Seriously, I’m asking. He just dropped off the face of the earth, or possibly fell through the crust, in early 2008. Maybe he’ll show up on “The Biggest Loser” someday.
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Seriously, I’m asking. He just dropped off the face of the earth, or possibly fell through the crust, in early 2008. Maybe he’ll show up on “The Biggest Loser” someday.
Use code “Journal” for a 5% discount.
@151 from last thread.
There you go again. Really, could you teach me how to do that?
Wow, I was just talking about this song last night. I thought it was by Nilsson, someone else thought Gordon Lightfoot. Nobody guessed Loggins & Messina. Our wuss rock cred took a real hit….
Did KK really refuse his initial assignment? I read that being said as fact, but do we have confirmation?
@1 – I need more reasons for thinking that you’re an ass after that silly post?
Actually, I think it’s a Loggins solo track.
@3
No, I am an ass. I’d just like some reasons as to why you’re so hell bent on defending the organization’s mistreatment of Kawakami when there is really no justification for it.
From previous post:
I think that it may have been KK’s attitude when he was passed over by Medlen. Of course I have no way of knowing. Maybe he didn’t pass quietly to the bullpen. The general image of Japanese players is the genial professional company man. Maybe not.
If thats the case I can defend Bobby. Medlen is clearly the better pitcher and its Bobby’s job (flame on) to put the best 9 on the field. If KK wouldn’t willingly accept his new role then …. And lets face it. The Braves are NOT a stats centric organization. Maybe to Roger and Bobby, the human white flag LOOKED better than KK did in his only relief appearance.
From last thread:
No one is a bad guy here. Boss wants employee to do something that boss perceives is for the overall good of the company. Employee does not want to do it and resists, hoping for change of heart. Boss uses available leverage to get employee to do as requested. When it becomes clear that resistance is futile and there is no better alternative, employee finally accepts fate. The same scenario is played out on a daily basis throughout the business world, just not so publicly.
If employee had done as boss asked initially, even though it may have been his right to refuse, employee would in all likelihood be back in his customary assignment right now. Employee played his hand and lost. That’s how it goes sometimes.
@5 – Good at least that is straight.
See several posts on prior thread for views on KK’s performance. (Cool this whole “blog” thing.)
Note: I never once, at any time, “defended” the “organization” in my posts about KK. I am able to have an opinion about KK’s performance without “defending” anyone. Now please go elsewhere and read your views into other folk’s posts. Thanks.
Loggins & Messina, Bread, Seals & Crofts… three reasons The Ramones had to eventually exist.
From Last thread no 154:
-Employee works part time (6 months per year)and is paid millions of dollars for contribution to employer.
-In order to teach employee lesson, employer receives no contribution for 33% of year salary.
– Result? Very expensive lesson for employer. Very frustrating year for employee.
-Beneficiary? None.
– Lesson learned? When paying employees this kind of money,maybe open communication is a better approach to resolve differences.
@8
Ah, the “Well I never explicitly SAID that” card. That’s a good one. Do I owe you anything?
@7
That’s great, but you can’t really reduce it down to that. The Braves wanted Kawakami to accept an assignment when he didn’t deserve one. He refused, and the Braves proceeded to “teach him a lesson” and ended up shooting themselves in the foot in the process.
I just watched “Eastbound and Down” for the first time, AKA “The John Rocker Story.” Not for everybody, but I really enjoyed it.
I ask again, did the Braves attempt to assign KK to AAA weeks ago, and did he refuse the initial assignment? This is what Bowman wrote:
“Recognizing that he would be embarrassed in his native land and protecting their future interests in bringing other Japanese players to Atlanta, the Braves had previously not aggressively attempted to persuade Kawakami to accept a Minor League assignment.”
So, Jeff K saw some games where KK was bad, which means he was bad. Interestingly, if one looks at KK’s entire body of work this season, one finds that he was not bad — at least, not for a fifth starter. Huh.
You are assuming an element of spite and “lesson teaching”. The boss may have simply believed the employee had little to no value to the organization in another position. As an outsider, you may disagree with this evaluation, but you don’t have as much information as those directly involved.
For the record, whether or not Kawakami deserved a AAA assignment, the fact is that the Braves gave him a contract providing that he wouldn’t have to ever have one if he didn’t want one. He’s not a problem or anything for refusing to surrender that contractual right.
I may not have as much information as the organization, but there is enough information freely and publicly available to determine that Kawakami DID have value and that he WASN’T so bad as to deserve being sent into the pen and never being heard from again.
Just because the organization believed that Chavez was better (and, being paid to be professional evaluators, I highly doubt this was the case) doesn’t mean that he was or that the organization was right or even justified in their decisions.
Also, Chavez pitching instead of KK is not proof that they were trying to bury him. Chavez is a Major League pitcher, and it’s quite possible that the Braves thought they’d be more likely to get through one inning with Chavez than Kawakami, who’s not a one-inning pitcher. There really weren’t any long-relief situations while he was in the bullpen, either. It is not a fact that Kawakami is a better pitcher than Chavez. It is an opinion. And I still say people who are looking back on Kawakami as a good pitcher are nuts. He just isn’t.
