Nobody likes them, am I right?
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Nobody likes them, am I right?
Use code “Journal” for a 5% discount.
Live here in Reds country. Never liked them,never will.
However, have tuned into WLW radio a lot and this team is hot right now. Their defense has been off the chart.
But their best hitter, Votto, can’t hit a legitimate Loogy. They shelled “the ghost of Trevor Hoffman” yesterday, thought they were “bad”. Harang has lost it, a good match for KK, but Leake-Hanson tomorrow will be a gem worth watching!
I think Mac is referring to the two-game series concept, but I could be mistaken.
Oddly, I don’t mind the two-game series. (Short attention span, I guess.) Players probably hate it with the quick travel.
As for the Reds, they are my childhood team. The Big Red Machine was in full sway when I was a kid. Took me longer than most to finally admit Pete Rose is a schmuck.
I’ll argue with anybody that for about a five-year stretch Eric Davis was the best player in baseball. HoF talent. Deranged bat for an owner. A true shame.
Same here Hank…I was a huge BRM and Rose guy as a kid. It also took me awhile to separate the ballplayer from the man with Rose and Bench. I became a Braves fan in the early 80’s, basically when we got cable, and never looked back.
Has there been any word on whether the Marlins would be willing to move Ramirez if him and Gonzalez don’t reconcile? BC perhaps trading one petulant shortstop for another in a “change of scenery” situation would help both him and Escobar (not that Escobar has been an attitude problem this year, but he’s always a candidate for a meltdown).
The Marlins will fire Gonzlez before they trade their best player and one of the best players in baseball. Shortstops with .914 career OPS are kind of rare.
The Marlins will try to let this blow over. Ramirez will be back in the lineup but won’t apologize. Fredi, bless his heart will say something like he has made his point and its all good blah blah blah. I ain’t saying its right but its the way it’ll be, count it.
I used to hate the Reds, but we haven’t had a rivalry with them in a long time. It’s been since 1995 that we’ve either been in the same division, or else faced off in the playoffs. That’s tied with Colorado (beat them in the ’95 NLDS, then the Reds in the NLCS). The only NL team that’s been a non-rival longer is Pittsburgh (1992). And then there’s Milwaukee, with whom we’ve never had a rivalry (although they might claim one with us).
@4 But then we’d have to trade Ramirez again when Gonzales becomes our manager in ’11.
It’s really Ramirez who has no leverage here. He’s already signed long term, so if the Marlins decide to fine or bench him, what’s he going to do about it? They have to back up the manager in this case. This is NOT dogging it on a grounder to 1st or admiring a double. This is clearly giving up on a play in the middle of a close game that resulted in runs scoring. It damages brand equity, encourages similar play from the rest of the team, and loses the player endorsements as a result of the media running with the pouty superstar story. If the Marlins give in they are idiots, and risk both the rest of the team and the manager quitting on them while they are in contention.
Ramirez was to apologize today, according to ESPN Radio
DOB talking about the Hanley talk on his blog…
David O’Brien
May 19th, 2010
12:48 pm
My chart didn’t work very well but you get the drift. Hanley Ramirez would have led the Braves in every meaningful offensive category except walks and triples.
Do the Braves need offense? — keylargo
If you knew some of the things said about the Hanley Ramirez situation around the ballpark before yesterday’s game, you’d not even spend a moment wondering if the Braves might pursue him.
Well now ESPN is running a story that Ramirez will apologize- there goes that idea. I know that they’d never really consider moving him (at least not to us), but a man can dream.
I always hated the Chris Sabo Reds teams and could barely bring myself to root for them against the even more hateable Oakland A’s
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=5201535
Sounds like somebody’s agent told them the first rule of being in a hole is to stop digging.
what the hell happened to Pat Burrell?
.053/.174/.053/.227 OPS vs LH so far…thats only 19AB’s but good grief. HA, Id still drop Melky for him
“Pat the Bat”
also hated that Sabo team…but my buddy’s cousin is Chris Heisey, their top prospect, so I have a little soft spot for them now.
@14 – as bad as Burrell has been on the field, supposedly he’s worse in the clubhouse.
