ESPN – Marlins vs. Braves Box Score, September 17 2007 – MLB
Well, that should help the old Pythagorean record. “Sure, we finished third, but we ‘should have’ won 94 games!”
Chipper singled in a run in the first, but Commando Cody Ross hit a homer to tie it in the second. The Braves bust out in the third, loading the bases and getting four runs. In the fifth, they finished it off, getting five runs on a two-run double from Francoeur and a three-run homer from Andruw.
Smoltz only went six with the big lead, allowing four hits and one walk, and striking out four. 57 of his 76 pitches were strikes, and he lowered his ERA to 2.97. Ascanio had a rough time in the seventh, allowing three runs, and Acosta, who finished that inning, was charged with two more runs in the eighth. After the Braves made it 11-6 with Julio singling in a run in the bottom of the inning, Soriano finished the game in yet another non-save situation.
Chipper was 3-4 and is now at .339, a five point lead over Matt Holliday. Renteria is third at .333. KJ, Francoeur, and Andruw had two hits each. Brandon Jones is still hitless, but picked up an RBI on a sac fly.
Love those Mets fans on their blog. They are great when the Mets start losing. I honestly think someone needs to keep an eye on these people; they might either jump off a bridge or shoot someone if the Mets keep losing. Go Nats!
Yeah, there was a big roundtable “What’s wrong with the Mets?” segment last night on Baseball Tonight. They have been playing bad.
Uh, young man?
It’s COMMANDER Cody, not Commando Cody. Extra points for his band’s full name. No Google or Wiki.
Go figure. The Mets were playing great two weeks ago.
Is that because they had two series against us?
Commando Cody – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Dream scenario: the Phillies pass the Mets who also fall behind the Pads for the wild card and miss the playoffs entirely AND the Tigers catch the Yankees who miss the playoffs entirely. Wait. Isn’t there some rule in the collective bargaining agreement that the playoffs are canceled if no New York team qualifies?
I knew bad things were going to happen those last few innings once Woodward replaced Chipper. Predictably in his first AB with runners on first and second and nobody out he popped out to left failing to advance anybody.
What is it, only 11 more games of Chris Woodward? Today has now gotten better, everyday sweeter than the last
Woodward will probably be our starting shortstop next year
I hope the Mets bring back Woodward next year.
Ron, that would be awesome!!!
Woodward, you’re such a disease.
Smitty, don’t say that!
Actually, though, next years’ starting SS will be a very interesting competition. I’d be very surprised if (exactly) one of Renty, Escobar, and Lillibridge is not traded this off-season. That is, unless the Braves decide to switch Lillibridge to CF (at least, play him there until Schafer is up, then turn him into Chone Figgins) in the AFL. But even then, it seems like both Escobar and Renty should be starting for someone somewhere….
Commander Cody & His Lost Airmen.
When I was a kid, I had the 45 RPM record, “Hot Rod Lincoln,” a funny Texas-swing song that became a huge pop hit.
“Son, you’re gonna drive me to drinkin’
If you don’t stop drivin’
that hot rod Lincoln.”
ok so who is really suppose to be the better SS, Escobar or Lillibridge? All I hear about Lillibridge is that he’s a top prospect, but he’s also older than Yunel, right? What’s his peak and whats his rock bottom?
If they really are considering him in CF they better get him in some winter ball
Lost Planet Airmen, I think.
csg and all,
Actually, Lillibridge is about 10 months younger than Yunel.
The biggest knock on Yunel is that what he has done in the minors (even counting last year’s AFL) doesn’t say he should be as good as he has played. Regression to norm is a scary possibility.
Otherwise defensively, arms seem similar, Lillibridge has more top end speed and maybe a hair more range. A lot of people didn’t think Escobar would perform this well defensively. But he has.
Lillibridge has a chance to be a game changing base stealer. He had 50 last year and has continued fairly well at a good percentage this year. Clearly one plus for him.
Before the last few weeks, most people thought Lillibridge had lots more power potential. However, Escobar has shown some pop in the last few weeks and has ISO higher than his minor league norms. My gut instinct is that he has tried to be a batting average guy and hasn’t tried to pull as many pitches. Escobar seems to have learned to hammer the inside hanging breaking ball to left for doubles and homers.