I don’t think there’s any evidence he refused anything. Kawakami has been nothing but professional, both during last year’s demotion and this year’s model. AAA is probably a good idea for him, since it’s clear the manager will pitch almost anyone else over him in relief situations, and pitching in AAA increases his chances of pitching in meaningful games later in the season or starting on another team next year.
From here, it looks like Kawakami is doing everything right. Even his comments about not coming over to be in the bullpen weren’t antagonistic towards the organization as much as lamenting his current situation.
So it’s standard practice now to have potential Cy Young candidates 1-5, and anybody who isn’t should be buried or demoted?
Kawakami was a #5 pitcher. He pitched like a #5 pitcher. Thus he deserves to never pitch in the majors.
I just can’t follow this train(wreck) of logic.
I mean, I’m really mystified as to why Lowe was kept in the rotation over him when Jair came back. Lowe’s been an effective reliever in the past (albeit nine years ago), it looks like KK has never pitched from the pen in his NPB career, and they’ve been roughly equally effective this season. Also, KK’s like two years younger, which means it’s more likely he’ll stay starting material next year, while Lowe’s more likely to get worse and have to be moved to the pen anyway.
Kirk @15 – in this case Employer did something they had explicitly agreed not to do by all accounts. They are lucky it wasn’t in writing, or KK would be enjoying his millions and free agency after successfully suing the Braves for breach.
develop more of a taste of Duke Ellington.
Ellington, Monk and Mingus are the wellspring of modern American composition.
And i don’t know what your tastes are in the matter, but there is a lot of modern Jazz, like Braxton, Lacy, Taylor, and more that is quite lovable and accessible, and crucial to the story of the music.
@22, Mingus is one of my all-time favorites. The Clown is an absolutely ridiculously amazing album, especially Haitian Fight Song. Unfortunately, Mingus is dead, and clowntime is over.
Any of that Atlantic stuff is great, same as for Ray Charles. Black Saint and the Sinner Lady gets all the pub, but Mingus, Mingus, Mingus, Mingus would have been an Oscar winning spy film soundtrack had it been used as one.
I’m curious too. Kolb’s Wikipedia (not a good source) has nothing. Google News doesn’t even bring up anything.
Dan Kolb signed with the Blue Jays on May 29, 2008 and has not been seen or heard of since.
@14 – Stu, the previous thread beats this to death, so your curt observation is a little silly. KK’s last 4-5 appearances were markedly poor performances and with bad results, I guess except that he got his one and only win of the year mixed in there. He was getting hit very hard, by not particularly good teams. His performance was declining and that view was obviously shared by the coaches. Plently of others here also made the same observations I made at the time. Looking at the whole body of work reveals a mediocre performance this year, with a declining trajectory. It appears from the news coverage that the Braves wanted him to go to Gwinnett to gets some starts to work things out. He saw it a different way I suppose, or he would have been demoted a month ago.
ps – I have nothing against KK, I liked the signing when it was made and said so many times. But current performance dictates whether he plays in Atlanta or Gwinnett, and we know the answer to that question.
Has anyone ever seen Dan Kolb and Bob Wickman in the same room?
@22, none of us knows the details for sure, but an assignment to AAA probably required mutual consent. KK did not consent as was his right. The Braves chose not to play him, as was their right. He finally agrees to the assignment. No contract was breached.
I see no reason to think he ever refused a request for assignment. Imagination is a powerful deceiver.
In point of fact, two of Kawakami’s last four starts were six innings of shutout ball and seven innings of one-run ball. In one of the others, he allowed five runs in five innings, two of them “earned”. In the fourth, he was shelled, five runs in two innings. His ERA over those four starts was 4.07, his quality start percentage 50 percent. Most teams would kill for that from their fifth starter.
@30
Oh, you and your numbers….
But Mac if you had only WATCHED the games, with your eyes, you would have seen that Kawakami was on the verge of a collapse the likes of which have not been seen since Farnsworth decided he was tired of pitching for the year back in 2005.
The numbers aren’t important. You just have to watch and learn to appreciate what you see. Kawakami was not, I repeat NOT, a good pitcher.
Never was, never will be.
By the way.. aren’t those typical numbers for a number 3-4 guy in the AL? Maybe Kawakami should go there.
@29, seems like a reasonable assumption. Do you believe the Braves never thought that it might be better for him to stay ready for a return to the rotation by pitching regularly in AAA?
@22, none of us knows the details for sure,
And yet you were able to reach a definitive conclusion anyway. Fascinating.
Monk & Mingus always grabbed me, but for some reason, Ellington never hit me the right way until I was much older. But that’s the great thing about music: You’ve got a lifetime to discover stuff.
Conversely, I occasionally try to revisit things that I once either dismissed or just really didn’t get the first time.
Sometimes I get converted & I’m happy for it (lotta jazz, lotta country); other times, I’m perversely thrilled that I remain unmoved (Grateful Dead, Iron Maiden).
