ESPN – Astros vs. Braves Box Score, July 31 2007 – MLB
Filled with the spirit of Teixeira, even if the actual article didn’t play, the Braves pummeled the Astros with four homers, two by Kelly Johnson. Who is going to hit eighth starting tomorrow. It’s a pretty good lineup.
They fell behind 1-0 in the first on a solo homer to Lance Berkman, but in the second McCann hit a homer of his own to tie it, and Julio hit a sac fly to score Francoeur and take the lead. Andruw made it 3-1 by scoring Renteria on a sac fly in the third, then KJ made it 5-1 with his first homer, a two-run shot scoring Francoeur.
Chuck James had looked pretty good through four, but had an Episode in the fifth, walking the leadoff man then allowing three straight hits, capped with a Biggio double, to allow the game to get to 5-4. He settled down and got out of the inning after that, and was pulled after the inning.
Francouer hit a solo homer in the sixth to get a little breathing space. The Braves erupted again in the seventh, McCann scoring Renteria on a sac fly, then KJ making it 10-4 with his second homer of the game. McCann capped the scoring with a two-run double in the eighth.
KJ finished 4-4 with five RBI. Renteria had three hits, as did Francoeur, who also threw out a runner at the plate. Andruw was the only regular to be hitless, but scored two runs… Moylan pitched the sixth, and Yates the seventh, when the game was still in doubt. Yates needed only seven pitches. Soriano was already warm, I guess, and pitched the eighth, Ascanio the ninth.
It’s unclear as yet what the roster moves over the next day will be. Corky Miller was called up to be the backup catcher, and presumably will stay in that role. Paronto was sent down to make room, but I don’t expect that the Braves will go with eleven pitchers.
That felt good. Very good. last night wasn’t just the spirit of Teixeira, it was the spirirt of a warm summer night in Atlanta in July of 1993, when a lefthanded, genteel slugger named Fred McGriff arrived in Atlanta.
It fired up the franchise then, and Teixeira, and the fact that the front office tried to do so much, fired up the franchise last night.
And for good measure, the Phillies and Mets BOTH lost.
I would call yesterday a good day.
from the previous thread in regards to how to handle the roster:
I have to say I vote on the side of carrying 13 pitchers–at least through August.
We don’t have to DFA Thorman, we can send him to Richmond. We SHOULD, absolutely SHOULD, DFA Woodward. He’s completely pointless. And useless. And we all hate him.
But the bullpen has been overworked to death and with the way Bobby has managed the bullpen, 8 relief pitchers isn’t a horrible idea, at least for the time being.
Dotel, Wickman, Soriano, Villareal, Mahay, Yates, Ring, & Paronto or Ascancio.
That gives us 2 lefties (Mahay and Ring) 3 legit closers (Wick, Soriano and Dotel) Yates as your middle guy and Villareal & Ascancio (I think paronto should be the odd man out) as your long relievers. It’s a pretty strong ‘pen.
As for the bench, again, I am hopeful that either we get a shocking contribution for Corky Miller or that the Braves realize they made a horrendous mistake and give Brayan Pena his old back up job back. Pena is a decent hitter and we could survive his bat once a week. I suppose with teixeira now we could even survive Corky.
But yes, with Diaz/Harris, KJ/Escobar (the ones who aren’t starting), Julio & Corky, that’s enough.
As someone said on the previous thread, you really don’t need more than 3 solid pinch hitters and we have that with the platoons and Franco.
So in MLB07 I was able to get Mark Teixeira and CJ Wilson for Craig Wilson, Martin Prado, and Kevin Barry. I’m so much better at this than JS.
Thorman is out of options and has to be DFAd if the Braves send him down.
Really? How can someone as young as Thor already be out of options?
I suppose it’s worth it to keep him over Julio.
Josh-
They didn’t make you throw in Woodward?
Because they kept bringing him up when they weren’t sure if they were ready for “all LaRoche all the time.” Silly rabbits.
I would definitely agree with you, Alex – yesterday was a great day to be a Braves fan!
Are we sure it will be Thorman? I think it will be, but Julio may be gone.
