Game postponed due to snow. One thing you can do is have a few more off-days in the schedule when teams are playing interdivisional games. Now the Braves are probably going to have to make a side trip to Colorado at some point, and we can only hope it can be arranged during the normal West Coast trip.
Resop delenda est.
I don’t usually criticize MLB’s scheduling, because they usually have reasons that aren’t always easily seen and are perfectly valid, but why did we play Colorado in April? Why don’t we play them in Atlanta in April, and play them in Colorado over the summer, where you’re pretty much guaranteed good weather? Doesn’t make sense.
Someone’s got to play them there in April. They can’t play all their games on the road until summer.
Clearly, MLB does not consider weather in the scheduling.
But you don’t have to play warm weather teams, Marc. Let Pittsburgh, Milwaukee, New York, Philadelphia, or other teams whose home fields will also be cold play each other, and give the cold weather teams a break by coming down here.
Weather is too unpredictable to consider a factor in scheduling. I don’t think that ATL is at any disadvantage. If it’s cold, then all the players are cold.
4 — Milwaukee has a retractable roof. It can be 70 degrees anytime they please.
But I hear what you’re getting at.
I wish Resop would get DLed. I miss Tyler Yates
I don’t think the weather makes much difference. It’s cold for both teams. Pittsburgh, NY, and Philly aren’t in the Arctic. It’s not necessarily cold every day in April in those places and it’s not necessarily warm in Atlanta every day in April. It’s difficult to play in Denver regardless of the season so I would rather get the games out of the way. The Braves aren’t losing because of the weather. If they are playing better later in the year, we will be glad they don’t have to go to Denver again.
Sorry, but I think Resop needs to go. I would not pull the trigger just yet, but he should be on a short leash.
I still believe in Chucky, though. He breezed through the minors, so he did not have to really develop in process. He obviously needs to now. I think it best that he perfect that slider at AAA, though.
The comment that Milwaukee “has a retractable roof ” does not make it warm there. I’ve seen several Braves/Brewer games there, and the stadium is NOT heated. When its 39 degrees outside, like last year first game, it’s 41 degrees inside. There’s no wind, so I guess that makes it better.
The issue for me isn’t the conditions in which the teams have to play. The issue is that when a game gets postponed due to bad weather, a team that only travels to Colorado once a year has to take one of their coveted late-season days off to schlep all the way back across the country for one game.
There’s no good reason to have interdivision games in Colorado in April. It shows an incredible lack of foresight or, more probably, give-a-crap, on the part of MLB.
The cold weather cities get hot in the summer too.
What the real problem is, there are too many baseball teams. They should get rid of all baseball in Florida and shorten the season to 142 games, play a balanced schedual, and start spring training in April. The season would start May 1st. and the Reds would open at home and play the first game on Sunday night baseball.
I like the fact that in a game like last night, Bobby made Chris suffer through it. When Soriano comes back its outings like this that makes the decisions easier to make. Resop will be the odd man out then. I would like to see Resop released now and try to see if Stockman can come up and eat some innings, but it wont happen. At least Bobby named Moylan closer and not Acosta, too bad that our team is playing so bad that our closer(s) dont get a chance to pitch. Good news – day game if it isnt snowing and I dont have to watch the end of the 4 game sweep. I’m sure Jeff Francis will pitch lights out, Hudson will go seven strong and grab the loss in a 1-0 game. More good news – Masters replay will be on ESPN tonight
The cold weather cities get hot in the summer too.
Yes, yes they do. I don’t understand your point.
news from our farm
Josh Anderson batting a cool .423 in 26AB’s 3SB
Clint Sammons .421 in 19AB’s
Barbaro canizares .400 in 25Ab’s
Borchard and Spezio also over .330
Rouwenhurst 7IP 5H 1BB 7K 0ER
Jo JO 5IP 1H 2BB 6K 0ER
Morton 4.2IP 3H 1BB 4K 0ER
I can see the idea of west coast team playing in Colorado in april. That would make it easier to make up a snow game later on. That being said, it rains a lot Florida all the time. So, how do you keep the dodgers from having to come to florida to make up a game from april? I just think the “problem” is not that big of a deal. All teams go from coast to coast throughout the season. If you have to make up a game on the west coast, then you can make it up the next time your team heads that direction.
good thing I followed the ESPN advice on starting Diaz against the three lefties in Colorado this week. He’s 1 for 11 with 3 K’s 1 RBI
You’d only have intradivision games in April, the month in which most bad weather happens. I wasn’t limiting it only to Denver. It wouldn’t be that hard.
