Atlanta Braves vs. Boston Red Sox – Box Score – June 20, 2009 – ESPN
It’s really Derek Lowe’s fault, when you think about it. Why didn’t he will the Braves to score some runs for him? What’s his problem?
Lowe pitched well, but gave up single runs in the fifth, sixth, and seventh (the last a Grybo by Bennett) and the Braves had nothing going offensively against Josh Beckett. Their one real threat came in the eighth inning, when ACHE and Kotchman singled, but Beckett was helped out by the Groundhog, who inevitably hit into a double play. That’s our Jeffy! The Braves had just five hits, all singles, and didn’t walk, while striking out seven and hitting into two double plays; Beckett wound up facing just two more than the minimum and throwing just 94 pitches. Again, it’s all Lowe’s fault, except for the part that’s Bobby’s fault for using Gonzalez and Soriano last night.
Hits were by Escobar, Chipper, McCann, ACHE, and Kotchman; if they’d all come in a row, you would score some runs, but that’s the only way you’d do anything with all singles. Francoeur, in case you hadn’t heard, sucks.
My dad and I were joking that the Braves should just take the out with Francoeur instead of letting him hit into a double play. Then he hit into a double play. Sadly, we can’t take an automatic out.
@1 – no you can’t, but you can make sure Frenchy goes up to the plate without a bat in his hand. Hey, he might even get a walk occasionally.
It’s definitely Bobby’s fault for keep running Frenchy and KJ out there.
I was hoping Beckett would throw Frenchy’s 3-1 pitch to the backstop.
That’s the 14th loss this year in which we’ve held our opponents to 4 or fewer runs…
(For comparison, the Phillies have 7 such losses and the Mets have 8.)
I was reading Eight Men Out recently and a question came to my mind: If Francoeur was throwing games, how could you tell?
That rally-kiling GIDP at the hands of the Groundhog was as predictable as seeing Kendra Wilkinson’s blurred boobs and ass on E!
Oh, hell. Look at Bowman’s headline:
Lowe falters in his return to Fenway
As if he could have won a shutout….
Philly just lost another lead in the 9th – gotta love it.
Looks like Frank and McGuirk were in attendance tonight. McGuirk looks like an old woman.
Got to love the NL East.
At this rate we could lose the next two series 2-1 and still gain ground.
I’m sorry, but a team who keeps playing Francoeur over Diaz deserves to have innings like the 8th. If they really cared about winning, we would have been rid of the jackass long ago.
So are people finally with me on the fact this team can’t win games with KJ in the lineup?
@13 – No, not yet. Again this team has no power. And when KJ is right, and he hasn’t been in a long time, he is one of the few people on this team capable of hitting it out of the park with any regularity. Prado sure can’t. Now if we get a decent hitting outfielder with power, then I say goodbye KJ as well. Until then, I don’t think we can win without him in the lineup and hitting. Of course, the point is moot if he doesn’t hit (which we have already established he isn’t).
Quick, off topic question- When the hell was Dolphin Stadium renamed LandShark Stadium?
When the hell was Joe Robbie Stadium renamed Dolphin Stadium?
Kyle Davies is still struggling to establish himself as a serviceable 5th starter in MLB. The Royals sent him back to AAA after the Cardinals lit him up for eight runs in 2.2 IP.
I’m glad we washed our hands of him.
Well, I think it went from Joe Robbie to Pro Player, then to Dolphin… then to LandShark. And I have no idea when it became LandShark. I was wondering that myself a couple weeks ago.
They switched it to Land Shark in early May. Funny thing is it will be Land Shark stadium for this season only (Dolphins) and will likely be called something else when it hosts the Super Bowl in February.
i know hes sucking right now, but i have a hard time getting too upset with KJ at 2B when we have the Groundhog in RF and ACHE in LF. yes, i acknowledge that ACHE has been okay recently, but i despise him. besides, it wouldnt surprise me if KJ is our best hitter the next 3 weeks.
hes not amazing and often frustrating, but kelly can actually be a very good hitter sometimes.
