Now, I’m not saying that Jeffy won’t play in the Atlanta Metropolitan Area next year. He’ll look great in a road uniform in Gwinnett.
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Now, I’m not saying that Jeffy won’t play in the Atlanta Metropolitan Area next year. He’ll look great in a road uniform in Gwinnett.
Use code “Journal” for a 5% discount.
The official Braves Twitter says Kawakami has been optioned to Danville. Say what?
Procedural move to get Nate back today.
To set the playoff roster at 11 pitchers and 14 position players. I’m guessing Danville’s season ends shortly and they can recall him after that without waiting the requisite 10 days.
With 6 games left against the Mets, this can’t be good.
http://tinyurl.com/26fawvm
Yes, Danville’s season ends tomorrow and they can call him back up immediately.
Back to the conversation at the end of the last thread, I just think everybody’s assuming too much with Freeman. If he pulls a Jason Heyward April in September, he’ll be on the roster…I don’t think there’s any need to worry about that. In the very likely event that he does not, I don’t know why everyone’s rushing to put him on the postseason roster a month before it’s even finalized. There are a variety of reasons I would rather have Glaus and Lee in a postseason environment. I’m not saying I absolutely would not want Freeman, but if you’re asking me to make that decision before I ever see him play in the Major Leagues, then my answer is no…I don’t want him on the postseason roster as of right now.
Let’s see how healthy Lee and Glaus are.
@2: I see. I was hoping the Braves weren’t blatant liars to KK.
KK may not even go to Danville.
Kawakami won’t fly to Danville at all. He’ll sit in the clubhouse in Atlanta and wait until the rookie season ends and then be “recalled.” The Braves get all of their major league players on the ML roster prior to the deadline for playoff rosters.
1. Infante 2B, 2. Heyward RF, 3. Prado 3B, 4. Lee 1B, 5. Diaz LF, 6. Gonzalez SS, 7. Cabrera CF, 8. Ross C, 9. Minor P
Well, Bobby isn’t trotting Louth out there just yet.
Back from a week in Vegas, looks like I missed a 3-4 stretch. I can probably live without having seen that. Sunday’s game looked like fun, the Colorado series not so much.
Anything important happen in the last week? Nothing stands out looking through the box scores. Is Lee looking healthy? Has Venters arm fallen off yet? And of course most importantly, has Bethany bought her car yet?
I saw a Charger on my drive out. Not a bad looking car. Not my thing, but I could understand the appeal.
@11
Maybe
no
hell yes
Back from a week in Vegas
Millionaire or broke?
Edit: @11:
– Gained half a game on the Phillies
– Sort of. Still back pain, but nothing serious they say.
– Venter’s arm is still attached, but Moylan had a cortisone shot (shoulder).
– Yes. Quite a ride.
lawyer I knew had a former client blow $750,000 in Vegas. He had borrowed money on property he did not own and blamed attorney. Not true, nut made FBI agent happy for a while. He had made & altered photo copies of legit transaction and for some reason banks cut him a check
Nice piece on Saito on Fangraphs.
Just for you, Robert:
http://heckhouse.com/challenger.jpg
http://heckhouse.com/challenger2.jpg
http://heckhouse.com/challenger3.jpg
#11
Miss anything?
Nah, we’re still, y’know, doomed.
Headed up to Pinstriped Kool-Aid Land for another epic AL encounter.
And how did I end up seeing the A’s twice this year? Hell, they’ll probably win…
according to talkingchop, the braves arent waiting til AAA season’s end before calling up freddie…
“When rosters expand tomorrow Atlanta Braves fans will see several new faces, and several old faces. Top hitting prospect first baseman Freddie Freeman will be called up along with pitchers Michael Dunn and Scott Proctor, and 30-year old rookie catcher J.C. Boscan.”
proctor? really? he’s been decent his last 10, but his 7.08 era cant be hidden by any stat.
Extra competent arms for the ‘pen are a good thing.
