I was going to try to find something really depressing for this horrible one-game makeup, but yesterday’s entry has already been named the most depressing rock song of all time. So here’s a song that makes me feel general malaise.
If there’s no recap tonight, that may be because I went to sleep or it may be because the internet is still out at my house.
Malaise…Atlanta Braves…there’s a Jimmy Carter joke in there somewhere.
Tony: “The problem with KJ’s numbers is that he is so streaky”
Honest question:
Would you rather have a player who in 150 games played hit .300/.400/.500 and 30 homeruns but had prolonged hot and cold streaks or a player who in 150 games played hit .250/.350/.400 and 15 homeruns and was very consistent week to week?
From previous thread:
…we play the Rockies, Rangers and Mariners. On paper you would think that we may do well. However, we got swept by the Reds. The Rangers offense scares me a little in that park. The Mariners…they just got swept by the Nationals at home, so surely we can do the same. Can’t we?
I think the Mariners are in Atlanta so that should help. And, I saw the Nationals-Mariners series on TV. The Mariners truly are dreadful.
Dan,
If Kelly could put us those numbers you listed, in the hot and cold category I would be thrilled. I think b/c Kelly was a corner outfielder, and when he’s hot he’s really good…I’m just expecting too much from him. I at least thought he would be a.300 hitter. Kelly’s good, I just thought at this point he would be very good.
NEWS ALERT:
Tiger Woods might be an okay golfer. Mercy…if I can quote Joe Simpson.
We need more professional sports in which there are athletes named “Rocco.”
Wow…all three N. Carolina Tarheels are returning to school. Where there is your preseaon #1 in college basketball.
Yeah, i think Tiger Woods may have figured out this golf thing. I think he may have a future in the sport even.
Yeah, who figures a “sudden death” playoff between a “Rocco” and a “Tiger” is describing golf?
By the way, Mac, love the title of the thread.
WTF
http://mlb.mlb.com/mediacenter/index.jsp#20080616
Is this game not going to be carried by MLB Radio?
Bavasi fired. There goes the worst GM in baseball… I mean, it take a special kind of lunacy to think that Carlos Silva and Jarrod Washburn (or Jeff Weaver; or Brad Wilkerson; or Richie Sexson… the list goes on and on…) would make you anything but hittable. One of my best friends is a Mariners fan, and somewhere out there, he’s celebrating.
Nevermind. They now have links to the Rockies and Braves broadcasts.
Darn, I guess we can’t take anymore Sorianos or Campillos off their hands.
I’m gonna miss Bill Bavasi.
Wang out at least 10 weeks, probably for the rest of the season.
If a bad homerun call at Yankees stadium got baseball to kneejerk and add very limited instant replay, what’s this going to do? Are we going to be subjected to a week of ESPN and radio talking-heads demanding the NL adopt the DH rule?
If nothing else, this injury allowed us to see headlines like “Yankees pull Wang”.
I can’t wait to get replay for ball and strike calls. Maybe they can encourage fan participation* (read: staring at the jumbotron) by allowing them to vote on which way they think a call should go via their mobile phones. Maybe the official wireless provider of major league baseball could design a special phone that would allow the user to push a button on the back of the phone to vote without having to take the phone out of there ear while waving into the TV camera.
Chip: It looks like 98% of the fans here at Turner Field think that was a ball.
The Lemmer: When I was playing, a ball was a pitch that was out of the strikezone.
Ok, who is behind the Jeff B Francoeur blog?
I love the interests section
To be fair, the Braves have been bitten by some abhorrent home run calls. And Bobby Cox, I recall, called for something like instant replay three years ago… I think he did, anyway. But even if he didn’t, this new system in no way leaves balls and strikes up to replay challenges. Come on now. I think it’s a good idea.
Bobby Cox is certainly no proponent for instant replay of any kind.
“Denver — Good news is finally coming for the back of the Braves bullpen. Mike Gonzalez will re-join the Braves Tuesday in Texas and is ready to be activated from the disabled list on Wednesday, manager Bobby Cox said.”
Ok, who is behind the Jeff B Francoeur blog?
I love the interests section
It’s me and thank you. I’ll update it again sometime tonight.
http://www.jeffbfrancoeur.blogspot.com/
I think we should just get extra umpires to sit on top of the foul poles to make the “boundary” calls. I’m really not interested in introducing machines to the game. Baseball is a game for human beings and should be governed by them. Errors in umpire judgement are part of the game and I don’t so much mind that. The player/manager/umpire interactions add entertainment value to the game.
The ‘favorite movies’ section is amusing too.
Snit for brains did it again
Fire Snitker.
hey, with Frenchy coming up, I’d have sent him too.
