I’m still mildly depressed and probably will be until the Braves prove they can win a game not started by Smoltz or Hudson.
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I’m still mildly depressed and probably will be until the Braves prove they can win a game not started by Smoltz or Hudson.
Use code “Journal” for a 5% discount.
win streak
zamfir the pan flute master
Mac,
Two words to cheer you up: Western Carolina.
I can understand their dissatisfaction with Wickman but he was still a servicable pitcher. And, as for being a bad teammate, so what? We have all worked with people we don’t like. Certainly, you wouldn’t bring the guy back next year, but it’s only a few weeks more. It seems to me this is a view toward next year and to see what they really have, ie, can Soriano close? I’m not saying the management is giving up, but I don’t see how this helps the team for this year.
Bobby didn’t want to deal with the distraction anymore. I’m sure this is Cox telling Schuerholz ‘get rid of this guy because he is a pain in the ass and the rest of us are trying to win a friggin playoff spot’
At a guess, Bobby or Roger told Wickman he wasn’t going to be the closer any more, and Wickman told them he wasn’t interested in that.
Cox dealt with the circus following Rocker all through the 2000 season, he couldn’t handle another month and some change of Wickman?
Going a bit off topic here, but can someone please explain to me how options work? I remember at the deadline we couldn’t send Thorman down because he was out of options, but it seems like Martin Prado and Joey Devine and going up and down every week. Do they just have options left and we are using them up? I don’t get it at all
Options last a full year. Meaning if you have one option for a guy, you can send him up and down as much as you like for one entire season.
Right. The only rule is that you can’t bring a guy back up for at least ten days (keeping teams from rotating out pitchers to add a couple of roster spots) but even then you can make a move if someone goes on the DL.
I’m still having trouble wrapping my head around the notion that Wickman was that bad of a teammate. Seems like all I ever heard was how great he was in the clubhouse. So, so strange.
Perhaps we’ll find out some sordid details about Wickman as time goes on. Either way, I’ve moved on & remain ready to reel off a little streak.
Having a birthday today. Headed up to Hartford for a weird, celebratory gig—Tommy Lee & his partner DJing in a little club downtown. Hope I survive. Go Braves.
Perhaps Bobby thought Wickman intentionally tanked the game Thursday night after being put in to pitch when he didn’t want to.
yahoo has arizona having a post-dfa interest in wickman.
http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/players/4919/news
It’s not a bad thing that Wickman is gone…he is serviceable but at this point I’d rather see Acosta, Ascanio, or to a lesser degree Devine in the game anyway. Again, young live arms that the league has not seen much of before…can be a big weapon down the stretch.
You can tolerate bad teammates if their production outweighs their negative impact. After the other night, I guess Cox and Schuerholtz decided Wickman’s 5 ERA over his last 30 games or so was no longer worth his bullsh–
Personally, I say Wickman is more classy than the Braves, at least when it comes to this.
I still say the Indians is where he goes. The Diamondbacks really don’t make much sense.
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In a pennant race, I wouldn’t agree that asking not to pitch in a tie game in the 12th inning is a classy move.
dan, classy moves make the braves the organization. our team is probably the most respected franchise in baseball for it’s professionalism. dfa’ing a player does not make an organization unclassy. cox coming out and dogging wickman about his bitching and moaning would have been tacky, but that didnt happen. a classy organization is going to have players who do not fit the bill, but schuerholz handling his moves business-like, cox backing his players blindly, and the veterans maintaining the integrity of the team, and handling decisions “in-house” rather than through the media is what makes an organization. the braves, over the past 10 years, have held the torch of class.
lineup:
harris
johnson
chip
tex
mccann
francoeur
druw
escargot
voldemort
IS ANYONE LISTENING TO PETE’S DIAMOND NOTES?
Pete talks about after the Rockies series (presumably in Denver), Wickman went up to the front of the Braves plane and chastised Bobby for how he used him or didn’t use him in situations. Pete very politely took him to the woodshed.
Seems the Braves are in PR mode and are smearing Wickman now.
“Pete very politely took him to the woodshed.”
On the plane or just now on the radio?
I can somewhat see Dan’s point, inasmuch as releasing Wickman would have been sufficient without having to then dish a lot of stuff to the media. I was a little surprised that Andruw spoke out yesterday about it, but I suspect he may be defensive of Bobby, and wanted to make sure folks didn’t go to town on his manager for doing something dumb.
However, is it smearing if it’s actually true?
The team is playing poorly. Everybody was frustrated. Wickman himself was playing poorly plus he was not being a good teammate so he got made the scapegoat. If cutting him fires the team up and gets them on their first 3+ game winning streak in forever, it’s all good.