R. Delgado today 7 IP, 3 H, 1 BB, 5 K, 0 R and the win for MB.
Tough to root for the Marge Schott-era Reds.
For Big Red Machine fans, I highly recommend Joe Posnansky’s recent book, “The Machine.” You really get in-depth with some of the guys, and the Pete Rose material is terrific.
Marcus Thornton! A homegrown blue-chipper! Yippee! Congrats, Coach Fox!
Mac
I usually don’t say this but excellent song choice today. I’m feeling good about todays game after that pick. I enjoy SRV rendition of Supersition as well, also would have been a good choice.
@17 – Winston Salem is (was?) quite the hitter’s park so big kudos – but that’s a great line from a 20yr old in A+ anywhere
As I told AAR the other day, Delgado is my biggest man-crush, non-VU-alum division, in our organization.
I think tonight is the night for Kawakami’s first win and the Braves finally getting back to .500.
Yesterday I went to a Nashville Sports Council luncheon, and Dale Murphy was the featured guest. Murph was always my favorite, and he remains one of the classiest, coolest ballplayers you’d ever want to meet.
He told some good old stories from the ’80s. And when asked about Heyward he said something like, “well I’ve been working with the kid for about a year and he’s starting to look pretty good” which didn’t get the laughs it should have. He also said he wouldn’t be surprised to see Bobby hitting him 3rd by the end of the season. Said that was no offense to Chipper, but “there isn’t enough tape in Atlanta” for him to stay in the lineup. Ouch. When the nicest guy in the game is ripping on you, that’s tough.
Anyway, it was a fun lunch, and I was thinking of my Braves Journal peeps.
Diaz out at least a month: http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=5202369
Delgado is kicking some serious Carolina League ass. 3rd in WHIP and ERA,1st in K’s and IP, 4:1K/BB ratio, and it ain’t a Myrtle Beach mirage, neither.
http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?t=l_pit&lid=122&sid=l122
http://www.statcorner.com/pitcher.php?id=517414
@1
Votto has a career .301/.371/.492 split against lefties. True, there is a 95-point drop from his career OPS against righties, but he seems to be pretty damn solid. If only McCann, who has a .757 OPS against lefties in his career, was as good…
The Reds are playing great right now, but maybe the NL Central will continue to cure our ills.
Hey! One pitch, one out! It all turns around tonight Kenshin!
…wait, I wasn’t paying full attention until they started talking about someone wearing Nike solid gold spikes…WTF is going on?
I sure do like having Smoltz up in the booth with Joe.
All in favor of just intentionally walking Votto all the time, raise your hands.
Man, a 27 hopper through the hole and a crap flare and all the sudden we have a problem.
Nicely done. Good life on his fastball tonight.
Watching Kawakami every 5 days is giving me an ulcer.
Harang v. Kawakami is one of your… less compelling pitching matchups, isn’t it?
In a rotisserie league that counts AVG, HOUR, RBI, and SB, would you rather have Omar Infante or Ryan Spilborghs for the rest of the season?
Nice hitting, Chip!
That’s HR, not HOUR. Silly BlackBerry.
BMac!!!
Wow. Actually teeing off against a guy with a 6+ ERA. Never saw that coming.
Looks like McCann killed the rally. :-/
Stu- Neither. Yuck. 🙁
40—That’s not very helpful! It’s a pretty deep league. NL-only, 12 teams, each team with 23-man rosters. Freddy Sanchez is finally healthy, and I get to waive one of the 2 guys who very rarely play.
I’d probably keep Infante unless I were critically short of outfielders. But that’s just me.
Nice to see Nate finally above the Mendoza.
All in favor of renaming it the Melky Line, raise your hands.
*raises hand*
Stu- I guess I’d keep Spilborgs.
I love that steal by McLouth. Didn’t amount to anything, but I loved it. They set up a cute little defensive play to try to throw behind you, just steal the damn bag.
so, if there’s a slumping brave, will teammates start bopping him in the balls to break the slump? seems like it worked for mccann.
Alright I’ll bite, watching with the sound off tonight, what’s so damned interesting about Kawakami’s shoes?
New shoes are the Japanese equivalent of turkey underwear.
Kenshin was having blister problems, so he got new shoes; some fancy Nikes with gold spikes.
They showed them in the first and talked about the blisters. Then in the second inning, he was back in his old shoes, Mizunos. So they were guessing whether his blisters were back, or if the new shoes weren’t broken in well enough, etc. That’s really the whole story.
I’ve said it before – I love the jokes. Keep ’em coming Smoltz.
That inning was short for KK, but he was getting hit hard.
Also, terrible joke from Smoltz.
were any of those balls in the zone that escobar swung at?
McLouth is now officially on a hot streak.
Ah, Prado. I was hoping you could stave off hibernation mode. No such luck.
#50 – thanks
Smoltz has a knack for delivering a bad joke.
Stu, I think I’d keep Spilborghs (I also have F. Sanchez coming off the DL in a 10-team NL league, but I have no problem choosing who to drop. Hint: his initials are Aaron Harang). Rockies platoon OFs come in handy, because you can count on Hurdle to start them accordingly — bench him on the road or against RHP, and you’ll get something out of him, I’m guessing.
Two cheapies by McLouth, but at least he’s above Mendoza. Good for him.
Wow, Harang with a double….eeeeehh.
Yikes. This inning is going to be trouble.
Wow, got out of it. Nice.
Wow.. Kenshin is actually… pitching well?
Nice work, KK. Keep pitching like this and you’ll actually deserve to stay in the rotation.
Kenshin has walked a tight rope tonight.. But walk it he has.
Also, being the home pitcher, he’s an inning ahead of Harang, and has pitched 2 fewer pitches.
I think Jason Heyward just got jealous of Randall Delgado, Stu.
Big run.
Glaus is killing the ball right now. Even his outs are crushed.
Kenshin is close to getting his ERA under 5.
63—I only meant among minor leaguers!
56—Can’t bench anybody in this league, but I’m leaning toward keeping Spilborghs, too. I need power more than batting average, and my utility infield depth is much better than my OF depth. If Chipper gets hurt again, though, Infante’s the more valuable guy.
Eric Hinske should be our starting left fielder.
with diaz out and melky sucking, i think he is, against rh, at least.
Great game by Kawakami. He needed that.
Strong start for Kawakami.
Yunel’s descent towards the Melky Line continues.
KK out after six. Didn’t seem like he had thrown that many pitches.
So, who pitches 7, 8, and 9?
Moylan, Saito, Wagner? How many days in a row would that be?
his foot blisters where clearly bothering him
Wes Helms, locker-room leader extraordinaire, would tell KK to suck it up and pitch through that blister ….
@17
Julio Teheran’s Myrtle Beach debut in game #2 wasn’t too bad either. His line:
7 IP, 4 H, 1R, 2 BB, 12 K
Teheran made his Carolina League debut tonight in the second game of a double-header and 1-uped Randall Delgado from this afternoon:
7.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 2 BB, 12 K.
I don’t know how many others rely on MLB radio to enjoy Braves baseball but I’d like to encourage all of you to choose the Reds broadcast tomorrow. They have no ads at all during inning breaks and crucially, no Mark Lemke. I’d be hard pressed to choose which one I hate more between Mark Lemke, broadcaster, and “the NINTEEN NINETY TWO FIRING ORDER ON YOUR PICKUP!!” commercial but I haven’t had to suffer through either tonight.
Is a 4-run game one in which you really need to use your 40-year-old set-up man with a recent major elbow injury for the third night in a row?
Okay, maybe Kawakami shouldn’t have pitched three days in a row.
Hmmmm, maybe pitching an old relief pitcher three days in a row is not such a good idea ?
Thinking the same thing Stu.
By the way, does anyone know of a reason why the Braves wouldn’t be able to retain Takashi Saito as an arb-eligible in 2011? He’ll have less than six years of service.
KK is gonna have a complex if they blow this one.
AAR, you took the words right out of my mouth… Except I was going to call him Saito.
The Reds have been doing this to a lot of teams lately.
So I guess it isn’t Jeff “JJ” Johnson’s fault that Peachtree always goes to him, and his stupid grin, after our pitcher gives up two, or a big homer, or we ground in to a rally-killing double play. But that stupid grin is his fault. And I don’t like him.
well you could tell Saito had nothing tonight, no real big surprise there…Id like to see more of the two inning relief type deals esp when Moylan was dealing like he was
This sucks.
so, is bobby thinking o’flaherty is eventually going to get back to a left hander? geez.
thank god.
hope Wags is good tonight and I wish that Chavez was actually decent out there. We need another RH that Bobby can trust now that Medlen is a SP
JJ, you’re right. I meant Saito.
Anyway, thank goodness we got out of that mess. I guess that’s why they call a 4-run lead an “Atlanta Save.”
that had bloop tying run written all over it
may need an insurance run or two
Gotta plate one ourselves this inning. Pitcher’s spot and then the top when the Red’s come back up.
milb.com has the gwinnett score tonight as 24-18 in the bottom of the 12th. is that right?
I love McCann
Gwinnett is down 8-5 in the 5th, unless this is delayed a bit
http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?gid=2010_05_19_colaaa_gwiaaa_1&t=g_box&did=milb
edit: nevermind, if you click on the recap it says they are in the bottom of the12th
Just get him over, get him in.
The MiLB Gameday for Columbus-Gwinnett is quite amusingly broken. Little things like Gwinnett having the bases loaded with 7 outs, or Lyman coming in with 5 runners on base and allowing 4 to score- not even Gryboski could manage that.
Hinske’s terrible AB against that Lefty just ensured a platoon in Left with Melky.
Just pulled up that Gwinnett score on Gameday.
Looks like the G-Braves lost 24-18 when the Clippers put up a 7-spot in the 12th. They could not caome back in the bottom half of the inning even though they were apparently given 7 outs.
Brandon Phillips deserves to be slapped for that picture.
wtf is Ron Kulpa doing hopping with the catcher? What a sucky umpire.
Also, it seems Gregor Blanco had 11 rbi in tonight’s game.
Team LOB tonight:
Columbus – 3.
Gwinnett – 68.
Ouch.
Listening to WDUN, it’s 10-7 Columbus in the top of the 8th. They’ve noticed the computer glitches.
Come on, people, that didn’t even resemble a strike.
Kawakami is never going to win another game.
Wagner likes throwing his slider too often methinks.
Thanks ever so bloody much, Billy.
Sonuvabitch.
This sucks.
Wagner likes his slider a little too much.
Crap.
Yep… nothing like speeding up those bats.
I have a feeling we’re going to be swept in this two game series.
Who is Chris Heisey?
billy wagner is a good pitcher. billy wagner is a good pitcher. billy wagner is a good pitcher. billy wagner is a good pitcher.
This team is determined to screw over KK.
Terrible call by McCann.
Jay Bruce is 0-5 with 3 Ks and 7 LOB. That’s a Melky-caliber performance.
Don’t worry. Melky will win it.
Melky due up, looks like extras
The only way Melky wins this game is for the Reds, by committing a key error.
We only have Venters, Chavez, and Kimbrel left in the ‘pen.
It is truly amazing just how useless Melky has been.
Come on Jason!!!
Nice piece o’ hitting by Nitram…
And of course that brings up Bad Henry County.
A Heyward shall save us.
this is really all we could ask for in this inning. heyward up with a chance to win it.
Can anyone prove that Melky isn’t an evil android from the future sent to drive me insane?
Jason, put one in orbit so we can call it a night.
J-Hey!
HOLY SHIT
Braves win!
Heyward is unbelievable.
WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Legend!
And the Scriptures say that the Good Lord Jason shall provide.
Ladies and gentlemen, the MVP race starts today.
Mr. Heyward!
jason is a demi god.
Jason is truly a god.
Billy Wagner just decided he was going to try and win 20 games instead of saving 40.
Well thank goodness Chip wasn’t calling the game, the FCC would’ve banned all Braves games after he’d have orgasmed on the air…
He is the man.
I shudder to think where the Braves would be without the services of the future Super Two in right field to start the year.
In fairness, if I was broadcasting that game, I think I might have orgasmed on the air too.
Was that too much information?
By my quick count, which may be wrong, the Braves are 12-6 since the 9 game losing streak.
The authority with which Heyward hits the ball is absolutely mind-blowing for a 20-year-old.
Recapped.
Jason Hardwood.