It seems like two different worlds to me. Each week the SEC has at least two games that feel apocalyptic. Somebody’s heart is going to get busted to pieces. The other guy will dance around for a day or so, then realize another ball-buster game will happen on Saturday. How do you guys stand it?
Meanwhile, USC will steamroller most of its competition, unless the rare upset occurs. That upset is the only thing the East Coast press wants to hear about them. USC has become like the Walton-era Bruins–a great party for the involved and a pain to their critics.
The SEC is where the fun is. If a fan can keep his meds adjusted, anyway.
Parish
on September 3, 2008 at 9:08 am
Must be a day game.
Parish
on September 3, 2008 at 9:11 am
Also – there’s a Hell, Michigan?
Why would you name your town that? Seems like it would make it harder to promote. I mean, I can see being born in Hell or growing up in Hell, but who would move to Hell?
I stick with Death Valley, because I am guessing the weather will be more miserable this time of year, more appropriate for the Braves style of play.
Well, Stu, here’s the thing: because of the heated exchanges I’ve had around here in the past, I felt like I need a long break because I thought that it was just making me angry to post here. Now that I think I know how to handle those situations better (and not just get into them in the first place) than before, I decided to come back. And I’m glad I’m back.
Rob Cope
on September 3, 2008 at 9:29 am
Good to have you back, Sam.
Lunatic96
on September 3, 2008 at 9:36 am
USC jumped past Georgia because they played a real college football team, not a high school team masquerading as one.
Sure, but Virginia isn’t exactly what I’d call “difficult”. If Georgia Southern is a cupcake, then Virginia is a chocolate cake: better than a cupcake, but still a rich, chocolately and sugary sensation of empty calories.
Stu
on September 3, 2008 at 9:57 am
The pollsters knew before the season started that USC was going to have no trouble with UVA–why start them 2nd if you knew that the most-expected result (both USC and UGA winning convincingly) would cause you to flip-flop them?
That is one stretched metaphor Sam (not that I know anything about the subject, just metaphors :D).
I turned on the game last night when we were up 10-3 and Morton had two guys on… after watching for a few minutes and it getting back to 10-9 I turned it off… and then turned it back on in time to see them tie it at 10-10… and THEN I gave up for the night. I hope today is a more reasonable game.
Parish
on September 3, 2008 at 10:01 am
Speaking of Hell, has anyone seen the article on Baseball Prospectus about Scott Boras versus Baseball over the last 10-15 years of the draft?
It’s worth a read, as it proves Boras is evil and sets the stage for this Alvarez thing.
Well, a chocolate cake is significantly better than a cupcake, isn’t it? 😉
Stu
on September 3, 2008 at 10:06 am
Not for a Diabetic.
Stu
on September 3, 2008 at 10:08 am
Mac, they’ll probably drop UGA to 3rd after this week to set up another 1-versus-2 game for advertising purposes.
barrycuda
on September 3, 2008 at 10:12 am
looks like we’ve found something even more meaningless than the Braves games………..week#1 football polls. if your team just goes out and wins their games, the polls will take care of themselves. right Auburn?
If my eyeballing is correct, Chipper needs 45 more PA’s to qualify for the batting title (assuming he’s ahead of Pujols of course). Most everybody else on the leader-board already has enough to qualify if they never took another AB this season.
Stephen in the UAE
on September 3, 2008 at 10:32 am
Sam–It is good to have you back–it is nice to see someone who can bring passion to Braves Journal.
These ‘trying days’ (and there will be many m0re) make this blog quite necessary–but even more valuable…
oh hey, the game started. Chipper’s out again. It looks like it has been one month since Campillo had a good game… let’s hope today goes better than… well… August.
They mentioned this on the TV last night… Pre-All-Star we had the 3rd best Team BA, and 2nd best ERA in the NL. Post-All-Star we’ve gone to the 5th best BA, and dead last ERA in both leagues… a full run + worse than the next to the last team in the NL.
USC would have jumped to first when they walloped Overrated State in two weeks anyway.
Bingo. Georgia was always just keeping the seat warm.
Sure, but Virginia isn’t exactly what I’d call “difficult”.
