It’s true.
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It’s true.
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dob on schafer
•Jordan Schafer’s rehab (wrist surgery) moves from Class A Rome to Double-A Mississippi today. Center fielder progressing steadily.
Tonight’s lineup: Prado, 4; Heyward, 9; Chipper, 5; McCann, 2; Glaus, 3; Hinske, 7; Infante, 6; McLouth, 8, Hudson 1.
Wow, that is a nearly perfect lineup today (I would flip Chipper and Heyward).
Edit: Great about Schafer, I’m going to the game tonight in Chattanooga.
Heyward in the 2 spot before Chipper, interesting.
Guess we gotta make sure Heyward gets as many PAs as possible. I think we’re very done with hitting him 7th.
2—I’d flip Infante and McLouth, too. But, that is quite an exciting lineup. Who knew Bobby had it in him?
Well now, looks like I am going out to Lookouts game tonight. Mike Minor on the bump for the M-Braves and schafer in CF.
The lineup is R,L,S,L,R,L,R,L,P. That makes the other manager choose who he wants to go after in later inning situation, then Bobby can counter.
Gotta hand it to BC, he is at least trying.
Dusty,
I thought about going, but not going to make it. Did you see in the Times where Glavine was there last night? Wonder if he will take in tonight’s game
2,
Very interested to hear how he looks. I was going to see him last night but the game got rained out.
Wow! What a lineup. Good job Bobby Cox! This actually gives me some hope.
I would be interested to see what everyone’s preference would be – but when Jair gets back from the DL, this is what I’d like to see:
SP –
Hanson
Hudson
Jurrjens
Medlen
Venters
RP –
Kawakami
Lowe
Moylan
EOF
Dunn
Saito
Wagner
It makes for the most expensive bullpen you’d ever see, but I’d much rather be winning games than worry about where my money is being spent. Kawakami did a great job in the pen last year and I think Lowe might benefit from the move back (I know the Braves would benefit from not having him pitch 5-6 innings at a time).
Love the lineup, but would like to see Heyward in a spot to better drive in runs (3rd or 4th would be great – the kid is hitting over .500 with RISP).
Smitty
I really think he may be there tonight. Would think they’d want him to take a look at Minor. Pumped about Schafer being here.
Also, I’m thinking of taking a long lunch to go see the game tomorrow at 11:15AM but haven’t been able to find anyone to come with me. Interested? I’ll probably go anyway, but I’d rather find a fellow Braves fan to with.
9—I’d settle down a bit on Venters. If it were up to me, Lowe would be in the ‘pen and KK would stay in the rotation.
If it were up to me, I’d let Lowe and Kawakami tag-team — each of them gets 3-4 innings or so, and as soon as either of them looks like they’re about to have an Episode, bring in Moylan to minimize the damage and let the other one start the next inning.
Also… I never thought I could miss Heyward as much as I have, or that our lineup would look that much better with him hitting up in the lineup. But I learned better. When he’s out of the lineup we hit like the Pirates without Andrew McCutchen.
13—Yeah, maybe. I wanna see what KK’s new delivery does, first.
More good news as Braun is out of tonight’s lineup.
@12 – I’m really not that high on Venters. I just have zero confidence in Kawakami and Lowe right now. Kawakami can be good, but he is still only good to go about 5 innnings now. It’s still early and he can improve, so I don’t necessarily want to give up on him – but I would like to see what Venters could do. But I do concede to your point – that could be a bad experiment.
Also, I selfishly would like to see what Dunn could do in the pen.
great lineup
Stu, KK’s new delivery??
Peep Peter’s post pertaining to it. Gotta like that higher release point.
csg, They were talking about it in the last game KK pitched. He used to bring his hands up above his head kind of like Hideo Nomo (tho less extreme). Now he just brings his hands to his waist and delivers from there. I don’t really like the new delivery, but what do I know?
I posted this on the last thread, but still can’t believe it. They are moving the TOR/PHI series to PHI thus giving the Phils 84 home games and 78 road games. If the pennant comes down to a couple of games (unlikely, I know) this would really matter. Kind of an outrage that MLB would allow this.
@21, it does suck that the games are in Philly, but the Blue Jays will bat last and the games will use the DH. I know its not the same, but its something…
Ive always thought his delivery was fine. The only thing he struggles with is his curveball, it stays up and gets hammered
Love today’s lineup Bobby. The best part is sitting Diaz and Melky in favor of Hinske. Finally!!!
and of course having Heyward back makes a huge difference.
Love the lineup today.
its nice not having 3 of’rs in the lineup with a sub .200BA also
23—Higher release point ought to help the curve.
Keep this lineup for a couple of weeks, and you know, see what happens. When Escobar comes back, he goes in Infante’s spot. I really wouldn’t even be opposed to having Infante in LF against lefties once Escobar comes back.
Chipper takes back what he said about retiring before his contract is up:
http://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2010/05/chipper-puts-retirement-talk-to-rest.html
@21, I’m excited about the Nationals’ start as well, but I’m not sure if they can hang with the Phillies all summer. Livan is Livan, after all, though Strasburg is coming.
I wouldn’t call it an outrage in any case. A minor annoyance? A non-issue? A footnote?
(It’s an outrage that people are allowed to ride bikes to work and thus threaten my vehicle with causing a homicide every other morning. See.)
@31 – I’m not sure how long they can hold on at the current pace. Their ExWL is 14-18 where ours is 15-17. They are playing a bit over their heads right now; however, I do like to see that they are playing better and it would be nice if they could carry it throughout the entire season (though still finishing beneath the Braves, of course).
…and what’s up with the Padres?
@22 – If they gave the Jays the home part of the gate, the home clubhouse, and all of the concession revenues, I’d agree with you.
@31, it really is an outrage. This didn’t just “come up” The conference has been scheduled for some time, and MLB didn’t do anything about it until it was far too late. People have purchased tix for that game already, it was the only PHI series in TOR, and it was to be the return of Halladay. It was a pretty big deal, and it is costing the Jays money as well as advantage against a tough opponent. And why should PHI get three extra home games? Play ’em in Montreal or Buffalo or anywhere but Philadelphia. I call lazy bullshit on this.
Gammons was on the radio up in NYC and was saying that the clubhouse is divided.
Escobar seems to be the one who is disliked.
35—The part about Escobar would be unsurprising, but I seriously doubt that Gammons has any sort of reliable connection to the Braves clubhouse.
Well, Eric Hinske, Billy Wagner, and Takashi Saito are former Red Sox…
Okay, I’m kidding.
Haha Peter Gammons is a joke.
Heyward prospect video from 15 to 17.
At 15 he looked like a kid. At 16 he looks like a grown ass man.
didn’t include my link!
http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/blog/big_league_stew/post/ModernTube-Watch-Jason-Heyward-grow-up-before-y?urn=mlb,240276
heyward will be on E|60 tonight. 7pm on espn
Morning recap again. I’m getting better.
I’m going to the Preakness Stakes on Saturday. One of the horses is named “Paddy O’Prado”. That sounds like a horse I can bet on.
I was listening to the WFAN interview. Actually, Gammons didn’t bring it up.
He just briefly responded to a question from the host, Mike Francesa, who asked about potential discord in the Atlanta clubhouse. Francesa was recalling something that SI’s Jon Heyman mentioned to him on 2 occasions when Heyman was doing his regular spot on the station.
Gammons just alluded to Escobar’s bonehead moments, the ones we all know about.
FWIW, in his pre-season rundown of MLB teams, Heyman said he was down on the Braves (i.e. – didn’t think they were a “sheik pick.”) Why? Too many things have to go right.
The other part of his reason? He spent one day with them in spring training & wasn’t impressed with the chemistry. He thinks it’s weird that the Braves vets & rookies have separate clubhouses in ST.
So that’s Heyman’s Atlanta mantra. He was certainly right about the first part.
Chipper a late scratch. Heyward now batting 3rd with Prado 2nd and Nate 1st.
Here we go again with Chipper
Heyward’s E60 segment is on now. “They want to move on beyond that #7 of Michael Vick.” Focusing on Opening Day.
Now they’re telling the story of Andy Wilmot (sp?). Why Heyward wears #22.
At the Lookouts game and Glavine is here. Saw him walk in from the OF with the coaches. My wife got Dee Gordon’s autograph. Schafer was signing in the other side of the diamond but we couldn’t get there. And Schafer just struck out.
Thanks Ububba, i did have a 20 month old singing in the back seat so I was a little distracted.
Schafer just k’d again.
Sounds like Schafer’s ready for Atlanta.
Chip is making my ears bleed already.
I’m beginning to think that Nate McLouth might not be a great leadoff hitter.
No-hitter through one! 😀
chipper ruined the best lineup of the year…
But McLouth, Melky and/or Diaz have ruined EVERY lineup of the year..
Remind me. How did this team ever score 16 runs in one game?
Edit: Nice job, Hinske. You’re making a case for playing time instead of the Three Sub-Mendoza Amigos.
It appears to me that Brooks Conrad just swings through the middle of the zone with hopes that the pitcher has thrown the ball there..
Now that’s funny stuff.
Minor has not allowed a hit through four in Chattanooga, one walk.
Jordan and Glavine signed our ball we got from Roger McDowell in NYC.
Schafer has not looked good against the LH SP of Chattanooga. Minor looks good. 91 to 94 on the gun with his FB.79 to 83 with his off speed. Command is pretty good.
Conrad is killing me. I want him to succeed so badly … but he sucks. I’d rather have Melky (!) in left and Hinske at third. Or at least Hicks instead of Conrad, for defense. That play, for example, he’d have made.
Okay, now Tim Hudson’s just bouncing them up there, after two groundball singles. Is this the beginning of an Episode?
Come on, Tim! It’s Corey freaking Hart!
anyone know anything about this guy? he just hit his 6th hr of the year for myrtle beach. he’s from the mariners organization.
I sure hope Alcides Escobar’s nickname is “Nuts”.
After the walk, Hudson had that look you get when you take a girl home drunk and then wake up the next morning and realize she’s not nearly as attractive as the booze led you to believe.
At least he got Weeks to ground out and kept things from getting coyote ugly.
#67
They’re called “beer goggles,” my friend.
seriously, what happened to nate mclouth?
ryan c, what guy?
Nate cant hit fastballs and doesnt try throwing people out at the plate…he’s borderline Melky hatred
Maybe he’s right handed?
@64 Assuming you are talking about Avila, he is 23 (a bit old for the league, but not outrageously so) and posted a nifty .333/.368/.582/950 line at A ball last year for Seattle. Probably a high offense league though, so huge grains of salt. Lost 2008 to an ACL apparently. International signee, so not a lot of data out there about him. If he can replicate this at AA, I’ll start paying more attention.
70- The only thing he has going in his favor is that it looks like we really didn’t give up anything worth missing to get him.
Though when that’s the best you can say about a player, it’s probably not a good thing
over 3 years time, nate mclouth had 59 hrs 202 rbi 64 sb and 10 cs and an .820 ops…
how does it get this bad?
Great. McLouth misplays a ball into a double, then Hudson gets squeezed on a couple pitches and walks Fielder, then a wild pitch, then they intentionally walk McGehee… why am I not confident we’ll get out of this one?
Well dog my cats. Nice pick, Troy!
GLAUSSSS!
hell of a stop by glaus!!!
what a play by troy…if he held the bag.
I’m…starting to like this Troy Glaus fellow.
braves somehow got out of two messes there…..time to get a lead again
I love Heyward
Mike Minor is nasty in Nooga tonight.
This ump is calling a really tight and kinda screwy strike zone on the corners. Some of the balls on the edge are strikes, some are balls.
pitching around hinske…i dont blame him.
Nice one, Omar!
atta boy Omar, cmon Brooks……Id rather see Hicks now
Nice hitting, Omar!
attaboy infante! it’s good infante got a hit b/c our next 2 hitters are pitchers.
Brooks Conrad is starting to make me long for the days of Tony Pena, Jr.
Ridiculous play by Gerut. The timing for a full layout on a bounce is stupid
Brooks Conrad actually beat someone out for this job in March?
well Matty and Melky better get used to sitting I think….when Yunel comes back, Im about ready to put Omar in CF
Prado
Chipper
Heyward
Glaus
Mac
Yunel
Hinske
Omar
is solid….maybe not the best defensive group
Damn, that’s another great pick by Troy Glaus.
Glaus is actually good with the glove there at 1B, another great play
92- I’d switch Prado and Yunel, but I’m on board otherwise. Smelky and Nate haven’t been anything special defensively in CF….though I’m not sure how terrible Infante would be.
It’d be nice if Schafer could get his shit together
Damn Huddy!
Hudson helps his cause.
McLouth bunting the pitcher over.
how did Hudson’s not go out?
are we going to waste a leadoff double?
Not an unbelievable bunt call there. Defensible, anyway.
no, i’m sorry, that’s not defensible. that’s awful.
it is inconsistent to have mclouth hitting leadoff, and also thinking that bunting with a runner on 2nd and noone out is at all reasonable.
man, that kid is good. i’d like to buy him a beer…of the root variety.
Oh look, another walk. Heyward needs to be more aggressive.
Fielder looks like an ant compared to Heyward ( a fat ant though)
#103 – I hope youre being sarcastic
brian is swinging at some awful pitches.
Heyward should hit 3rd the rest of the year….
He is going to hit 3rd next year anyway, why not start now?
“Heyward makes Prince look like a pauper.”
Chip is just awful.
Gametracker had that as right down the middle. No?
Sure wouldn’t have minded Edmonds being our platoon/4th OF over Melky.
Minor looked damn good tonight. 6ip, 1h, 3bb, 8k. Was even getting squeezed a bit it seemed from where we sat. Maybe the FO does know what they’re doing, though I wasn’t as down on the pick as some.
tim doing his best 2005 jorge sosa impression.
Huddy has no idea where the ball is going. Just hope he doesn’t hang one.
i feel like they asked the same trivia question last yr during a game against milwaukee
TROY! He’s slowly making a believer out of me.
Glaus has really found his gear.
@110, I still would have taken Matzek.
i seriously question chip caray’s baseball knowledge…
question of the night:
robin yount is 1 of 3 players to lead a franchise in 1b, 2b, 3b, and homeruns. who are the other 2?
chip’s guess: ty cobb
now i’m not the smartest baseball man, but even i knew that ty cobb wasnt a power hitter. he has 117 homeruns for his career and 111 with detroit.
chip doesnt know baseball.
my guess: henry aaron willie mays
Cobb was quite the power hitter for his era, but yes, a deadball era guy is not going to be a franchise leader in HR.
Career 512 slg, 8 times led the league
I’ll go with Mays and Musial.
Perhaps that Bonds guy?
i think this is the first time saying this, but overall it’s been a hell of a night for the defense.
But I think Brock is gonna mess me up.
im pretty sure todd helton is one of them…
bonds had too many hrs with pirates. willie’s came all with the giants.
aaron with the braves:
3600hits 6002b 963b 733hr
For some reason I’m thinking Harmon Killebrew for Washington.
Washington yakking up 5 runs in the 8th to give the Mets the lead – still batting.
I really appreciate mlb.tv for cutting the feed almost as soon as the last out is made. It usually spares me a cringe inducing segue from Chip.
did they give the answer? todd helton only has 36 career triples. surely someone has him beat on triples.
so do we ever see Melky or Diaz again?
Eric! And way to hustle, Brian, scoring from first on a double. Not something we often see.
Hinske!
No trivia answer yet.
“Hinske we trust”? Jesus, Chip….
hinske deserves atleast a platoon.
BAbe Ruth?
I’ll say it again: I love playing the NL Central! Even Huddy’s wildness hasn’t hurt us thus far.
I’ll go Hank Aaron and Ted Williams
#134 – compared with what Diaz is doing against LH and what Melky is doing against both sides, Id say just play him
135,
Jeter is the Yankees all-time hits leader.
im going Hank and Bonds
Right, forgot about that.
george brett and stan musial
6 IP, 6 H, 6 BB, 1 R
How is that possible?
George Brett and Stan Musial. I would have thought Willie Wilson had the 3B record for KC….nope, 137 to 133
Mays leads the Giants in 1B, 2B, & HR, but was 2nd in 3B to one Mike Tiernan.
Rabbit Maranville led the Braves in 3B, otherwise it’s Aaron.
wait a second…anyone got DVR??
watch Fielder run through 1B. I promise he kind of changes directions towards Oflaherty and throws up an elbow. Didnt touch him though, but see if Im wrong
How is that possible?
