As something of an expert on the Atlanta Braves and on Jeffrey Braden Francoeur, people often ask me, “Mac, baseball playing and ship designing are all well and good, but what if Jeff Francoeur did something else? What if he was, say, United States Secretary of Agriculture?” Well, I think it would go a little something… like this:
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and the madness begins…
http://tinyurl.com/36fcgpj
bust out game today for the offense. diaz is going to go off!
I’m glad someone else noticed Escobar’s lack of hustle down the line on those double play balls against the Phillies. It makes me wonder if he’s being a diva about Heyward taking his place in the line-up and the spotlight.
The Braves have the pieces to get Gonzalez, but if they make a move for him, they’d better make damn sure he’s going to be around for a while.
Francoeur on Heyward: “They’ve got a superstar on their hands there,” Francoeur said. “It’s worked out great for him there, and it’s worked out great for me.”
I love the insinuation that we traded him to make room for Heyward. I think it’s safe to say that if Frenchy wasn’t such a toolbox and played well for us, Heyward would have started in LF.
@4 We have no payroll space to get Gonzalez.
There’s no reason to dump our farm system on San Diego for Gonzalez when we could give up a lot less to get somebody like Laroche, Konerko, or Derek Lee for the rest of the year. Or Freddie Freeman might even be ready in a few more months. Way too early to be talking trades. I would like to see Melky DFAed though and Clevlen called up. There’s no reason to keep running a 4th outfielder out there if he isn’t producing.
Laroche, LOL.
Mccannless lineup:
1. Infante 2B, 2. Escobar SS, 3. Chipper 3B, 4. Glaus 1B, 5. Diaz LF, 6. Cabrera CF, 7. Heyward RF, 8. Ross C, 9. Jurrjens RHP
8 right-handed batters in the lineup.
Johnny Damon so far with Detroit: .322, with a .429 OBP…with 5 doubles, 10 walks and 10 K.
juss sayin
What kind of lineup is that? Glaus cleanup? Heyward 7th? No Prado? At least swich Diaz and Escobar. Please tell me you are just making that up and it’s not the official lineup bobby is throwing out there.
Wind was whirling & chilly in the park last night, but you gotta catch those pop-ups. And how ‘bout a refresher course on the Infield Fly Rule? (Paging the ghost of Skip Caray.)
A few Citi Field observations: Met fans have been neutered. Not a whole lot of enthusiasm last night, except for the Ike Davis blast. (And that was a blast.)
A group of Asian girls behind me. When Francoeur came to bat, his big mug was on the outfield screen & one said, “Such an all-American-looking boy!” Had to chuckle at that.
As always, a fair amount of Braves fans at the game. Guy in front of me wearing a Bobby Cox jersey. First time for that.
Went down to the “Beers of the World” stand and, in a line near me, I saw a guy with a Braves jersey (the full-on polyester kind) with a #49 on the back, and he wasn’t a nostalgic Preston Hannah fan. From shoulder to shoulder, it read “Rocker.”
Couldn’t help myself, so (wearing my red-and-black UGA cap & genuinely wondering about the sociological implications) I asked, “Hey, are you from Georgia?” He turned to me very confrontationally and with a thick New York accent, said, “No, but thank you very much.”
OK, whatever, dude. I quickly lost my curiosity & moved on. Charming.
DVR Alert: At 7 pm on MLB Network, Hank Aaron is the hour-long interview subject for Bob Costas’ “Studio 42” show.
Off to Flushing. Go Braves.
I’m not sure which is more confusing.
Today’s line-up, or a New Yorker wearing a Rocker jersey…
Can I kickoff the “Fire Frank Wren and Fark Liberty Media” bandwagon yet?
I’ll jump on.
Prado out with a slight hamstring strain.
I’m with Brian Jordan, Chipper ain’t taking care of himself.
Why the hell is Melk Dud batting 6th, ahead of Heyward?
And the LOB tour 2010 rolls on
Bases loaded, 3 straight strikeouts. Beautiful.
geez melky…
God I am sick of this offense. Its almost a bad thing to get the bases loaded with this team
ububba,
I’m going to the game tomorrow with the lady and some friends if you’re there. It looks like it’s going to rain, but I’ll try to tough it out.
As if the group of players playing today wasn’t bad enough, the order makes NO sense….. Heyward is in an abyss of ineptitude. Basically he has to hit a home run or he can’t score or bat anyone else in.
It’s only Game 17, but my spirit may already be broken. I’m changing the channel to the sixth round of the NFL Draft.
20—Chipper’s K was before the bases were loaded.
See you guys later.
Another strikeout with a runner in scoring position. How does TP still have a job?
Radio guys channeling Skip.
Jim: It always seemed appropriate that the old Mets stadium was in Flushing.
Don: Especially given the way it smelled.