Depends on how you define a “big deal,” I guess. When an issue is that easy to correct, and when there’s no good reason not to, it’s ridiculous to have to deal with it at all, IMO.
csg,
He’s only face one lefty so far. He’s got three more in a row including the Washington pitchers.
I don’t envy the people who create the schedule. This is a good article from two years ago that talks about it:
http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20060404&content_id=1383448&vkey=news_mlb&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb
Acoording to Mlb.com’s Scoreboard today’s game is postponed.
so it was a clean sweep
probably a good thing for Hudson too…
“Hudson has beaten the Rockies three times at home, but is 0-2 with a 13.00 ERA at Coors Field, allowing 13 runs, 19 hits and walking seven in nine innings.”
Yes, Bob, it is snowing pretty heavily in Colorado right now. We’ll go back there for one game in July, on the way from New York to D.C.
“Today’s game against the Braves was called off due to snow. The game has been rescheduled for June 16.”
Monday, June 16 was to an off-day between games at Anaheim & at Texas.
Maybe it’s best we got the hell out of that town. Nothing good happened there.
After all of this, we are only one game behind New York and Philly. At the end of the day it will be a game and a half behind one and a half gam behind the other.
This is why they won’t consider weather in the schedule. We are rescheduled to play in between series in LosAngeles and Texas. The schedule makers are the ones who don’t think it’s a big deal.
at least we’ll get Hudson, Smoltz, and Glavine in Washington
has there been any new news on Hampton’s armpit
Good point Parish,
No one is running away with a 9-1, 8-2 start. All’s ok even with the headaches of DL’n Soriano, Schaffer, Resop and Hampton’s armpit.
Yeah, but you could also argue that we could be 4 or 5 games UP on someone by now too, sending a message to the rest of the division.
Wasn’t too hard to see that Redman outing coming. His stint with the Braves is unfortunately a wrong that will never be adequately righted. The conditions were perfect – he was staked a huge lead early, one that, were he pitching for us, he certainly would have squandered. Instead, as a continuation of the cruel joke, he makes it 6 “strong” innings in Coors of all places (6? I was nodding off, Chuck James’s mediocrity bores me). Somehow, I get the feeling it will never be “our turn” against Redman. The closest we’ll ever get was Kotsay’s liner off his leg in the second inning (so an injured Redman beats us), and if you have too many scruples for that (as you should), I don’t know how to help you.
As I’ve mentioned, I have the flu and am nauseous and disoriented. This may explain how I first read “Redman” in Drewdat’s comment as “Redrum”. Maybe not.
Feel better, Mac.
In the meantime, I take full credit for Resop getting delenda’d. Hopefully Wren will soon take credit for getting Resop DL’d.
Well, this means I get to see Smoltz on Saturday here in DC.
10 — bigfoot, from my experience there i could have sworn it was climate controlled… much warmer than it was outside. maybe i’m misremembering.
Chuck James sent down and Jorge Campillo called up……that was quick.
Take a look at Campillo’s eye popping MLB career line:
Career 8 17.2 23 16 2 7 11 0 0 0 17.0 1.70 .315 7.13
Nice….
Random Reliever Roulette begins. Even at my healthiest I wouldn’t feel up to writing an analysis for Campillo.
This would seem to indicate that the Braves think that Hampton will be ready to go next time they need another starter. Poor, deluded souls.
“Disoriented” seems to be going around.
why not Stockman, they must hate the guy
Okay, so now I’m confused. I, like any sane person would assume Moylan would be the closer, but I have read two fantasy articles today, one from Yahoo and one from Karabell (both with pictures!), that says Acosta is now the closer. What is going on ?? I know Acosta was the fill in closer that never needed to be used on Monday, but I thought that was because Bobby figured out that Peter can’t pitch every single day.
Am I missing something here ??
Who knows, jj. It’s all random this year.
here’s Bowmans article
http://atlanta.braves.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20080409&content_id=2509243&vkey=news_atl&fext=.jsp&c_id=atl
While Soriano is unavailable, Peter Moylan or Manny Acosta will likely serve as the Braves closer. When asked, Cox didn’t specify how he’d now use these top two setup men.
Can we just mash up a few pitching staffs for awhile, so we don’t have to sweat the bullpen?
No.
I think Mike Hampton should buy us another pitcher.
Thank God, the game’s postponed! Burn in hell, Denver, then maybe you’d have some baseball weather.
We sure are telling a lot of things to burn in hell this year. Been very frustrating.
Well, the game was postponed because of snow, again. As an Atlanta boy, I wouldn’t mind if snow burned in hell.