Of course, there’s nothing quite like hearing something that you once really liked, and then realizing, “What the hell was I thinking then?” (Eg., certain Lou Reed solo records.)
It’s something that hasn’t happened much musically to me, but man, those Carol Burnett Show and MASH reruns just suck out loud.
Bobby lost faith in KK after the Royals game in which he completely wasted a lead while trying to pick up his first win. He didn’t even make it to the third inning. Maybe Bobby’s opinion isn’t “justified” but it was made on June 20th.
I’d rather be excited about Minor’s debut in Atlanta than pissed about KK’s debut in Gwinnett. But that’s just me.
@35, I like Monk & Mingus, but only because Robin Williams has moments of inspired hilarity. I’ve always had a soft spot for the comedians of that era.
@33, There could be a lot of reasons. Maybe Bobby wanted him rested for a specific game scenario that never happened. Maybe Bobby is a battered old bird who forgets to use players for weeks at a time. Maybe KK has a secret injury that the Braves are suppressing to keep his value up. We can speculate all we want, but there’s no reason to favor any particular motivation.
@34, I simply stated that if mutual consent was required, no contract was breached. I also believe that mutual consent is more likely than “we agree that we will never even ask you to pitch an inning anywhere but in the majors.” You can of course believe as you wish.
You can of course believe as you wish.
I can at least found my beliefs in a number of published reports on the subject, including the Atlanta media. You can of course value your whole cloth speculations as you wish.
@30 – Oh you and your cherrypicked numbers. Since May:
6 G, 33H, 12 2B, 13 BB, 25 K, 19 R, .295/.357/.437, WHIP 1.703, ERA 4.99
Combined record of the 6 teams faced:
321-338 .487
Paul DePodesta cuts his character out of “Moneyball” flick.
http://tinyurl.com/2g8o5qp
#36
I used to laugh my ass off to the Carol Burnett Show—Harvey Korman, dude!—but I was, like, 9.
#38
There was one guy in my high school who thought he was Robin Williams & another who thought he was Steve Martin. No, they were not particularly popular—with the gals or anyone else.
Headed to the BoSox/Yanks game with a ChiSox fan from ChiTown. I’ll add his take to the Ozzie survey.
Lots of guys have 6 game stretches like that or worse.
Why no Bobby Cox?
http://publicpolicypolling.blogspot.com/2010/08/baseball-manager-approval-ratings.html
Fascinating. Re-post of KK’s stats since May:
@30 – Oh you and your cherrypicked numbers. Since May:
6G, 33H, 12 2B, 13BB, 25K, 19R, .295/.357/.437, WHIP 1.703, ERA 4.99
Jesse Chavez since May:
14 G, 19H, 3 2B, 5BB, 9K, 7R, .287/.325/.424, WHIP 1.333, ERA 3.50
I’m just saying …
@42, You were the one harping for post after post about Kawakami’s last four starts, as if you can’t find a four-start sample of any starting pitcher’s career and claim they were in decline because of it. You did the cherry-picking.
@42
Actually, I think you cherry picked those numbers. You know.. When you were talking about how Kawakami’s last four starts were a Shakespearean tragedy entitled “The Collapse of a Pitcher.”
@46
And now you’re just reaching. Comparing a starter to a reliever? Guess you can’t really be intellectually honest when you have no intellectual ground to stand on anyway. Beyond the eyeball test anyway, which you claimed showed how awful Kawakami had been in his last four starts.
Man. I didn’t realize pitching had risen to the level where a 6 inning shutout game was awful. I guess I need to use my eyes more.
@44 – But I was trying to respond to the comments (both those using reasonable human dialog and those relying on ad hominem) that KK has indeed been falling off quite seriously. Six games and 27 innings are not small samples.
@47 (and unoriginally, 48) – Gads, people do your own homework. The numbers aren’t going to get any better if you carve out the Dodgers and Diamondbacks games (12IP 5 ER). And earlier I was talking about the last 4-5 appearances, not starts, which includes the implosion against Milwaukee.
Oh, Downer, I set out the comparison to Jesse Chavez because all of you larks complaining how KK was sitting in favor a MUCH WORSE pitcher in Chavez.
When the decision to send Kawakami to the pen was made, everyone who is not bitching was ecstatic that Medlen was staying in the rotation.
Kawakami didn’t pitch because we didn’t have any long relief scenarios until the Medlen injury two nights ago.
Kawakami is not ready to pitch as a starter again, yet, so he’s going to the minors to stretch out his arm again.
You guys would whine about f*cking a supermodel.
@50, Ick. Most supermodels probably have Herpes from sleeping their way up the fashion food chain. If I had to take a chance with an STD for some action with a supermodel, I’d opt for no action.
#27, is your supposition that Bob Wickman ate Dan Kolb?
@50
That’s still no reason not to give him any work at all. Just because he has the arbitrary “long reliever” title doesn’t mean he can’t get in an inning of work every now and then. Especially when someone else does get to go in who is demonstrably worse than Kawakami.