Looks like Lowe’s been hurt for awhile.
Yay, I agree with Stu on something! There’s no reason not to bring up Proctor. He does have Major League experience, unlike Marek (who might also be up at the end of the AAA season). Also, Kimbrel can’t come back up until the close of the AAA season after being sent down a couple days ago.
To be fair to Lowe, outside of Sunday’s game it was his best stretch since the very start of his Braves career.
he still shouldnt be trying to pitch with an elbow injury
players play hurt all the time. Injured no. Pitchers ice arms after games for a reason. Pain.
Just to play devil’s advocate, you’ve spent the last few days hoping he needs Tommy John surgery, and thereby not caring about his health at all (in fact, actually caring about his health in a negative fashion), and now that it’s come out that he has elbow soreness, you’re complaining about his best stretch of the year because he shouldn’t be pitching with an elbow injury. If you don’t care about his health, what do you care if he pitches with elbow soreness as long as he pitched well?
Also, I’m not gonna get fully into it again, but Kawakami is not better than Derek Lowe. Maybe about the same (although I don’t even think he’s that), but he is not better. So I’m not sure what the clamoring for a Lowe injury so we can get Kawakami back into the rotation is all about.
24—Well, if Lowe were seriously hurt, the Braves would get a lot of insurance money. Maybe no help this year, but certainly next year.
I wouldn’t wish arm pain on Lowe. But, honestly, I am kind of annoyed that he has been trying to be a hero. Yes, he pitched well for a month, but he pitched at a pretty mediocre level for the year and a half before that, and to my eyes he was clearly struggling with release point and command for much of that time. If that’s because of an injury, okay — that explains why he’s been so disappointing on a $60 mill deal. If it’s because he’s getting older, okay — too bad, but the money’s gone.
But if he’s mediocre when healthy and he’s hiding the fact that he’s been in elbow pain for a couple of months, that is very aggravating to me, success or no. He just doesn’t have a whole lot of margin for error.
Completely off-topic, but I just finished the new Henry Aaron biography and I wanted to recommend it. It’s striking in that it’s as much a social history with Aaron at its center as it is a straight biography. You get some wonderful descriptions of the experiences of blacks in Alabama and the transition of early black stars out of the South as the Negro Leagues were folding. The segergation of black players during spring training and throughout the season. There’s some wonderful stuff about Robinson and what it was like for people like Mays and Aaron and Frank Robinson to follow him. Amazing details about the constant slights that that generation of black players faced. Even in the Braves locker-room when he first came up Aaron had to dress well away from his teammates. Some of the press reports early on would key on Aaron’s early mental mistakes when he first came up and attribute it to black players not being smart enough to play. Then when he got good it was all must be raw talent even though from all accounts he worked harder than anybody else.
A point I never thought of before as well. Aaron’s poise and dignity in the face of racism was kind of lauded by the liberal (liberal meaning anti-segregation) press of the time. The black players that got angry were really savaged by the same media. Aaron has a few moments when his dignity slipped and he’d get railed by the sports columnists of the day who almost never talked about what had made him angry in the first place. I had always admired black leaders of that area for their dignity and restraint, but after reading the book it felt more like a box they had to live in to keep allies even among the most liberal of whites.
It’s also very thorough and not nearly solely about race as I’ve made it out to be. There’s a great discussion of Aaron’s attitude toward Bonds and the steroid era more broadly, his relationship with Turner and the city of Atlanta, painful descriptions of how bad he got in his final years.
Aaron apparently didn’t participate in the process, so Bryant does a lot of (perhaps accurate, it sounds good!) guess-work into the psychology of Aaron. The fact that he’s so enigmatic and hard to know works perversely to draw you into the book, but it’s also kind of frustrating that so much of it has to be speculation and the public things we do know about him come with all these contradictions baked into them. He wouldn’t do well on Oprah.