Kelly was out by 10 feet
and he would have been 90 feet away after Frenchy struck out.
if Tex hadnt of swung at a terrible 3-1 pitch and then taken a boarderline 3-2 pitch, we would’ve scored anyway
That’s pretty awful… two walks and a hit and no runs in an inning.
true
Jair looks a lot better.
Should fall down stairs more often.
I think his arm was just tired.
Well, there’s some more typical Francoeur. God, he sucks.
Hey, Frenchy didn’t strike out. That should make for a nice blog entry.
It’s cool how Blanco understands that the point of a bunt isn’t to make an out.
good 8 pitch ab from Jair, how many did Frenchy see?
Tex = Cerano
“he can only hit the straight ball”
I think even I could do quite well with this strike zone.
I just want to say a special thanks to the Braves for not ending my baseball season by batting Francoeur 3rd on Friday night.
PRADO!
last 13 innings
offense – 0 runs
pitching – 3 runs
BTW, who did we send back to make room for Morton?
Soriano went on the DL.
Soriano to the DL for Morton call up, here’s our recent moves
http://atlanta.braves.mlb.com/team/transactions.jsp?c_id=atl
our offense sucks
That’s crazy. I figured they’d rather keep an injured Soriano on the roster than Stockman.
Wow. How many innings has it been since we scored a run?
Maybe they can get a hit off some reliever, Jimenez is at 72 pitches after 4.
Unless we begin our middle inning “swing at the first pitch” strategy.
did anyone just notice the 2nd base ump clapping after the 1-2 pitch was called a ball?
Nice to get out of that without giving up a run.
But, I still think we are going to have to score to win this game.
BUNT TIME!
how about a blanco steal and then a Jair sac?
Well, obviously now Escobar should bunt.
Oh, and I just bet that Chip said “good bunt” on the radio.
The excitement of an Atlanta Braves’ bunt.
I like the way Yunel hits the ball up the middle. He does that consistently.
Good job Yesco. Made him throw 6 more pitches, too.
@52, I noticed that too. WTF?
Joseph… If you don’t have any runners at third base with less than two out — and the Braves have not — it doesn’t really matter if you strike out or fly out or whatever, unless you ground into a double play. Outs are outs.
Just noticed both Jones’es hitting .400 on the nose as of right now.
Francoeur OBP: .300
Do they really think that if they keep saying that fans love interleague play that makes it true?
Finally took ball 4.
I really get worried when a pitcher spends this much time running the bases. Throw in his ankle, and…
Good at-bat by Kelly
Awesome AB, KJ!
Sign that he is coming out of his slump?
I do not think they will ealk Chipper, here.
WHOOOO!!!!!!!
Chippah!
See, that really should be an error, though they’ll never call it. No way Escobar scores with one out on Hawpe’s arm.
Chipper saw the .300s in the near distance and came back to life.
F*ck your “good outs”, Simpson.
The Rockies’ radio broadcasters are saying that Hawpe has been charged with an error.
They should have ealked Chipper and taken a double play from Tex.
Hit and error?
Does Chipper get two RBI?
Come on Tex, just get the run in.
Chipper gets only 1 rbi.
Man, Tex is starting to irritate me.
nope just one rbi
Single and an error, Chipper gets one RBI.
How is Tex still hitting .273? It seems like his BA is much lower than that.
110 pitches for Jimenez, if we’re lucky he goes out for one more.
🙂
Gameday is saying that the error allowed KJ to third, but not Yumel to home. 2 RBI.
Not that Gameday is infallible.
They changed the scoring: Chipper with 2 rbi.
they changed the official scoring, its 2 rbi now
I learned it from Joe, who is infallible.
Jair tiring?
Oh man! This is gold.
Interests
* Hannah Montana
* aggressiveness
* “In my own words” series
* pregame interviews
* smiling and popularity.
JJ with 65 pitches through 5 and looking pretty good. If he was just having a tired arm he should skip a start now and then. Bennett could start those.
11.25 ERA?
This guy will shut us down.
From my blog:
http://i29.tinypic.com/dyx5ki.jpg
I mean, Francoeur’s OBP is under .300 now I believe.
Gregor’s OBP is above .300.
No squeeze!
We’ll take that. Way to go, Jair.
The difference between Jair Jurrjens and Jeff Francoeur: Jair Jurrjens just worked a 3-0 count.
Glad to see Jair’s ankles ok…
of course if he stays out on the bases too long he could resprain it on a pebble in the infield.
Get those ducks off the pond!
Wow, that reliever looks pretty wild out there.
Yesco really could have done more with that pitch. I think he was surprised it was a strike.
Oh, gawdammit…
Gee, it looks like the Braves are still allergic to having the bases loaded.
Hope that doesn’t come back to bite the Braves.
Flipping between the Braves & the Dawgs is making me go bug-eyed.
Go Dawgs!