“Long reliever” is not a concrete position on the rosters where a pitcher can only come in if he’s going to pitch at least 3 innings. You can send a guy in to get an inning of work every now and then, and there were plenty of mop-up innings available where Kawakami could have got that inning of work.
IIRC we’ve had several extra inning games and when the starter left after 6 innings or so.
I like how you added KK’s post-exile relief appearance to the numbers you’re using to justify his benching in the first place. Clever!
Six games and 27 innings are not small samples.
Yeah, they kinda are.
I wasn’t “justifying” his benching. I was showing the statistics that some here are too f**g lazy to look at themselves before posting unsupported and insulting comments.
And furthermore the relief appearance is extremely instructive as to whether KK should have been used in place of Chavez or anyone one else in the bullpen. Actually, I could argue that it is the most relevant data we have.
@ 56 – Now I know this isn’t really fair in blog world, but if you were to ask my statistician wife she would disagree with you. Reliable analysis can be performed using even smaller sample sizes.
He hadn’t pitched in three weeks!
Edit: “I wasn’t “justifying” his benching.”
Of course you were — that’s what this has all been about.
If you think that one relief appearance is enough to write off Kawakami as horrible and worthless, you must REALLY hate Wagner after those two blown saves in a row.
What a bum, right?
#57, like his last 4 starts?
sansho1, he’s never pitched in relief. That makes him suspect in the bullpen for lots of very compelling reasons.
Everybody hide your straws. Jeff K is on a grasping mission.
Oh what the hell, I don’t even know what point I want to argue, so never mind.
Okay, okay, so you convinced me to go do it myself. KK since May (excluding the Milwaukee Meltdown):
5G, 28H, 10 2B, 13BB, 25K, 16R, .267/.339/.410, WHIP 1.557, ERA 4.10
Chavez:
14G, 19H, 3 2B, 5BB, 9K, 7R, .287/.325/.424, WHIP 1.333, ERA 3.50
@64, Why are you picking weird endpoints? Chavez’ ERA is 5.89 as a Brave and 4.87 over his career. KK is 4.75 for this season and 4.17 over his career. Both numbers are better. Chavez is a reliever, too, which usually skews an ERA low. If you pick arbitrary end points, you can show almost any pitcher in baseball to be better than almost any other.
Zach Greinke since May has a 4.50 ERA, but it would be beyond belief to contend that Chavez is a better pitcher.
The world vs. Jeff K. Nothing new.
The whole situation is real bizarre. Kawakami wasn’t pitching that poorly, and I would bet he would have been a better reliever than the Lisp and the White Flag. However, Kawakami is a finesse guy, and I’ve had my doubts about him as a one-inning reliever. His stuff’s not that great. In long relief, however, it’s a no-brainer.
The Braves have a reason for not using a $7M pitcher. We can speculate all we want to, but it’s clear we simply don’t know. It could be any of the things that people have mentioned, so I’m just gonna sit back and say, “I don’t know.”
Perhaps Kawakami liked to carry around a suitcase full of porn like Matsui.
Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
Uh, nothing arbitrary about using the exact same cutoff dates for both pitchers. Perhaps instead you meant that you don’t like the sample size as as way to compare career numbers? But we weren’t dicussing career performance or who projects to be a better pitcher in the future. We were discussing recent performance leading up to today. Nothing arbitrary about selecting all appearances since May.
@ 66 – Actually, I feel a bit awkward today. I can’t say I ever recall being pitted against folks like this on a blog before. I generally think that Mac, spike, you, Marc, the ARs, smitty when he’s around have really good things to say. Folks like our Downeaster friend are just trolling schmucks.
Yeah I’m a troll because I’m not nodding my head and smiling about everything that Bobby does.
You’re a troll because you post inflammatory ad hominem.
I don’t think I’ve posted any inflammatory ad hominem today. Maybe the comment about you grasping at straws, but that was way after the fact.
I think you just got worked up because I disagreed with you about how bad Kawakami has been and pointed out how you weren’t basing your opinion on anything other than selectively watching some of his outings.
66—You may be confusing him with Jon K. Jeff is usually a pretty reasonable dude.
He couldn’t be more stubbornly wrong on this one, of course. Like, there’s no way he can seriously be arguing what he’s arguing — that Kawakami “stunk it up on the field” — and, yet, he continues to argue it.
@ 61
You do realize that Kawakami pitched exclusively in relief (and did so fairly well) last September, right? Not saying that 13.2 innings prove anything other than that your statement was incorrect, but he has pitched in relief.
1991 Tom Glavine was as good a pitcher as the Atlanta Braves have ever had. I hope Atlanta fans show their appreciation tonight.
I think that if Jeffy is forced into retirement after this season we should have Francoeur Night. On an off day. During a road trip.
Of course, there’s nothing quite like hearing something that you once really liked, and then realizing, “What the hell was I thinking then?” (Eg., certain Lou Reed solo records.)