I would agree. They were the best team the AD could find that would return his call. But flying cross country to play in a hostle environment even if the team is not that great is never a gimme. Ask Tennessee.
USC has to schedule difficult out of conference teams because their conference schedule is inferior.
Thanks for your input. Haven’t heard that one before.
USC has to schedule difficult out of conference teams because their conference schedule is inferior.
But they don’t really. They are USC, they won’t have any credibility problems like Kansas had last season. They could take their nine conference games + Notre Dame schedule, tack on Utah State and San Jose State and call it a day. But they don’t, they seek out the best possible opponents for those final two games. Why? Because games between good teams are fun, and sports are supposed to be fun. Nothing about Georgia Southern at Georgia is fun. Nothing about Youngstown State at Ohio State is fun. It’s ridiculous that those games are ever scheduled. It’s all about money and protecting your record. Fans of those schools should demand better, we sure do around here. If SC scheduled a home game with Cal Poly to open the season, half the stadium would come dressed as empty seats.
I’m beginning to feel as if I’m the only person watching this on gameday and commenting instead of doing work (and if you’re reading this boss, I really AM doing work, just multi-tasking… or rapidly changing which single task I’m working on anyway).
Parish
on September 3, 2008 at 1:32 pm
Tough AB there for Hermida.
Brian J.
on September 3, 2008 at 1:33 pm
I’m watching, if it helps. WHich it doesn’t, because Campillo can’t get a third out to save his life (or our lead).
Stephen in the UAE
on September 3, 2008 at 1:35 pm
It hardly matters any more, but Infante’s defensive lapse fits with the season….
Parish
on September 3, 2008 at 1:39 pm
To be fair, Hermida fouled off four two-strike pitches to get a soft single. It was a good AB for the kid and not a poor performance by Campillo.
What Camnpillo cannot afford is to walk the two first base runners who eventually came around to score
Stephen in the UAE
on September 3, 2008 at 1:44 pm
True enough, but he should have been out of the inning with a 3-2 lead….
Ben
on September 3, 2008 at 1:51 pm
@29:
Joe and Jon mentioned last night that the Braves’ team ERA since the break was 6-something and is really close to being the highest post-break team ERA in history.
Stephen in the UAE
on September 3, 2008 at 1:53 pm
The way Morton and Reyes hae pitched the Braves might chase the record….
Left shoulder pain according to the team site… Said Porter came out and massaged it for a minute before pulling him… he apparently stumbled out of the box due to the pain or something.
I think I may have really forgotten what it was like to watch the late 80s Braves play. I know I watched them and was a fan at the time, but the tragic losses piled on tragic losses had apparently been edged out of my mind until now… I think I’m beginning to remember.
Based on our win percentage since the all-star break (which included a few games with Tex and Kotsay) we’re only on pace to win another 7-8 games this season (if you go to when we dropped Tex and Huddy went down the pace is for another 6-7 wins).
Coop
on September 3, 2008 at 3:02 pm
From Joh Heyman at CNNSI: “Hitting savant Manny Ramirez got a quick glimpse of Dodgers teammate Andruw Jones’ failing batting technique and is said by intimates to have opined that Jones’ backside (not to mention his career) was obviously collapsing and that it should be an easy fix.”
See, we could kick Bobby upstairs, pay Manny $20M to be our leftfielder and hitting coach, trade Frenchy and Blanco for Andruw less his salary, and fix outfield offense and defense in one swell foop.
Brian J.
on September 3, 2008 at 3:04 pm
And this won’t be one of them. Back home to play Washington tomorrow.
Why do we always come here?
I guess we’ll never know!
It’s like a kind of torture
To have to watch the show!
Manager Joe Torre indicated that he didn’t foresee much action from Jones this year. “We’re looking for people who can help us,” Torre said. Not exactly a ringing endorsement.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greg_Maddox brings back warm memories of days gone by… and it just BLOWS MY MIND how good Maddux was/is. I didn’t realize that He, Tim Hudson, and Randy Johnson are all nearly tied for the winningest pitchers in the 2000s (decade). In the end one has to assume Huddy will take that (as he’s probably going to get another year pitching in the 2000s than the old guys… but who knows).