The bads: the description of games early in Aaron’s career read like prosed up box scores. I assume there was no television footage to watch of key games so Bryant does a lot of factual recounting without any details of important moments the Braves had against Brooklyn or the Yankees. I would have thought that the newspaper accounts of the era would have had a lot more backstory to the individual games and some emotional context to the key moments that he could incorporate. At any rate, it makes for some dreary reading when it should be riveting. It does get better for some reason once you get to games in the 70s. I’m just guessing that Bryant had footage to look at and could get into the body language and details of the games themselves.
Fun things I didn’t know. Everybody apparently found time to smoke a cigarette before going up to the on deck circle. Warren Spahn was kinda of a dick. Eddie Matthews was a really angry drunk, but a great teammate. Aaron would have felt less lonely with the Braves in his early years if he liked going to bars: an important lesson for the kids. Drinkers don’t trust people who don’t drink and nearly every baseball player in the 1950s was soused half of the time. It was the performance de-hancing drug of the time. I also learned, although I’d heard tales of this before, that they basically kept jars of speed in the clubhouse, so I’m sure that mitigated some of the effects of hangovers.
And sorry. That post is so long it’s intrusive.
they basically kept jars of speed in the clubhouse
Performance-enhancing drugs, kids!
#29 Yes. But in their defense they needed it to sober up after passing out in the clubhouse at four in the morning.
@28 It’s okay to make people read more than 4-5 sentences in a row on the internet sometimes. I appreciated your review and will have to give that book a read first chance I get. It sounds great.
I feel like we are made of weaker stuff nowadays. A lot of those guys lived Lindsay Lohan-hard and still hit .280.
Freeman and Beachy are going to play in the Arizona Fall League.
32- Keep in mind that the pitchers were just as greenie-dependent, at least if you believe Bouton’s Ball Four. MLB didn’t begin testing for amphetamines until after the 2005 season, believe it or not.
stu,
if you’d look at proctor’s numbers this year, you might retract the word competent in your post. there are plenty of other competent arms to choose from at gwinnett.
Now, I’m not saying that Jeffy won’t play in the Atlanta Metropolitan Area next year. He’ll look great in a road uniform in Gwinnett.
But, but…Francoeur is hitting clean-up today!
1. Luis Castillo – 2B
2. David Wright – 3B
3.Carlos Beltran – CF
4. Jeff Francoeur – RF
5. Ike Davis – 1B
6. Henry Blanco – C
7. Chris Carter – LF
8. Ruben Tejada – SS
9. Jon Niese – P
I really don’t want to see Jeffy traded to a playoff-bound team (Rangers) on the last day he’s eligible to be on their playoff roster.
#34 From the Bryant book you get the impression that it was like aspirin for players of that era. It’s a half-assed defense, but because steroid use was not as wide-spread it created more of a competitive imbalance. Guys back then didn’t think of amphetamines as harmful and so there was less of a moral choice to make about whether to take them or not.
But, it’s a good reminder that there’s no PURE era of baseball. Ruth never had to face Satchel Paige in his prime, guys were doing drugs hand over fist—amphetamines and then cocaine, then the steroids. The nostalgic sepia toned baseball history covers up a lot sins.
35—Dude. There are no service-time concerns with Proctor, and he’s going to be, what, the 9th member of the ‘pen? And once guys like Martinez, Kimbrel, and Marek can be brought up, the 12th.
This wasn’t a choice between Proctor and some other good player; it was Proctor or nobody. Of course you add the extra arm.
They probably promised Proctor a callup.
Thanks for the writeup, jd. Good stuff. I’ve only ever read the Furman Bisher-ghosted autobiography (and that 35 years ago). It was timid and poorly voiced, and Aaron later disavowed it. The one anecdote I remember was the Birmingham Barons’ bus stopping at a store, and Aaron buying some milk, drinking some, then going to pour the rest on the ground before being stopped by an older player/preacher named Gaylord, who thundered, “That’s waste, boy, and waste is a sin!” I hear a lot of Bisher in that story….
