Los Angeles Dodgers vs. Atlanta Braves – Box Score – August 01, 2009 – ESPN
It’s a team game. Chipper had a couple more hits, driving in two, Prado was back in the lineup and had a hit, but the unlikely heroes of the day were Diory Hernandez and Greg Norton. Go figure.
The Braves took a 1-0 lead in the third inning when Chipper doubled in McLouth, but Derek Lowe, who had cruised through the first three, lost the strike zone and was lucky to give up only two runs in the fourth. The Braves rallied to tie it in the fifth, with McLouth, Prado, and Chipper putting together consecutive one-out singles, but ACHE, in the cleanup spot with McCann resting, hit into a first-pitch double play to end the rally. The tie lasted about two seconds after that, as Lowe gave up a first-pitch homer to the leadoff man in the sixth.
Then came the rally. LaRoche had his second hit of the day (and also walked in the second inning, welcome back). Ross, following him, struck out. But on the first pitch to Hernandez, Russell “I Couldn’t Carry McCann’s Jock” Martin tried to pick the fleet-footed LaRoche off first and threw it away, allowing him to go to second. Hernandez, amazingly, came up with a hit to right field. LaRoche was a dead duck at the plate, but Martin dropped the ball. No collision, just dropped it. Diory went to second on the throw, then came home on an even more unlikely single from Norton.
Moylan started the seventh, and after getting the first man gave up a double. O’Flaherty got a line drive by the pinch-hitter Pierre that stayed up long enough for McLouth to grab it, while the baserunner ran so far away from the bag that McLouth could have run it in to double him up. Gonzalez and Soriano had no problems finishing it off.
Sorry for the delay; my cable line went out just as I was about to hit “publish”.
LaRoche fell short of Type B status. Soriano and Gonzo are both Type A’s.
So this is why the Pirates gave up McLouth for spare parts.
@1–LaRoche doesn’t matter b/c there’s no way the Braves offer him arb and commit to paying him $5m+.
added–Assuming LaR has a typical 2nd half my guess is the Braves will sign him to a 1 year deal for roughly half of the $7m he’s making now. If so, however, it’ll happen before the Braves have to offer arb or not. I bet he’s happy to be back in ATL and that there will not be a strong market for him by other teams.
Farm report: Just got back from Columbus, and the Gwinnett Braves absolutely dismantled the Clippers. They put together over 20 hits, including tagging the Clippers’ starter for ten runs in an inning and a third. They ended up winning 15-4.
Conrad looked good at the plate, and played first. He seemed to handle the position well. I really don’t know how often he’s played the position though. Gorecki had a double and a triple in the first inning. The Braves’ catcher (forget his name) hit two homers, and Brandon Jones chipped in a few hits. Really with over twenty hits, everybody was ripping the ball.
For what it’s worth, Jo Jo threw seven shut out innings. Will he get a long relief call up sometime soon?
as for Jo Jo – trade him and KJ to whoever will take them
@5
Absolutely agree. The first lively arm we can get for both.
7 games back in the division…and 4 games back in the WC.
Although Lincecum shut down the Phils tonight…boy, did Cliff Lee look good last night for Philly.
Screw the Phillies.
Russell Martin used to be good once – I swear.
I don’t know what he stopped taking but he has lost 150 points of slugging in two seasons. A 40 year old Brad Ausmus wasn’t supposed to be the good hitting part of that job share.
4 — Clint Sammons? Alvin Colina?
I guess this means we’re stuck with Norton for the rest of the year. Blah.
Shouldn’t LaRoche be hitting cleanup?
That was one of the benefits of his signing. The batting order looks pretty formidable is he’s in the 4-spot.
He might be after yesterday. Cox probably wanted to let him settle in before being thrown into 4 spot. Though, if he hit there yesterday, then we could have broken it open early. Anderson killed at least 2 rallies yesterday.
My question about the line up is why doesn’t Ross bat cleanup when he plays especially vs a lefty?
@ 10- It was Colina. Two home runs in his first two at bats.
Haven’t heard from you in a while, Lando.
@14
Because he’s a backup catcher. Sure, he’s a good backup catcher having a good year but really, he’s a backup catcher. He’s not a cleanup hitter. Ever. And it’s silly to complain about him not hitting cleanup the day after he Ks three times in RBI situations.