Was that last strike as far off the plate as Gameday claims it was?
Don’t know what gameday says, but if Pineiro actually had enough lateral break on his curve to make that one a strike he’d be the best pitcher in baseball.
Is the genius really batting his pitcher 8th as Gameday says? With the staggering career BA of .062? Over a guy batting .294 on the season?
Tony LaRussa is the opposite of Cox. Cox wouldn’t bat the pitcher anywhere other than ninth even if the pitcher was Babe Ruth.
…even if Chris Woodward and Scott Thorman were on the roster.
Hey, Andruw is over the .220 mark.
Tim Hudson is red-hot at the plate.
Tough at-bat by Harris, but he swung at about 3 balls after the full count, and I notice he’s down to hitting .305 for the season…
Free Diaz.
Let the ‘Willie Harris under .300’ watch begin!
He’s batting .250 for August but his OPS is a little higher than his season OPS.
I’m not a statistician. Do we want that or do we not want that?
More success for the Braves’ rightful leadoff hitter….
Man, when this lineup is working it mows down starting pitching. 62 pitches for Pineiro.
Hypothetical: Two out, runner on second — a medium runner, let’s say Escobar. Harris hits a hard single, right at Ankiel. Do you send the runner?
Harris had seventeen hits in August (coming into today’s game) but ten were for extra bases — five doubles and five triples. It’s very strange. With the .359 OBP, it’s a very workable offensive profile, though I don’t know it would work full-time.
Hudson may be a better hitter than Harris at this point.
Harris delenda est!
I’m just going to wait for the genius of batting Pineiro 8th to play itself out.
Grand slam off Devine, probably.
Impossible. Devine will never get in the game.
True. Or the Genius KNEW that in the bottom of the 5th, he would use Miles to bunt single from the 9 hole.
Now why in the heck would you go in on Pujols?
Who does Hudson think he is, Chuck James?
this feels so flukey.
we never catch a break.
come on huddy!
This will get worse before it gets better.
Jesus come on where is the fielding!!!!!!!????
escobar looked like a rookie just then. lazy mistake.
This sucks.
should have been out of this with a tie
Ryan C –
For Gameday guys, what happened?
Let’s trade Renteria this offseason and put all our eggs in the Escobar basket.
I guess a flashback to last year’s Hudson is the perfect way to cap off this miserable week.
Follow up question:
“Chipper Jones to shortstop Yunel Escobar to Second baseman Kelly Johnson. Molina out at 2nd”
How does that happen
Why pinch hit for Hudson with Woodward? Even if you want to take Hudson out, let him hit.
very true Dan lol
The ball was hit hard to third, Chipper dove and the ball deflected hard off his glove right to Escobar who picked it up and threw to second for the out.
chris woodward pinch hits to end all hope of an inning.
Woodward is useful for once!
or not
Use Diaz for Harris!
Harris bunting…
Harris sucking…
damn…what a bad out. 2nd time on this trip, our supposedly great leadoff hitter…CAN’T BUNT. Geez…
damn…unbelievable.
What did Gameday say about that pitch?
Harris is down to .304. He is cooling off rapidly, his 15 minutes is up…play Diaz down the stretch, as Cincy prove with 4 lefties coming out of the pen and the Phillies proves with JC Romero, the Braves have issues when a lefty comes in against the right handed starting lineup.
Gameday had it as a strike- middle-in.
Braves 1-3 hitters:
13 LOB (Harris – 6)
Teixeira!
I agree Tony. But Cox ain’t going to do it, no matter how obvious it is.
For those of us on Gameday: how did they not manage to throw anyone out?
I was Johnson leading off and Escobar 2nd.
johnson
escobar
chipper
tex
mccann
diaz
francoeur
andruw
pitcher
diving stop…but no play
Rolen looked to second, then to third. He didn’t even look to first, which is weird considering Teixeira was running.
20 LOB through six innings.
It was Rolen. Any other 3b in baseball, excepting maybe a couple, it’s a single to left and a tie game. Even with Rolen, he had to range so far to his left that he had no shot at anybody.
*want
DAMN Brian…1 run out of all that. Shit. I wish these guys who you hear interviews always saying it’s time to play ball would do it in the clutch for a change. We have been getting shut down pretty frequently in the late innings.
By the way Tim Hudson, nice time to go back to the old Tim Hudson. What a way to step it up…
Tyler Yates!
Hasn’t Hudson won like 9 in a row? He’s allowed a subpar game. Blame willie harris and KJ for this so far.
