148 thoughts on “Game Thread: June 29, Braves at Marlins”

  2. I think the Hawks did the right thing by drafting Horford and Law, both mature upperclassmen. They have enough “projects” already and needed some guys that are ready to play.

    Amare would have been nice though.

  8. Is there ANY reason to expect a Braves’ sweep? Other than wishful thinking?

    The Joe Morgan thing is funny, but some of the points are not entirely fair. For example, it wasn’t clear before the season that the Tigers would be this good. Most people thought they wouldn’t be. But, in general, it nails Joe. I think the fact that Joe Morgan has lasted almost 20 years doing baseball for ESPN shows how little ESPN values MLB compared to the NFL. Would ESPN allow an NFL analyst that explicitly says he is not a journalist, does no homework, and basically says whatever the hell comes into his mind? And having Miller and Morgan together is such an odd pairing anyway; Miller has that weird sense of humor and Morgan is totally humorless.

    How about an all-star game of bad announcers? Could you imagine a broadcast featuring Joe Morgan, Tim McCarver, and Hawk Harrelson?

  10. I posted the startsalty.com link a couple of days ago. I like that site. Why does Bobby Cox love playing Thorman so much while be so eager to platoon Kelly Johnson. Johnson is better than Thorman, and Thorman’s potential replacement (Saltalamacchia) is better than Johnson’s (Escobar).

  11. I don’t know if this was mentioned in the last thread, but there’s an 80% chance of precipitation tonight in Miami, with thunderstorms “likely”.

    As for Joe Morgan, he isn’t as bad as that article makes him, but he’s awful close. The thing that makes me hate him less is my absolute disdain for Jon Miller. And it’s not his fault, I just hate the way he talks, especially the way he pronounces the name Beltran.

  12. I never pay attention to Morgan or Miller. Like most television announcers, I could care less what they say because I am usually in control of whether or not I ever hear it.

    As long as they’re not shouting at me, it makes no difference what they say.

  14. I dislike Miller’s humor. He tries too hard to be cute. And it’s really aggrevated with Morgan. But Morgan drives me nuts with his inability to say a single sentence without “you know.” After doing this for 20 years, you would think he would have acquired some ability to communicate or taken some training.

    I always find it funny on his ESPN chats when people ask Morgan about trades, apparently not realizing that he does not research and has no more idea than Dick Cheney about who might be traded.

  15. No!No!No! HOW DARE YOU! Its Carlos BeltrAAAAAN and Wilson BetemEEEEEE.

    No one can approach my linguistic skills.

  16. “Well, they employed Joe Theismann and Michael Irvin for years.”

    There is no baseball equivalent to the level of horror those two idiots brought to the table.

    The only thing more awful than a microphone in front of Joe Theisman is a camera in front Michael Irvin. Or a necktie, I suppose.

  17. Yeah Marc, you seemed to be oblivious to the fact that ESPN had Joe Theesman and Paul McGuire in the same booth for about 15 years.

  18. Ok, I will grant that, but I still think that even Theisman and McGuire weren’t as clueless as Morgan.

  19. I was just flipping through my XM channels & came across Big & Rich singing “You Shook Me All Night Long”. Is it just me, or does anyone else want to see “country” music drug out into the street & shot? Horrible.

  21. I heard Phil Nevin announce a college super regional this year (wichita state against uc-irvine) and he was horrible. He was telling stories about his time with the cubs.

  24. who do we pull for? a sweep to get the Phils out of it, Phils to win the next 4 and us sweep and have a 3 team log jam?

  29. Country music jumped the shark as soon as Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, etc. were out of the spotlight.

    I think Screamin’ A Smith is the WORST commentator/analyst type guy they have. I seriously can’t even mute it. Watching his googly eyes scream at me is too much.

  30. Phils or Mets?

    As Mr. White said in Reservoir Dogs, that “ain’t no kinda choice at all.”

    Beat the Mets, Beat the Mets…

  32. Bullpen #’s

    Relievers
    Name W L S ERA* WHIP K
    R Soriano 2 0 5 2.94 0.80 31
    O Villarreal 1 0 0 3.38 1.28 35
    W Ledezma 0 0 0 3.00 0.33 4
    T Yates 2 0 0 3.24 1.11 34
    P Moylan 2 1 1 2.48 1.08 28
    C Paronto 3 1 1 4.71 1.67 10
    B Wickman 1 2 14 3.16 1.44 20

    take away Paronto and we have something special

  35. Since pitching five shutout innings during his rookie debut at Boston on May 21, 2005, Davies is 12-20 with a 6.19 ERA in 42 starts and seven relief appearances.