Parish, I think we have a new photoshop contest there. I’d say McCann is Fozzy… Mike Gonzalez is actually Animal… Francour is Sam the Eagle… trying to think of who Chipper would be.
BTW the headline for the game on Yahoo sports is “Marlins beat Braves in front of 600 fans”… that’s SAD.
5-3… in front of an “Even more embarrassing than losing” crowd of 600 at Dolphin’s Stadium
Parish
on September 3, 2008 at 4:24 pm
I thought for sure someone would call Francoeur Miss Piggy.
hankonly
on September 3, 2008 at 4:24 pm
600 fans.
That’s just unacceptable no matter the circumstances.
I was looking at the top 100 metro areas and I don’t see too many candidates to receive the Marlins or Rays.
How ’bout this? We’re gonna have $50 million to spend, right? We pay all the Marlins and all the Rays and merge them with the Braves. We still come in under budget and we win 120 games!
If I was Marlin’s PR person I’d have personally gone to the 600 fans who showed up and given them tickets (REALLY GOOD TICKETS) to several more games… these are people who actually WANT to come to the game apparently and those are in short supply in south Florida I guess.
OR they should just have 3000 free seats to every non weekend game (5000 for weekday). It would HAVE to bring in SOME revenue from the food people, and be better than having NOBODY in the park.
Hmmm… looking back on my 20+ posts in this thread I may not have a “getting a lot of real work done” leg to stand on. It’s the caffeine talking I swear.
Use code “Journal” for a 5% discount.
USC leaps past Georgia in polls based on….what?
It seems like two different worlds to me. Each week the SEC has at least two games that feel apocalyptic. Somebody’s heart is going to get busted to pieces. The other guy will dance around for a day or so, then realize another ball-buster game will happen on Saturday. How do you guys stand it?
Meanwhile, USC will steamroller most of its competition, unless the rare upset occurs. That upset is the only thing the East Coast press wants to hear about them. USC has become like the Walton-era Bruins–a great party for the involved and a pain to their critics.
The SEC is where the fun is. If a fan can keep his meds adjusted, anyway.
Must be a day game.
Also – there’s a Hell, Michigan?
Why would you name your town that? Seems like it would make it harder to promote. I mean, I can see being born in Hell or growing up in Hell, but who would move to Hell?
I stick with Death Valley, because I am guessing the weather will be more miserable this time of year, more appropriate for the Braves style of play.
I’ve been to Death Valley. It’s hot and uncomfortable, sure, but it’s dry heat. Humidity and heat, that’s miserable. My vote’s for Hell.
So, Sam, I noticed that you’re back. Where’ve you been?
Well, Stu, here’s the thing: because of the heated exchanges I’ve had around here in the past, I felt like I need a long break because I thought that it was just making me angry to post here. Now that I think I know how to handle those situations better (and not just get into them in the first place) than before, I decided to come back. And I’m glad I’m back.
Good to have you back, Sam.
USC jumped past Georgia because they played a real college football team, not a high school team masquerading as one.
Thanks, Rob. 🙂 It’s good to be back here, even under these most trying of days for the Braves.
Lunatic,
Virginia is a real football team? I think they’re so bad that Georgia Tech is going to beat them.
USC has to schedule difficult out of conference teams because their conference schedule is inferior.
Oh, yeah. Welcome back, Sam.
Weather today:
Hell – Hi 85
Death Valley – Hi 113
Dry heat or not, Death Valley sounds more like Hell to me.
Yeah, but try it in winter.
billy-jay,
Sure, but Virginia isn’t exactly what I’d call “difficult”. If Georgia Southern is a cupcake, then Virginia is a chocolate cake: better than a cupcake, but still a rich, chocolately and sugary sensation of empty calories.
The pollsters knew before the season started that USC was going to have no trouble with UVA–why start them 2nd if you knew that the most-expected result (both USC and UGA winning convincingly) would cause you to flip-flop them?
Maybe the UGA injury toll is becoming too great?
USC would have jumped to first when they walloped Overrated State in two weeks anyway.
That is one stretched metaphor Sam (not that I know anything about the subject, just metaphors :D).