Ububba obliquely confesses his love for Metal Machine Music…
Stu, I apologize since I should have listed you among the folks whose posts I generally get something from. Just an oversight. Your last one though, not so much. The stats are not helpful to your case.
@ 75 – Sorry, oversight there. You’re right, the relief numbers from last year don’t add much. ERA looks good, for that’s worth, but the strikeouts went down, walks up and the league’s slash stats are very similar to the “bad” period (as I label it, recognizing others don’t) this year.
Peter Gammons has an article on mlb.com talking about the Indians, Royals and Pirates in which he says the following:
“The Indians are probably the closest to getting back to competitiveness. “We’ve looked back at where we started in the rebuilding process in 2002,” says Antonetti. That season, they traded Bartolo Colon to the Expos for Sizemore, Lee and Brandon Phillips, a rebuilding trade rivaled only by the Mark Teixeira deal between Texas and Atlanta, which sent five good players, including Neftali Feliz and Elvis Andrus, to the Rangers.”
Is it me or has the Teixeira trade taken on a life of it’s own? Beau Jones, Matt Harrison and Jarrod Saltalamacchia have done nothing of note in the majors.
Any ideas about when they’ll be able to play tonight, or are we too busy arguing?
Feliz and Andrus alone is a pretty good rebuilding trade.
Edit: Salty did surprise me though. I expected him to make more of an impact.
Nick, sadly Feliz and Andrus each look to be far more valuable than the year of Teixeira we got.
(Of course, I’m surprised that no one noticed that Renteria-for-Jurrjens has become Alexander-for-Smoltz II: Will Detroit Ever Learn?)
Harrison has been hurt a lot, but he’s put up decent numbers when healthy. Still, it’s looking like Andrus is the biggest piece lost given that the Rangers seem content to leave Feliz in the bullpen.
It’s still raining here by the stadium, but not real hard. Looks like another hour or so from the weather map.
Doyle Alexander was a heck of a lot better player and more important to Detroit that year than Renteria. I’d call the Jurrjens trade one of the top 2-3 trades for the Braves in the last 25 years (my frame of reference).
Well, we’re looking at another morning recap, I guess.
Well that’s the thing – Detroit doesn’t win the division without him (9 wins from Aug 20!!!). Moral of the story, if the guy really can be a difference maker, it’s a defensible trade.
#81, so a very good closer and an Gold Glove singles hitting shortstop (.315 SLG) for 1½ years of one of the best hitters in the game at that point and a good lefty reliever.
Is it me or has the Teixeira trade taken on a life of it’s own?
It’s just you. Two All-Stars is a pretty good return for anything. Awesome trade for Texas.
I’d call the Jurrjens trade one of the top 2-3 trades for the Braves in the last 25 years (my frame of reference).
I’m partial to Soriano for Horacio, or even Russ Ortiz for Damian Moss and Merkin Valdez. Basically I just miss the days when we had a front office who understood the concept of selling high.
The Tex trade hurt a lot less when we had our own light-hitting, Gold Glove-caliber shortstop.
87- Keep in mind that Andrus is still only 21. He’s probably going to get much better before he reaches his peak. And we only had Teixeira for a year (157 games, two days short of a calendar year). The good lefty reliever, Ron Mahay, pitched just 28 innings for us- he certainly didn’t redeem the trade for the Braves.
Renteria was sold high. Gorkys and Morton were sold high. Flower and Lillibridge were sold high.
We got a sandwich pick for Mahay which we used on Brett DeVall, who is still sort of a prospect.
Can’t believe no one has posted this yet today — good quick shot on FanGraphs from Dave Cameron over at USS Mariner about Kawakami:
http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/index.php/where-in-the-world-is-kenshin-kawakami/
Either way, this has been a crappy deal, just good to have an outsider’s perspective on it.
Yes on #1, the others are just teams buying lottery tickets. There was nothing ‘high’ about Morton or Li’lbridge in a Braves uniform.
Well, Morton and Lillibridge were sold “high” in the sense that the Pirates were fleeced and have a propensity to give away talent for nothing.
#93 – 44 responses to that article. So much cyberink spilled over such a mediocre player.
BTW, DeVall is pitching again after a partial UCL tear last year, which he opted to not have operated on. Just a data point on Medlen.
@96
It’s an odd and therefore intriguing situation.
GLAVINE’S WIFE IS HOT AS HELL.
And yeah, morning recap. I’ve been tired all day for some reason.
99,
Yes. Yes she is.
Did Don Sutton really call Hank Aaron “the all-time home run champion” with Barry Bonds’ former team right there?
The Giants are not Bonds’ team. They’ve made that very clear.
Game on.
Mets lead Phillies 2-1 in the 8th.
erm….go mets…….
106- There’s really no way to be enthusiastic about that, is there?
Hanson to the ‘pen.
phillies coming back on new york, without one hard-hit ball. bloop after bloop. when you’re hot, i guess you’re hot.
Phillies pouring it on now, they are going to win.
Hanson’s having another one of these games where he nibbles and is getting a high pitch count.
Niese gives up 1 run through 7 after a bit of a shaky start and the Stem bullpen just has a total meltdown.
Bobby might be thrown out before the night is over.
Way to squander a leadoff double, boys.
Maybe McCann should have just stopped at first…
Pissed away that leadoff double. No surprise there.
Phillies scored 6 runs in the 8th.
I so dislike Glaus in the lineup. He gets a pitch to drive to right field (although probably a ball) takes it for strike 3 and starts yet another worthless effort with runners in scoring postion.
This umpire has an enormous vertical strike zone, which is good news for Zito.
So fastballs at the belt are high, but curveballs that hit the glove belt high are strikes… ok.
Christ, the Mets suck.
And now the Mets get a 3-run HR from Hessman- but they still trail 7-5.
Edit: And now it’s over. Phillies hang on.
Oh, it’s Doug Eddings. No wonder he sucks.
AAG!
AAG! I like this power stuff.
Oh yeah, even more like this, please.
I miss Yunel so much.
New guy!
AGONY.
old new guy is heating up, perhaps.
oh, so that’s why we got him …
Nice one, AAG. Now, can we start getting some hits?
AGONY LIVES!!!
I HATE THAT GUY AND HIS STUPID HOME RUNS!
AAG is just doing it to spite YE
Hanson’s really settled down to pitch a good game.
135—This makes, what, three in a row?
Four, really.
Don’t jinx it!
ZOMBIE!
BRAAIINNSS!
That one was for Glavine.
Old man!
The important thing in this offense is to keep guys from getting on second and third. Or first.
w00t!
AND BENCH CHIPPER! A 14 MILLION DOLLAR PLAYER DOESN’T HIT SOLO HOME RUNS!
Is the organist playing “Cold as Ice” for Pat Burrell?
Tommy has no idea what to do after getting to 0-2 on Burrell.
146—Yeah, as in Brrrrrrr-ell.
Nice job Tommy!!!
Yay! He got ahead with the fastball and put him away with. . . a fastball. Imagine that.
Zito just threw an 88 MPH fastball and an 87 MPH fastball by Glaus.
Glausosaurus swings late on an 88 mph pitch. Another awful game from him–he looks like he can hardly move.
jinx
Is it too much to hope for that the Braves won the waiver claim on Adam Dunn with the intention of replacing Glaus?
Not surprised to see Bochy here–it’s not very easy to walk both AGon and Ankiel.
And Melky swings at the first pitch. Typical.
We need Dunn.
@154–it’s exactly what I’m hoping for, but it probably is too much–wonder if the winner will leak out sometime soon
edit–yep Dunn would be great addition to this lineup–Hinske could then go back to platooning in LF and Melky could mostly ride the pine
You suck, Melky.
There are things I’ll miss about this team once the season’s over. Melky hitting or fielding in important situations will not be along them. “Gee, back-to-back walks to the last two hitters- I’ll swing at the first pitch!”
“So the Braves put on two via the walk but fail to move them over…”
Lot of that lately.
Venters’ arm is going to fall off, but boy does he look good right now. His inning last night was his best of the year.
While I don’t like Melky’s process (swinging at the first pitch after 2 straight walks = stupid), he got a good pitch to hit, likely just as good as any other he was going to see. Unfortunately he just flied out weakly, as Melky is wont to do.
Venters again? Gosh, Bobby.
5th game in 6 days for Venters.
Looks like the old chipper showed up tonight.
Nice one.
This is the seventh straight series in which Venters has pitched twice- and in the series before that (at Philly, July 5-7), he pitched three times.
Mwahaha, I love Johnny.
Strike 1 to Torres was not even close. Eddings is laughably bad.
Are we sure Bobby knows that Venter’s suspension was rescinded? Hopefully Jonny’s arm doesn’t wear totally out.
Back to Dunn–it’s not just enough to have won the waiver claim. The winning team also has to offer the Nats enough for them to give him up–presumably something better to them than the two draft choices he’d bring as a type A FA. That probably means one of the front line pitching prospects and another ok prospect. I’d probably do it (not Teheran or Minor but Vizciano or Delgado) in order to make the playoffs and then take the draft choices when Dunn leaves.
168
what’s with this “h” business. Please don’t disrespect the badass Venters by crowding up his name with unnecessary letters k thks
Enter Sandman!
I’m pretty nervous about the forthcoming Wagner appearance.
nm
@172 Sorry sorry, my apologies.
Don’t think there’s any chance we get Dunn, but I wouldn’t even think of giving up Delgado or Viz. I might think about Robinson Lopez, but even then I’d have reservations. Rizzo seems to think he’s going to bring Dunn back, so…
Wow, he totally lost that slider. Get Moylan on the phone…
Not a good start.
@174 apparently we all should be
176
hehe just messing with you
now, if you tried to pull a Medlin or McClouth.. then you would’ve gotten all caps and maybe even a frowny face
Dammit.
Mother shit.
Well, this is terrible.
Dammit, what has happened to Wagner?
Ugh, and AAG’s defense, for that matter.