I can’t imagine why you’d think signing Hampton was a disaster, Joe.
Nice.
Live by the sword, die by the sword. Good thing they can hit into double plays too.
Any time we can make it through Holiday and Helton without allowing a run, it’s real nice.
Jorge Julio in to close out a 4-0 lead for Richmond and gives up a first pitch double and then a 5 pitch walk.
Nice to know he’s there if we need him.
Is there any good reason KJ is hitting 100 points higher when he bats 6th or 7th?
Jorge Julio is a poor man’s Armando Benitez.
Sample size, maybe, Parish? I dunno… it’s weird.
Apparently Chipper isn’t slumping any more.
I don’t mind the Julio signing. He is at AAA, not blocking anyone. And I trust Gus Hansen more than McDowell. If we get anything out of him, its buffo
Because KJ is streaky as hell and was on a hot streak during the period that he had gotten moved down in the order?
Can’t help but notice a few of those interests on the Francoeur blog sounded a bit familiar…
Ill take a streaky KJ over this crap that Tex and Frenchy have been doing all season, these two are killing our offense.
tex, prove me wrong here
3 more k’s tonight Tex, your garbage
At least Tex didn’t hit into a double play.
The only thing I can think of is that KJ might be more aggressive later in the order.
At 1 or 2, he is thinking about getting on in front of Chipper and Tex. At 6 or 7, he could be thinking just about hitting, getting runners to score instead of leaving it up to the pitcher.
118 — not exactly silencing his critics (csg), though
McCann should have hit that ball to China
Good job Frenchy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Francoeur?
Wow.
That was embarrassing for Holliday.
What happened to Holliday?
that’s definitely blog entry worthy
Nice play by Quintanilla to save the run.
I’ll take the double, but almost not lowering your average by going 1 for 4 still isn’t cool.
he basically dove to try and make the catch, but the ball was about 5 feet away from him and already past him and the ball went to the wall
Anyway, I know I talk too much about what’s an error, but if you screw up, it’s an error. If you REALLY screw up, it’s a double. Or there, if two guys screw up, it’s a triple.
nice we just let a single turn into a triple, good job Jeff
Kind of a soft hit for a triple.
Has anyone ever gone from a legitimate gold glove winner to the worst regular right fielder in the majors in one season?
Do we still have Phil Stockman?
no but Acosta and Ohman are warming up
Frenchy should join the 21st century (thanks, Hank) and have someone field for him. He has enough to do at the plate. NO WAY that so much should be required of a professional athlete.
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=3446851
Phil who?
WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANG.
Justing joining the gaame–this is more like it…
I wonder if Chipper ever played wide reciever.
What a play by Chipper!
Those last two outs came in a hurry.
That man-crush on JJ is coming back.
Nice to pitch out of that, JJ.
This Dawgs game’s getting dicey in the 9th.
The Rockies failed to score with a runner on third and nobody out–seems vageuly familiar…
Steinbrenner can shove it.
What is doubly impressive is that Jurrjens is having this kind of game in Coors.
How ’bout them Dawgs!
I frickin’ knew the Wang injury would bring the DH crap back. If it had been another team, like the Royals, it wouldn’t get mentioned.
Just like Delgado’s non-homerun at Yankee stadium that got the instant replay ball rolling, does anyone believe if it was a Mariners-Pirates interleague game it would have been mentioned more than once on ESPN?
146 — Apparently such a phrase can be appropriate for so many situations and across generations.
JJ!
Well, gosh, Hank, if they’re athletes maybe they should be required to play the game you pay them to play.
we’ll I dont like the DH at all, but both leagues should be playing the same game and that’s not happening right now
I bet Boyer pitches the 9th
You know I’m always trying to think of new ways to play with player usage, and thinking of the last couple of nights… First, Campillo looks tremendous after going six days between starts with a short relief appearance in between. Now Jurrjens looks great (though I think he’s tiring) on long rest. How about having a staff largely made up of swingmen? One or two anchors make 35 starts, and the other 92 are divided between five guys who make 16-20 starts and about the same number of relief appearances?
When Helton is like 0-for-3, you know he is getting a hit.
Steinbrenner’s quotes:
This is always a concern of American League teams when their pitchers have to run the bases and they’re not used to doing it.
So, who has the unfair advantage? We throw Greg Norton as our DH while teams have David Ortiz and Travis Hafner on the bench, or a pitcher has to act like an athlete and do a bit of… running?
Pitchers have enough to do without having to do that.
You mean they have enough to do every 5th day. They can’t handle running, at most, 360 feet?
They need to grow up and join the 21st century.
How is the DH the 21st century? First of all, it’s been around since the 20th century, and second, to join the “21st century” means you remove most of the strategy from the game and make your pitcher less of an athlete?
