171 thoughts on “Let’s win the series game thread: Aug. 22, Braves at Cubs”

  2. I was driving through Orlando and Gainesville yesterday and I was pleasantly surprised to find a couple of Braves radio affiliates. This is Braves Country!

  3. To chris in the last thread: Will Carroll is reporting that Strasburg is headed to see Dr. Andrews. So, yeah.

  4. The DBacks’ move makes perfect sense. Hampton replaces Webb as their groundball Godot.

    Go Braves. Let’s murderize those bums.

  6. I feel bad for the Nats. They did absolutely nothing wrong, treated him with kid gloves, but the best player in the history of their franchise — or, if you prefer, most talented player in the history of the franchise — has arm problems.

  7. AAR,

    I feel sorry for the Nationals also. But in a perverse way, I feel happy for the teams that would have the greatest chance to see Strasburg over the next year.

    So overall, I feel kind of pretty happy.

    Also, I would feel way worse if this was some undrafted free agent who would be out of work for the next year. I don’t feel as bad for a player who will not only make more money in the next five years than I will over the next twenty years, but will also always be given a contract because of his past achievements (that is, being drafted #1).

  9. 1. Infante 2B, 2. Heyward RF, 3. Prado 3B, 4. Lee 1B, 5. McCann C, 6. Cabrera LF, 7. Gonzalez SS, 8. Ankiel CF, 9. Minor LH

  10. Bethany,

    It was one game. I’m willing to bet quite a bit of my savings (which aren’t much at all) that the trend doesn’t continue.

  13. Desert, I agree with you, Strasberg will be taken care of. He stayed healthy long enough to get paid in the 2009 draft. It’s just one of those issues of fate: sometimes you can do everything right and your pitchers still get toppled by the injury bug. So much of baseball, ultimately, is being lucky enough not to have your pitchers get injured.

  15. it’s hard to feel bad for someone who makes your annual salary in a couple of weeks worth of “work”

  17. I’d make the same joke I made a couple of years ago about Dr. Andrews evidently having bought another boat, but that made people inexplicably angry. So this is me not making that joke again.

  18. No one should be happy that a player gets hurt no matter how much money he makes or how much it will help your team. It’s not all about money.

  20. “No one should be happy that a player gets hurt no matter how much money he makes or how much it will help your team. It’s not all about money.”

    I’m not happy but neither am I sad. Nobody here is wishing him harm; rather, insofar as they care at all, most are either (1) glad for the Braves or (2) agnostic on Strasburg, who certainly deserves no pity. We talk about $2 million as “cheap” or $8 million as “standard for a league-average starter,” but we also need occasionally to get some perspective. Money does matter here. It’s the elephant in the room with professional athletes–always.

  28. Nats are putting some serious spin out on this Strasburg injury. They’re saying it’s happened before and he pitched through it. Yeah? Doesn’t make it any less worrisome.

  31. Chip: “15 of Melky’s 35 RBIs have come with 2 outs.”

    Could there be a less important statistic?

  41. first inning mishaps again. Heyward has a ball hit off his glove, ump missed strike 3, and then they hit and run and hit it right where Prado was standing

  42. goodness our defense is horrid. I know it was a hard hit ball but damn, make the catch.

  44. Chip says, “Heyward’s back as far as he can go!” right about the time Jason sets foot on the warning track.

  45. Trammell lost 300 games in three seasons as manager of the Tigers. I can’t imagine why the Cubs wouldn’t want him as their next manager, Chip.

  46. Chip – “Castro doubles off the glove of Heyward.”

    if the ball isnt lost in the sun and it hits your glove, its got to be an error

  48. Oswalt is pitching into and out of jams in every inning. He’s also had 75 pitches through 4 innings so I don’t think he’ll last more than 6.

  50. There’s no way that ball to Heyward wasn’t an error. If you’re doing pirouettes on your way to having the ball bounce off the closed-two-early glove, that’s an E.

  54. You know, seeing Jim Hendry next to Chip Caray in the booth makes me think — maybe we can blame Chip’s utter horribleness on the Cubs. Much like nearly every free agent they sign or blue chip prospect they promote, a few short years in Chicago were all it took to rob him of whatever talent he may have had. That also helps explain how, despite the fact that his father and grandfather were two of the greatest broadcasters ever, he might be the worst broadcaster alive.

  56. I’m officially putting Aramis Ramirez on my “never pitch to, under any circumstances” list, right next to Chase Utley and Dan Uggla.

  57. I’m thoroughly convinced that if Aramis Ramirez had a full season of games against the Braves, he’d have a legit shot at breaking Bonds’s 73 HR season.

  71. Just to be clear the Cubs are the “bitches” not anyone here who rightfully questioned the all-star selection. Also, going forward, any “bitches” referenced should be inferred to be against some outside force not on or itself this blog unless otherwise noted.

    Thank you.

  72. This is getting crazy. The Braves look really good right now for bring Minor up when they did.

  73. The current season high for Ks in a game for the Braves is 10 by Tommy Hanson a couple of times and Mike Minor through 4 innings today.

  76. Considering he has 11 Ks in 4.1 IP, let’s look at Braves single game K leaders:

    1) Spahn with a 15 inning complete game (ouch) against the Cubs(!), 18 K.

    After that, three 15 K games. Smoltz lost a game, but threw 15 K in 7.1 IP. The other two are Spahn and Smoltz again with 9 inning complete game wins.

  80. 88 pitches for Minor, so the 6th is probably his last inning. Way to leave an impression, kid.

  83. @81, 82, with Hudson and Hanson in the rotation, at least one of those two has to be a back-end starter.

