ESPN – Braves vs. Brewers – Box Score – May 27, 2008
I don’t believe this. The Braves led from the first inning, but a combination of Hibernation Mode, bad luck, and Bobby managing like it’s 1967 cost the game.
Kelly Johnson, still in the two-spot with Kotsay out, hit a solo homer in the first. Gregor Blanco hit a solo homer in the second. That was the offense. The Braves had only five other hits and only one (intentional) walk; their only real scoring opportunity was when Chipper followed KJ’s homer with a double, but Teixeira flew out, McCann was ealked, and Francoeur did what he does. And that was it. They had only four baserunners over the rest of the night, and two were erased on double plays and a third when Diaz for some reason tried to steal second. This is against a guy whose ERA entering the game was over six. It’s like being stymied by Chuck James, but this was a righthander.
Tim Hudson looked to be able to make it hold up, shutting the Brewers out through six. However, it was obvious that he was tiring even then. You can tell when Hudson’s not right because he starts allowing fly balls. The last out of the sixth was a long fly ball to the right field gap, and I would have gotten the bullpen at least loosening up then. But Bobby didn’t, and I guess it’s too much to expect him to. But after Hudson allowed a leadoff double and an RBI single in the seventh, Bobby let him hit for himself leading off the next inning, which is just stupid. Hudson got the first two men in the eighth, but then gave up a terrible single to Fielder due to the horrible shift. (For your information: the shift did lead to a double play, but also led directly to two hits, both routine groundouts if the infield is played normally. The shift sucks.) He got ahead of the next batter 0-2, but then allowed a double, pulled hard down the left field line, which would have scored anyone but Fielder.
At this point, Bobby had to pull Hudson, who was well over 100 pitches and clearly tired, but he wouldn’t make the move, just sent Roger out to talk to him. And then he walked Russ Branyan (who had doubled and scored in the last inning) to load the bases, which is especially moronic because the on-base percentage of the next guy is a whole lot higher than Branyan’s batting average, even against a righthander. Sure enough, the next guy hit a liner off of Hudson’s foot to tie the game. (You could call it bad luck — KJ probably makes the play if it gets through — but the ball was hit hard.) Hudson got the next guy, Kendall, who is deader than Carlos Delgado, but for what? Jeff Bennett allowed yet another pathetic bloop hit (seriously, it was terrible luck in addition to everything else tonight) followed by a groundout, a steal of third (unforgiveable) and a flyout that probably doesn’t score the run if Diaz is still in left, but Diaz was out after hurting himself trying to field a ball earlier (apparently he needed stitches in his knee) and Blanco doesn’t throw as well as Diaz. Ballgame.
Chipper was 2-4 and hitting .418. Solomon Torres won for the Brewers — I don’t know what’s worse, Torres getting the win or Julian Tavarez pitching a 1-2-3 eighth.
Mac, I can feel your frustration with that recap. I get sick of games like this. FWIW, I think you meant to refer to the seventh inning in this sentence: “But after Hudson allowed a leadoff double and an RBI single in the second…”
I forgive both McCann for not being very good at throwing runners out. Bennett I’m slightly miffed at. Even a walk sets up a double-play (albeit with Ryan Braun coming up).
[Also, recap says “Hudson allowed a leadoff double and an RBI single in the second”, which should say “seventh”.]
^^ Funny to correct someone else’s minor error directly after making one of your own. Please ignore the “both” in the first line there. 🙂
Fixed it. I originally was going to write that he allowed a single to the second hitter of the inning. Sometimes my fingers have a mind of their own.
As much as we blame the loss on all the mistakes made by Bobby, the key question is still: where is the offense on the road?
By the way, why the (bleep) did Diaz bunt after he hurt his knee on which he apparently needed stitches? Did he really think he was going to beat it out? Simpson and Sciambi were all over Francoeur and Diaz for getting out in two pitches when Huddy needed some rest (even though he should have been pulled).