I wonder what we could get for Thorman
Julio isn’t going anywhere. They would not have signed him and let him play all that first base if they did not have plans for him as a pinch hitter during the last two months.
I think Woodward is the odd man out. I don’t know if they plan to go with 13 pitchers, but even with only 12 there is simply no room on the roster between now and Sept. for Woodward.
Suddenly, it’s exciting to be a Braves fan again. Cool.
I thought I read that the reason they called up Corky instead of Pena was that Pena was playing a couple of other positions in Richmond and they were trying to see how that was going to shake out.
Thorman was drafted in 2000, it’s 2007 now. That’s how it works.
Pena has been playing left and first, so that is plausible.
I know this might sound ridiculous, but I don’t think the Braves should DFA Thorman because someone will surely take him and he does still have some value. I think he is only 24 years old. The other interesting thing I always think of is that you can still do trades till August 31st if the player clears waivers. I always thought that was odd. What is the point of having a trade dead line?
On another note I would really like to see KJ go back to the lead off role, and drop Harris to the 8th hole. I think KJ should be getting as many AB as possible.
Kenny,
It’s almost impossible for a player to clear waivers now unless his salary is like 18 million a year, example: Manny Ramirez.
I know what you mean Jake, but it still seems stupid to have two trade deadlines.
I agree – I don’t see Thorman cruising through waivers without somebody wanting to grab him. Much like Davies, his stock is not totally used up. He just doesn’t have much of an immediate future with the Braves (and let us hope, real long term future either.)
We all should be celebrating the departure of Woodward. He will be the team’s only left-handed bat off the bench. A bench of Franco, Diaz, Thorman, and Yunel is pretty damn good. As some of you said, I am on the side of keeping Franco and Thorman.
I don’t understand, some of you actually prefer Woodward over Julio? Willie can play infield, there is no need for Woodward’s bat and Woodward’s glove.
Wasn’t Corky Miller the kid on that “Life Goes On” program. Hopefully he can hit better. I saw that Ring was sent to Richmond – is the plan to bring him up once the roster moves shake out? I don’t know if this was covered on the last thread, but as much as I hate the Mets, it would have been nice to see Tommy get his 300th. I’m looking forward to that happening.
Sorry, I meant Thorman will be the team’s only bench off the bench.
No, CJ, that was Chris Woodward on “Life Goes On”.
FYI, Mac put a new thread up.
kc,
You’re killing me, man.
Thorman’s not the hitter we thought he would become. He’s really not a good enough hitter to play first, and since apparently he can’t play left, I think it’s time for him to go since we have Teixera and Franco. Should we DFA him? Well, no, because he probably will get taken off of waivers. With that said, since a trade now can’t happen, and releasing him would be stupid, it seems the best choice to leave him on the roster, and then trade him in the offseason for a spare part.
NEW THREAD UP.
“Francoeur, who also threw out a runner at the plate.”
The play was an error against Kelly at second. Ball went through his legs and Francouer, backing up on the play, through to second. The throw to 2nd went through Edgar’s legs and trickled toward the SS position where Chipper made a spinning throw to the plate to get Eric Bruntlett (who had three errors himself). Just your everyday 4-9-6-5-2 put out.
I’m sure the Braves aren’t going to DFA Thorman. They would have traded him yesterday after the Teixeira deal became final if they didn’t want to keep Thor. They will hold onto him as a pinch hitter this year and likely as a platoon left fielder next year then back to first base in ’09 when Tex leaves to free agency.
I’d look for Ascanio and Yates to be sent down to make room for Mahay and Dotel.
NEW THREAD UP.
anybody else notice that KJ; Frenchie; and McCann each hit their 12th home runs of the season last night?
if the braves don’t want to carry 2 at 1b on the bench then i say you keep thorman. sure everyone loves franco and he’s great for the clubhouse but he’s damn near 50 and his pinch-hitting off the bench isn’t going to make or break this team. if they want to keep him around make him a bench coach or something. if they dfa thorman they will lose him.
if i had my choice, i’d dfa woodward. sure him and thor are hitting for about the same average, but woodward couldn’t hit a ball as far as thor did on sunday with 2 swings.