  37. I like that Miller makes an effort to pronounce Hispanic names properly. The man makes a leaving speaking. It’s just professional pride to want to say things the appropriate way. I also think it’s more than a bit disrespectful to consistently mispronounce someone’s name when you know better.

  38. The thing I like about Miller is how excited he gets when a double play is turned. You’d think he just won the lottery.

  39. A double play is exciting. His excitement seems genuine (unlike say, Chip Caray) so I generally enjoy his call.

  40. #37

    Generally I agree, although I can’t fault too badly those who find it difficult to pronounce the names without putting an Anglican spin on it just for the sake of speaking flow.

    Take Perez and Betemit as two examples. To enunciate “Perez” properly, the tongue hits the roof of your mouth on the “r” sound — we make the sound by moving the mouth only. The first “t” in “Betemit” is made by pressing the tongue against the back of your upper teeth, and without an expulsion of breath — not like we do it.

    It’s not that easy to throw a Hispanic name in the middle of an English sentence, pronounce it as it is intended, and then continue in English. Miller can sound off-putting because he gives it a shot, but I appreciate the effort.

  41. I’m going to amend my statement above. I don’t think there is an excuse for not knowing how a player’s name is pronounced. If your entire job is to call a game of baseball and be able to transmit information about the game to the audience, it’s absurd to not even put in the cursory effot to know how a player says his name.

  42. Lineups Ahoy:

    Braves:
    Harris lf
    Renteria ss
    CJones 3b
    AJones cf
    McCann c
    Francoeur rf
    KJohnson 2b
    Thorman 1b
    James p

    Fishies:
    Ramirez ss
    Uggla 2b
    Cabrera 3b
    Jacobs 1b
    Willingham lf
    Olivo c
    Carroll rf
    Amezaga cf
    JJohnson p

  44. re: 40

    I agree it’s difficult to switch between Spanish and English pronounciation. People understand that a non native speaker isn’t going to be able to say things exactly right. That’s not an excuse to just butcher somebody’s name, though. Especially when saying those names is a major aspect of your career.

  45. This is just the kind of maddening shit that keeps me from liking Bobby Cox. It would be one thing to maintain of a philosophy of riding hot streaks and moving hot hitters up in the lineup. That is clearly not the case with this Harris/Johnson situation. It’s the same rigid, by-the-book thinking that has been holding us back for years.
    Fast guy got to hit leadoff.

  46. Phils-Mets? Like I said, a split with three nineteen-inning games to wear everyone out would suit me fine.

  47. Yeah, I was hoping those extra-innings games with the Mets-Cards this week would go on and on and on, then get rained out.

  48. But, but….Harris can run fast!

    Cox said Johnson did nothing to lose the leadoff job too. So why won’t he let Kelly Johnson leadoff anymore? He kept Giles at leadoff all last year too. Boo!

    No Saltalamacchia either. How do you platoon a switch hitter?

  49. Why is AJ still batting 4th? You got the player who is hitting worst batting above the hottest hitter right now in mccann. Stupid!

  50. The real problem is that Thorman switch-sucks: he’s hitting 241/ 273/ 475 against RHPs, whcih works only if Dave Kingman is your idea of the perfect hitter. (Salty? 306/ 386/ 359. About the same OPS, but it’s pretty clear which one you’d rather have.)

  51. Thank goodness we can count on Renteria to hit. He’s been our most consistent hitter all year, by a good margin. (Apologies to Willie Mayes Harris, who hasn’t been here all year.)

  53. it’s great to see another marlin’s sellout, season high 18 folks in the stands tonight.

  58. Bad lineup construction:

    Batting a liquid-helium-cold hitter cleanup.
    Batting your leadoff hitter, who has demonstrated all the necessary skills, seventh.
    Batting Thorman anywhere but as an all-or-nothing pinch-hitter.

  70. Rehab, at least we can think about how hot she looks. Its better than hearing them talk about old teams they played on, or Andruw trying to pull every pitch, or how people need to use two hands catching the ball. We should be so lucky to hear about Shakira!!