And another one-run loss on the road…
But seriously, Tex hitting into the double play was deflating. It feels like we’re hitting into more double plays than most of the rest of the league.
On a positive note, Chipper is probably going to sleepwalk his way to .400 this year. I say that because he seems to be giving off a zombie vibe. I just hope he starts driving in more runs. By my count, it looks like he’s only driven in 3 runs in the last 11 games.
I’m sorry, was that a criticism of Chipper? I mean, even though the “zombie” thing kinda sounded like a criticism, clearly it couldn’t have been. Because that would be insane. He’s is basically carrying the team this year.
Diaz to the DL and headed back to Atlanta for an MRI. A rarely spotted PCL injury so hopefully it isn’t too serious.
for all of you save guru’s, how does Cordero get a save in this game?
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/playbyplay?gameId=280527117
so do we call up Anderson? or Jones?
csg,
When he entered the game, the tying run was on deck. That’s a save situation.
Stinks about Diaz. Had no idea it was that serious.
Check out Chipper’s gamelog at Yahoo. It’s pretty sick. Sure, he’s only got 3 RBI recently, but he’s got 9 runs scored in the same 11 games. Chipper’s starting to go back to his more patient self, or they’re just not giving him the good stuff to hit as much, and he’s walking significantly more; he has ten walks in those 11 games. That’s great for Chipper and great for the team, but not great for his RBI totals.
Carroll Rodgers, from the AJC:
Braves disabled matt Diaz with strained PCL and will send him to Atlanta for an MRI. they are activating Soriano…..be on the lookout for updated things on the website if you will.
Kotsay possibly heading towards DL
http://tinyurl.com/6m9das
I can’t believe Diaz didn’t come out of the game immediately after he clanked the fence. I could barely walk back to his position, much less take an AB the next inning.
Tough loss. Gotta go get ’em tomorrow.
Crazy game in Baltimore tonight: 9 HRs, a long rain delay & now they’re in extras.
Unreal.
Diaz going down — if they use his spot for Soriano — might force them to also DL Kotsay. They really can’t go forward with an outfield of Francoeur, Blanco, and Infante or Norton. Preferably, I’d bring up both Anderson and Jones, and send Stockman down. I mean, it’s not like he’s going to pitch.
Good point, Mac. Stockman is getting the Joey Devine treatment. It’s asinine.
And people wonder why the Braves haven’t developed a young pitcher in eons.
Diaz probably just has a contusion. Although slamming into that concrete wall and then still trying to play could really make a minor situation into a major one. We’ll see, I guess.
time for Bmac to follow Chipper in the lineup
McCann – 174 AB’s, 58H, 14 2B, 1 3B, 9HR, 32RBI, 18BB, 18K, .333 AVG, .393OBP, .603 SLG%
Tex – 187 AB, 50H, 14 2B, 0 3B, 5HR, 31RBI, 24BB, 27K, .267AVG, .354OBP, .422SLG
Tex is worse in every hitting category other than walks. He also only has 1 HR in his last 115 Ab’s, its been 51 Ab’s since that one
one run games: 2-13
road games: 6-17
Since B -mac got hit square in the cup tonight we might want to hold off on that for a game or two. But yeah, it is only a matter of time. Either Tex gets hot or he drops in the order. How weird is that?
csg, if you look at Tex’s and McCann’s home-road split, you will realize there are not much difference between the two.
I put the blame for this one on the hibernating offense (hey it’s cold in Wisconsin) more than Cox’s management of Hudson and the pen. In hindsight he probably should have pulled Huddy after 7, but he’s playing a crummy hand without Boyer or Acosta available. Only getting 2 runs off Dave Bush is pitiful; it looked like Esco and Francoeur were playing a variant of Name That Tune (I can see only 4 pitches in this game; oh yeah, I can see only 3). A few seeing eye balls in the late innings didn’t help matters. Maybe tomorrow.