Disgruntled,
Not at this time of the year. This is the time of year when aces prove their worth. Plus this was just bad…
Blame Johnson for….hitting a homerun?
But I also agree about KJ and Harris.
disgruntled,
what did kj do? escobar missed an easy double play that would have stopped the cards with 3.
tony,
that’s absurd thinking. hudson has been amazing since the asb, and to think he cant have a bad outing just because it’s crunch time is just not reality. this is baseball, and it has ups and downs, so do the players.
KJ struck out early in the game with a runner on 3rd and 1 out, right after willie harris ALSO struck out after failing to get another bunt down.
KJ also just watched another strike 3 last inning.
Ryan C,
I’m just saying…it comes when the braves can’t afford to lose any games. Also it comes when the Braves only have two reliable pitchers. And again, bad is bad, but not even go 5 innings, not want a Cy Young candidate would give you down the stretch. Didn’t KJ strikeout with 1 out man on 1st and 2nd?
and he hit a homerun and walked. jesus, i cant believe he doesnt have a 1.000 ba tonight. disgruntled…tony, get real!! this is freakin’ baseball, and the best hitters only get on 40% of the time, which is exactly what kj has done tonight.
excuse me…he’s been on 50% of the time.
Guys, take a look at the hits off of Hudson tonight and you’ll see a bunch of weak shots. I don’t blame him as much but I do blame Cox for not pinch hitting for sweet Willie Harris, who continues to fall backwards and for Yunel, who got lazy.
Also, KJ needs to be a little more aggressive against lefties. Was looking for a walk the whole way in the last AB.
Some road trip so far….
Hudson did fine. He told Cox he was fine and could have pitched another inning, but that would have prevented Cox from using 8 relivers again tonight.
1 bad outing every 10 is ok.
Willie Harris pretty much sucks.
They’re really letting a pitcher bat with a one-run lead and RISP?
And two outs, that is.
Tom H,
I agree, maybe a little too hard on Hudson, but bottomline Smoltz did what we needed him to do.
Ryan C.,
C’mon we all like KJ, but he has had some bad outs AGAINST lefties on this road trip. Willie Harris is who is really killing us. Francouer trying to pull everything again.
By the way, David Wright has 28 steals this year…are you fukking kidding me? Offseason needs for Braves: Speed with a consistent bat is a must.
Acosta is awesome. The dude can pitch.
“Speed with a consistent bat is a must.”
I don’t think the Braves will be looking for offense this offseason.
Harris and Thorman in the same inning. I hope Matt Diaz is paralyzed right now.
Another out for Willie Harris.
We’re going down meekly.
Glad we could get Moylan some work tonight.
Walk Pujols.
We will win!
I’m delusional.
I hate the Cardinals. That is all.
Dear Bobby,
Peter Moylan’s arm is mortal. It can die. That would be bad for the Braves. Fortunately, there is hope. It’s called rest. It’s called not using him every single game. It’s called sometimes using Joey Devine instead.
Sincerely,
Braves fans everywhere
Did Andruw just rob him of a homer? I’m a slave to GameDay tonight, and it’s showing that ball over the fence.
Moylan got lucky on that one. Why not use Mahay to pitch to Edmonds.
Wasn’t over the fence, but Andruw crashed into the wall. Great catch.
Excellent catch…not too many other outfielders can make that catch.
Come on McCann.
Bad night for McCann.
All on you Andruw.
Please surprise me, Andruw.
Anyone else here want to see Diaz come in?
Oh goodness, are they going to walk Andruw?
I’ll take back all the bad things I said about you…just a base hit…
I hate the fact that I expect Andruw to fail here.
Same here, JoeyT.
2 strikes…not good.
Yeah Andruw, talk bad about Wickman and do that with the game on the line. Way to step up.
Game
Yep.
.500 team. No two ways about it.
You know, I like Bobby and I dislike LaRussa, but I’ll guarantee you that if Bobby were managing the Cards there, he’d have walked Andruw.
Andruw is so awful.
Maybe this will break the pattern and now Cormier, Reyes, and Carlyle will put together a 3 game winning streak. Probably not.
7.0 games back of the Mets in the division. Kiss that goodbye. It’s all wildcard now.
Spahn and Sain and prayers for rain aside, you can’t make the postseason with only two serviceable starters. The margin for error when Hudson and Smoltz pitch is next to zero.
Please, Andruw, enjoy your new home. (I’ll bet it’s San Fran)
Yep. Congrats, Mets for beating every other team but us. Sure was nice when it was us winning the division.
Does anyone know our record in 1 or 2 run games?