Los Angeles Dodgers vs. Atlanta Braves – Box Score – July 31, 2009 – ESPN
What a sad state of affairs, that even the announcement of the return of the pure excitement that is Adam LaRoche can’t breathe any life into the offense. The Braves were utterly humiliated by Zombie Jason Schmidt, whose fastball and changeup are basically indistinguishable at this point but nonetheless held the Braves to one hit in six innings of work. I lost track of the number of weak popups off of 86 MPH fastballs. Zombie Schmidt did walk five men — Chipper, who had the only hit against him, twice — but the Braves stranded them all. It was embarrassing, really. They should all — with the exception of Chipper — be ashamed of themselves.
It didn’t help that the Braves once again trotted out a replacement middle infield. I’m about given up on Kelly Johnson, who was 0-3, though he did draw a walk. Diory Hernandez had a hit, which I can only assume was caused by some sort of mystic convergence; to confirm this, the Braves’ only other hit came courtesy of Zombie Greg Norton. Barbaro Canizares drew praise from Tweedlechip and Tweedlejoe for his approach of swinging at everything, and went 0-4. Adam LaRoche, sent back home in exchange for Casey Kotchman in a trade that nobody quite understands, will be here tomorrow in Barbaro’s place, and hopefully Prado will be available to replace KJ, but it seems likely that Yunel will miss the rest of the series. McLouth was 0-5. Yuck.
It didn’t matter a whole lot what Tommy Hanson did. He got through the first four innings okay, but allowed a three-run homer in the fifth that was far more than the Dodgers needed. He may be having some endurance issues. He got charged with another run that Acosta inherited, and Medlen gave up a completely meaningless run in the ninth.
Again, everyone who isn’t Chipper or hurt: Shame on you.
How long before Frank Wren realizes he essentially traded Mark Teixeira for Adam LaRoche (and cash)?
There were at least a couple of times when Hanson would quickly get ahead of the batter with two strikes and then run the count full. He didn’t seem able to put hitters away. Is it that one of his pitches wasn’t working tonight?
Never been to Baltimore, but LA is an ugly/dirty city
Actually, he traded two months of Teixeira.
Ethan, that’s true. But LA is everything. It’s the United States in miniature, maybe even more than New York. And the climate’s a lot better.
Kj is like herpes he always comes back when u don’t want him to. Why isn’t conrad on this team?! Welcome back laroche. Norton and diory should be pumping gas not playing mlb. This team should have been in on sherril
What is our record since KJ came back? I blame all of this, all of it, on him. Why? I don’t know. But this guy has some serious bad mojo around him or something.
how long until the headline is once again “I hate this team”??
@7: 3-5. Braves are 2-1 in the games he started, but still.
Just got back from the Gwinnett Braves game. Anyone know why Chris Burke hasn’t been given a shot yet? He looked good tonight, and he has a kinda proven track record in the majors. He would be so much better than Hernandez at short. Whats the reason they signed someone like him if he isn’t on the big team in a situation like this?
Look, we started Diory, KJ, and Barbaro. What the heck do people expect?
So when LaRoche comes back and walks a grounder to first…only to have someone with Casey Kotchman’s speed beat it out…will Bobby Cox just quit at that point?
Wow…a shutout? And we thought we had a contender. KJ just brings all sort of bad karma to the team. They should have traded him. And he is absolutely death at the top of the lineup.
Unbelievable. Can’t wait for the thrill a minute LaRoche
It’s like Wickmania! all over again, except worse. Freeman isn’t going to be ready at the beginning of next year. Are we going to have to use Barbaro for 2 or 3 months in 2010?
It is almost football time
July ends with a whimper.
And I’m actually in Baltimore right now. In certain places, it’s a cool town with some gorgeous architecture.
@ 14
Thank God
Not that I mind having Adam back, but I would much rather seeing Wren trading KJ away. I have completely given up on him. I hope I am wrong of course, but he has been proving me right…
…and he actually had the nerve to say that…
“The story for him was his control,” said Kelly Johnson, who started in place of Prado. “He wasn’t overpowering obviously. He’s coming back from missing a whole year, [but] he was spotting it up.”
Never been to Baltimore, but LA is an ugly/dirty city
Well, the downtown is but the downtown of every major city is. There’s a ton of nice areas to live. I live in Manhattan Beach and it’s damn near perfect. Beats anything frickin’ Baltimore can offer.
Next someone will post ‘Miami’s nice but I’d rather live in Detroit’.
Ok, I don’t know if this has been previously discussed, but why on earth didn’t we just keep Teixeira and get the draft picks when he inevitably declines arb?
Ok, I don’t know if this has been previously discussed, but why on earth didn’t we just keep Teixeira and get the draft picks when he inevitably declines arb?