12:
Brian McCann: .301/.373/.520 12 homers
Yunel Escobar: .305/.370/.471 11 homers
Garret Anderson: .293/.326/.453 9 homers
Adam LaRoche: .251/.333/.443 12 homers
McCann is the cleanup hitter. Against RHPs, either Anderson or LaRoche will bat 5th and the other 7th behind Escobar.
Does anyone know if in the non-deadball era a team has ever had someone not hit 20 HR?
Bengie Molina led the Giants with 16 last year.
Chief,
Try the 2008 San Francisco Giants. Or the 2008 Nationals. It’s not that uncommon, and we, as a team, are not THAT bad. We are third in the league in hits, first in the league in doubles, and eleventh in the league in home runs. Even though the team is not as great as the sum of its parts make it out to be, the 2009 Atlanta Braves are an above-average team.
It’s happened a lot of times.
New poll idea:
Which is the most annoying GEICO commercial?
• gekko with a Cockney accent
• Cavemen
• “the money you could be saving”
Look, I’m in advertising and the rule is pretty much any eyeballs are good eyeballs, but I actively avoided GEICO when recently switching insurance companies (State Farm sucks) precisely because of their annoying advertising.
those commercials are the reason god made remote control.
Hankonly,
No contest at all there (in my opinion)-“The money you could be saving” is the worst one by far. The difference in disgust amounts to the difference in level of play of the Hamster vs. The Red Bird First Baseman.
The Geico commercials to me have almost reached a transcendant level of stupidity. At first I was getting really annoyed, but now, especially after they introduced the money with the googly eyes and the caveman commercials started not referencing car insurance at all and just started referencing themselves, I think it’s hilarious.
“money” is the worst, but apparently Geico is being effective in their advertising. The worst commercials now are Verizon’s and Dell’s because they are on every 10 minutes.
Best advertising commercials are probably Aflac and Chickfila
Why are they singing “lollipop” in the new Dell commercials?
I guess it’s because the covers of their new laptops are the same colors as a kid’s sucker?
Geico- Any campaign that has a Cro-Magnon order roast duck with the mango salsa is aces in my book.
There is a difference between worst and most annoying.
The worst commercial playing is that stupid one for Miracle Whip with the “rebellious” youth: “we are Miracle Whip, and we will not tone it down.”
The most annoying is that constant, relentless Amstell Light commercial.
Would it make sense to let Adam walk, have Barbaro play first and go after an outfield bat? Just wondering.
After watching Barbaro play the other night, no, he looked horrible.
But it was only one game.
Unless you keep Laroche around for one year to warm the seat for freeman?
I like the cavemen campaign. The “money you could be saving” I can’t stand and the gecko doesn’t bother me.
31,
If you let LaRoche walk (and I suspect the Braves will) you can do what you said about Canizares or play Prado or Chipper at 1st (the other one playing 3rd and KJ at 2nd) and use the money a number of ways (OF bat, retaining bullpen help, retaining Vazquez and Hudson, etc..). Going to be another interesting off-season.
Yeah, cut costs and keep Huddy and Vasquez, that wouldnt be bad. How much worse could barbaro be than kotchman with the bat?
Then you have a rotation of Lowe-Vasquez-Huddy-Jurjens-Hanson and put Kawakami in the pen?
Am I right that when you put someone on waivers, it is in order by worst record that gets to pick the player by taking the contract. Then, if nobody claims, you can hang on the sidelines and trade them at any later time. IF somebody claims them, you can withdraw them. If they clear waivers, you do not have to release them.
Looking at Braves going forward for 2010, if we are more than 5 games out wild card and division around 8/20/2009, wouldn’t it make sense to waive Lowe? Then, you can keep Vazquez and Hudson at 3 mill less than Lowe plus one of the 2, which means the half of Hudson’s salary that insurance isn’t paying this year (4.5 to 6 depending on when he is back) comes back and the 3 million difference between Lowe and Vazquez both come back to the payroll. that frees up around 7.5, Glavine 1.5. That money covers the arb raises, plus a little.
The best thing about the Lowe deal was getting him for this year. The next best was the “credibility factor” that we really could compete. The worst thing is the last year.
I oculd see that, if they have an injury, the Phillies, Dodgere (they parted on bad terms, so maybe not), Cubs, Yankees or BoSox might take that contract. None of them would UNLESS they had the injury and were close. So maybe Lowe could go through waivers now. If not, right after Hudson’s first ML start.
I’d probably offer arb to both Soriano and Gonzo.
Ha. Cliff, see the game thread, up in a few minutes.
Said game thread is now up.