This is going to be ugly.
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This is going to be ugly.
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Tonight’s lineup: Infante 6 – Prado 4 – Jones 5 – Glaus 3 – Diaz 7 – Ross 2 – Cabrera 9- McLouth 8 – Lowe 1
Lets set the Over/Under for ATL runs at 2.5 and give me the under.
Bmac and Ross in a straight platoon now?
BMAC holds a line of .360/.429/.560 vs Moyer, 1-3 on the season
Ross is 0-2
From the previous, I was just thinking out loud. A cursory review of the Dodgers roster shows only untouchables and unwantables at anything close to the ML level. Although they do seem to undervalue Loney, and not like him much, I see he has a hot start going this year. I sort of had Loney for Medlen in my head as a f’rinstance.
I see Medlen as a starter later this year.
@5- I agree.
I imagine some kind of plan where, once Kawakami shows some usefulness, he’s traded, and a slot opened for Medlen. I imagine at that point, Kimbrell could take Medlen’s innings, but more likely I think the club would hope to give Medlen’s job to Venters, and that Mike Dunn will deserve a call up as second-loogy.
Dusty, where did you see that lineup posted? AJC doesnt have it up, neither does twitter
dusty, i think that’s last night’s lineup. no way bmac sits 2 in a row, even if saturday is a day game, unless… well bobby cox is our manager so nevermind.
#8 – nope, DOB just put it up and said that Bobby is sitting McCann. Surprising with his numbers against Moyer. Same lineup that nearly got no hit last night and couldnt score runners from 3rd with one out
will this year be the sequel to the hit movie “Baby Braves” after the veterans get hurt/traded. i can see it now:
jurrjens- tj surgery…replaced by medlen
kawakami- sucking…traded and replaced by parr
glaus- sucking…released and replaced by freeman
melky- sucking…traded and replaced by clevlen
mclouth sucking…traded and replaced by schafer
diaz- sucking…traded and replaced by matt young
escobar-injured…replaced by infante
hicks takes infante’s place
kimbrel takes medlen’s place
venters stays put
mike dunn gets called up and sticks (not sure how, but it will happen).
11 rookies contribute: heyward, schafer, parr, freeman, dunn, venters, conrad?, young, kimbrel, hicks, clevlen
and just like all sequels except for T2, it will be much worse than the previous and we finish dead last…but with potential to finish slightly better the next year.
and the lineup tonight is stupid…
At this point, we should do the Billy Martin approach to the lineup: Pick it out of a hat.
Eyes are giving McCann fits again. Back to glasses, per Bowman and DOB.
Moscow Braves has an interesting ring. Talk about long road trips. Those early season games would be murder.
The McCann eye thing scares the crap out of me.
no way he can have a third surgery. How does this problem just now start showing up? It was fine when he was raking in ST. Someone posted here the other night that he didnt think McCann was seeing the ball correctly. Thats evident with some of the pitches he’s been hacking at. Hopefully, the glasses thing works again
How can you botch the surgery of an All-Star? Dumbasses.
Hey, ububba – some of my friends and I are putting together a band. Can we use “The Frothing Knee-Jerkers” for a name?
LASIK does not undo chronic, degenerative processes in the eye. It appears that McCann has such a process and the LASIK procedure will temporarily give the impression of renewed vision. Unfortunately, systemic causes are not being addressed (only an ophthalmologist could surmise as to what) with LASIK and so we’re on this rollercoaster of good vision and then bad vision.
From my study of it, it’s similar to giving blood pressure medicine to an obese patient without telling him he should drop a hundred pounds to eventually become medicine-free. LASIK addresses symptoms in many cases, not causes.
Good god, sdp, when I see a post like this from you it gives me hope you’ve either stopped drinking or joined a monastery.
well Freeman gets to face Strasburg tonight…its sad but Im more interested in that game than the Phils/Braves. I just have no hope with Lowe facing that lineup and all 3 of our OF’rs hitting under .200
did Schafer get promoted to AAA already? I know he didnt play in Rome’s game last night and they said he would only be there for a couple of games anyways.
#15
B-Mac did K 3 times the other night, including a real awful AB vs the Nats LOOGY. Worst strike-3 swing you’ll ever see.
#16
Sure, but only if I get an agent fee when the paying gigs come pouring in. I’m running to the copyright office right now.
You’re going to need good eyes to leer and ogle at skirts and dames.
Extremely concerned about McCann.
I unfortunately saw this coming last year. If his first LASIK was followed by a kerataconus (it still hasn’t been in anything official, but if it walks like a duck, etc.) then a second surgery was a sub optimal thing to try.
The cornea weakens along the surgical incisions and doesn’t hold its “new” shape (without the “new” shape you have the “old” bad vision). The more times you try, the worse the results. They are designing and testing (on people with essentially 0 vision now) a “frame” of clear material like an umbrella frame to put under the cornea and attach it to the cornea to “hold it in place”.
McCann better go to the best eye program in the country asap. At one time the leading program was at LSU. They basically invented use of the excimer laser in surgery.
It did look like McCann was squinting an awful lot the other night.
Given this year’s team I don’t put much stock in previous stats against pitchers. I think Olson had about a 6 ERA against the Braves until last night.
Re-watching the CBS broadcast of Game 7 of the ’92 NLCS — Tim McCarver has always been a jackass, hasn’t he?
The one man we can all agree is the most smug sounding sportscaster ever devised by our maker
I heard he met Bob Gibson once??
@25: Yes. Yes he has.
The McCann eye thing is awful. I remember speculation during spring that night games might be a concern. He hit really well in the day during spring training, but it’s a different thing to play under the glare of night games. This is depressing.
Will McCann be worse off with glasses after a second surgery (compared to last year)? Sounds like the second surgery could have done more harm than good.
Impressive post, sdp.
More from DOB: http://blogs.ajc.com/atlanta-braves-blog/2010/05/07/how-long-can-braves-hitting-woes-continue/comment-page-4/
For those who didn’t see my Twitter posts, McCann is having more trouble with his vision. This time it’s just the right eye, the one they didn’t do more Lasik on after last season.
They only did the second Lasik (he had first one on both eyes two years earlier) on the left eye this time, because right eye wasn’t very bad and they thought it might correct itself. Didn’t want to do it if they didn’t have to.
But he said he’s had problems since start of season, actually even during spring, though not many night games there and he thought better lights of major league park might alleviate it.
Anyway, he’s seen his eye doc several times in past month, though he didn’t mention it to reporters and not even to Bobby Cox or the team. Cox said he didn’t know anything till yesterday.
McCann said, “It’s beyond frustrating.”
This is a nightmare for him, and he didn’t want to say anything, I’m guessing, out of denial and hoping it would go away, but also because he didn’t want to be seen as using it as an excuse for his hitting so far, or lack of hitting.
He’s getting glasses shipped here tomorrow, had to get new prescription because of the correction do left eye. Couldn’t just play in the ones he had last year. Doesn’t know if he’ll get more Lasik done on right eye after season or what. He’s tried everything this year (again) including one contact, drops, etc.
Eerily, tomorrow’s the one-year anniversary of the first day he played in glasses, also in a game at Philly. Too weird.
Gotta go get ’em, David Ross.
Crap.
Well. A relief that it isn’t a third surgery for the same eye, right?
And also good to have a reason and a chance to solve it.
He did just fine with the glasses last year. Me, I wouldn’t want anyone messing with my eyes if I were his age.
I’m driving from northwest Ohio to see two games in Milwaukee next week. Anyone have any downtown bars they could recommend?
I’m really just going to see Heyward play. Any indication he’ll be back by the beginning of the week?
On a completely unrelated note, and I usually don’t shamelessly plug, but the album “High Violet” by the National is unbelievable.
Really enjoyed their last album. Haven’t gotten to this one, but I will.
Another unhappy LASIK patient:
http://www.kathygriffin.net/lasik.php
Maddux was the first person I remember growing up getting LASIK. I miss those glasses he used to wear. In no way were those cool.
Ross gets to keep earning that contract.
Once in the mid-’90s, I DJed a Halloween party & I went “as Greg Maddux”—complete with the glasses.
Anyone else see this?
I can’t stand Olsen, so I don’t really care, but such vitriol publicly voiced is a little surprising
Seriously, if you have a copy of the game, listen to McCarver’s commentary immediately following Gant’s bases-loaded sac fly in the ninth and tell me it isn’t the most pompous thing you’ve ever heard. What a ‘bag.
How do you know the Braves had money in the budget for Abreu, or that he wanted to play in Atlanta?
Signing Glavine was a giant waste of cash and draft pick, for sure.
…
Still, I think the point is moot.
Way late on this but this response is just too much fun to let pass.
Let’s start with Abreu really had no choice. He hadn’t gotten a nibble all winter and wasn’t in position to dictate terms. The financial constraint argument is an interesting one – especially in such close proximity to a discussion of the Glavine cash flush. Abreu’s contact was one year at a really reasonable number – if a GM of a well budgeted team can’t find that money for a starting outfielder when there is clearly an big need, he’s got his priorities screwed up.
The Glavine thing is hilarious. Sure he gave away a first round pick to a rival and wasted a bunch of money but – hey – it’s all moot. Yeah, ok.
The criticism about that all being two years ago is valid I guess. All he did this past off season was give away an ace starter and a fine closer and get back a prospect, a 5th righty for the pen, and Melky. This was all necessary because we’ve got three more years of Derek Lowe to pay for.
I see no vitriol there.
All of the comments were veiled accusations pointed at Bill Miller. I think that’s pretty obvious. The article linked is just some clown trying to create news.
Also,
FIRE WREN! FIRE WREN!
Fire Bobby, Fire TP, Fire Minaya!
I mean, err, Wren!
And Fire Joe Torre!
Just for the record, I’m not a ‘fire Wren’ guy. Partly because it will never happen so it’s not worth wishing for. I view him as somewhere just below the midpoint of all GMs in terms of competency. There’s no way to know if the next guy would be better or worse.
Me, I wouldn’t want anyone messing with my eyes if I were his age.
Bingo. I have pretty terrible vision without my contacts and am constantly told by my doctor what a great candidate for LASIC I am. No freaking way.
Re-watching the CBS broadcast of Game 7 of the ‘92 NLCS — Tim McCarver has always been a jackass, hasn’t he?
Oh yeah. I keep that on my DVR permanently. It makes for a nice little pickmeup. Sean McDonough absolutely crushes the final call somewhat making up for McCarver.
Chip is, unbelievably, even more annoying than usual. Why, with this voice, can they not just give Braves fans the night off?
We really, really suck. And it sounds like Bad Henry County is headed to the DL. Think I’m done for the evening, folks.
What did McCarver say that was so douchey after the Gant sac fly? I don’t have a copy of that game.
I got LASEK, which is a bit more invasive and significantly more painful, about seven years ago, basically the instant the doc said my eyes were stable enough for it. Haven’t regretted it for a second.
3 pitch inning for Moyer. really?
Did I just see a big league team hit in to a three-pitch inning?
Edit: Nevermind, I know.
Ok, I’m starting to warm up to the Fire TP campaign.
Are they really afraid that if Moyer gets ahead he’ll just slam the door on them?
“But in dog years, that was like 47 pitches, because Moyer is 47 years old!”
WTF Chip.
If I recall correctly, he said, “Something bad happened for the Braves right there.”
I’ve probably watched that bottom of the 9th, like, 947 times.
If we get shutout by Jamie Moyer, I’m going back to tequila.
So..
I live in Fort Myers, Florida. The Red Sox have Spring Training here, the Twins likewise. The Red Sox have a developmental field here, too. I guess you’d call it Extended Spring Training, but they use it before Spring, too.
Anyway. Derek Lowe has lived in Fort Myers in the off seasons since he was a Red Sox. And I used to catch him in the winter time pitching in the batting cages at the Red Sox park.
Well, after leaving the Red Sox, he started throwing in the winter time at the Twins park. The Twins spring training facility was built as part of a huge county-funded sports complex, and I played softball and baseball in leagues that play there. So I was there alot, and I’d always walk over to see if he was pitching in the batting cages. He was there ALOT. I talked to him six or seven times. I’m not kidding with you, Derek Lowe showed me how he holds his sinker, and I threw it to the guy he had there catching him. I’m not kidding.