We have no strategy at the plate whatsoever. Bush sucks, and we bailed him out all night by swinging at the first pitch of the at-bat, at one point making two outs on two pitches. Our hitters’ impatience probably contributed to Hudson’s fatigue, because he could hardly get to the dugout after pitching the bottom of the inning before having to run back out to the mound. I think Escobar saw, like, eight pitches all night. Francoeur sucked too. He swung at the first pitch of just about every bat, and twice the pitch nearly bounced. He sucks hard. I hope he gets hot and raises his average and hits some homers, and then I hope we trade him. Maybe the Dodgers will take him, they’re stupid.
Bring up Jones. Anderson is not worth having on a 25 man roster, perhaps in September to PR or allow more roster flexibility.
If both Kotsay and Diaz are down, I wonder if some of those trade rumors might crank back up. Francoeur, Blanco, Infante, and Jones or Anderson isn’t much of an outfield.
He’s not an option now, but shouldn’t Schafer be back in action soon?
We swept the Mets. We split with the D-Backs (probably the NL favorites). We lose a tough one to the Brew Crew. I’m not going to get too bent out of shape, unless we continue to be this bad on the road.
Rob, we are not seeing any light…
Exactly.
Considering all that’s happened to the Braves injury-wise, I can’t moan too much.
Francoeur’s apparent mental disability doesn’t count as an injury. There’s plenty to moan about.
Long-time lurker. In a way I wish Francoeur hadn’t tore it up his 1st 2 months in Atlanta. July & August of ’05 got him more than a SI cover…it got him a full-time MLB job for years to come. If he was a CF his offense would be much more tolerable, or if we had someone mashing on the other corner. I know what his arm is great and that’s something that’s hard to quantify. Maybe I’m just being a Debbie Downer but I’m slowly starting to think he may never perform up to his talent.
We just lost a game in which our defacto ace was opposed by a starting pitcher with an ERA over 6. Said ERA over 6 starting pitcher subsequently shut down our offense over 7 innings. We dropped to 6-17 on the road and 2-13 in one-run games.
Sorry Pollyanna’s, but I think that’s worthy of some moaning.
I was at the game tonight and it would have been a lot of fun if I had been there to cheer on the crew. Missed KJ’s homer buying tickets (babysitter was a few minutes late). Saw Blanco’s HR but didn’t know it was a HR until after the ump signaled it since we were in the bleachers and it cleared the wall underneath us — out of view. How does Blanco hit a HR and we can’t produce enough offense to win a close game? Hudson was looking really tough after the first… but then really began to tire. Hardy’s hit straight up off of Hudson’s foot might have gotten through — it was hit pretty hard, but you hate to see a run come in when the ball doesn’t even get out of the infield.
It’s funny how many of the shortcomings Mac and others pointed out were things I mentioned to my wife as the game went on. Especially how I was dumbfounded by Diaz’s attempted steal and attempted bunt (after he had hurt himself).
Brats were good. Can’t get enough of those.
Oh — many days ago there was a question about whether Miller Park is climate controlled when the roof closes. I still can’t tell. It was cold this evening (in the high 40’s / low 50’s at gametime — ridiculous!) and it was kinda chilly inside, but not nearly as cold as outside.
Adam M — did you go to the game tonight? Didn’t think to see if you were going ahead of time.
Lilli is starting to get hot since returning from injury. Good timing as he will probably be traded.
Heyward is playing as well as advertised, and Freddie Freeman is becoming a much better hitting prospect than Cody Johnson.
From Bobby:
“I wasn’t going to use [Blaine] Boyer at all,” Cox said. “Bennett to one hitter or an inning and [Manny] Acosta to close, and that was it. But [Hudson] was plenty strong.”
I am shocked that Boyer’s health is in Bobby’s thought…AT ALL!!! Obviously his observation on Huddy is quite different to ours…
Mac, another one run loss on the road and you REALLY believe it was bad luck? C’mon.