Mr. Steinbrenner, you’re an idiot.
Way to go, Jair.
Dan,
The 2 HR calls at Yankee Stadium were wrong (for A-Rod & Delgado). I was at the game where the A-Rod HR was called a double. The ump was the only person in the whole stadium who didn’t see the ball correctly. It was such a bad call that Yankee fans weren’t even mad—they were laughing. (BTW, I’ve never seen A-Rod so demonstrative about a bad call.)
Ever since the Braves got hosed out of a game in Washington a few years ago—Brian Jordan, remember?—I’ve thought that replay for HR calls is a good thing.
Who cares what prompts MLB to finally get it right?
Its a shame that J-man won’t get to finish the game–but what a great start….
Grain of Salt Dept.
Hank Steinbrenner is a horseracing guy, and he wasn’t even very good at that.
Maybe the pitching change stat thing is because…Bobby changes pitchers after every batter in blowout games?
Braves lead the majors in pitching changes, but have one of the lowest ERAs in the National League.
Cox has gone Tony LaRussa on us.
Glad to see no Grybos there for Jair.
wow. It’s like the Yankees and their brass go out of their way to make everyone hate them.
Yeah–Ohman gets the job done….
how about a golden sombrero here Tex
Great game, Tex. Really helping the roto squad tonight.
I hope the Braves get Tex’s night on tape and show it to Boras when it matters…
Instant replay is not the right thing. Even the limited stuff that MLB is proposing (only on homerun and down-the-line calls, would be done in a central office and only the umpires could decide when to use, teams/managers don’t get a say) to shut the talking-heads up isn’t good. Just my opinion.
Talking head: “If baseball doesn’t adopt instant replay by tomorrow, it’s done. Over. Fans will leave. Ballparks will empty. Baseball will collapse and soccer will become America’s new pasttime. Dooooooooomed.”
Ya know, Wren’s acquisitions are looking good.
Ohman, Kotsay, Infante..
And Ridgeway looks decent for Aybar given we were never going to give him a chance.
Now would be a good time to start selling. Let’s send the Yankees Hudson for all their minor leaguers
This inning may have it all. So far, maple bats splintering and Francoeur going the other way for a hit.
And now – “adding on.”
Brandon!–Wish Holliday had fielded Chipper’s ball the same way….
Clutch hit, Brandon.
wow, Holliday looking very ‘Brave-corner-fielder-like’ tonght
Matt Holliday Presents A Tribute to Ryan Klesko!
hah…youre right..joe’s definitely sporting wood.
We’ll still see one of Acosta and Boyer to end the game though.
More bad outfielding by the Rockies.
Holliday makes Norton look like Andruw Jones
I’d say the Brandon Jones Showcase has been successful thus far.
Klesko was bad, but he wasn’t Holliday
only two goats in this game
Snitker and Tex (0-5, and the sombrero)
KJ has 3 walks and 2 runs, so his 0-fer is still very productive
Dan,
Who cares what talking heads say?
If you like, we can disagree on whether or not getting the calls right is a good idea.
FWIW, the NHL reviews every goal from a central office in Toronto and generally it works very well, much better than if they didn’t have it at all. Unlike the NFL, the teams have nothing to do with it.
This is not a slippery slope. Balls & strikes are not next. This is: HR or no HR; foul or fair—ball kicked up chalk or it didn’t. Not difficult to digest. Easy to implement. I can’t understand why anyone would be against it.
we just cant find ways to get Ring or Stockman out there
I would still take Holliday as my right fielder.
I would enjoy hearing the story behind the firing of the strength coach.
Gonzo is back tomorrow night
who am I?
7.1 IP 2H 0ER 4BB 9K
rest easy guys…Boyer’s warming up.
I wonder who we send down, probably a guy on the bench or Brandon jones. 14 pitchers!!!
Stockman is not even warming up now.
Let him pitch, Bobby. Some time?
csg,
You are Phil Stockman
Stockman will get to pitch!
In Richmond this weekend
Pretty sure Stockman could have finished this up…
Balls & strikes are not next.
Well, no. Safe/out calls on the bases would be next.
#187 – Someone should ask DOB about that firing.
here’s the link…who will be the odd man out?
http://www.ajc.com/braves/content/sports/braves/stories/2008/06/16/braves_gonzalez_0617.html
has a 6-run lead ever felt so unsafe??
A meltdown in progress?
It’d be Ridgway, surely.
We won’t have 4 lefties in the pen.
Dan,
You don’t know that.
Kelly caught it!!! Yay!!!
Meanwhile, the Phils won and the Mets and Fish are winning.
Cards win/play?
Recap is up.
Ron Gant isn’t a smart guy.
I think someone tried to ask him, but DOB said it was a conflict of interest or something like that. He did say it was bad and the Braves made a quick decision.