I’m writing this before the Pirates play on Thursday night. Pittsburgh is currently 18-22, which is pretty bad… but their Pythagorean record is 11-29. Ouch. I guess they’re lucky, except for being the Pirates.
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MLB.com used to provide radio-call highlights, which I loved, but they don’t anymore. I did some redneck engineering to get these:
Radio call of Conrad’s grand slam
Heyward’s first MLB at-bat
I’ll try again:
Fredi Gonzalez or Joe Maddon?
Both have done well with significantly smaller payrolls (though this does not necessarily translate to lesser talent) than the Braves.
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When Grant said “War is Hell”, I don’t think he meant it was difficult. I think he meant it was the crystalization of all that is wrong with human nature (or, the human soul, if you prefer).
I thoroughly enjoyed the discussion.
And being fair to Mets fans is an unnecessary act that only Neville Chamberlain would consider.
If you’re asking about who’s a better manager, I will confess that I don’t have a real good analytic sense. But if you’re asking about who would be a more realistic replacement for Bobby, I think it’d be a whole lot easier to pry Fredi away from Florida than to get Maddon from Tampa. Right now, Maddon’s got a contract through 2012, and Gonzalez has a contract through 2011, but I bet Maddon has a better chance of being extended.
Maybe we could trade for one of them, like when the Devil Rays traded Randy Winn for Lou Piniella?
Off the top of my head, I’d take Maddon, though there’s no chance he’d leave the Rays for ATL. I wouldn’t mind Fredi either though-kind of feel like he could get through to Yunel. Anyone but TP please.
sdp, that was pretty cool. Thanks for sharing.
Little worried about this series, the pitching matchups all seem to favor us, but the Pirates are 9-5 against us the last two years and many of those have been heartbreakers. Would be happy with 2 of 3 this weekend.
I’m not a fan of TP, but I have no idea how good or bad he would do as manager. I think Gonzalez would be the better choice due to experience alone. From all I hear it sounds like TP is not a major candidate for whatever reason. Eddie Perez is the other guy who I’m hearing as a candidate. He seems like he would be okay, but again, there is no managerial track record.
Man arrested after using ceramic duck as a weapon | al.com.
Previous discussion is why I love Braves Journal. Charles, sorry if we disturbed your sensibilties. Just do like I do when these guys go SEC Journal during football season. Page down, look for baseball comments, OR read the stuff and laugh like hell.
They say the mark of a team is when they face the best in their division. Being a contrarian I say that the mark of a team is when they beat the teams they are supposed to beat.
ububba – thanks for the link to the review. My esteem for Henry Aaron just grew another notch if that is possible.
I am reading the Aaron book. I don’t know if I’ll do a full review like I did for the Mays book or not. I’ll say that Aaron comes off in it a lot better than his biographer does.
Braves lineup @ Pirates 5/21: Prado 4 Heyward 9 Chipper 5 McCann 2 Glaus 3 Hinske 7 Escobar 6 McClouth 8 Hudson 1
@2, not to be casual or anything, but the phrase belongs to W.T. Sherman
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_Is_Hell
The blog often veers off into non-baseball stuff. I guess we could talk about other historical events. Cincy’s bullpen yesterday was the biggest collapse since the stock market in 1929.
@124 (from previous thread),
Good points about the atomic bomb that I had not thought of, but my point was not so much that the A-bomb was “better” but that the firebombing was almost equally as horrific. LeMay himself said that if Japan had won the war, he would have been considered a war criminal.
Grant actually said, I hope someone remembers when I’m dead who is buried in my tomb. 🙂
I think we should discuss tonight’s sporting event as though it’s a war.
Wow this headline scared me at first-3 Myrtle Beach players suspended 50 games:
Infielders Albaro “Yoel” Campusano, Geraldo Rodriguez and Amadeo Zazueta, all of whom are currently with Class-A Myrtle Beach of the Carolina League, have been suspended after each player tested positive for an Amphetamine, a performance-enhancing substance.
The Office of the Commissioner of Baseball announced the immediate suspensions Friday and said the players violated the Minor League Drug Prevention and Treatment Program.
sansho1…I completely agree at #14. Braves need to capitalize on the momentum for a change.
Also, not sure if this has been posted already, but Chris Resop is doing a heck of a job starting in Gwinnett:
http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/MLB-latest-news-from-May-042710
interesting stuff from dob:
3 myrtle beach players got handed 50-game suspensions: Albaro “Yoel” Campusano, Geraldo Rodriguez and Amadeo Zazueta
chipper refers to brooks conrad’s way of batting without batting gloves as “raw dogging” it.
and lineup:1. Prado 2b, 2. Heyward rf, 3. Chipper 3b, 4. McCann C, 5. Glaus 1b, 6. Hinske lf, 7. Escobar ss, 8. McClouth cf, 9. Hudson p
Willam Tecumseh Sherman. The Curtis LeMay of the Civil War or the other way around?
I just noticed that the Pirates have TWO guys that can’t spell McCutcheon correctly. What are the odds?
I had as much fun being a fan yesterday since game 2 (Smoltz v Rocket)
I don’t think LeMay and Sherman are particularly comparable other than outlook (which is certainly something). LeMay was a specialist to a degree, with respect to air power. Sherman was a theater commander with broader goals and responsibilities, not that LeMay had a trivial job by any means.
Sounds like Campusano, Rodriguez and Zazueta picked the wrong week not to quit amphetamines.
I’m getting reports that the rival factions have begun massing, but the mutual non-aggression pact seems to be holding for now.
I think there is a big difference between Sherman and LeMay. Sherman’s point was that war is so awful that you use whatever methods you can to end it as soon as possible. I don’t think he got any great joy out of burning Atlanta. LeMay, on the other hand, I suspect rather liked war.
What is the Braves pythag record?
@1, Thank you for taking the time to find those, very cool.
@17, Chipper and I have completely different definitions of “raw dogging it.”
@24, 22-19
Not much difference between carpet bombing of German cities and buring Valley of Virginia and Atlanta. LeMay’s winning tactic was the flying formation of bombers to use their gums as protection against German fighters. Similiar to Sherman march against Atlanta. Lee saif it was good that war was so horrible lest we bacame too fond of it.
spike – thanks – I always thought that was Grant.
Makes even more sense knowing it comes from Sherman.
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Might be a good weekend to do a little Pirate scouting in anticipation of July.
@27 McCutchen and Meek would be nice
Commentators of various stripes have taken to the airwaves to handicap any potential armed conflict. It smacks of propaganda, mostly. Agendas, once hidden, are coming to the fore. We gird for unpleasantness.
Oh, and Mac – thanks for the CSN clip. Their music permeates my never-to-be-finished screenplay.
War seems inevitable, but an attempt at entreaty is now being proffered. An 11th-hour reprieve?
The strains of battle hymn echo across the misted plain….
OH GOD, THE HUMANITY!!!
Roy Oswalt has requested to be traded and apparently we’re on his short list. Would you pursue him? There are definitely salary issues.
Sure I’d pursue him, but to be blunt, starting pitching isn’t this team’s most pressing concern, even with Jurrjens on the DL. Offense is. If we have extra money, that’s probably what we should spend it on.
Then again, if Oswalt is dying to come here, there’s no harm in bringing him in and kicking KK to the bullpen or something. But we still need offense.
Only if they take Lowe for him.
Jesus, I thought we had a big inning on tap. Come on Hinske.
We should package some bad players that we don’t want for Oswalt. That’s the ticket.
That was 2 bad check swing calls on glaus there. Home plate ump had no business calling the second without an appeal. Rediculous.
Melky Cabrera, Jo-Jo Reyes, and Clint Sammons for Roy Oswalt. Take it or leave it, Ed Wade.
Who is on the radio with Sutton tonight?
23,
Their pythagenpat record is 22-19.
36,
Man, that would be amazing. Who knows? Ed Wade is quite possibly a moron.
@40–a one day special–we’ll also throw in Gregor Blanco
the trivia is montreal/washington, 1981. how do they not know this? its not kansas city, come on guys.
This Heyward guy, he can play a bit.
He got a great bounce!
Dang. We should really be doing better here, but I’ll take it. Heyward – words fail. I can’t imagine where we’d be without him.
Who are the Pirates guys in the booth on mlb.tv?
Prado in the leadoff spot is working pretty well tonight. Who knew that using the guy that gets on base, instead of the fastest guy, would work?
Am I crazy or do they do this every year? I mean start interleague and stick us with the Pirates.
I’m fine with playing the Pirates!
A 3-1 breaking ball to a guy hitting .198? Um, ok.
Pitching coach can’t like that one.
WHY IS NATE BUNTING?
That was stupid, but it worked.
Because Hudson is the man!
Timmy needs to teach Tommy hot to hit.
Please tell me McLouth did that on his own (even though it worked, and even though I know Bobby called for it)
It looked like a bunt for a hit. He almost made it.
Attaboy Prado. Execution.
Well, at least we are dropping the hammer on these guys early. They need these games.
Hudson doing the 4 walks 0 strikeouts thing again.
HEYWARD = MACHINE
Damn, just….damn.
That was just a hard hit ball.
Man that was a rocket. He kills the ball.
Okay – I am officially on board with starting to make all-time comparisons now. 150 PAs don’t lie for someone his age.
What a sad lineup the Pirates are trotting out tonight.
And A Child Shall Lead Them (Isiah 11:6)aka the 2010 Braves Credo
Heyward now has a .333 BA / .486 OBP / .685 SLG / 1.171 OPS line in road games this year.
We are playing inter league. Aren’t the Pirates in the International?
Ok the Braves are batting .500 on early RF call ups in the past few years. I sure hope they make us suffer with Heyward like they did with Frenchy.
I thought I heard once that Dale Murphy was the one that coined the phrase “the Mendoza line”?
Heyward is up to a .996 OPS, and around 155 OPS+. Just flabbergasting.
Actually, I think it’s supposed to be George Brett.
I could swear I just heard Joe say “raw-dog.” Surely I misheard.
@68 Brett said it as he always looked in the Sunday paper (for you guys who came along only during internet days—-papers would run the BA of all players that had minimum abs every Sunday) He always looked who was hitting below .200. Since Mario Mendoza of the Pirates always seemed to be floating just over or quite a bit under he deemed it the MENDOZA LINE.
@70
Age-20 OPS+ leaders
Ty Cobb — 167
Mel Ott — 165
Mickey Mantle — 162
Al Kaline — 162
Ted Williams — 160
Alex Rodriguez — 160
Rogers Hornsby — 150
Just sayin’
I stand corrected!
The scary part is, I think he’s got some room to grow in the BA department, given his minor league stats. Toss another 20 points on there, and you are looking at a perennial monster.
Weldon, isn’t “raw-dog” Chippper’s term for guys, like Conrad, who don’t wear batting gloves?
@30 – Here’s a joke from my never-to-be-finished-great-american-novel.
Why did Melissa Etheridge and her partner use artificial insemination?
Because there are some things that you can’t get even David Crosby drunk enough to do…
The token unnecessary Cubs reference from Chip. A staple on the setlist.
The Pirates may be a lousy team, but they’ve got the best looking ball-girl I’ve ever seen!
This doesn’t even feel like a real game.
Seven run lead — I guess we’re good.
Since we are at the cusp of interleague play, I was wondering how likely it is that we’ll see Melky Cabrera as designated hitter once we hit the AL parks.
Maybe Melky’d be the LF and Hinske would be the DH.
At the sight of stirrup socks, Joe begins jerking it with reckless abandon.
Thanks, Douglass, now I have to scour my brain out with soap.
*gasp* BABIP brought up on the radio side!
The walks and lack of strikeouts are still troubling, but Hudson has his season ERA down to 2.09 at this point. The dude is a groundball machine. 109 pitches though so far, doubt we send him back out in the ninth. 7 run lead, no reason to….
…and there is the round of high fives in the dugout, yep, Hudon’s done. Another superb start.
Chipper and McCann should DH
I was thinking the same thing – Chip and B-Mac for DH. I know Melky will get a few starts either way.
I thought Hudson was getting squeezed a bit. Seemed to me that Karstens and Ohlendorf were getting calls that Huddy wasn’t. Didn’t matter, though.
Definitely get Ross behind the plate and let pimpbot DH some.
Nicely done boys. Movin’ on up.
Well, this game won’t help the Pirates’ Pythag any.
Braves win!
Recapped.