  71. how do you platoon a switch-hitter (whom, by the way, I think has a better swing left handed than right)

  84. Why, Jon, thank you for telling us what a platoon is. Are you trying for McCarver’s job?

    He used to work for the Marlins. Florida people probably need such explanations!

  85. hey Mac,
    Do you know what’s causing this javascript error – the page never completes its cycle right now.

  93. Did you happen to see that the latest SI has a “Where are they now?” story on Mario Mendoza? They had the good luck to call him just as he was fired as manager of his Mexican League team.

  95. If Andruw gets 20 straight hits starting in his next AB, that would raise his batting average to .252.

  96. honey pick up on the bitter sweet tragedy that’s life’s limbo stick

  98. KJ is lobbying for his job back, isn’t he? Nice hitting we’ve had from our 2B these past few games, although I bet Escobar will get to pinch-hit this game unlike KJ the other night.

    Wasn’t Josh Johnson supposed to be really good when he first came up, or something like that? Or did I just make that up?

  99. Johnson was 4th in ROY of the year voting last season. This is his 3rd start back after an elbo injury. It looks like me may have needed the TJ.

  100. Johnson has been injured all year. This is only his third start. I don’t think it’d be wise to write him off as shitty just yet.

  103. Chuck is really wiggling out of trouble nicely tonight. First and third, no outs and no runs score. Gotta love that.

  104. The Phillies suck…I bet you they get swept by the Metros today. How many scoreless first 4 innings has Chuck JAMES had this year? Is absolutely amazing he goes shorter in his starts than any other pitcher in the majors….

  105. I’m not actually watching the game (except on Gameday), I was just looking at some of his stats. I saw only had a few starts and figured something was up, I just wanted to make sure I had the right guy in mind.

  107. Man I can’t wait until Salty takes over fulltime at 1st hitting out that 8 spot…I like McCann(when he’s right), Francouer(when he thinks), KJ and Salty at the end of the line-up. That’s pretty good…

  109. Four extra-base hits in June for Frenchy, including only one home run. Five walks vs. 22 strikeouts. An empty .270 average isn’t cutting it for a corner outfielder.

  116. Wes Obermueller has an honored place in Braves history- acquiring him made Dan Kolb go away.

  117. Of course he sucks. You know you are at a new low when a team acquires you for Dan Kolb.

  118. If Bobby ever benches or platoon KJ again I’ll make the 3800 miles trip to Atlanta and set the Ted on fire.

  121. WES OBERMUELLER is garbage!! 31 y/o jorneyman pitcher with a CAREER 5.55 era…OUCH!!

  122. With James on the basepaths this inning, does that mean his usual six inning meltdown will come an inning earlier this game? Or will not getting a rest not bother him?

  125. Andruw’s still second on the team in walks, and in the majors’ top 25. Amazing.

  127. ‘Rissa,

    I was think the same thing. I recall him tiring and not finishing the next half-inning after running the bases in a recent start. We’ll see.

  131. Beltran has two homers off Cole Hamels…damn I hope he is not getting hot. The Phillies SUCK!!

  133. How can James be so ignorant of other teams’ players? I mean, he’s got to know who most of them are, right? I have to believe this is some sort of put-on.

  136. KJ really wants his job back full time. And maybe Bobby was onto something when he had Chuck pinch-hit the other night (just kidding, just kidding…)

  137. @133

    I don’t know. I’ve heard him talk and he sounds very redneck/ignorant.

  138. By the way, si.com is reporting that Roman Colon has been charged with felony assault for punching that other minor league pitcher a while back.

  142. anyone else find it funny that yates hit? does this mean bobby is finally agreeing that orr/woodward aren’t any better than a reliever?

  143. it means we are up 8 runs and bobby doesn’t want to drain his bullpen for a 10 game road trip

  145. We’re approaching 40 hits in 2 games. Wow. Just wow.

    I love this, but at the same time, I really wish we were more consistent at the plate.

  146. i like how we’ve scored all these runs and haven’t had to rely on the long ball.

  147. While walks and homers are the only sure things, I agree RR. It’s nice to see some diversity in the hitting department.

  148. I’m really starting to think that McCann was somewhat fluky last year and that he’ll never approach last year’s numbers.

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