“We just let it slip away,” Hudson said. “It’s a game we should have won.”
But we lost.
Most of all, I wanna thank to Hudson. He went to 8 IP even though the end was not good..You know we had tough games against the Mets and Dbacks. I just think Bobby want Hudson to go long innings considering our situation before starting the game. My fellow braves fan says the Braves is home game records are extremely stronger than road trip’s. I am not laborious enough searching figures for now. I just think one run losses are on the pen. Besides, you’ve already known our players didn’t enough support Hudson. Anyway Cheers Huddy:)
While glancing at some people who left comments make me smile.
You know coins have both sides. You don’t know which is the right way. This is not excuse for Bobby but you shoud know how hard managing is…People sometimes criticise or blame him based on the result and judge easily. OK!!!!! You can blame or criticise Bobby’s decisions. I know those are the fan’s charge. I even can’t agree with Bobby at all once in a while. And he seems like behind the time. But ahead of blaming, you should consider the reason why he did decide. Then you can understand Bobby. He’s managed the team for a long time well. I am sure he is thinking over exactly what you are thinking. Don’t see the wood for the trees, Please. We are on just 2.5 games behind the 1st. Not so bad.
Chuck James was placed on the DL a couple of days ago with a back strain.
This team needs starting pitching help. It can’t get more obvious than that. Three starting pitchers on the DL (including Smoltzie), three starting pitchers have blisters on his pitching hand, Bobby loves Bennett in the bullpen, Buddy is not an option IMHO. The only healthy arms are Huddy and Tommy (and Morton if you count him). I am starting to doubt if we have enough options to ride until the trading deadline. Of course, there are practically no trade options out there now. If now is not the time for the offense to carry the team, I don’t know when is.
Chuck James on DL with Brain Strain?
Probably due to lack of brain activity instead…
When you get two runs off a guy with a 6 ERA, the loss falls squarely on the offense, managing and bad luck be damned. Where is this “potent” offense everyone talks about?
Reyes against there RH hitting lineup doesnt bode well for the team tonight
The offense missed the plane to Milwaukee after an 8-3 home stand.
mraver: “I’m sorry, was that a criticism of Chipper? I mean, even though the “zombie” thing kinda sounded like a criticism, clearly it couldn’t have been. Because that would be insane. He’s is basically carrying the team this year.”
The “zombie” thing is not a criticism, more of an observation. Chipper just seems to be in a trance right now, and I really hope he stays that way for the team’s sake since he’s tearing it up. He also, at times, appears to be emotionless. I’m not saying that he is, but during some games it seems he maintains a poker face the entire time. It may be because he’s playing hurt (again), who knows? But I am definitely not discounting what he has done.
Marc, come on. You love to complain about the offense, and yes, there have been and will continue to be games in which the offense doesn’t score like we would expect it to. However, they’ve been mashing lately. This was one game; you’re acting like we haven’t scored all season.
Would love to see an offensive breakout tonight. These one-run road losses are like getting bled to death.
Jaik,
Complaining about Frenchy anymore is like getting mad at the weather—it’s a fact, you don’t have to like it, but you can’t change it. It’s not like he’s going anywhere.
In between the multitude of frustrating moments, you just hope he gets some timely hits & helps win some games, like he did this past weekend.
All in all, were not in bad shape right now.
We shouldn’t really have won two days ago, we should’ve won yesterday. That’s why this game sucks sometimes…
Sounds like frustrating bullpen management or lack thereof… Go for a win today! Go Braves!!
we beat Santana twice and we beat Webb (who we hadnt even scored off of since 2004), we were due a crappy loss and we got one. Give Bush credit, blame our offense, blame the manager, you win some, you lose some…Today it doesnt matter so lets move on and win tonight.
Big picture…it’s just one loss, and we’ll get them tonight.