  84. Every draftnik disliked the Minor pick, but Law has a condescending prickness about him, despite being a complete failure when he was in the Blue Jays front office.

    The guys at BP are occasionally right – Law never is.

  89. 86,
    Fair enough. I just think Law is a jerk and not very good at what he does. Ironically, both Law and Ricciardi work for ESPN.

    FWIW, he has backtracked a bit on the Minor pick. Saying if the added velocity is real, his ceiling is a #2 starter.

  92. Part of what made Riccardi fail was hiring bad people. Law is a nice enough guy, but he does have an arrogance about him that doesn’t quite track to his career success.

  93. I think those of us who can’t hear Chip get the point, apparently he’s not good, but all the comments about him is getting beyond ridiculous. Give it a rest, please.

  95. Wow, Lou cant wait to get the heck out of town after yet another horrible play like that.

  96. Tony, I’m not sure people who can’t hear Chip really *can* understand how bad it really is.

  97. @89 – I havent seen the added velocity. Some were talking about him hitting 94-95 now. I dont think he’s thrown anything over 92 in his starts. Mike Minor knows how to pitch and get hitters out. When will they shut him down? 160IP, he’s at 138 right now

  104. @93, I don’t think it can be emphasized enough. I just moved from radio to TV this half inning, and it’s pretty ridiculous. Powell is really good, Sutton is okay, and Chip is really bad. Enough internet chatter and the people that employ Chip might pay attention.

    It’s such a stark difference that I’m considering a DVR just so I can implement the one-second or so delay I need to have the radio match the video feed.

  105. AAR,
    I think guys like Callis and Goldstein do a much better job than Law does.

    To each his own.

  106. Quick question, so Chip got fired from TBS last year…so how long do u guys think he stays employed with FSS?

  107. Cody Ross is now a Giant

    you know Torres will play, so who sits between Ross, Guillen, and Burrell now?

  113. wow, the cubs are even worse than the braves in the field. what an awful defensive display this inning.

  121. If I understand what just happened there, I don’t think I agree with Gonzalez’ play. I think he intentionally trapped himself in a rundown to get Melky across the plate.

    I could be wrong. He could have been trying to make second because no one was covering it.

  125. You could replace “Keith Law” with anyone who publishes draft coverage re: calling Minor a back-end starter. Law is simply being targeted, called a hack, et cetera because he’s an arrogant prick. I think he is very good at his job despite this and I greatly enjoy his smartass shtick.

  130. cubs bullpen is awful. Joe just said that the Cubs have had 2 more QS than the Braves this year. Yet they are about 22-23 games under .500

  131. Powell’s citing Cot’s Baseball Contracts on Omar’s contract, promoting the picking up of the club option.

    Even with the delay, I like the TV/radio combination.

  133. And Lee finally gets his first Atlanta hit.

    “I’m wondering if Aramis Ramirez is ever going to get in front of a ground ball the rest of the year.”

  137. This Cub’s pitcher has about the worst motion i’ve ever seen. My back hurst watching him. His stuff is pretty bad too.

  139. Wow….Brenly just called Aramis for not ever getting in front of a ball at 3rd base. I can’t wait to see JHey when his thumb is completely healed, u can tell it is still bothering him when he took off his batting gloves.

  142. Why Moylan? Why not Farnsworth or the Lisp- you know, guys you don’t want pitching tomorrow (or any other day) in Coors?

  151. So, the Giants got Ross for nothing? What in the world happened to Florida’s astronomical pre-deadline price on him? Freaking Marlins.

  154. The Marlins could have done better keeping Ross and trading him in the offseason. Not the best move.

  159. It would take more for the Marlins to give Ross to a divisional rival than it would take for them to release him to SF.

  160. Even if that’s true, it’s not hard to come up with a package of minor-leaguers consisting of more than nothing.

  161. Omar Infante has 38 games to get about 175 AB and qualify for the batting title. If he qualified right now, he’d be in the lead by 30 points.

  162. Giants lost. Phillies are up, but the rain’s almost certainly knocked Oswalt out, so the grand old seat of precious freedom and democracy has a shot. This could be a good day going into a few days where the Braves play at the Rocks and the Phillies host the Astros.

  163. 161, that’s PA, not AB. He would need 4.605263 PA per game, assuming he needs 175 and plays in all of those 38 games. Not going to happen, but he does have an outside chance of doing it.

  164. And Lou Piniella’s 2010 managerial stint ends the way it began, losing 16-5 to the Good Guys.

  165. Unless all comebackers are going to be bouncers right up in the glove Martinez might have to work a bit on his position following a pitch, right now it’s not exactly a defensive one :)

  166. @163, but he gets to fill in the gap with outs, right? If he’s in the lead by that much, he could still win the batting title without full qualification.

  167. Indeed. According to wikipedia,

    […] Since 1967, if the player with the highest average in a league fails to meet the minimum plate-appearance requirement, the remaining at-bats until qualification (e.g., 5 ABs, if the player finished the season with 497 plate appearances) are hypothetically considered hitless at-bats; if his recalculated batting average still tops the league, he is awarded the title. (This policy was invoked in 1981, securing Bill Madlock his third NL batting crown, and in 1996, when NL titlist Tony Gwynn finished the year with only 498 PAs.)

  168. Correct. I’ll spare you the math, but right now, if he gets within about 30 PA of 502, that would be good enough.

  171. If he gets a little over 50 hits over the rest of the season, then he’ll be at .333, which should at least put him in the mix. He still has to keep going at a fair old pace.

    If he’s hitting leadoff, he only needs us to get 10 hits or walks a game to get a 5th plate appearance, something he’s done 13 out of the 23 games since he became an everyday player.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *