Colorado Rockies vs. Atlanta Braves – Box Score – April 16, 2010 – ESPN.
Derek Lowe… What is it with this guy? He goes out every game and gives up a bunch of runs, and the Braves score even more runs and he barely even trails. He’s now 3-0 despite a 4.67 ERA and more walks than strikeouts. Lowe got out of a jam in the first, thanks largely to David Ross (just an ordinary day off for Brian) throwing out a basestealer. After Yunel grounded into a one-out bases-loaded DP in the first, the Braves chased the Rockies’ starter with one of those innings, the ones that drive you wild when they happen to you — single, infield single, RBI single, sac bunt, sac fly RBI, walk, walk, two-run single, RBI infield single, single, two-RBI single, it’s 7-0. Heyward and Melky (of all people) had two hits each in the inning. Just to add on, the Braves scored another run in the third to make it 8-0.
Lowe just can’t stand prosperity, though, and after actually looking good in the second and third gave up an RBI double in the fourth and a three-run homer in the fifth to make it 8-4. It’s like he’s shaving points or something. (Note: I do not actually think that Lowe is giving up runs intentionally and I don’t think baseball gambling works that way anyway.) Chipper gave him another run to work with with a homer, but Lowe couldn’t get out of the sixth. O’Flaherty finished that one off, but gave up a run in the seventh. Medlen pitched the last two innings, striking out three of the first four men he faced before looking just a little shaky, giving up a long fly that McLouth tracked down and a flare single, then getting the final out.
The Braves had thirteen hits in all and spread them out nicely, with all the starters but Lowe getting at least one, but nobody more than two. In addition to his homer, Chipper had one of the Parade of Singles and also walked twice, once intentionally.
Right now, is Martin Prado one of the 5 best second basemen in the league? I can’t think of too many non-Utley 2Bs I’d rather have right now.
Cano, Pedroia, Zobrist, Beckham, Johnson? Phillips? Prado might be number 5.
I’ve been a night owl of late due to my school schedule being pretty unbalanced, and I’ve recently caught some west coast games just to check out some baseball and my fantasy players.
I just hope Padres and Dodgers fans know how lucky they are to have Dick Enberg and Vin Scully call their games. It somehow made reverting back to Chip Caray worse, which I thought was impossible.
Johnson as in KJ? He is off to a hot start too.
I liked Smoltz and Joe tonight. Even if there isn’t the smoothness of a Vin Scully, it’s enjoyable for me when the announcers seem like they’re having fun.
Outside of being generally incompetent, Chip tries too much to be a Bob Costas clone, and I think people see through it.
It’s hard to rank Prado behind anyone with his .463 BA and 1.190 OPS at this point. Unfortunately it won’t last all year, but I’ll be ecstatic if he ends up being mentioned in the top 5 of the non-Utley 2Bs.
i know people on this blog hate discussing the attendance issue but below 30,000, on a friday night, the 2nd home series of the season? that’s absurd.
The Braves may have had less than 30,000 people tonight, but this blog is going to pass the two million visitor mark tomorrow sometime.
Cano, Pedroia, Zobrist, Beckham, Johnson? Phillips? Prado might be number 5.
Beckham has played all of 9 games at second and has never hit as well as Martin, Zobrist is mostly an outfielder.
He’s top four and closing in on Cano. I’ll concede that Pedroia and Utley are not in play.
I just got tickets to April 25th Mets-Braves. Very much looking forward to it.
Kinsler should be alright too once he starts playing, being that his 30-30 season last year was a considered a disappointment. I’d also rather have Cano, who not only hits with more power but provides better defense. But Prado, yeah, is pretty damn good. Plus he can play 3B effectively.
Spent the evening in Newark sweating out Game 2 of the Devils/Flyers series. The game was torture, but my Devs finally won.
During a break, I saw that ATL dropped 7 on ’em in the 2nd & thought that Lowe is just some kinda good luck charm.
But you know what? I’ll take it.
I dug Chipper Matt-Diaz-ing it on that HR. Whatever works, brah.
About the attendance issue, it was bad, but I wonder if it was partially caused by the dire warnings about traffic this weekend. In my experience, most of the time when the city issues warnings as strongly worded as the ones they issued a couple of days ago, no one goes anywhere near Downtown and there really turns out to be no problem at all. If anyone was on the fence about going to a Braves game this weekend or waiting until the next home weekend, they probably would’ve just waited.