The makeup date is on June 16, in between a three-game set against the L.A. Angels of Anaheim and the Texas Rangers.
watch us have a late game in LA and then an early day game in Colorado
I sure do not understand the promotion of Campillo. Rouwenhurst is pitching the best down there & Stockman is probably the best pitcher. Why not bring up one of them and let Bennett start. Is Campillo even on the 40-man?
You guys are nuts. I grew up in Ga and now live in Ca. I fly coast to coast all the time riding coach on Delta. For the Braves to go across the country on their jet is not the slightest issue.
the best solution for the schedule is what they do late in the year. if the game doesnt matter to the standings, say to hell with it and play 161…………colorado loses a home date, oh well. thats better than the braves making an extra trip in june and losing a day off for the relievers who just pitched 50 innings in the last week.
+1, charles thomas. These guys spend half the season flying first class across the county. A random flight back to Denver is a non-story.
Campillo won’t be up long. They are going with a 4 man rotation for a little while and they figured they’d need a long relief guy over someone like Stockman who ideally pitches one inning or so. He’s not very good, but it’s hard to imagine him being worse than Resop at this point.
new office episode tonight and it could be one of the most awkward episodes of any show that I’ve seen…however, great way to start the new season
4 man rotation? do they realize that smoltz is nowhere near healthy? if they go to a 4-man rotation for 2-3 rotations, smoltz will be on the dl in a month.
I don’t understand how the team can expect Acosta to be one of the top setup man in the bullpen only after 24 innings of work late last season…I can only hope Gonzo comes back healthy…
Ryan, the team does not need a fifth starter until April 19. By that time, they will probably recall JoJo.
I believe Bobby should strongly consider using Bennett in late or close situation rather than in long relieve. Boyer can handle the long relieve job…
Is it just me or does it kinda seem like the Braves are a mini-mess right now? Lot of crap going down.
Can Moylan start AND close?
The Braves may be a mini-mess at this point, but that’s pretty common for many teams at this time of year. I believe when Texiera turns things around, the rest of the team will follow suit. This is why he has a good shot at MVP if he produces like he’s capable of.
Mets & Phils in the 12th. Hope they play 16.
Good news! Scott Spezio pitched an inning last year.
Meanwhile, the Marlins swept the Nats and sit atop the division at 6-3.
THE MARLINS!!
csg. that’s what she said
Tommy Hanson watch:
6 innings, 0 runs, 1 hit, 2 walks, 7 Ks
on the year:
11 IP, 0 runs, 1 hit, 3 BB, 20 Ks
Scott Thorman watch:
1 for 21, 0 hr, 0 BB, 6 Ks
He has completely collapsed as a baseball player.
#30 csg, here’s what DOB has to say:
“Someone asked about Hampton: No timetable yet. I didn’t talk to him today, but doesn’t sound like he’ll be ready to pitch when his DL stint is up….”
Charlie Morton watch:
5.2 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 0 SO. Cumulative 0.89 ERA, 10.1 IP, 3 BB, 4 SO.
I believe Tex had the same injury last year as Hampton is having, and I believe it took Tex a whole month to recover.
On the other hand, Tex has a functioning human body.
Charlie Morton isn’t going to be able to hack it as a major league pitcher if he can’t get strikeouts. With stuff like his he ought to be able to miss bats. Until he can actually strike people out in proportion to how nasty his stuff is, he’s just another version of Kim Jong-Il.
Stu @ #11
I think your comments on scheduling & weather sum things up rather perfectly. Major League Baseball needs to avoid situations like Atlanta IN Colorado in April. Or else Colorado should be adding a retractable roof.
That being said, the ceveat is that the NL East is a 5 team division. Even if you went strictly with inter-divisional games the first month, SOMEONE will have to play someone else for parts of a week. If the Braves play Philly and the Mets play the Marlins, then that leaves the Nats with a series against someone and so on.
The easiest way to solve is that all stadiums (unless it’s in a setting like AZ or San Diego) should be required to have retractable roofs. Hell, we have a ton of rainouts in Atlanta…we should have one too.
csg @ #15
Thanks for the stats; I don’t understand why they won’t free Phil Stockman, but I am pleased to see what Josh Anderson is doing as well.
The most interesting part for me is Jo Jo Reyes. I am pretty confident at this point that I think he will be a better pitcher than James.
And since Mike Hampton is likely to go through several more illnesses including aforementioned Syphilis, along with Elephantitis, Narcolepsy, & ringworm, I’d be surprised if James gets more than 1 other start before the organization made the switch between James and Reyes. Barring any injury, the other 4 spots are locked in. (Thankfully).
Smitty @ #48
Best line of the week, by far.
“Tex has a functioning human body” – Great line!!