It’s very frustrating to watch these guys flail around out there. When he’s healthy, maybe we should try batting Jo-Jo Reyes in clutch situations. It would be more useful than putting him on the mound again, and I’m sure his strikeouts will be more fun to watch.
Don’s not joking. It smelled like urine.
Braves .217 BA w/ bases loaded is 14th in NL.
I would love to see the following lineup against lefties
Prado 2B
Heyward RF
Jones 3B
McCann C
Hinske 1B
Escobar SS
Diaz LF
McClouth CF
Pitcher
and Against Right Handers
Infante LF
Prado 2B
Jones 3B
McCann C
Heyward RF
Hinske 1B
Escobar SS
McClouth CF
Pitcher
andruw jones now with 6 dingers on the year, a 1.164 ops, and 3 stolen bases without being caught. which ex-brave is going to win comeback player of the year?
Glad Chipper showed up today, with McCann and Prado out.
I love it when Joe waxes poetically about the “quantum physics” in baseball.
Chipper looks gimpy
EDIT: very appropriate that is Glaus’s 1st double as a Brave
i dont know his name, but the old mets announcer said “that should have only been a double in little league”.
As of right now, 5 of the 9 people in our lineup have season BAs of .200 or below.
including our 4-5-6 hitters
32: Do you think Chip and Joe have any idea how dumb they sound, talking about the statistical “quantum physics?” I mean, seriously.
diaz, thank god! great at bat and first walk of the year. sign of good things to come.
You suck, Melky.
the only explanation is melky was sent from new york to single-handedly destroy the braves.
5 LOB through 2 innings.
JJ, we need a shutout. Seriously
The Royals would be embarrassed to have this lineup.
espn classic has mantle vs banks homerun derby. much more interesting than this game.
Chipper’s done.
This umpire sucks.
That’s at least 3 chickenshit calls on JJ now
MY GOD WHY IS THIS TEAM STRIKING OUT SO DAMN MUCH
I wonder if chipper uses mike hamptons doctor?
Prado > Chipper
Nitram! A chance for two more LOB!
EDIT: At least they were original about this time…
What does it take to score from first on a double…sheesh at least glaus can’t GIDP
Wow. Yunel escobar. I’m getting sick of him too. Especially when he isn’t hitting
the anal-cranial inversion continues … this team is painful
Oh my god. Get rid of Yunel, please!
WTF was that?! Did Escobar just not tag up and Prado did? WTF?!
@51 But he can fly into one!
Not that it’s his fault, obviously.
There’s a classic Yunel.
WTF, Yunel
what just happened? following on gameday
Should Snitker share any blame for the Yunel?
Yunel ran halfway to home on the fly ball and didn’t go back to tag for whatever reason. He got back to third as the throw got there, and Prado was stuck in between 2nd and 3rd.
Yunel didn’t tag on a deep flyball for some inexplicable reason, and Prado did without realizing Escobar was still on 3rd, so he had to return to 2nd and was easily tagged out.
Bobby’s gonna rape Yunel.
Sac fly Glaus. Yunel didn’t tag up, The Prado did. Ensuing clusterf*** at 3rd ends inning.
Yunel should be benched, but Bobby doesn’t have the bodies
Tom, you don’t want to know. But in case you do, Glaus hit a flyball to mid-right field. For some reason (Yuny being Yuny), Escobar didn’t tag and drifted off the base. Prado (at 2B) did tag and sprinted for 3rd, but stopped when he saw that Escobar was still standing there having a smoke. They doubled up Prado, but the play was Escobar’s fault. I’d call it vapor lock, but that would be an insult to vapor.
either Yunel lost track of outs (there were 1) or he lost it in the sun looking back to right. Either way he didn’t tag, Prado did and tried to advance. By the time they realized what was going on it was inning over.
Bobby took his hat off.
Melky-yunel-glaus have my blood pressure at unhealthy levels
It’s like they’ve never even seen a baseball game before. It’s like someone playing a video game for the first time out there.
Melky-yunel-glaus have my blood pressure at unhealthy levels
And henry blanco steals. Wtf
@67 if he thought there were 2 out he should have been going home not just halfway–head up his @$$ either way
Did the Mets just send Henry Blanco with the pitcher hitting against a guy throwing out 40% of attempted base-stealers– and he made it?
Dammit. Really, if you can’t play baseball, you should be sitting on the couch watching it with the rest of us.
@71, you’re absolutely right. It’s tough when you are looking for excuses and can’t come up with any.
Maybe Yunel needs to take a page from the LaRoche book and get treated for ADD.
I don’t know that ADD is it…you can’t fix stupid.
Coming this fall: Flowers for Yunel.
Hey, Melky with a double!
Braves leadoff hitters are 0 for their last 19 with no walks.