Lillibridge has also generally drawn more walks, but this year struggled with strikeouts. Escobar is more of a “BA or nothing” kind of offensive player.
My feel is that Escobar has been good enough to get somebody interested in trading young cheap good pitching for him. It might take another mediocre guy or two going with him, but he might bring a young gun of note. The Marlins could use him (they will move Hanley to Center Field. He is brutal at short).
I DON’T see Renteria (even with the Boston salary relief going with him) bringing a pitcher we want unless there is a partial salary dump. That is, the pitcher signed liek a number one, but is playing like a 2 or 3. One year and one option on a 33 or so year old short stop doesn’t bring much back.
Oh, and Lillibridge has a new picture on Minor League Baseball . com in a Richmond hat and he looks lots older. Now he looks 19 instead of 15. If his player age curve would follow his looks, then that really would rate him high.
Don’t know if you guys missed this…
http://www.ajc.com/braves/content/sports/braves/stories/2007/09/17/bravesnotes_0918.html
…but it could be KJ that switches positions. He goes back to left, Yunel at 2nd, Renty at SS?
Na, no way he moves there. He may play there a couple of times next year, but he’s going to be a 2B from here on out. Since he’s shown he can handle the position, there’s absolutly no reason to move him to LF. I mean, that’s about a far of a move on the defensive spectrum as you can make. 🙂
I would certainly look into moving KJ back to left and let Yunel hold down second. The Braves need to keep Yunel with Renteria since we know Chipper will not play anything close to a full season. Yunel can move to third when Chipper is hurt and KJ can move back to second. Diaz can still get some playing time in left and Frenchy can man right field. JS could then get a proven CF via trade or use Brandon Jones as a fallback option. If JS can’t aquire a proven CF he could try to get a RF and let Frenchy play CF.
I don’t think KJ is anything close to a good 2B, but he’s not horrible either. I’d say he’s a tad under average. His range only works one way & he’s lousy at turning the double play.
That said, it’s obvious that he’s a good offensive player, one worth keeping. I’ll worry about next season when this season’s done.
FWIW, the Met talk today is hysterical. They’re hyperventilating.
PS – Yes, it’s Lost Planet Airmen.
Here is something sort of interesting. I did some doodling and it shows the Braves have scored in double digits 14 times for a total of 174 runs. The Braves total for the entire season is 761, so those 14 double digit games constitute roughly 23% of the total. Overall, the Braves average 5.07 runs/game. However, if you take out the double digit games, their average for the other 136 games is 4.31. Moreover, the Braves have scored 4 runs or less in 71 games (47%); since acquring Teixera, this number is 19 out of 43 (44%). Not surprisingly, given their lack of starting pitching, the Braves record is 11-59 (I lost a game there somewhere but you get the point) in games where they scored less than 4 runs; conversely, they are 66-14 when scoring more than 4.
I’m no statistician and I don’t know how this compares to other teams’ run distribution, but it seems to me that a lot of the Braves scoring has come in a relatively small number of games (and this doesn’t include several games where they scored 9) and that they have struggled offensively a lot, even with Teixera. Of course, another way of looking at this is that they really, really need more pitching.
I should have said the Braves record is 11-59 in games where they scored 4 or less runs.
Those stats feel mighty real.
I just keep thinking back to the interleague record. If we could play all our games against a league where every friggin’ hitter had to field his position, we’d have a much better record.
Boy, I’ve been checking out the Lost Planet Airmen on allmusic.com, and they sound like a great little band. I think I may need to get some of their stuff. Do you recommend, Ububba?
AAR,
I only bought that single. I’m not an aficianado on Texas swing, but I’ve had people tell me that Asleep At the Wheel was way better. Saw them once in Athens and it was real good. They also played “Hot Rod Lincoln.”
FWIW, my favorite records right now:
(New) Lucinda Williams: “West”
(New) Felix Da Housecat: “Virgo, Blaktro & The Movie Disco”
(New) Andrew Weatherall: “Sci-Fi-Lo-Fi” (a DJ mix compilation of rockabilly tunes!)
(Old & Revisiting) Black Sabbath: “We Sold Our Souls for Rock-N-Roll”
(Old & Revisting) Waylon Jennings “Greatest Hits”