Narrowing the focus a bit, some of these hitters have to exhibit better game awareness. There were several innings where Hudson’s AB’s were sandwiched between low pitch AB’s by Francouer, Diaz and Escobar, essentially limiting his rest between innings. A few extra minutes of rest may have allowed him to be sharper on the mound in those late innings, where he didn’t pitch terribly, but did look fatigued at times.
Aside from just giving Hudson a breather when not pitching, it is just good hitting to work counts to get better pitches to hit and make the pitchers work a bit. We didn’t allow Bush to illustrate his high-ERA mistakes by swinging at too many pitcher’s pitches and hitting from unfavorable counts. I know this is glaringly obvious to the fans, so why does it seem to be a recurring theme with segments of this lineup?
Francoeur is dangerously close to being “delenda est.”
Escobar is reeking of attitude lately. Maybe it has to do with Pena being optioned? He is starting to piss me off. He didn’t look like he gave a shit out there last night, and he’s been hitting poorly in the lead off role.
This loss upset me so much… It’s inexcusable. This does not look like a division winning team. The race is too tight for “oh well, we split the D’Backs, so we’ll get them next time”.
Splitting with the Diamondbacks, who may be the best team in the NL, is not really so bad. Losing as many games as we have lost to the Pirates is what is so bad
How can you say he’s got an attitude? His only attitude is that he wants to win and he wants to perform. Did you not see him jumping around and slapping his glove after the DP yesterday. The kid comes to play everyday.
Hey guys,
I am at the America’s Center in STL, so I didn’t see the game. I am going to Busch tonight I will give a full report later.
Just thought I would drop a line from this borring convention
csg, did you see him get up there and hack at the first pitch on every at bat, then halfheartedly run to first? He’s moping.
upcoming pitching matchups
Reyes vs Suppan
Campillo vs McClung
Glavine vs Volquez
Jurrjens vs Belisle
Hudson vs Cueto
the only guy that I think our offense will struggle against is Volquez. McClung has pitched fairly well also. We really need our offense to step it up and need the back-end of our rotation to keep us in these games. If Reyes can beat this RH hitting lineup tonight, that’ll be big for this team
if he likes the pitches then I’m fine with him hacking away. He just missed two of them. Why should he have to go full bore down the line on a lazy fly ball to right field with 2 outs in the inning. Did you not see him on defense last night. He was diving all over the place, making plays up the middle, he’s not moping. He was probably frustrated that he didnt square up on a few pitches, so what.
I have to agree with csg, Escobar probably has more energy than anyone on this entire team.
Diving for ground balls is part of the job description.
I’m not sure if he should be leading off, I think he hit better in the 2nd spot, and Kelly hit better when he was lower down. But if any of that mattered, Tex wouldn’t be hitting cleanup, I suppose.
‘Why should he have to go full bore down the line on a lazy fly ball to right field with 2 outs in the inning.’
Everyone is supposed to go full bore on every play. What if the right fielder misplays? Jogging down the line gives up an extra base. It annoys me when guys don’t go hard on every play. Guys not running out ground balls or fly balls is a pretty big pet peeve of mine.
I am willing to give Escobar a little more latitude…not much, but some. He’s been a good hitter in his young career and I don’t expect him to ever walk a ton. However, he has to realize he is in a leadoff position, with some really great hitters behind him. Also, he needs to recognize when his pitcher needs a few extra minutes to rest.
As for Francouer and Diaz, they are both more experienced, and at this point, should be more savvy. Little irks me more that to see really good AB’s by Chipper, Tex and McCann, and then see JF swing at the first pitch, invariably something offspeed on the outer portion of the dish.
saw a Rocker jersey at the stadium last night.
Everyone is supposed to go full bore on every play. What if the right fielder misplays? Jogging down the line gives up an extra base. It annoys me when guys don’t go hard on every play. Guys not running out ground balls or fly balls is a pretty big pet peeve of mine.