This isn’t good.
@181 – Or, from back in the day, an Andrew.
Wagner lately is a more worrisome closer than Bob Wickman.
so the guy we got for his glove homers but flubs one. easy ball or tough play?
son of a shit
come on, Wags. Lock it down.
Wagner has only thrown one bad pitch, guys.
Sort of a tough play but it should have been made.
I feel sick.
Whomp, whomp.
now we have old chipper
looked like a little leaguer in taking his eyes off the ball
That was not a tough play. We’ve got choking dogs syndrome.
SWEET MOTHER OF MARY.
MELT. DOWN.
Truly pathetic.
189—Eh, not exactly tough, but I blame Infante more.
ugh, come on
LOLRLY?
Alex Gonzalez and Chipper Jones give and then take it away.
urge to kick cat ….rising!
Can’t believe they are not hitting for Ishikawa here.
Lucky.
My GOD I hate this team.
Thanks Mr. Bochy for that dumbass decision.
Fucking defense.
not a bad appearance by Wags–blame for the run lies mostly with the errors
It’s going to suck to lose this in extras.
the HBP sure didn’t help, but that was … umm… not impressive defense
Hanson now winless in his last 6 starts.
at this point venters > wagner?
Hanson may take hostages after his lack of support lately.
travis my man.
207—Again with that? So glad you share.
i know he homered but how has chipper looked? I don’t want to know about glaus
214- Yes, if we keep Bobby from ripping his arm off.
I wasn’t going to drink tonight but jeez, let the Budweiser flow.
Wagner is fine. He threw one wild pitch when he came out, then proceeded to throw 4 out balls.
Why in the world isn’t Hinske hitting here?
At this point venters > everyone
218 — Chipper is 3 for 4. Pretty good.
Take the walk, Zombie Glaus.
@213:
Hanson doesn’t know how to win. He clearly needs to go to the bullpen.
Glaus is done.
Glaus is killing me right now. Hell, the whole team is killing me.
Why is Glaus swinging on a 3-1 pitch? Or any non-two-strike count? He’s got to notice what happens when he hits.
I would like to see the Braves commit to giving Wagner several days off to rest and refresh. He’s already got 48 appearances, something he hasn’t done since 2007, and is 38 years old.
Atlanta Mets.
No, seriously, why Glaus and not Hinske?
TNT!
And they bring in Hinske now?! Why didn’t he hit?
Man, I love it when our pitchers give up leadoff walks.
BMac!
Thanks, Giants.
Yeah!! Way to go Brian!
Their bad baserunning vs. our bad pitching. It’s a clash of the midgets.
They’ll probably bring in the LOOGY Another Javy Lopez now to pitch to Ankiel and Hinske.
Ankiel looks JUST like Kenny Chesney. Anybody?
If you don’t score a lot you need a shut down bullpen and tight defense. The Braves have neither. This is six blown saves for Billy and several have been like this. Even if the defense let him down he was lucky last night. 97 or not Billy is really not an elite closer. He is supposed to come in and blow people away but increasingly he can’t do it especially in tight games. Of course the defense is not very good either. I honestly don’t see how they can hold off the Phillies. Where are the Braves stronger? Maybe the bullpen but the Phillies can score enough to compensate. It’s much harder for the Braves to overcome a blown save.
I miss Andruw.
Ankiel is hard to watch. He has a bad approach coupled with an ugly swing.
Good thing we didn’t let Hinske face Romo.
242 — I’m surprised the Phillies are playing well right now without Utley, Howard, and Victorino. Also, their bullpen is quite bad.
Wagner had a hell of a first half. He’s really scuffled the last couple weeks. Bad luck or something seriously wrong with him? The velocity seems to be unchanged, for what that’s worth, but the command has not been nearly as good. Amateur scouts/psychologists, anyone?
God, Jason Heyward is so overpaid.
He’s probably just tired. He hasn’t been worked this hard in a few years.
nice job Peter
Three straight leadoff walks/HBPs. That’s right, guys. Keep pounding on that blasting cap.
I get the feeling Bobby doesn’t really trust Farnsworth after the last 3 Braves appearances.
247—It’s worth repeating that he was fine tonight.
This is painful. I hate the Phillies.
#247 – He’s old. That’ll be $150.
249–I agree
Venters is also piling up some work. Hope it won’t be too long before O’F gets back.
The only mistake Wags made was hitting Huff. It was mostly bad luck, though he did make a bad pitch to Uribe who lined out to Heyward. I don’t really have much confidence when he pitches on back to back nights. That’s what you get with old relief pitchers.
Soriano is having a nice year for Tampa.
Dammit Peter.
throw a stinking strike
I am not a fan of Peter Moylan. Grrr.
would be a good time for dp there mate
This is what Venters will look like next year.
Can the Braves be giving this game to the Giants on a silver platter any more than they’re already doing?
Do the Giants even have a hit tonight? Just wondering.
a leadoff single plus a few more
Moylan vs Panda. This isn’t going to end well.