I turned on the game last night when we were up 10-3 and Morton had two guys on… after watching for a few minutes and it getting back to 10-9 I turned it off… and then turned it back on in time to see them tie it at 10-10… and THEN I gave up for the night. I hope today is a more reasonable game.
Speaking of Hell, has anyone seen the article on Baseball Prospectus about Scott Boras versus Baseball over the last 10-15 years of the draft?
It’s worth a read, as it proves Boras is evil and sets the stage for this Alvarez thing.
CharlesP,
Well, a chocolate cake is significantly better than a cupcake, isn’t it? 😉
Not for a Diabetic.
Mac, they’ll probably drop UGA to 3rd after this week to set up another 1-versus-2 game for advertising purposes.
looks like we’ve found something even more meaningless than the Braves games………..week#1 football polls. if your team just goes out and wins their games, the polls will take care of themselves. right Auburn?
http://tinyurl.com/08bravesreview Surprisingly optimistic review of the future for the Braves (and depressing review of what has happened this year).
If my eyeballing is correct, Chipper needs 45 more PA’s to qualify for the batting title (assuming he’s ahead of Pujols of course). Most everybody else on the leader-board already has enough to qualify if they never took another AB this season.
Sam–It is good to have you back–it is nice to see someone who can bring passion to Braves Journal.
These ‘trying days’ (and there will be many m0re) make this blog quite necessary–but even more valuable…
Red Sox player under attack for telling God’s honest truth.
Welcome back, Sam.
oh hey, the game started. Chipper’s out again. It looks like it has been one month since Campillo had a good game… let’s hope today goes better than… well… August.
They mentioned this on the TV last night… Pre-All-Star we had the 3rd best Team BA, and 2nd best ERA in the NL. Post-All-Star we’ve gone to the 5th best BA, and dead last ERA in both leagues… a full run + worse than the next to the last team in the NL.
You know who sucks? Francoeur.
USC would have jumped to first when they walloped Overrated State in two weeks anyway.
Bingo. Georgia was always just keeping the seat warm.
Sure, but Virginia isn’t exactly what I’d call “difficult”.
I would agree. They were the best team the AD could find that would return his call. But flying cross country to play in a hostle environment even if the team is not that great is never a gimme. Ask Tennessee.
USC has to schedule difficult out of conference teams because their conference schedule is inferior.
Thanks for your input. Haven’t heard that one before.
Hey, Sam.
I want to try this one again:
USC has to schedule difficult out of conference teams because their conference schedule is inferior.
But they don’t really. They are USC, they won’t have any credibility problems like Kansas had last season. They could take their nine conference games + Notre Dame schedule, tack on Utah State and San Jose State and call it a day. But they don’t, they seek out the best possible opponents for those final two games. Why? Because games between good teams are fun, and sports are supposed to be fun. Nothing about Georgia Southern at Georgia is fun. Nothing about Youngstown State at Ohio State is fun. It’s ridiculous that those games are ever scheduled. It’s all about money and protecting your record. Fans of those schools should demand better, we sure do around here. If SC scheduled a home game with Cal Poly to open the season, half the stadium would come dressed as empty seats.
Yesco hurt?
KJ with a triple followed by Frenchy with a double?!?!
AND a productive out… what a game.
I’m beginning to feel as if I’m the only person watching this on gameday and commenting instead of doing work (and if you’re reading this boss, I really AM doing work, just multi-tasking… or rapidly changing which single task I’m working on anyway).
Tough AB there for Hermida.
I’m watching, if it helps. WHich it doesn’t, because Campillo can’t get a third out to save his life (or our lead).
It hardly matters any more, but Infante’s defensive lapse fits with the season….
To be fair, Hermida fouled off four two-strike pitches to get a soft single. It was a good AB for the kid and not a poor performance by Campillo.
What Camnpillo cannot afford is to walk the two first base runners who eventually came around to score
True enough, but he should have been out of the inning with a 3-2 lead….
@29:
Joe and Jon mentioned last night that the Braves’ team ERA since the break was 6-something and is really close to being the highest post-break team ERA in history.
The way Morton and Reyes hae pitched the Braves might chase the record….
I’m here too. So does anyone actually know about Yunel?