Yeah, I used to feel this way pretty strongly, too. Andruw was the prime example of not running grounders out, for me. But at some point, you have to realize that it’s a 162-game season and these are humans who get fatigued. The minimal chance of reward one gets from busting his butt down the line on a routine fly ball or ground ball would seem to be more than offset by the probability that running full tilt all the time will leave one with nothing left in the tank by August or September.
If it’s a potential inning-ending DP with guys in scoring position, yeah, you should probably bust it down the line—otherwise, I think it’s probably better to conserve energy.
yes it is part of his job description. However pumping his fist, slapping his glove, and jumping around is not. If he didnt enjoy his job, those things wouldnt happen. I dont see anyone here talking about Chipper, McCann, Tex, and everyone else on the team not busting it on every play either. Chipper hit a grounder to 1st last night and didnt run as fast as he could to first either. Both of these guys come ready to play everyday though
ububba,
Francoeur should be changeable. He’s only 24 and we have coaches, including one coach whose sole job is to teach our hitters. If Francoeur won’t change his approach, then we should change right-fielders.
When Francoeur has a bad game like this, where all of his at-bats are strikeouts or easy grounders off of non-strikes, too many fans dismiss it. He’s been in the league for three years now, and his approach has barely improved. Everyone here at Braves Journal had it right when they voted his progression a “C” in the recent poll. He even seems to have regressed from last year. The dude’s either stubborn, like Andruw, or just plain stupid – maybe both. I have to figure that our front office guys realize this and that that’s part of the reason why Francoeur doesn’t have a long-term contract.
Francoeur is definitely changeable, even if changing him means shipping him off somewhere, or sending him down.
It was the swinging at the early pitches that bothered me the most. It just felt like he was just going up the to end the AB. Maybe that’s just me. And then you add on the fact that Hudson really needed some rest, it makes it a little more irresponsible.
Yes, it is a 162 game season. But this is a game that these guys have been playing for basically their entire lives. Someone like Escobar doesn’t have the wear and tear of a long career that may cause him to tire easily. He is a guy in his mid 20’s who has a ton of energy. He should be able to play hard for the entire season.
the chances of a professional baseball player dropping a lazy fly ball in which they only move 5-10 feet in order to catch it is probably less than 1%. The chances of him running as fast as he can and getting to second if its dropped is probably even smaller. If its a grounder that he has a chance to beat out then by all means get down the line as fast as possible
I wish I could link to Bill James’ old attack on the “football attitude” in baseball. Anyway, baseball is not a game where you can go all out all the time. You know what happens when you do that? You wind up with a torn PCL like Matt Diaz. Or you never learn the strike zone and stagnate like Jeff Francoeur. Escobar has advanced wonderfully as a player over the last year. He had a bad game. Let it go.
I’m sure he probably wants to have those Ab’s back from last night also. It wasnt just him trying to jump on the first pitch. Everyone outside of Blanco and Chipper were doing the same thing, not being patient and just hacking away. This is apparently a road thing with this team. I dont know if its a game plan by Bobby and TP or if they do it on their own. Something has to change and these guys need to find better pitches to hit. These guys want to win though, I’m almost sure of it
Mike, I don’t think you have a very realistic idea of the physical demands a baseball season makes of a guy.
Bethany, I agree with you about the pitch-taking (or lack thereof). That’s got to improve.
Once again Im going to agree with csg. I play high school baseball and our high school coach does not have a problem with us not running out a pop fly hit directly at someone. Running out a groundball is a completely different issue. You can beat out a groundball, and the risk of an error is 10 times greater.
Stu,
My point was, why are you complaining about bad managing and bad luck when the team scored two runs off a guy with a 6 ERA. If they scored 4 runs, they would have won. As for the team mashing, compare the stats at home and away. The team doesn’t mash on the road, it is pretty pathetic.
Rob,
If this was an isolated game, I wouldn’t be upset. You say you won’t get bent out of shape unless they continue to be this bad on the road. But the Braves have been this bad on the road all year; they are 6-17. How much worse do they have to get?