I guess what I’m getting at is. I like Derek Lowe. I was SERIOUSLY psyched when the Braves got Derek Lowe. I feel REALLY bad for him. I root as hard as I can for him, and I really hope he gets it figured out.
He’s the single nicest big leaguer you could ever hope to meet. And he works his ass off in the off-seasons.
I haven’t seen him in about a year and a half, because I don’t play in any of those leagues any more. So I don’t know what he does LATELY in off seasons. But anyway.
Chip says that Moyer has a shot at the HOF. “Strike 3” to Lowe was a foot inside. I’m seriously done now.
#56
Marty Perez gave me a ball once.
Moyer’s chance at the HoF is about the same as Julio Franco’s- he might make it if he can keep up this level of play until he’s 50. Julio couldn’t do it, and neither can Moyer unless he faces this lineup every start.
55 — Nah, Glaus got a hit.
Moyer needs to win 300 games to have a chance. He’s at 261 at age 47.
@19–Schafer is in the Rome lineup tonight–a BB on his first plate appearance. Supposedly he’s in Rome throught his homestand (which ends Monday I think).
edit–Freeman not in the lineup against Strasburg tonight. This won’t surprise anyone–Strasburg has a no-hitter through 3 innings.
Lowe sucks.
knew that was coming
Any reason to believe that isn’t the game?
lowe blowes
No, I’m going to say that’s probably the ball game.
no way Moyer makes the HOF
Prado is now 8-41 in his last 10 games. Full triple slash: 195/ 214/ 238 (one walk, 2 doubles).
Fire Pendleton.
How can people call Javier Vazquez an ace and then go on to think they can seriously talk about how good or bad someone is? Look at what he’s doing now. He’s got something like a 9+ ERA. Does that really seem like an “ace”? And it’s not like this is just some fluke. If you go back over his career, his numbers are very similar to Derek Lowe’s.
If anything, Wren should be commended on getting such a great prospect for Vazquez. Aside from 2009, nothing about Vazquez’s career shouts “ace.” Wren made a smart move in selling high on him when it became obvious nobody was going to take Lowe. If nothing else, we added yet another arm to our farm that is loaded with arms almost to a fault (because if Wren can be faulted for anything, it should be in his unwillingness to let go of any of our near limitless pitching talent in exchange for the hitting talent we so obviously and desperately need).
And to top it all off, he was what – 33 years old at the end of 2009? It’s not like he was entering his prime and was bound to improve.
Seconded
The Braves are so bad I can smell them all the way from Philadelphia.
It just isn’t fair that they make us play against major league teams.
Well, at least we’re eliminating the chances of Bobby changing his mind.
😀
no way Werth plays in Philly next year
Watch him sign/disappear with some team like Seattle next year
LOL Diaz
Lowe has a 5.73 ERA now.
Pink slip is on the way, TP. FO is totally irresponsible if this continues and he keeps his job.
Make that 6.21.
It’s hard to win when you can’t hit or pitch.
@80
thank you for that. I laughed so hard
Maybe if Medlen pitches well as a starter, the Braves will leave him there and put Lowe in the ‘pen when Jurrjens returns.
Betting that the Phillies have more hits at this point in the game than the Braves will rack up all series.
Chip Caray is the Derek Lowe of announcers (and not the pre-Braves Derek Lowe).
Melky Cabrera is indescribably bad.
Chip has a hard-on for Moyer.
“The Braves are so bad I can smell them all the way from Philadelphia.”
Mac, I live in the Philadelphia area, so imagine what I’m going through–I might have to fumigate my house.
Seriously, this Braves team might turn out to be historically bad, challenging those teams from the late 80s. Sometimes when they fall, they fall fast and hard.
Brandon Hicks strikes out in his first career PA. Congratulations, Brandon, you’re now an official Atlanta Brave!
@86 Sad thing is, even if we do tank enough to get some prime draft picks, we probably can’t afford to sign anyone actually worth having.
A strikeout is an Atlanta hit.
I have small children, so I rarely turn on the game until the middle innings. Last night we’re getting no hit –AGAIN — and tonight it’s 7-0, so I can only imagine Lowe has been lit up and the offensive is once again anemic with friggin Jamie Moyer on the hill. I think i’ll watch Larry King or the Kardashians, something more lively.