Yeah, there’s a lot of lessons to be learned from this. Number one for me is don’t trade a young, cost-controlled, productive position player for a relief pitcher. I don’t care how bad your bullpen is, it’s the wrong move. Especially when Scott Thorman is next in line. The overpay for Teixiera, the under-receive for Teixiera, it’s just a string of mistakes.
But hey, at least we helped the Rangers get back on the map.
I’m a fan of Baltimore. I lived there for three years and find it to be very underrated. What I really enjoyed was the convenience of being able to take a train to major cities nearby — DC, Philly, NYC. I haven’t spent much time in LA, so I can’t speak to the quality of the city. Just doesn’t seem like my cup of tea. Each their own.
So the analysis here is that we have bad “karma” because Johnson replaced Conrad. Seriously? You boys are going with bad karma as an analysis?
Please.
i’m not going with bad karma. i’m going with the fact that kj’s play has been incredibly poor all season long and he has made errors during critical parts of games. conrad played well.
I think its hilarious that you guys are JUST coming around to seeing that KJ is not a good baseball player. Half this board had him as Chase Utley-lite and he’s never been good, at all.
We traded a non power hitting 1B for maybe the laziest player in baseball.
Wow.
The laziest player in baseball plays left field for us.
Q: Why does Garrett Anderson hit Homers?
A: So that he can take his merry time around the bases.
Really glad I didn’t take my family of four (tickets – $120, parking – $12, bag of peanuts – $5.25 – for PEANUTS?, various drinks – all over $4) down to Stadium Inaccessible to see THAT.
What a disgusting performance. As my son said, “They’re playing like they did earlier in the year.”
That was when thread titles started with “I Hate This Team”.
well IM done with KJ. Its a tiresome act and Im sick of watching his streakiness. It does have the feel that the lineup hibernates more around him for some reason. His defense is subpar and his bat has disappeared. He needs the Frenchy treatment. I said Id trade him for a reliever and Id still do it. The ball Furcal hit showed me last night how limited he is moving side to side. Prado isnt good there either, but at least he can handle a bat
I cant believe so many people are this shocked/upset that Kotchman was traded.
DeRosa has 20 homeruns. Our cleanup hitter has 12.
#20 – the problem with us trading Tex was that the Braves thought they had to get a 1B in return for him and that limited who we could trade with and trade for. We had so much cash in the offseason, we could’ve found or traded for pretty much anything. Either way it seems we learned something from the 1st deal and that was JS left Wren pretty empty handed
ACHE is at .297/.330/.459 right now, and except for April and May, his line is close to .300/.345/.475 I wish KJ, Kotchman, Jeffie & co could have put such lazy lines for us instead of a combined .650 (random estimation) ops altogether…
I hated ACHE for the first few months, and I still dislike his wandering-around-LF, but except for that he’s done exactly what we were expecting out of him when we signed him, so I can’t exactly say he’s the one bad guy.
How about the KJ stinks analysis?
Inconsistent players are the worst to have on a team, especially when you have no wiggle room in the standings.
Inconsistent players are the worst to have on a team, especially when you have no wiggle room in the standings.
As opposed to consistently bad players like Norton?
Half this board had him as Chase Utley-lite and he’s never been good, at all.
@24: the reason it’s “just now” starting to think that is because Johnson has been so awful this year. But to say he’s never been good, after the good seasons in 2007 and 2008, is a bit exaggerated.
Look, we started Diory, KJ, and Barbaro. What the heck do people expect?
Well gee, Johnson was a starter not long ago, Hernandez got called up supposedly because of how good he was doing in the minors and Barbaro was whom everyone here was screaming for only a couple of days ago.
How about something more than one hit and no runs in six innings against Jason frickin’ Schmidt?
I didn’t think it was a mistake to trade Adam for Gonzo.
I didn’t regret the Tex trade. The only player I regret we traded away is Feliz, but Wren/JS made it up by getting JJ.
I agree we should have kept Tex and get the two draft picks.
I really like what Wren is doing. If he is able to swing KJ for a decent reliever in the coming month, Wren will get an A from me.
Dan, KJ was never good when it matters. He was usually great when there was little pressure like in early of the season or when we were out of the race.
Player analysis/game thread is up.
Dan, KJ was never good when it matters. He was usually great when there was little pressure like in early of the season or when we were out of the race.
Again, that seems a tad unfair.
Looking at Johnson’s 2008 numbers, his hot streak months were May and September.
I know the team was well out of it in September, but they weren’t in May. Do May games not count the same in the standings?
Why is it that any hitter’s good hitting only counts if the team is in contention (not out of it or running away with the division) and it has to be July-September too?