This is the first game after a good homestand, a homestand in which it appeared that we really started playing well, Marc. I’m willing to give them more than that to show whether the offense should be written off outside of Atlanta.
(And I didn’t and don’t disagree with the notion that last night’s loss was on the offense. In fact, I said just that right after last night’s game. What I disagreed with was what seemed like a sweeping condemnation of the offense for all of 2008, which doesn’t strike me as a very accurate or fair appraisal.)
On a more cheerful note, one of the Mets blogs has decided to change their name and root for the Rays. I’m certainly not that desperate yet, but it makes me smile to see them wallow in their own self righteous pity.
http://www.metsgeek.com/articles/2008/05/27/welcome-to-raysgeek/
And you have to love the new tagline, “Because the Mets suck.”
jaik,
I hope you’re right about Frenchy, but I’m not optimistic.
My greater point is: When the time comes to make a decision about his Atlanta future, I’ll begin to worry about him & his status on this team.
Thanks for sharing that, that’s one of the funniest things I’ve seen in a long time!
How did Mets fans get such swollen heads, anyway? I mean, They won the division once in the past how many years? They’ve never really been a good team.
I’m pretty sure they think it is their birthright every year and the Braves kept stealing it all those years. Whatever it is, they make me laugh!
Another sign that Francoeur lacks intelligence: He committed to play football at Clemson.
I used to do baseball year round in high school. Granted, it wasn’t 162 games, but we would do about 25 games in the spring, around 50 or so games in the summer, and another 25 or so in the fall. And then from the end of the fall team until the next tryouts we were in the weight room at 7 in the morning until the school day started. We didn’t have much time off. I understand it wasn’t 162 games, but coupling all that with the 9 months or so of school, I certainly understand the physical and mental toll that the game can take on a player. I don’t really think that hustling every play is gonna wear down a player so much that he is gonna tire in September.
I’m not bashing Yunel, because for the most part he does hustle every play. He is just the example that someone brought up today.
A lot of different topics, but I just wanna chime in on the never-ending “running out a routine play” argument. It’s not like you’re playing a 30-game HS season or a 50-game college season. The MLB season is really long. When Furcal came up, he would run everything out, balls to the wall. Eventually, the coaches told him to cool it. Risking pulling a hamstring over a groundball to second is not worth the ridiculously unlikely event (work out a .998 fielding percentage in your head) of a booted ground ball or throw.
With a fly out to right, if you’re just jogging, you get to first and a little bit of a round by the time the ball to gets to the RF. If he drops it, you can probably take second. Yeah, if you’re running balls to the wall, you’ll get to second pretty easily, but who cares? Plus, 99 times out of 100, the right fielders not going to drop a gimme. Give these guys a break.
Hope you guys are having a fantastic Wednesday.
Mike, that schedule you just threw out there is nothing like an professional baseball player’s schedule. I played a baseball at a small college this past year, and even being a full-time student, I couldn’t complain compared to what the pros are doing.
Ok, random question: Which left hander do you think the Braves will, or should, send down, Ohman or Ring?
Well, neither can be “sent down”—neither has any options left—but I wouldn’t get rid of either unless one of them starts being awful. I’d lose the guys with options (Carlyle and Acosta or Stockman) first.
Agree to disagree, I guess.
One thing we can agree on though:
Go Braves.
CSG is 100% right on this. I don’t understand the criticism of Escobar. Bottomline…Tex and Francouer are killing this team. Chipper has twelve HRs, McCann with 9 and the next person KJ has 6? Tex and Francouer with 5? Damn…
Don’t forget all of the long roadtrips and sleeping in hotel beds, either.
Sorry about that, I thought Ring had options. I’m not a huge fan of Ohman.
I was at least hoping Tex would have a great contract year that we could enjoy, but so far it hasn’t happened. I know he’s a slow starter, so maybe it will still happen.
