ESPN – Marlins vs. Braves Box Score, September 19 2007 – MLB
So the Braves sweep the Marlins. Let me be the first to say: Rah. It’s not particularly relevant, but I guess it’s better than being swept. I guess. Again, it would be nice if it were still relevant.
The Braves jumped up 3-0 in the first on a Renteria solo shot and a two-run homer from Teixeira. Chuck James, having his best start of the season, didn’t need anything else. He went seven, allowed just two hits, struck out six while walking only one, and threw exactly 100 pitches, 63 of them for strikes. He had problems in the third but other than that was in control all night.
The Braves added a run in the fifth, Chipper singling home KJ, but left the bases loaded in that inning. Andruw added a homer in the eighth. Soriano, pitching again in a non-save situation, allowed a homer in the ninth for the Marlins’ only run.
Renteria went 3-4, and is at .338. Chipper was 2-3 and is at .339. Unfortunately, Matt Holliday may never make another out.
Jeff Bennett, who is nothing of importance, will start tomorrow against the Brewers. I think that the Cubs should lodge a protest.
So Cormier is officially dumped? Great, now I think we can be assured that Cormier will not be considered as a starting pitcher for next season!!!
I feel faint–this up and down club actually pulled off a sweep.
Like many moves this season, I don’t get the Jeff Bennett move. Not that Cormier or Carlyle would do any better. Of course, it doesn’t really matter anyway.
It’s nice to have the good Chuckie of May-July back. It’s also good to see Jo-Jo getting a couple of starts to finish the season.
I really hope the Braves dump (trade, release, whatever) Lance Cormier this offseason. I don’t get what they ever saw in him.
At the risk of being hooted from the room, I’d like to keep Cormier in the organization as an emergency starter. He was a damn sight better than Redman or Reyes, and not much worse than Carlyle. Keep him in Richmond, but unless the whole Mississippi rotation is moving up, keep him.
Brain, at least Reyes has some potential to get better, there is no hope in Cormier.
Maybe Cormier hangs around Richmond as an injury replacement type player. Even though he had a couple of decent games (and several crummy ones) any team with playoff ambitions won’t have him in the rotation at the beginning of the season.
Bennett’s line for his three starts in the AAA playoffs:
17.1 IP, 11 H, 2 R/ER, 6 BB, 10 K. 1.04 ERA. Two wins, and Richmond won the third game. So why not let him pitch once in Atlanta?
I wonder if the Braves still have options on Cormier…
Anyone else feel like there is about a 50% chance a Renteria for A.J. Burnett trade happens this offseason?
I would do it
more on Druw
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2007/baseball/mlb/09/17/bc.bbn.braves.jones.ap/
The Astros dig for three straight rookie starters and now we use Bennett. It safe to say much of the rest of the NL would prefer to see the Brewers get a chance at October.
Can ESPN love New York anymore? “Wright’s MVP night helps Mets end free fall” He went 2-4 with 3 rbi’s, nothing too extraordinary. On top of that, he had 3 errors. 3 errors is normally enough to lose a game for your team, definitely not what an MVP does for sure.
AJ Burnett? Are you kidding? So we can shoulder another huge contract for a player with arm problems?
I wouldn’t mind getting Burnett, and I hope Cormier gets a shot in spring training. I don’t think it would be a disaster for the team if he’s the 5th starter. He’s had servicable outings 3 of his last 4. (Although I’ll grant that if he’s tossing in one out of every 4 like his last one, he’s got to go.) Just give him a shot starting coming out of ST and see what he does. Start JoJo in AAA, set to come up when someone gets hurt or whatever. Given Smoltz/Huddy/James/another starter we trade for, fielding a rotation out of Hampton/Cormier/Reyes won’t be too bad at all.
Zing.
But A.J. Burnett is like if Mike Hampton had a clone. He has the same kind of problems and the same burdensome contract.
Anyone see Chipper’s postgame interview?
He had, if we had this done this all year look.
Was quite harsh on Chuckie and Reyes..deservedly
Did everyone forget to check out Bennetts ERA before his elbow went south. The guy is and from what I can see, a hell of a pitcher. My understanding is that after having had the TJ surgery, he should be throwing hard and fast. I think the Brewers are in for a beating.
Well, this is only Chuckie’s second year. I would say this season is within expectation. The problem is the team never has a dependable third starter. Hoping Chuckie to be the third starter is unrealistic.