Although last I knew, the Hawks were expecting at or close to a sellout tomorrow evening for Game 1 of the playoffs. But again, that’s the playoffs, and the arena is easy to access using MARTA.
Derek Lowe is a winner, why are you all complaining? He just can’t do everything else well!!! He is a winner!!!
#15–As long as we win….
Otherwise, another long night on the farm….
Chipper works so hard on his righthanded swing over the years that he has now lost his lefthanded swing.
And how about this? Kawakami’s first game of the season was against Lincecum, and his second game will be against Jimenez.
Attendance is always crappy during the school year.
Beckham has played all of 9 games at second and has never hit as well as Martin
He’s also 23 years old and going to be a star. You’re crazy if you’d rather have Martin Prado than Gordon Beckham.
Zobrist is mostly an outfielder.
Nope. He’s the every day second baseman–they made room for him by trading Akinori Iwamura for Jesse Chavez last off season–shifting to the OF when needed. Granted, Matt Joyce is on the DL already, so he’s probably going to play as much OF as 2B during the first however long Joyce as out. Still, he’s the starting 2B, not mostly an OF.
Joe and Smoltz did a great job today, IMHO, especially Smoltz. Watching a game is a completely different experience without Chip. I’d rather have the cookiemonster doing the play-by-play than him. Here in Germany, Sky Television provides a great service: When watching a soccer game, you can actually mute the announcers and still hear the stadium atmosphere. I would pay MLB.TV another 50 bucks if I could just mute Chip.
It’s probably been mentioned before but Prado means “prairie” in Spanish….
Marty Prairie ….
Truth be told I’d rather have Cookie Monster doing play by play than most people… that would be AWESOME!
I did like Smoltz & Joe last night though.
bobby has been semi-good (lately) at riding a player’s hot streak and hinske has done nothing but hit since he strapped on a braves uni. i’d like to see him get a few starts in left until he becomes human again.
aside from chip and brian jordan, the braves booth has a little promise. my 2 favorite thus far have been glavine and smoltz, and i thought smoltz would annoy the hell out of me. i’d love to hear those 2 guys together for a game.
we’re 6th in the league in era and 12th in the league in ops, yet we’re 6-4. both of those should get better, so we’re in a good spot.
GO BRAVES!
21 – There’s a small city in Tuscany named after him — “Prato”
Hey Mac, with me being a Magic fan, and you being a Hawks fan, IF we happen to meet in the playoffs, would you care to make a friendly wager?
He’s also 23 years old and going to be a star. You’re crazy if you’d rather have Martin Prado than Gordon Beckham.
Zobrist is mostly an outfielder.
Nope. He’s the every day second baseman–they made room for him by trading Akinori Iwamura for Jesse Chavez last off season–shifting to the OF when needed. Granted, Matt Joyce is on the DL already, so he’s probably going to play as much OF as 2B during the first however long Joyce as out. Still, he’s the starting 2B, not mostly an OF.
So we are talking about now, and Beckham hasn’t even proved he can stick at second. And hasn’t hit yet.
Zobrist has played 18 innings so far this year at second and didn’t play there at all last year, so same goes for him.
Part of being a second baseman is actually – you know – handling the demands of the position.
And hasn’t hit yet.
Much as I can agree with the point and tone of your post, an .800 OPS over your first 500 PA’s pretty much qualifies as “having hit”. He may or may not be a 2B, but an 107 OPS+ out of a 22 yo rookie infielder is pretty strong.
According to Fangraphs, Zobrist played 714 innings at 2B last year. That’s pretty much 80 full games, more than he played anywhere else, which makes him a 2B in my book.
Zobrist isnt really a second baseman, or a regular at any other position for that matter. I cant remember a player being shuffled around the field recently with and still have the offensive success that he has.
From my Fantasy baseball updater:
“C Brian McCann has a new bauble in his locker, a humongous heavy-weight-title-fight belt he bought for himself on eBay to commemorate winning the team fantasy football championship. The clubhouse attendants mounted the belt across the top of his locker while the team was on the road. McCann got Friday night off; David Ross started.”
Chan Ho Park TMI
30 — That’s awesome.
The trophy for my baseball league is a Derrick Turnbow bobble head (that I got a few years back at Miller Park). It’s definitely sought after.
Game thread is up.