#40 There’s actually a great account of a piece Furman wrote on Aaron for the Saturday Evening Post. Followed him around for three days and then basically called him slow-witted and wrote out all Aaron’s quotes phonetically to capture his accent and occasional mispronunciations. Aaron was really hurt by the piece and Bryant can’t believe he didn’t punch him the nose much less work with him later in life. It’s occasion for one of his digression into Aaron’s psychology and why he would forgive it. Frustrating because it’s not like Aaron’s dead so why not just answer the author’s question.
Also, Furman is quoted in the biography as saying that “Aaron is a nice guy, but he’s easily led around by people.” It made me not like Furman very much.
DOB tweeting Braves are listening to possible trade offers for Glaus.
Who would trade for Glaus? It’s the Royals isn’t it?
Hopefully, the Braves will accept after driving a hard bargain. Say, two used lottery tickets.
That is one sad LolMets lineup. I know batting average isn’t the be-all and end-all of statistics, but what excuse can there be for having just two .250 hitters in there? (Using more advanced numbers, Frenchy’s .663 OPS is their fourth best.)
@38
that wasnt my point. you called him competent, which, since returning from injury, is very far from the truth. if he’s on the 40 man and he’s completely stinking up the joint (as he has), there’s no harm cutting ties with him and moving up one of the actual competent pitchers.
I’m not entirely convinced that Glaus is useless.
Also, who COULD like Furman Bischer?
When I was 13 I met Ted Turner and told him I was going to be the next Furman Bisher (my dad put me up to it). Mr. Turner found that highly amusing….
Millionaire or broke?
Edit: @11:
– Gained half a game on the Phillies
– Sort of. Still back pain, but nothing serious they say.
– Venter’s arm is still attached, but Moylan had a cortisone shot (shoulder).
– Yes. Quite a ride.
Thanks Tom (and others)! I was due a profitable gambling trip to Vegas and I had it. I poured most of the winnings back into golf, food, clubs and shopping but basically it was a free vacation which pretty awesome. Hot as hell though.
Sounds like Lowe is hurt. Not sure how I feel about that yet.
Edit: Wow, Skippy hitting cleanup. That’s a cry for help.
How un-Heywardian.
Almost played a single into a homer.
Their pitcher has one odd nose.
ummm – why didnt they send him? 2 outs and the pitcher up next? stupid Mets.
Because if he’s thrown out then the pitcher is leading off the next inning instead of the #1 hitter.
This would be an excellent time for Lee to start hitting.
55- Looks like he took your advice.
Edit: Sacrifice bunt? Is there any explanation other than “Cox is managing”?
The ole’ double f-up. Bad bunt. Bad defense.
Great patience there, AAG
You still suck New Guy.
lefty killer, matt diaz, asked to bunt with a runner on 2nd. stupid.
the %’s scoring a run with the leadoff man at the plate with 0 out vs 1 out aren’t nearly as bad as the % of scoring a man from third with the pitcher up and 2 outs. Not sending him home from a LONG relay throw is bad baseball, but it’s the Mets.
I see that Leadoff Double = Death is still in effect.
I would have sent him. It’s not like we still have Furcal out there make those laser relay throws he used to make.
Peachtree game means no commercials. I like that.
Why in the hell would you bunt with Matt Diaz in the second inning?
At least the automatic out is batting to end the inning after the double.
Jeffy sucks.
Two-pitch out from Frenchy to strand a runner in scoring position. Ah, good times.
LOL Mets.
Ross!!!!!!!!!!!!
I can’t believe Beltran didn’t catch that.
Can’t screwup a leadoff triple…you would assume.
Oh fuck me. Not again.
70 — Or can you?
here we go again…..
GREAT Video Mac!
Question: (perhaps this has already been a poll?)
Would you rather listen to the TV idiots that call games for the METS or Chip Caray?
wow
70- And you’d be wrong.