Even if you think Hampton’s recovery could be like that of a normal person, I’ve got to think that his type of injury is much more serious for a pitcher than a hitter. As much as I didn’t believe it, Mac’s prediction that Hampton won’t pitch at all this year looks better every day. I wonder how silent Hampton’s critics are now.
td,
Hampton won’t just pitch again this year, he won’t pitch again ever.
Sucks for the guy, but I just have to laugh at those Thorman stats. He’s ridiculously bad.
“The easiest way to solve is that all stadiums (unless it’s in a setting like AZ or San Diego) should be required to have retractable roofs. Hell, we have a ton of rainouts in Atlanta…we should have one too.”
Who’s going to pay for these roofs? The taxpayers, of course, because the teams sure won’t. Let’s just add another $20-$30 million; these cities don’t really need that money.
Thanks Alex,
However, I think roofs on baseball stadiums are retarded. We don’t have very many rainout in Atlanta, in fact we went like 4 years in Turner Field without one.
I don’t think you can force teams into putting retractable roofs onto their stadiums. Seems a bit much, and takes away a great part of baseball- the uniqueness of each stadium
Retractable roofs or ionized weather force fields…either would be fine.
And the future major league success of our AAAA pitchers ranks as follows – Reyes, James, Bennett, then Morton.
Campillo is not even in the discussion and Hanson will certainly be better than all of them.
I think Obama, Clinton , and McCain should all try to get Mike Hampton on their staffs.
a) he has a lot of free time
b) he knows more about healthcare than anyone else I can think, he could fix the healthcare crisis!
Hampton is the healthcare crisis.
Hampton:healthcare provider::whale:casino
I wonder what his deductable is?
So far this year, we are losing all the one-run games, we have a cleanup hitter batting well below the Mendoza line, the team finds a way to do just enough to lose, and Hampton is on the DL.
Somebody make me feel better. How is this year different than 2007, again?
40% chance of isolated thunderstorms tonight
I don’t think it’s hard to schedule Colorado only intra-division home games for the first month of the year. Same thing for Detroit, Cleveland, probably the Chicagos, too. At least that way you’ve got a lot of available makeup dates.
Parish you forgot –
Soriano is on the DL, Smoltz has a sore shoulder, Kelly has a bad knee, we dont know who our closer is, and Bobby’s game management has been brutal. Here’s the best one
1. squeeze play with Chuck James and Brian McCann on third
2. bring the infield in in a 2-1 game at Coors field in the 3rd inning
3. Letting Chuck pitch at Coors field
4. Using every reliever we have in every game
Bright things – Chipper, Escobar, and McCann are swinging very well. Jurrjens has looked very solid and confident. Starting pitching has been very good, besides James outing.
Anybody have any details on the Schaffer ghg suspension? This morning I heard the info came from an anonymous tip line baseball has. Seems kind of sketchy if they are giving out 50 game suspensions based on tips from who knows.
I have a feeling that Teixeria will hit above .160. When he starts going, that will help.
GHG? Schafer was suspended for greenhouse gases? 🙂
oops!!
Parish,
Regarding your comparison to 2007, I don’t think anyone believes Tex will stay below the Mendoza line. Comparing Tex to Thorman is like comparing a BMW to a Dodge Neon. Eventually, that BMW will get a nice waxing and look new again.
Stu, Marc Schneider-
Apparently you missed the biting sarcasm I was intending to get across. I need to be LESS subtle.
I am for retractable roofs if they are factored in from the beginning. But still, I realize you’re not going to suddenly have 20 stadiums add retractable roofs.
And Marc, regarding your hue and cry over ‘the taxpayers’, anything stadium related usually equals out to about 1-5 cents extra in taxes, for the record. If you’re not willing to pay that, that’s your own deal.
I heard the bitching and moaning from all the anti Baseball factions in DC when DC Mayor Anthony Williams sacrificed his political life to get a team to Washington (bravo to him for doing it). And the biggest complaint was people didn’t want to pay the extra frakking 2 cents in taxes. Are you kidding me?
And now all those people (re: local city officials and politicians) so against a team being here, having gladly taken their free suite passes and put their red Nats hats on. Typical.
#82
I can promise you THIS: if McCain, Hillary or Obama show up at a rally in the state of Georgia, Colorado or New York with Mike Hampton on stage, they will be officially LOSING that state to their opponent.
@ 92…
I heard Schafer was injecting himself with cloroflourocarbons straight from the clubhouse refrigerator… And that he doesn’t use compact flourescent bulbs.
Schafer suspension:
There was an article yesterday on ESPN which made it look like he was ratted out by a former violator of the PED policy and there was less evidence against him than against Ankiel or GM Jr. Two days ago there was an article quoting Schafer’s dad which implied he did not admit wrongdoing and was willing to take a battery of medical testst to exonerate himself.