I don’t doubt Burnett’s ability and even health, but I think Burnett has an attitude problem…
It may be unrealistic, but I think Chuck is ALMOST there in his command. He didn’t lose it tonight and went seven, which was just a sight for sore eyes. If he can do that more, he’ll be a super number four at least next season.
Not to give any false hope or anything, but… the Pirates are beating the Padres 3-2 in the ninth.
… wow. I guess you can’t trust even the Pirates to beat the Padres. Walk-off homer by Scott Hairston. Braves still 5 1/2 back.
As long as the Braves don’t go into 2008 thinking of Hampton or James as the #3, I think they’ll be alright. In order (from first starter to fifth):
Smoltz/Hudson/New Guy/James/Hampton
That would be pretty good, in my opinion. 4 of the 5 pieces are there, just get a solid third starter and the Braves’ rotation in 2008 will be just fine.
Smoltz/Hudson/New Guy/James/Hampton would be a good national league regular season rotation. 1-5 is solid, and you pretty much have a shot every night. Of course, a solid 1-5 is not as good as a ridiculous 1-2 punch for the playoffs, but hey… let’s get there next year first.
I’m becoming more optimistic about our chances next year. When someone listed our potential bullpen for next year and then Dan listing our starting rotation, I think things are definitely looking good. Of course, for that rotation to be in place we’re looking at a Renteria-and-AJ-less lineup, but I think we’ll be fine.
Johnson
Escobar
Jones
Teixiera
McCann
Francouer
Mike Cameron?
Diaz
Pitcher
Looks pretty good to me.
The 2008 season isn’t lost yet. Even with minimal and maybe slight improvements, we can still have a good team.
So what do you think our odds of keeping Andruw are? At the beginning of the season I would’ve put them pretty low, but seeing how bad he’s done this season I could see him taking a one year deal for slightly less money just to prove he still deserves big money. And there’s no way he could be as bad next year as he has been this year.
Sam, I was going to say, don’t say anything on the Padres game…oh well…too late…
Who said 2008 season is lost?! It’s not even close to that. This team has a bright future.
2007 season, however, is lost.
Man, I just realized something tonight. That Octavio Dotel trade turned out to be completely worthless. He pitched, what 3 innings for us? I mean sure we got rid of Kyle “Walks are fun” Davies, but man what a terrible rental that turned out to be.
I think, at the very least on Andruw, we could offer him arbitration with little fear. Worse case scenerio, he takes. It’s already been discussed that he won’t get the deal he wants after the year he had. Either he stays at a reduced offer for one year, or he gets a big deal and we get the two draft picks. Hell, we might even be able to sign him for a long term deal. In any case it’s not like Maddux, and we’ll get somtething for AJ; considering the year he’s had, who even knows if it will be worth it?
Sorry, drunk after bars at college. Probably doesn’t make sense. night.d
I have no problem with Cormier getting a shot to pitch in the spring. He pitched well this spring was injured, rushed to return, got shelled and then returned again and pitched a bit better. In other words, 2007 was a lost year for Cormier and he might well pitch better next season.
The main thing is that Braves don’t go into 2008 relying on Cormier to be a starter. We need at least one more quality starter and Hampton or two more quality starters. Cormier might get a spot starter role and be used as the vulure has.
I can see the Braves signing Andruw for one more year–in fact, I think it is almost probable….
#29, it was a good trade. Davies has a 6+ era for the Royals. Trading him prevents him from losing us a lot of bad games next year. Kyle is a AAAA player not a part of a playoff contender’s rotation. At least Reyes although he has been mostly bad so far has time to grow.
I have a feeling Jo-Jo Reyes is going to turn into a really good major league starting pitcher someday. Hopefully 2008.
I can see the Braves signing Andruw for one more year–in fact, I think it is almost probable….
I hope not, or you can kiss the money to afford an A.J. Burnett or Javier Vazquez goodbye. Liberty Media is raising the payroll, but they aren’t raising it so much the Braves can make a big signing or trade for a much-needed starting pitcher, pay Teixeira’s 12+ (at the least) million after arbitration, pay the big salary increases for Smoltz and Hudson (8M to 14M and 6M to 13M), pay Hampton all of his 14.5 million (if he stays healthy, no insurance money covering his salary this time around), pay for the normal salary increases for young players, and give Andruw Jones something like 14-16 million to keep him.