That’s a pretty decent analysis by Joe in response to another stupid question by Chip. It’s not that the Braves are too passive, it’s that there are too many holes in the lineup and pitchers are working to those holes and exploiting them.
Whatever. I am just horrified at the state of this team. It ain’t just Yunel – although he’s not helpng – they are all just mailing it in or something.
Hey, a run!
Can Ross play first?
Can Glaus?
oh good, time to activate sleeper agent Manny Acosta
I really like ross. Gives us great depth.
Manny Acosta. If history tells us anything, we could put up a 4 spot here!
OMG – a run and a lead.
Acosta sighting!
I bet he absolutely dominates us.
We’d better torch Acosta.
Well, even Acosta will get one guy more often than not.
Blanco has a sweet ass mullet growing
Poor ralph kiner was tough to listen too. Not as bad as watching this offense
There’s your run, JJ.
92- my thoughts exactly. Don’t eff it up JJ.
I just got home and am catching the game. What happened to Chipper?
I swear to God, the Braves’ catchers are going to set a record for throwing the ball into center field.
Good Lord. How many C-to-2B throwing errors have the Braves made this year? We look like the Bad News Bears when guys try to steal.
You really suck, Melky.
Could Melk Dud have caught that?
God knows this group can’t stand success.
I thought it was the smart play for where he was. You could argue that he should have been playing farther back to start, but the smart play once it was hit was to play it off the wall.
Sorry Mac, I gotta disagree, no way anyone was catching that shot by Bay.
That’s the fourth throwing error by Braves’ catchers this year, on the 11th opposing stolen base attempt. More than a third of the time, when someone runs toward second, McCann and Ross will chuck the ball into center field.
.179, .154, .145. Yeah, there’s a heatlhy 4-5-6 in the order.
I agree with Mac.
1-0 with this offense, you have to go all out for it. There’s no way Bay is getting an inside the park job so he doesn’t really matter.
Any Braves centerfielder from 1992-2008 would have caught that with the possible exception of Roberto Kelly.
Nate McLouth would have had time to strike out a few times on his way to make that catch.
You suck, Glaus.
Prado’s getting tired of resisting the urge to suck.
Now on THAT, I will agree with you, Mac.
Since the Edit function is not showing up for me for some reason, I will add:
Can we start a Mondesi Watch on Glaus?
If Prado couldn’t start b/c of a hammy problem, why have him try to steal?
And now batting–the compensation pick for the crummy signing of Tom Glavine. Ick.
Well sh…..
JJ is pitching great. Everyone except The Prado is really playing poor baseball today.
ummmmm…… shit.
Oh, I hate this game. Francoeur to knock in the probable winning run, Acosta get the win? I hate this game.
Is this for real?
I have discovered the secret to Frenchy – he is doomed to destroy the Braves. Whether playing for them or against them.
KJ, Andruw, and now Jeffy. With Atrosta in line for the win.
The ghosts of scrubs past…
I sure am glad we went out and got that big bat via free agency.
I mean, just where would we be without Troy Glaus?
a winning record?
Well, at least he managed to avoid the double play. For Melky, that’s progress!
Well nuts.
same shit, different day
stay classy, braves journal because i’m about to lose my shit.
Maybe the gubmint can bail out the Braves? They are too important of a company to fail, right?
Hell, at least the tax money wouldn’t be pissed down the drain (unless Frank Wren was in charge of spending it).
F– you Melky
Where the hell is Melky on that?
Its like I’m watching a Little League game.
It was only with great willpower that the new tagline isn’t “Fuck you, Melky.”
Hey, look at that! Yunel can catch a ball that’s not thrown directly at his chest. Go figure!
so, is anyone hating melky as much as francoeur yet?
At the moment, I’m hating this entire team, except Prado and J-Hey. And maybe a couple of the pitchers.
With Glaus, Lowe, Reyes, and Escobar, we can’t concentrate enough hate on any one of them to match the loathing we directed toward Francoeur.
I don’t hate McCann either.
I hate Cabrera far more than I hated Francoeur. It’s reached the stage where saying “Melky sucks” is an insult to people who suck.
I can’t say that anyone can reach Francoeurian proportions within 1 month.
with the exception of lowe, the pitching staff has been good.
so we got that going for us, which is nice.
I wouldn’t have thought it possible, but then I’ve never seen a guy trotted out there for game after game despite the complete lack of any discernable baseball skills.
why is reyes wearing those glasses on his hat?
Hey, last place!
You’re forgetting the hamsters we used as backup catchers before Ross, the return of Terry Pendleton, and Raul Mondesi, just for starters.
please be the low point of the season. i cant take this for a full year.
Those guys were old (and at least the catchers could, you know, catch the ball). This is supposed to be Melky’s prime!
Recap/venting is up.