Atlanta Braves vs. Philadelphia Phillies – Box Score – July 05, 2010 – ESPN.
Derek Lowe has forgotten how to win! Or forgotten how to avoid getting matched up with Roy Halladay, anyway. I mean, the Braves gave him one whole run to work with.
That came in the first, on a solo homer to the laughable left-field gap by Chipper. The Braves managed only four other hits off of Halladay, though two of them were doubles — McCann in the fourth, Chipper in the sixth. McCann also had a single, right after Chipper’s homer. The Braves’ only two other baserunners were erased — Hinske, after walking to lead off the seventh, was lead runner in a Melky GIDP, and Blanco bunted his way on to start the third but was caught stealing on a blown hit-and-run with Conrad (who is not a good contact hitter in any way).
Lowe made the one run hold up for five innings, but with one out in the sixth allowed a single to Jayson Werth and a homer by Greg Dobbs to take the loss, even though it was one of his best outings of the year. He allowed six hits, five of them singles, and walked only one while striking out six. He deserved better, but then much of the year he’s deserved worse than he got. Venters allowed three hits in the eighth, and escaped allowing more than just one run thanks to a blown squeeze play, which this time McCann and Chipper managed to take care of properly.
“Mets can pitch better than most teams.”
Yes. I’m terrified of Pelfrey, Dickey and Niese.
Those guys have been good, especially Pelfrey.
Pelfrey got demolished tonight, seven runs in 4 2/3. In line for the loss if the Reds bullpen can hang on.
I wouldn’t say we’re doomed, but there is (as I mentioned earlier) a non trivial chance of getting swept here with even less power than usual and a couple of guys who have been tough on Atlanta. The team has little margin for error offensively, and wins before the ASB will be precious.
There’s a non-trivial chance that any team gets swept in any series. Just how the game goes.
There are rumors Pelfrey is suffering from dead arm.
I’m sorry but I’m not exactly sold on Dickey and Niese being mid rotation starters for a good team.
Of course, right now we’re playing with a 23-man roster and a bench of Conrad, Diaz, and a pinch-runner.
Pelfrey doesn’t have a dead arm. He’s just a guy whose luck is evening out.
If the Hawks, after re-signing Johnson for $120 million, sign Shaq for two years and are forced to sell off Josh Smith, which baseball team would be their equivalent? I say the Astros, except the Astros would never get rid of a guy like Josh Smith.
Losing to Halladay… it happens, especially when you swing at the first pitch a lot. It looks like McCann and Chipper are starting to swing the bat better, so I’m encouraged anyway.
Pelfrey got hit tonight, but he’s been better than Santana this year. He’s not the same pitcher he was. He has a new pitch & he’s been pretty dominant with that splitter.
You don’t have to be sold on Dickey & Niese, but they’ve been good. They replaced Maine & Perez. The Mets lost almost every game those guys started & they’ve won almost every game that Dickey & Niese have started.
If you want to know the turning point of the season for the Mets, it’s inserting those 2 in the rotation.
The turning point of the season for the Mets—when they start falling out of the race really quickly—hasn’t yet happened. Soon, though.
I agree Stu. I don’t fear the Mets. I don’t think they have the bats or the arms to stay in it. Of course, after this weekend I might think different.
@6 You don’t have to be sold, you just need to look at his performance this season. They are fact. Honestly, I am not sold either, but fact is hard to argue with.
@8 I think the Hawks will do something dramatic, and Shaq is an interesting idea purely from gate drawing point of view.
Lowe is our new Kawakami.
Greg freaking Dobbs……
@5, I think you can safely say the factor goes up significantly when you are looking at Halladay, Hamels and (in our case) Moyer, and we haven’t even accounted for a significantly weakened offense without Glaus and Good Heyward
Well, (Utley + Polanco) is likely close to equal to (Glaus + Heyward) and Glaus might play tomorrow.
Folks, we’re 1-4 vs. the Mets.
I hate the Mets as much as any professional sports team, but we might wanna hold off on disrespecting a team we haven’t really beaten.
Still 8-6 Cincy, going to the bottom on the 9th.
Cory Aldridge: 9 years between major-league appearances » Baseball-Reference Blog » Blog Archive.
15—You do as you like; I’m going to disrespect the Mets every single day of the rest of my life.
Ballgame, Reds win.
And you gotta see this over-the-shoulder catch Scott Rolen makes on a pop-up into No Man’s Land in LF.