So we are just going to let Moylan twist here I guess.
Wow.
Moylan with 4 walks.
This feels like the 7th circle of hell.
31 pitches for Moylan, 19 balls.
He’s getting no borderline calls, either.
Wagner is 26-32 in save chances meaning he has blown nearly 20%. At one time he was 17-20 which is 85%. To me that’s not all that great.
Frankly I think he’s a bit overrated. He really hasn’t been any better than Soriano and perhaps worse. He certainly is not dominating like he was at times earlier in the season even when he does save the game.
Sorry…I meant 6th.
I hate Moylan.
What a way to blow the division lead.
So much for that Moylan has given up 1 run in his last 17 games stat
Memo to Kenshin Kawakami: the only thing worse than Bobby not trusting you is Bobby trusting you.
Soriano wouldn’t have fit in with the chemistry of this team anyway.
/snark?
Moylan has a great ground ball to fly ball ratio–nearly 4–but his walk rate is terrible (almost 5 per 9 IP).
33 pitches, 13 strikes. Very impressive.
Moylan obviously didn’t have anything in his second inning of work, but Bobby really couldn’t bring in Dunn because he has 9 walks in 5 innings. We really need EOF to not have had mono.
The Giants score their last two runs without benefit of a hit, thanks to three walks, two errors, one HBP, and a partridge in a pear tree.
How about a couple of runs here? It has happened before.
Freeman 2-4 with a double tonight. Nice outing by Redmond and Kimbrel closed without allowing a walk.
I want to tie it up and go about 18 innings tonight. I wanna know if Bobby will forfeit before he uses KK.
Folk Hero Brooks Conrad is still on the bench. We’re fine.
God Only Knows how we’re gonna get a run off this guy.
The Braves are starting to look like the last few years where they find ways to lose winnable games. Of course it would help to actually score runs.
285 — I’m sure he would, but KK is at Gwinnett.
I see a triple here for Chipper, completing the cycle.
Rome blasted 17-1. Ick.
@289 Oh, I need to start keeping up with things better I guess. I didn’t think the Braves would want to ruin their relationship with Japan like that, but oh well.
15th K of the night for Braves hitters, yikes.
If this loss happens to me
Though life would still go on, believe me
The world could show nothing to me
So what good would livin’ do me?
15th K for Braves hitters.
Owe you a coke, 3bagger.
Bobby’s done a masterful job of letting our righty platooners face tough righties and our lefty platooners face tough lefties tonight.
well at least they can’t use Moylan tomorrow
This sucks.
Ah, well. Can’t win, if you can’t score.
Another game pissed away. Way to go, guys.
Bobby need to issue Glaus an ultimatum tomorrow- either tell him where Glaus is hurt so that he can go on the DL, or issue his unconditional release. Incompetence needs to cost someone a job.
This loss isn’t good for team chemistry, can we trade it to Kansas City for a blow out?
I’m sitting here in suburban Philadelphia, and just a few miles away, I know there is a clubhouse full of professional ballplayers who are celebrating and smelling blood in the water . . . and I feel like I’m going to vomit.
… channeling Alex R…
Bobby you senile f*$! RETIRE ALREADY!!! He pitches Venters, Moylan and Wagner every single night and they’re already breaking down. Maybe if you didn’t BURY A PERFECTLY GOOD PITCHER ON YOUR BENCH FOR SIX WEEKS you might have more pitchers with two arms attached to their bodies!!!
Ahh, that’s better.
By the way, is Jason Heyward playing? I see he is wrapping up that ROY award.
It seems as if the clock has struck midnight and the carriage has turned back into a pumpkin.
Alex R. would never call Kenshin a perfectly good pitcher.
Man, Eeyore Schneider is on a roll tonight!
AAR, thanks for the verse. Let’s knock on wood and hope we don’t need to break out any Beach Boys references over the next two days.
I think the time has come to cut bait on Glaus. He’s going to be getting like 50,000 per at-bat going forward. I don’t think you can really risk paying him to be this bad.
“I’m sitting here in suburban Philadelphia, . . . and I feel like I’m going to vomit.”
You’re not the guy who threw up on some fans at a game are you? 🙂
edit–agree about Glaus needing to head to the DL until Sept
There is a joke to be made about being in Philly and vomiting but I won’t make it.
I don’t think it would have made much difference anyway, but yeah, I have no idea what Bobby Cox was doing with Hinske/Glaus at the end of the game.
Caught the end of the game across the street from Yankee Stadium in my favorite Dominican bar—with a bucket of cold Presidentes. Hate those kinds of losses, but… gotta catch the ball. Let’s win the next two.
#76
I love good techno, but I won’t go as far as “Metal Machine Music.” I was kind of thinking of most Lou Reed records after “New Sensations” (but not “New York”).
Re: KK
Maybe I’m not long for this world, but IMO, life it too short to argue about the relative merits of Kenshin Kawakami.
This loss stings, but two of three from the Giants would still be sweet.
Go Braves!
Recapped, I don’t know what to tell you guys.