Looking like this summer will be sell, baby, sell. Not that this stinking compost pile of a team has much of value beyond a handful of young players.
Do we trade Wagner at the deadline? I guess we SHOULD, but do we?
Hinske would be gone. McLouth, of course.. Moylan’s arb eligible.. same with Diaz and Melky.. If anyone’d take Saito, I’d move him. Same with Lowe and KK.
Of course, if those guys play well enough to be WANTED we won’t be sellers.
@87
Can’t knock a guy for just trying to fit in, can ya?
Strasburg: 1 hit, 1 BB, 6 K through 6
I wonder how Strasburg will do against a real AAA lineup in his next start- one that’s not starting Thurston, Canizares, Holt, or Sammons.
Swinging at the first pitch is really working out, isn’t it Terry? Be aggressive!
Swinging at the first pitch and then taking strike three. It’s the baseball version of passive aggressiveness, and it’s even more annoying than in real life.
In his Gameday picture Kimbrel doesn’t look old enough to drive.
Guys, we’re walking a ton. Can’t blame a perceived philosophy of impatience for our suckitude. We’re just not hitting, we’re not pitching, and we’re not catching the ball. We’re not doing anything.
Let’s play the alphabet game! We’ll work down the alphabet using adjectives that describe the Braves. I’ll start. The Braves are ATROCIOUS.
Brittle
BRUTAL
crappy
Condemnable
Dreadful, dismal, dismaying.
coddled
Contemptible.
extinct, extinguished
Kolbtastic
fallacious, faulty, finished
Failing, frustrating, feeble. (Keeping it printable)
FRIGGING TERRIBLE
ghastly
godawful
horrific
Hopeless, hapless, helpless.
Intolerable
Joking, right?
Klutzy
laughable
Melky
On the plus side the Red Sox are trying hard to have a bigger loss than us by the end of the evening.
Ouch. Melky
Two baserunners in eight innings against a 47-year-old man. What else needs to be said?
Neftali-less
noxious
odorous
Oafish, obliterated, odious, oops.
Noobs.
offensive
putrid
putrescent
piss-poor
risible
oops, skipped q
questionable
Querulous, quitters, quacks (McCann’s eye doctors).
indefensible
rotflmao
queasy?
QUIET, that works
rancid
rotten, rickety
Retreads
Sorry, sad, sessile, simpletons, suckiest bunch of sucks who ever sucked (h/t Matt Groening).
shaky, soft, substandard, sickly, SPENT
spineless
Sissies
Thread win.
Unbearable
Why do Chip and Joe keep saying that Lowe’s numbers from tonight are misleading? He sucked tonight, like he does pretty much every night, and the numbers seem to show that perfectly…
torporific
Terrible
Unathletic. I made that word up.
threadbare
undependable
unsound
Would Moyer be the oldest to pitch a shutout?
UNACCEPTABLE
Vastly overrated.
Unbelievably bad.
Vacuous, vain, vaporous, vomitous.
Woeful.
vile, villainous
worst
This has to be rock bottom.
Unbelievable.
So, let’s see….we’ve been no-hit, practically no-hit by a replacement-level pitcher, and we’re about to allow Jamie Freakin’ Moyer to become the oldest man in baseball history to throw a shutout.
Good times.
weak
worthless
wimpy wimpy wimpy
Helpless, hopeless.
BTW, ballgame’s over, to the extent that it wasn’t when Werth went deep.
With, of course, Zero runs scored.
Brief research seems to indicate that yes, Moyer would be the oldest to ever pitch a shutout. Ever. I’ll go ahead and root for that.
xactly what Jon K thought they were!
Zima
X-cruciating.
Xanax-inducing.
Guess I’ll need that shot of Patron.
Yuck.
Xeric.
Recap is up. It’s easy when you feel comfortable starting it in the sixth inning.
zima’s good. well, Zima is bad. But for our game. I mean. Zima. Good.
Yikes.
That made me feel better, actually.
Zoo-like.
Could somone recommend a Skin Vitamins Bath and Beauty supplier? Thanks xox