Yahoo said it was shoulder injury for Yunel…
Yahoo said it was shoulder injury for Yunel…
Chief foresaw that, too.
Left shoulder pain according to the team site… Said Porter came out and massaged it for a minute before pulling him… he apparently stumbled out of the box due to the pain or something.
Yeah, looks like he reaggravated it and is day-to-day. I hope that he actually gets some time off. Because, honestly, what’s the point?
Means more time for Lillibridge.
Well, that’s why he’s here.
There sure have been a lot of walks in this game. Too bad the Braves can’t seem to capitalize.
Hey, if we go 22-1 we can have a better than .500 average… what do you mean that’s unlikely?
Why is it necessary to squeeze another inning out of Ohman?
Apparently it wasn’t, it was only necessary to squeeze another walk out of Ohman.
I think I may have really forgotten what it was like to watch the late 80s Braves play. I know I watched them and was a fan at the time, but the tragic losses piled on tragic losses had apparently been edged out of my mind until now… I think I’m beginning to remember.
and it just keeps getting better and better… walk em full, give up the single to keep em full, then wild pitch. Time for a balk!
At this rate, the milestone to keep track of is 65-97, the Braves’ 1990 record. We need six wins to beat that. I’d say our chances are about 50-50.
You’re pretty optimistic Brian.
Based on our win percentage since the all-star break (which included a few games with Tex and Kotsay) we’re only on pace to win another 7-8 games this season (if you go to when we dropped Tex and Huddy went down the pace is for another 6-7 wins).
From Joh Heyman at CNNSI: “Hitting savant Manny Ramirez got a quick glimpse of Dodgers teammate Andruw Jones’ failing batting technique and is said by intimates to have opined that Jones’ backside (not to mention his career) was obviously collapsing and that it should be an easy fix.”
See, we could kick Bobby upstairs, pay Manny $20M to be our leftfielder and hitting coach, trade Frenchy and Blanco for Andruw less his salary, and fix outfield offense and defense in one swell foop.
And this won’t be one of them. Back home to play Washington tomorrow.
Why do we always come here?
I guess we’ll never know!
It’s like a kind of torture
To have to watch the show!
Muppets quotes make any day better… even this one.
Interesting Coop… will be even MORE interesting to see if Druw puts it back together with the help from Manny.
OUCH:
The Muppets!
McCann is Scooter.
you know what brings back warm memories of winning days gone by?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greg_Maddox
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greg_Maddox brings back warm memories of days gone by… and it just BLOWS MY MIND how good Maddux was/is. I didn’t realize that He, Tim Hudson, and Randy Johnson are all nearly tied for the winningest pitchers in the 2000s (decade). In the end one has to assume Huddy will take that (as he’s probably going to get another year pitching in the 2000s than the old guys… but who knows).
Parish, I think we have a new photoshop contest there. I’d say McCann is Fozzy… Mike Gonzalez is actually Animal… Francour is Sam the Eagle… trying to think of who Chipper would be.
BTW the headline for the game on Yahoo sports is “Marlins beat Braves in front of 600 fans”… that’s SAD.
How bad did the Braves lose today?
5-3… in front of an “Even more embarrassing than losing” crowd of 600 at Dolphin’s Stadium
I thought for sure someone would call Francoeur Miss Piggy.
600 fans.
That’s just unacceptable no matter the circumstances.
I was looking at the top 100 metro areas and I don’t see too many candidates to receive the Marlins or Rays.
How ’bout this? We’re gonna have $50 million to spend, right? We pay all the Marlins and all the Rays and merge them with the Braves. We still come in under budget and we win 120 games!
Am I a genius, or what?
If I was Marlin’s PR person I’d have personally gone to the 600 fans who showed up and given them tickets (REALLY GOOD TICKETS) to several more games… these are people who actually WANT to come to the game apparently and those are in short supply in south Florida I guess.
OR they should just have 3000 free seats to every non weekend game (5000 for weekday). It would HAVE to bring in SOME revenue from the food people, and be better than having NOBODY in the park.
Hmmm… looking back on my 20+ posts in this thread I may not have a “getting a lot of real work done” leg to stand on. It’s the caffeine talking I swear.
Recrap is up. It would have been earlier but I was taking a nap.