@14, that presumes we are starting from equivalent offenses. In any event, Glaus would be a big help. He could easily have been a difference maker tonight with Chip and Mac having success in front of him.
This Sporcle quiz is pretty interesting. To me, anyway.
Is there any way that we can schedule non division home games the rest of the year ?
That one tonight was tough to swallow just because the braves led for most of the game.
All things considered, the braves came out ahead tonight.
The OF the braves are running out there is borderline horrific right now.
Yes, we led for most of the game, but it was one run. You can’t reasonably expect to win on one run versus Philly in that ballpark with Halladay on the mound.
I got 23. That quiz is a toughie.
But I hate this f’in team. We can’t hit any kind of pitching — I’d say we’re punch and judy but we’re all judy. Chipper freaking Jones needs to freaking retire already, and if Brian McCann and and Martin Prado and Omar Infante are All-Stars they should play like All-Stars and freaking hit.
Roy Halladay versus Derek Lowe? Don’t make me laugh. This team couldn’t hit Steve Sparks.
God forbid if Prado goes into a bit of a slump…Hinske and Cabrera need to avoid the post game beers for at least one night.
@17 I agree with you 100% Stu.
The Braves’ pitching is going to keep them in it, but rest assured that–yes–the hitting could be better. We haven’t seen Glaus, Chipper, and McCann click at once. When we do, it’s gonna be pretty great.
Missed the Natspos, Padres, Phillies (can’t believe I missed it, either), Dodgers, Angels (this one too), Royals, Marlins, Tigers (this one surprised me), and Orioles.
We need Jason to be healthy. As long as he is out, the team will try its best to cope. Getting Glaus back is critical. I am looking forward to Nate being healthy in the second half. I think the time off will do him a world of good like what the time off is doing to JJ.
The Hawks signing Shaq? I am sure the ticket sales would definitely improve! I am not sure about how it will improve the team though!
The Hawks have three good players. Shaq would wind up taking time from two of them. Pass.
28—I missed the Tigers, Marlins, Royals, and Natspos. Only felt bad about missing the Marlins and Royals.
I got 16 out of 30. Missed David Wright of the Mets, but most of the others I did not feel bad about missing…with all the bangers the Yankees have had I was surprised to see who their leader was (hopefully that is not a spoiler)
This quiz is pretty stupid. Mostly because I would’ve gotten all 18 if the creator knew how to spell ‘eephus’.
@31 Mac, we may want to pass, but that’s not what the Hawks are thinking!!!
Hinske had a high BABIP and is currently regressing to the mean.
Freddie Freeman getting some love:
http://tinyurl.com/2dr5hq2
If he turns out to be 70% of Joey Votto, I would be thrilled.
21/30 on the quiz.
The funny part was that I could see ACHE’s (hatable? Alex R?) face, but couldn’t think of his real name. All that came to mind was “ACHE.”
I sure hope the Mets fall apart because Mets Blog is a lot of fun to read when the Mets are losing.
@24,
I agree. Chipper sucks; what’s with him hitting only one home run? A real star would have hit two or maybe three at least. The Braves should trade for Greg Dobbs; he hit a two-run homer and Chipper only hit a solo. Dobbs is obviously better.
Best quiz: Name all of Larry Brown’s employers, 1972 to present.
@37: I loved this quote from the article
“The difference between Double-A and Triple-A is that in Triple-A, there are a lot of experienced pitchers who know how to get young hitters out,” Freeman said. “At the beginning of the year I struggled a little bit; I was really aggressive, especially early in the count, and pitchers feasted on that, throwing me off-speed pitches.
“But I was told to be patient and take my walks, so I do that. And everything is starting to get a lot easier for me.”
————————————–
Nice to hear regarding Braves minor league hitting instruction
Willingham would fit in perfectly to this team.
Pirates take tip from talk radio host, spend money on Dominican 16 year olds
Pirates fans should be very happy that they finally have a front office with a healthy regard for amateur talent — and the willingness to spend to get it, whether they’re signing Dominican 16-year olds, Indian cricket players, or Pedro Alvarez and Jameson Taillon. They’re not a good franchise yet by any means, but they have brought more talent into the organization in the past few years under Huntington than they had at any point since the departure of Barry Bonds.
Only in baseball is “spending money on Dominican 16 year olds” considered healthy.
AAR is right and the Pirate fans should be even happier when we send some prospects and draft picks and Clemente’s long-lost nephew Melky to them for that slouch of a center-fielder they have.
Hey, it could happen.
41,
He’s not joking either. Every time I saw Freeman early in the year he saw all of like 8 pitches in 4 PA’s, dude’s approach needed a lot of work.
I’m going to the Gwinnett game tonight (Mike Minor is starting), hopefully I’ll witness Freeman’s progress first hand. He’s been on a tear recently.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Minor ends up being trade bait at this year’s deadline. It doesn’t look like there will be an opening in our rotation for the forseeable future.
I would has a sad. 🙁
I don’t want to trade Minor. Lefties that strike out 11/9 innings are hard to come by.
Wren has to find someone that needs Kawakami. (Could be a tough sell).
We’re going to need a lefty in the rotation soon. Wish Minor was ready now.
He probably is.
If you don’t know Mumford & Sons, you oughta.
It’s funny how Mike Minor went from “the most horrible draft pick ever and the Braves only took him because he was ‘signable’ and this means our long term outlook is screwed thanks to Liberty Media” to “the next great Braves lefthander” is, what, a year?
There’s certainly no harm in letting Minor develop in AAA for a while. If he’s truly a better option in 2011 than Derek Lowe — and I’d say the odds of that aren’t bad at all — then we can simply cut Derek Lowe, or put him on unrestricted waivers. The money’s paid, and Minor’s MLB minimum salary would basically be a rounding error, so it basically would cost us the same no matter which of them started. So Wren has the flexibility to go either way. But there’s no need for Minor to see the majors before September.
In fairness, Stu always liked and defended Minor. I basically became cautiously optimistic solely because of Stu.
There are rumors about that if the Philles fall much further behind, they might become sellers. I’m going to see my barber this week, so I’ll see what he has to say.
48,
Minor can’t be traded until a year after he signed (mid-August). Not that that would be restrictive, because they could just trade him as a PTBNL, but there’s that.
I personally don’t see the Braves trading a guy they forked over $2 million for.
@49, 53 and all
Stu, you’re killing all of us tragically uncool!
How did you pick up “I would has a sad”? Is an emoticon necessary to use it?
And Mumford and Sons sound promising. Have you seen them live?
56 — I don’t think the Braves are just going to release Lowe. Nor should they, he’s been an league averageish inning eater.
Hudson, Hanson, Jurrjens, and Medlen are all going to be around awhile. And Lowe is on the books until after 2012.
I think Minor would be wasted as a LOOGY. Is he closer material?
@55, the two are not mutually exclusive. Had you drafted Albert Pujols in the 1999 first round, there would have been similarly raised eyebrows.
@34 Wow, he really did mangle the spelling there. I’m calling my baseball project the “Eephus League”, I like it best with two e’s.
Though I guess they could trade Jurrjens when he starts getting more expensive to make room for Minor.
Hence the JJ+ ? for Kemp idea.
Well, Jurrjens isn’t actually expensive yet. Though I wouldn’t be opposed to that.
That’s fair.
59—Kevin, I think that’s a LOLcats thing. Haven’t seen M&S in person, but I’ve watched some of their live stuff on YouTube. And I’ve been listening to and loving Sigh No More for months. Awesome record.
Also, I found on their website today that Marcus Mumford reads GK Chesterton, which only further cements my man-crush.
56 & 66—Well, in the spirit of fairness, even I didn’t think Mikie was going to be this dominant in the minors. (I did not foresee the additional 3mph being added to his fastball over the past year.) I was excited to have a Vandy/Braves connection, and I thought Mikie was better than he’d been given credit for, but I preferred Matzek and was also worried about what the signing signaled about the organization’s finances.
anyone here ready to trade Yunel and let Infante take over SS? dont think Im there yet….defense is too valuable with Huddy and Lowe pitching
now if its Yunel and Melky then maybe.
@69. Let’s not trade Yunel, please.
@69 No. Let’s not let the AS selection get to our heads. The Braves potentially will have holes at 1B and 3B next offseason, and considering the (perpetual) state of our outfield, I’d just as soon not create another roster spot to fill. He’s only 27 and still cheap.
Defense is too valuable.
According to Jerry Crasnick (bfd) teams are inquiring about Yunel.
He’s also a pretty dang good offensive SS if this year’s first three months have been an aberration, which I think they are. He hits .300 and walks ~as much as he strikes out.
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