I’m not a huge fan of Ohman, either, but I think he’s at least as valuable in 2008 as the guys who’d be replacing him were he to be released.
It’s moot, anyway. There’s no chance Ohman is getting sent packing. Ring, on the other hand, should probably be worried.
I think Acosta will fare better as long relief (though I’d limit his outings to two innings).
Ring is gone. What is it that Bobby has against Stockman?
I think that WHIP (walks plus hits allowed per inning pitched) is the best single statistical indicator for relievers.
Braves relievers in WHIP, minimum 10 appearances:
Campillo 0.83
Boyer 1.01
Ring 1.25
Acosta 1.32
Bennett 1.34
Resop 1.42
Ohman 1.48
Ohman’s even worse than Resop.
It may be, as Mr. Swings opined in a previous thread, that Stockman is more interested in bolstering his personal statistics (Ks) rather than putting the ball into play and utilizing his defense.
the Braves dont need to bring anyone up if Kotsay doesnt have to go on the DL. If he does, then the Braves should bring up both Jones and Anderson. I think Blanco is capable of playing CF for us, but if we are running Infante out there then we are in trouble. I think Brandon Jones needs to be the first called up if anyone does. Hopefully, Kotsay will be back in there tonight
That being said, there are lots of guys with WHIPs worse than 1.48. Stu is right, it wouldn’t be good to release him, without even taking the salary into consideration.
Should Gonzo return, I’m guessing that Ohman will take Ring’s LOOGY job. The main reason Ohman’s WHIP is worse than Ring’s is that Ohman has been facing more right-handed batters. He’s getting the job done against lefties.
Ring is strickly situational and cannot get out righties. Ohman is better overall. Didn’t know that about Stockman.
As far as the outfield please give Jones or the other kid a chance. Kotsay back will be an issue all season. Diaz will be out for a while. Put them in and see what they can do.
FWIW, WHIP is a pretty horrible stat for everything. For relievers specifically, K%, BB% and HR% are the most important (not necessarily in that order). For SPs, throw in GO/AO (or some other ground ball statistic) and you’re pretty much got everything you need.
As far as calling people up, Brandon Jones has the skillset we need, but after looking like was coming out of it, he’s struggling again and almost certainly needs full-time ABs to keep developing. Problem is, Josh Anderson is already on the team under the alias of “Gregor Blanco”, so I’m not sure that bringing him up does much except give us another guy who can play CF.
This injury by Diaz was really poorly timed. 🙁
Man, first all star voting update is out. McCann is second for catchers. Chipper is leading for third basemen, and they are the only two in the top 5 so far. Seriously, Luis Castillo is 5th for second basemen…and Kaz Matsui is 2nd.
http://tinyurl.com/6o8kuw
Tony @ #101
That’s just a theory as to why Stockman hasn’t seen more time on the field, though I find the theory plausible: A guy who’s played a number of years in the minor leagues wants to prove himself in the big leagues by proving to his ball club that he can blow it by hitters, whatever, when he may be more successful in getting outs by throwing strikes to put the ball into play.
Who knows, really?
Wow…1st base is the National League is stacked…How is Hanley leading at SS and Uggla not right behind Utley? It’s going to be tough for McCann to overtake Soto with Cubs fan voting like crazy.
Game thread’s up, folks.
@102 — WHIP is a better SINGLE statistical indicator than ERA is for relievers. A couple of bad outings can make a reliever’s ERA look bad when they have actually pitched well for the most part (for example, Blaine Boyer). It doesn’t tell the whole story, obviously, but for a simple measure it’s a decent indicator.
That previous post looks like I might have said it harshly, but that’s not how I intended it.
The DIPS numbers are what you look at for an overall picture, but if you’re looking for a single number I think WHIP is good for relievers. The only thing about it is that it does not take HRs into consideration.
If we had traded Andruw when it first became clear that he wasn’t what the rest of the world thought, we could have gotten a lot.
Time to rectify that mistake with Francouer.