The Braves seem to accomplish it quite regularly.
Moylan is getting awfully fond of the Grybos
nope, some noticed it on the ajc blog also
@146:
Well, yeah, but he wasn’t pitching against the Braves.
145…I saw the same thing
this has to be Moylan’s last batter right? Right?
aaron has all categories except 3b:
rabbit maranville-103 aaron-96
willie mays also leads his franchise in everything except 3b:
mike tiernan-162 willie- 139
ted williams is 2nd in doubles, singles, 1st in hr, and way down in 3b
atta boy Prado geez
Kagen rules.
Braves rockin it for night #2
did that really just happen?
weird night…
i badmouth brooks conrad, he comes alive with 2 hits including a homerun.
Brian J badmouths jordan schafer after going 0 for 3 with 2 ks and he responds with 2 hits including a double.
BASH AWAY! IT WORKS!
@155
I assume you’re asking about the Brooks Conrad HR and not the Melky strikeout looking?
indeed
@58
It happened.
nate keeps swinging at balls..but not all of them.
i think chip caray missed his calling when he didnt get the job as narrator for the movie 300.
I’ve been listening to the Brewers announcers who were joined by Bruce Froeming (sp). He is so enjoyable to listen to as he told many stories from his many years around the game!
Bruce Froeming was a royal pain in the ass that always wanted to be bigger than the game itself.
Holding onto this one and then winning tomorrow would result in a 5-4 roadtrip. Not too bad considering …
edit–Wagner in the 9th?
joel and tiger…i agree with you both. he was a pain in the ass, but he was also very enjoyable to listen to.
This seems like the longest game ever.
spike, evidently you haven’t watched much Braves baseball these last 3 or 4 years
wtf was that
Frank,
Lowe vs Gallardo tomorrow…I wouldn’t get too excited
EDIT: Chip and Joe’s “Baseball Gods” preaching is starting to creep me out.
Haha, Melky needs two people to miss a catch in order to get on base.
What I found to be an interesting article/interview with Eric Gregg…obviously dated a bit:
http://citypaper.net/articles/082699/feat.cov1.shtml
Aren’t games like this the reason our Pythag record is always screwed up?
I really hope Hinske stays in the lineup tomorrow.
Agree with #173…Hinske needs to play
Venters needs to give Fielder something about two feet inside
Two wins? 19 runs? I remain happily confused.
Tell you what, though—when Glaus connects, boy, he really crushes it. If he could ever stay hot for awhile…
Venters must be the invisible prospect–he shows up on virtually none of the Braves top prospect lists.
how did they figure that Glaus’ shot was only 380? no way thats right
We’re treating the Brewers like the Brewers treated the Pirates.
I ain’t sayin, but I’m sayin, it’s getting starling the pace that Heyward is on in his age 20 season vs Ted Williams age 20 season in 1939. Heyward is almost exactly the same is every category, but average. Walks, OBP, SLG and OPS (and RBI) are almost a carbon copy. Just crazy when you look at the numbers.
He’s still got a long way to go—remember that K-filled slump during the 9-game bender?
But yeah, it may just get to a point when they don’t really pitch to him at all. I mean, if the guys hitting behind him aren’t stepping it up, I’d never let him beat me.
Right now, he’s way scarier than all those guys.
ububba, it’s certainly a fair point. Before the season, I said something along the lines of .260-20-80 would be a monster season for Heyward, and that realistically is what I expected. To me, Griffey and Upton have had the best 20 year old seasons in recent memory, and at the very least Heyward is primed to equal those, which to me is crazy enough.
Whatever happens this season, I just hope (and I think at least amongst here anyway, will happen) that Braves fans appreciate what is happening with Heyward as becoming something historically virtually unparalled.
With the caveat of small sample size and all that, Ted Williams age 20 season was .327/.436/.609/1.045 with 31 homers and 145 RBI. Heyward is on pace, and I stress on pace, for .300/.423/.611/1.035 with 44 and 147.
Just plain crazy how similar those numbers are thusfar.
Yeah, but he didn’t hit a home run last night. He sucks.
(I think A-Rod also had an amazing age 20 season, but he and Griffey did it when hitting was skyrocketing.)
Recap.