The way I see it, if the rotation is going to change enough to really let this team contend, Andruw Jones has to go. At least I think. Maybe Liberty Media will raise the payroll to 120 million, but I highly doubt that.
Renteria and Jojo for a great #3 guy
If you want to watch Elton John talk free agency with Mark Lemke, it’s on the Braves official site. Seriously.
…count the headlights on the highway
The first thing the Braves need to do is get realigned to the NL Central. The Braves would be a half game back in that joke of a division. I hate the current setup because it almost insures that some decent team will get screwed out of the playoffs by some bogus division “champion” that wins 85 games. It’s not that I think the Braves “deserve” to be in the playoffs but they certainly deserve it as much as the Cubs or Brewers. I would either like to see baseball eliminate divisions and simply let the four teams with the best record in the playoffs or, at least, eliminate one of the NL divisions, go with two divisions of 8 teams each and let the two division champs and next two teams with best records go. This would make it less likely that some team with a crummy record would make it over a better team.
Anyway, I’m glad to see teh Braves winning some games, even if they are meaningless. (And the Marlins are obviously mailing it in.) I want a winning September and record over .500 so they have something positive to carry into next season. It’s not much, but something.
Crappy teams will get in, but the wildcard has been a huge success for baseball. The more teams that are in the race late, the more fan interest and money. It’s not going anywhere any time soon.
Dan,
I don’t have a problem with the wild card. My problem is with the division set up that makes it almost inevitable that one of the divisions will be weak. I would rather have strong wild card teams making the playoffs than weak division champions.
I believe Dotel pitched 4 and 1/3 innings, and I still like the trade.
If we got a bag of used diapers, we’d have won the Davies trade.
I’d like to see them bring Dotel back. He’ll probably be fairly cheap given his injuries. I still think having a dominant bullpen with ok starting pitching can work, at least during the regular season.
I’d sign Dotel to a minor league contract, nothing more.
Hey, he’s one of us.
In the new SI, in their “Pop Culture Grid,” they ask LSU RB Jacob Hester about his “worst vice.”
His answer: “Bitterness after Atlanta Braves losses.”
Come aboard, brotha.
A nice thing about LSU must be followed by a mean thing, as per rule.
http://photos-a.ak.facebook.com/photos-ak-sf2p/v134/39/53/7032839/n7032839_35486084_1070.jpg
Cool picture. This is from the 2006 Auburn/LSU football game. Spirit is released from the top of the upper deck before she flies around the field for the better part of a minute, landing at midfield. (She did have one flight of a minute and a half last year..)
After Spirit landed, they walked her outside the gate kinda in front of the LSU section (which is the most feasible exit from the field to get her to where they can hold her, which is about at the 20-yard-line on the far left hand side – there are just a couple rows of LSU fans, can be seen in the pic.) There, an LSU fan threw a cup of ice at the bird and was arrested. Unfortunately for the LSU guy, Spirit’s a bald eagle, an endangered species. Yeah, the punishment for that is up to $50,000 in fines or a year in jail. Oops.
His answer: “Bitterness after Atlanta Braves losses.”
Same here.
There was a nice plug for JC in Keith Law’s ESPN chat just now:
The Davies trade was and remains a bad one.
Renteria for Burnett is one of those high risk/high reward situations. To me, it’d be worth the risk, but I can certainly understand the other side.
And I don’t get the anti-Cormier vibe. He’s pitched relatively well lately. Sure, it’d be nice if you had 5 pitchers better than him, but I don’t think we do, and you could do much worse from your 5th starter, it seems to me.
Davies trade wasn’t a bad one. I don’t care if he’s 23, he can’t even succeed in Kansas City. It may concede that it wasn’t necessarily a good trade if you wanna evaluate it on the talent we got back (four innings of bad pitching), but it certainly wasn’t a bad trade.
No, it’s quite bad. It was at the time.
As I said then, we gave up a guy who could get better and is cheap. In return, we got a guy who costs, what, 15 times more? And pitched 4 1/3 innings for us. And anyone who was paying attention knew Dotel’s arm was unlikely to hold up.
When you give up something that isn’t good but could be and doesn’t cost you anything for something that costs a good bit and is a safe bet to give you nothing, it’s distorting facts and letting personal bias get in the way if you don’t see that as a bad trade.
You may be glad we got rid of Davies for whatever reason—frustration with inconsistency or personal dislike, I dunno—but in terms of what’s best for the Atlanta Braves, there’s just no way it’s anything other than bad.