ESPN – Brewers vs. Braves – Box Score – August 02, 2008
What a miserable ballclub. Charlie Morton deserved far better than this. He was magnificent through the first six innings, and didn’t allow a baserunner from the second to the fifth. But in the seventh, he allowed a solo homer to Fielder, and then a bunt single to the next man, who came in to score when they pitched to the eighth-place hitter with the pitcher on deck and first base open. And thus, a loss.
The Braves got a run in the first on a Kotchman single, his first RBI as a Brave. The Braves couldn’t do a lot against Sabathia, plus the Out Machine was sitting in the middle of the lineup and making it hard to get anything going even if someone got on base. Francoeur sucks.
Anyway, trailing 2-1 in the eighth, Soriano gave up a two-run homer to Fielder that pretty much ended it. This particularly sucked when Infante doubled leading off the ninth, and eventually scored on an infield single by KJ. (He could have scored on an out, having gotten to third on a Kotchman groundout, but you can guess who struck out in that situation.)
Anyway, Morton struck out four and walked only one, and got hung with a loss. Well, I guess this is marginally less depressing than getting blown out.
UPDATE: I missed this earlier. It’s hardly a surprise…
(repost)
brule – I am assuming you are in Seoul? Eating bibimbap in Shinchon is one of my all time great food experiences.
So, I guess the Ring era ended today. Yawn, stretch, DFA another player. Who’s next on the DFA scrap heap? Tavarez? Gotay?
Really, Spike? I’ll treat you bibimbap if we have a chance some day. Anyway cheers. Sorry for private chatting, guys.
So, I guess the Ring era ended today
It does sort of feel like the Twilight of the Gods
Goodbye Corky. Goodbye Ring.
Remaining scrap: Gotay, Taveras, Prado.
Oh and Norton.
Why does it take falling out of contention to get rid of bad players? Wouldn’t it have been more important when the postseason wasn’t a pipedream?
I missed that too–when I saw Nunez come in the game I figured he had taken the BP Machine’s spot on the roster.
So Miller yesterday and Ring today. (Of course, what’s the point of DFAing them after falling out of contention?) Suggestions for tomorrow? Gotay anyone? Chucky? Frankkkkkkkkkkoeur? One can hope. (Kidding aside, I’d send him down not DFA.)
Today was a less depressing loss–not b/c of the relative closeness but b/c of Morton’s performance.
He has options left, so we would either send him down or send him through waivers and outright release him if no one claimed (unlikely). I’m pretty sure designating someone for assignment is a term that’s only used when the player is out of options.
Also, did anyone catch those numbers since the All-Star break for Ring in that article Mac linked? Yikes.
Yeah, and his lefty/righty splits weren’t bad at all before the break. Odd how he and Boyer have both just imploded. At least there seems to be an explanation for Boyer.
Ring stopped pitching well to save his arm from being Boyer-ed. Oddly enough, it took almost a month before anyone (on the Braves) figured it out.
I would guess that Ring is hurt; he has never pitched this poorly in his life. I think it’s the first time since his rookie year in the majors he’s had an ERA worse than the league.
At least at this rate we could end up with a top 5 pick for the first time in awhile.
Except we’ll lose it because we signed someone else’s free agent. See Glaving, Tom.
Top 15 picks are protected against loss through free agency signings.
Thanks Mac, I did not know that.
Regarding the 2009 Draft–Go Royals! Go Rockies!….
Wait…we already lost the pick (in the 08 draft) for signing Glavine, right? We should get to keep next year’s unless we sign another Type A.
yes we did, Bmac was just saying we’ll do it again
I think that Mac is saying that we keep our top 15 pick–no matter what. Given this season, it seems only appropriate.
Morton’s start was encouraging–but his remarks in the AJC story are not. A pitcher that lacks confidence will almost certainly have problems. He seems to have ths stuff—lets hope he can get his head together to realize it….
We don’t want a high draft pick. Ownership wouldn’t pony up the money for the signing bonus to actually sign one.
I think we would be ok with a top draft pick–the Braves certainly gave Heyward and Frenchy large bonuses. I don’t think we are about to draft a Brian Bullington….
The one thing that the Braves will not do is use a high pick (0r probably any other) to draft a Boras client.
I don’t think we are going to manage to end up with a worse record than Washington, San Diego, and Seattle anyway.
We are now behind the Royals in the standings (the Royals!). Good for a #7 draft pick as things stand.
Next up – the Rockies.
On another note, the post-Corky Braves now sport an 0-2 record.
Corky was Bobby’s talisman….
I guess this means the Bobble will no longer be able to grab Ring around the collar.