I no longer have any feeling toward Frenchy and ACHE, and I completely hate KJ. Come on guys, wake up on KJ. This is his fourth year, haven’t you seen enough to come to a conclusion that he will never be anything good?
KJ used to be at least a little above average offensively for a 2nd baseman, but this year he apparently is going to Francoeur for hitting advice. I imagine he’ll be part of trade discussions when Infante returns. If Kelly isn’t going to get on base and hit homers, his supposed advantage over Infante or Prado disappears and there’s not much point in keeping him.
Why Jeff Francoeur and his .561 OPS vs righties started against Josh Friggin’ Beckett is a complete mystery to me. If it drops below .500, will Bobby then finally platoon him? MLBTR says the Royals are still interested in him. Wren needs to make that trade happen now.
(Don’t know if this has already been covered)
On Magglio,
Didn’t Canseco name him as a steroid user? Would explain a lot…
A couple of thoughts.
First, yes, the offense still sucks against RHP. With that said, Josh Beckett is a very good RHP and he was dealing last night. Just because the offense sucks against RHP doesn’t mean you don’t give some credit to Beckett. He was on the same way Lowe was on vs Philly in the season opener. I don’t see many teams scoring even one or two runs off of him the way he was throwing last night.
Second, while KJ sucks most of the time, he kills LHP (900+ OPS vs a sub-570 against RHP.) Francoeur sucks against everyone, and he doesn’t play 2B. When Infante returns you’re best served platooning Johnson and Francouer by playing Infante/Prado based on the pitcher. Kelly should only play vs LHP. Prado should start at 1B against LHP (again, 900+ OPS, much better than Kotchman.) Vs RHP Kotchman should push Prado to 2B, Johnson to the bench. Infante should start in RF or CF depending on how the defense aligns best.
The Royals are still interested in him
Maybe we could get Greinke? I remember all that daydreaming on this blog very well. Or Kyle Davies? Folks, let’s get real. We won’t get anything valuable in return. STOP dreaming about a trade, please. All you’ll ever get for crap is crap.
I say f*ck the trade. Release him or send him down again. That would be the right statement. Then trade Soriano or Gonzo and a prospect for someone capable of playing RF.
why release someone when you can trade him? it’s not about acquiring anything for him. it’s the fact that someone else will pay him his last 2 mil to suck. releasing him or sending him down still keeps him on the payroll.
i would be ok with: francoeur traded for a ptbnl.
i still think that kawakami could be tradeable. he has a decent contract and has looked impressive of late.
Hell, i would take Davies for him, stick him in AAA and leave him there forever.
maybe make him a set-up man for Soriano/Gonzo.
If somebody really wants him I would be shocked, what on earth could they see in him of value?
I have no problem benching KJ when there’s a viable alternative. But at the moment he’s getting ABs ahead of… Diory Hernandez? Prado was backing up 1B for a while, and yesterday he was letting Chipper take a day off in the field. When Infante’s back, I’d be shocked to see Kelly in anything more than a platoon role (which is kinda dumb, since he’s hit lefties so much better than righties this year).
Either way, he’s still killing the team less than Francoeur, and he has past evidence of competence, so I’m more inclined to run him out there than Frenchy. But he really should be losing time to Prado and eventually Infante.
I’m not convinced Francoeur can be traded. At this point, most other teams probably expect the Braves to be forced to DFA him sooner, not later, and that means he’ll be available without having to sacrifice anyone. I just want him gone. I don’t care how.
KJ may get hot again in July, but if you check what he has done in June…that’s some ultimate suckness you are talking about…it is even worse than the Frenchy level of suckness…I mean, you may run a pitcher out there hitting and you would possibly get even better result than what KJ is doing in June…
In case you are too lazy to look it up:
AVG OBP SLG OPS
June .136 .224 .169 .393
Sam, yes, Josh Beckett is good, but we were also running only seven major league hitters out there last night. Just because Josh Beckett is good doesn’t hide the fact that Frenchy and KJ suck.
And for those of you who said KJ plays second base and somehow thought he makes contribution in that area…let’s not forget he is not even league average on defense.