious help.
Last Frenchy HR was May 19th, in that 13-3 whoopin’ by the Red Sox.
Well, we just have to agree to disagree on Salty.
The main problem of the offense is that none of Chipper, Andruw, McCann, and Frenchy are producing right now. When your 3-6 hitters in the lineup all disappeared, it’s pretty damn hard to score runs.
In respect of pitching, it’s pretty damn obvious it is a problem. I am just saying the Pirates are not trading anyone of this. To be honest, I only want Snell and Gorezelanny out of the bunch. The others are nothing special.
All of the starting pitchers on Pittsburgh are better than Cormier…by far. I still like Davies, but Cormier is garbage. Who’s to say Pittsburgh wouldn’t trade one of them? They have lots of SP depth and lots of needs on the team….Yunel Escobar would probably be a nice piece of trade bait for them…Cheap, good and young.
I still like John Thomson. I hate Toronto has him and doesn’t use him. I think he’d be an adequate fourth starter for Atlanta. I thought that about Davies too, but, then, oh yeah…he sucks.
As for Chipper, we need to expect him to go on the DL once or twice a year. The problem is, is that nobody is picking him up this year. Andruw did it last year in his monster year, but this year we got nothing. Johnson and Renteria may be our two best offensive players this year…at least so far. They are at least the toughest outs of the lineup.
I thought Thomson is hurt? Maybe I am wrong.
Why am I saying Pitt is not trading away their young pitchers? They have proved so during winter and there is no point for them to do so. Rebuilding teams do not trade away good and young pitchers unless they are approaching free agency, which I don’t think that applies to any of their young pitchers.
Anyway, I think we all do share the common concern on starting pitching. However, the price of pitching help will be very steep…so steep that I don’t think JS will bite.
Well, JS did have a backup plan for Chipper, but that plan with Ayber didn’t work out as we all know. JS did have backup plans for Hampton, but none of the plans has worked out either.
As of May 31, Thomson has an ERA of 2.38 in 4 AAA starts for Toronto. He’s not hurt, Toronto just doesn’t want to activate him. So yes, you are wrong.
As for Pittsburgh…they’re always in rebuilding mode, so they aren’t looking to acquire any young pitchers right now. If anything, they might trade one away for some position players. Oh, and if Pittsburgh doesn’t trade away good young pitching then why do we have Mike Gonzalez? (albeit with a bum elbow?)
Wow, McCann the Man, you are in debating mode tonight are you? I am sure we are all in a bad mood.
As for Gonzo’s case, the Pirates traded him away because 1) he is not really all that young, and 2) it’s a luxury to have a dominant closer on a losing team. That’s why everybody is expecting Bowdon to trade Cordero away.
Man, I miss Gonzo…
If Salty can play first, then I think he should start…well…playing first. It would be great to have Salty and McCann in the lineup at the same time, putting one of the two at first is the only way I see that happening.
Thorman is an out-machine and whenever we start woodward (or orr) then the bottom third of our order looks like this:
-Thorman
-Woodward
-Pitcher spot
Yeah, i can understand why we struggle offensively with those spots taking 1/3 of the at bats
Glad that I missed a profoundly ugly game. True, we had twice as many hits as in the game before.,,,
I am really tired of telling myself and occasionally this list that “its a long season” etc.
At this point I do not know what is worse the pattern of June 2006–where the Braves get the lead it and inevitably lose it late in the game or June 2007 where the Braves never get in the game to begin with….
It is nice to find scapegoats, but this year I do not blame any one player–the way the Braves have played in Atlanta suggests that this is a team effort. The truth is that the Braves are really awful right now….Yes, we need Chipper back and much more….
Stephen, Bobby definitely knows the importance of Chipper…
…from MLB.com:
“Asked if he thought Jones would need a Minor League rehab assignment, Braves manager Bobby Cox said, ‘No.'”
Start playing Salty at first!
johnson
escobar
renteria
jones
mccann
francoeur
salty
diaz/willie
pitcher
that lineup doesn’t look too bad. Thorman is a HUGE hole in the lineup
The Angels love Kotchman, so you can forget that. And in case you haven’t noticed, Bill Stoneman is genetically incapable of making trades.
We are sellers, not buyers.
You would think after seeing upteen curve balls in a row, somebody would be able to put a bat on one, no? Andrew is helpless at this point and needs to be pushed down in the order again. The only problem is who can they put in his place? Everybody looks like they have double vision.
Oh and can we put Chip Carey on the disabled list? By the third inning I wanted Joe to stuff that big Sonic bag in his mouth.
And Sosa went 8 shoutout innings against the Tigers last night…..
Jeez
The team is circling the drain. It’s time for a shake up. Send Cormier down and bring Carlyle back. Send Thorman down and either call somebody up to play first or let Salty or somebody else on the roster play there. DFA Paranto and bring up Devine. Trade McDowell to Baltimore for Leo.
Jayson Stark:
“Clubs that have asked the Braves about Jarrod Saltalamacchia report they’ve been turned down flat. But by July, the Braves expect to have a better read on whether Scott Thorman is the answer at first and/or whether Saltalamacchia can be an alternative first base option. And those answers will determine whether Saltalamacchia becomes their No. 1 trading chip at the deadline — but only for a major player whom they’d control for multiple years.”
I heard something during the game last night that blew my mind….batters dont step up in the box anymore to get a jump on hitting a curveball…isnt that little league hitting 101? No wonder they cant hit these guys, they are planted in the very back of the box….
anyway, its just been very depressing. I hope this is just a rough spot, and that things will get better. Maybe Bobby needs to pull a Pinella….he’s about due for an ejection any how
I think most of this comes back to pitching. When the team “knows” the pitching is most likely going to be bad they put additional pressure on themselves to perform defensively and offensively. The additional pressure makes them play “tight” so pretty soon routine plays become botched plays and at bats become horrible things for us to watch. The whole team seems to be pressing too hard; no one looks at all relaxed. Last night they knew it was Cormier pitching and they ratcheted the pressure up a few notches… and we saw the result. As further evidence for this pressing because of bad pitching look at the last starts by Smoltz and Hudson…. the players knew Smoltz was going to be “iffy” because of the previous shoulder/finger injuries so the upped the pressure and then sucked. In Hudson’s outing before last he had been a little bit shaky so the players were not feeling confident about his next outing. Increase the pressure and suck. Counter that with the last few outings by Chuck James where he seems to be finding his groove and improving. Yes, the bats were still not there but the defense was a bit more relaxed (at least it seemed so to me) and we did make some good contact on hit balls. At this point we either need a change in pitching which will give the rest of the team the confidence to relax and play baseball the way they can or we need the players to understand pressing because of bad pitching will just make it worse. I personally think Thorman is the biggest example of this and in his case besides pressing more with bad pitching he also presses more the more he sucks. I believe if Thorman could string together a few good games of offensive production then he would be ok but it is not going to happen until he relaxes and stops “trying harder”.
Well, here’s hoping Matt Harrison or Jo-Jo Reyes step it up and turn into Homer Bailey by the end of this month.
I miss Redman
Don’t worry guys, I am going to Atlanta in about an hour and I am going to take care of this mess.
Smitty–do you have a cape and a red S on chest?
make that “… on your chest?”
Free Smitty!