When this news broke I did not doubt his guilt, but something is rotten here.
Count me in as a fan of the retractable roof. Can’t say they should be mandatory or anything, but it’s great to know that the weather won’t cancel a ballgame.
Had that experience in Houston last September. Woke up in the hotel hearing rain pelt down outside & I thought, “Damn, I come all the way to Texas & the Braves are gonna get rained out. … Oh, wait…”
Well, Schafer does drive a Hummer…he should at least plant a few trees every year.
Add this to the file of “Things I’m Pretty Sure Furman Bisher Hates”:
In yesterday’s game against the Detroit Tigers, “The Red Sox celebrated ‘Japan Night,’ playing the Japanese national anthem before the game with Japanese dancers and drummers on the warning track.”
On the other hand, in the Things Furman Bisher Probably Likes column, there’s this:
On Schaffer, let’s add 2 & 3 & 5 & 46 and subtract 10 and multiply by 3.2, etc.
My calculation is that they have somebody saying “I gave them to Schaffer.” Then, consistent with the Australian bog comments on here a couple of days ago, Schaffer didn’t take (Schaffer’s dad says he offered to take a hair test, wasn’t using, …). But, Schaffer acted as delivery boy TO someone else. Consistent with Australian comment, Schaffer won’t rat out somebody else. BUT MLB rules probably say “possession” not just “use” so it probably is a violation.
Mac,
How is anybody to blame for Thursday night. It just existed until midnight.
Yep, I’m confused about Schafer deal too!
I was listening to ESPN radio yesterday and they had a top 10 of the worst sports cities. For all you in ATL, congratulations on being the #1 worst sports city. Apparently having 15,000 empty seats at playoff games is not a good thing. 🙂
So we got 2 and a half feet of snow last weekend and there is about 10 inches of new snow on the ground this morning and another 2-3 inches thru the rest of the day.
Anyone thinking about moving to MN needs to get their head examined.
Noticed that A’s called up Joey Devine to take Dan Haren’s spot on the roster…let the Grand Salami’s begin……
So Thorman and AJ are off to bad starts–maybe we should have a contest of some sort. King of the K’s might be a fitting title.
I caught Wednesday’s Marlins-Nats game in DC. Decent ballpark–good but expensive concessions. Saw something pretty rare–a homer from Christian Guzman. Jacobs hit two for the Marlins. Bergmann is tough on the Braves but he coughed up 7 run innning.
I actually watched the Joey Devine show last night. (MLB Extra Innings = legal crack.)
He came in for the 10th & 11th vs Toronto, got nicked up (4 singles), but got out of trouble both times, including a big K of Frank Thomas in the 10th. He ended up with the win when the A’s scored 2 in the 12th & Foulke slinked by with the save.
Devine looked alright, threw strikes, but he’s definitely not scaring anybody. He got up 1-2 on Thomas (including a long-foul walk0ff scare that clunked the facing of the upper deck), then made him chase a big sweeper outside for strike 3. Big Frank was pissed.
ububba, for those of us who dont know, what is MLB Extra Innings = Legal Crack?
MLB Extra Innings is a premium cable service offering almost every single MLB game.
No TBS this year, so I had to do something. I got it because I d0n’t want to miss the Braves—and I’m not convinced I want to watch the games on my PC thru mlb.com.
For me, in the short time I’ve had it, it’s become as addictive as crack.
ububba,
Do you have a choice of viewing either the Home or Away feeds?
You get the home feeds.
I read that the A’s 3B had to make a diving stab to save Devine from an extra base hit with runners on. Wish him well, though.
I’m fine with the home feeds. I just wanna see the games. Don’t care about the announcers, really. Although, in some cases, it’s interesting to hear what they say about the Braves.
You don’t like the mlb.tv Ububba?
They have an even higher quality feed this year and it sure is nice to be able to take my laptop around the house and still watch the games.
Lando,
Never tried it, but I don’t wanna watch a baseball game on my PC, especially when I’m actually doing work on it, which is often.
I see, that’s why I have a desktop and a laptop 😉
Got Extra Innings as well, it is really addicting, i usually get the Hockey Package too, love watching the west coast teams.
What do you pay for the package, ubbuba? I have brighthouse, not sure if its offered (brighthouse=time warner=evil SOB’s)
I pay $159 and I get the hockey, too, which is great for me because I’m a huge fan of the NHL playoffs.
In fact, I’m headed to Newark tonight for Devils-Rangers.
I think you go to more sporting events than anyone I know ububba.
I’m jealous.
As I like to say, I could have worse habits.