JFC.
Well, that’s just ridiculous.
This sucks. This pitcher is not doing well and we’ve missed some great chances. Maybe we’ll break through eventually.
The lead off 3B was a big mistake. This team can only score runs with 2 out and nobody on. Stupid Ross.
Lol at the Mets…
I don’t know what they are expecting. Tejada barely hits at all, at least they cleared the pitcher.
Ah crap, another leadoff XBH.
oh great, now a double to lead off the inning…
3rd straight leadoff XBH. Hope they can do something with it.
Oh boy. We did it!
LOL Mets. That was an awful throw.
Derrek Lee hasn’t read the “Hit Like a Brave” manual yet! Good for him!
Joe, I don’t think Snitker knew anything. He sends runners all the time in any situation.
Is someone official in Freeman’s ear about wearing the #5 so we can call him Fab Five Freddie? I feel like it’s going to be a missed opportunity if he goes another way.
Way to go, Lee! Let’s get some more.
Man I like Minor. He’s unflappable.
That throw from Carter might be the worst I’ve seen since Melky’s soap adventure. He threw it straight into the ground.
Not a good start to this inning.
Minor may not have it tonight
He had it, but not anymore.
I’m scared.
WHAT!!!!!!!!!!!!
He had him struck out. Bullshit call
F***k that umpire.
Needed to make him climb the ladder there. I don’t get how the Braves saw him screw up for 2 years but didn’t get the book on him.
Minor up to 92 pitches. Probably his last inning.
I’ll take that for out#1…..man is Minor getting squeezed by this bozo.
Freaking umpire is terrible.
Sqa-weeeeze.
What happened to those pitches off the plate he called strikes on Heyward?
In consistent umpiring. The worst kind
What the f**k! Has he money on the Mets or what?
I still feel like we are going to win the game.
That was actually well done. He pulled out of it. He showed resiliency!
I’m oddly calm about this inning. 2 runs on sac flies. He’s getting robbed by the ump. They could have broken it open. I’ll be very surprised if we don’t pull this one out….how amazing would it be for McOut to tie the game here?
The return of Louth! I’m quivering with anticipation! Well, my stomach is, anyway.
Louth? Where’s Hudson?
Yay, MacBeth!
He’s going to wear #5!!!!! I’m so happy.
How was that a strike?
Took one for the team. That’s resilient.
Haha Mets.
Ladies and Gentlemen, Your New York Mets
…LOL Mets
Coldplay fans and gentlemen, tonight the part of the 2010 Mets will be played by the 1962 Mets.
He is on fire.
Sheesh, another one smoked for Jason.
Mike Minor knows how to win.
Heyward!
another episode of Jason and the Scorchers
I made a poem I’d like to share with you:
That Heyward kid
Can hit.
lolMets
This umpire sucks donkey nuts.
Heyward swung at the first pitch…?
when did JH start swinging at the first pitch?
The LolMets never cease to entertain. (Unless you’re a Phillies fan right now, I suppose.)
SEND HEYWARD BACK TO GWINNETT!
Tom,
Genius
I’m late, but GO HEYWARD!
Snitker’d
AAG should have gotten to second there.
wasted out–even worse is giving pretty boy another OF assist
Look at it this way; we just made Frenchy seem useful so that he can continue to amuse us for years to come.
I would love it if Jeffy went to the Rangers and hit .400 down the stretch for them, just to shut the “tougher league” jerks up.
In Snicker’s defense, there was a 65% chance Frenchy throws that ball into the Mets dugout and kills Howard Johnson.
If Jeffy hasn’t killed HoJo yet, it’s not going to happen.
Good one, Mac
Boo YA
SLAM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Boss.
Ballgame!
ROSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1
Mets, lol
Ladies and Gentlemen, our backup catcher!
OMG
Awesome.
Ross is clearly learning from McCann!!!!
lol, Mets.
So does this mean Liberty Media has to pay the Mets players too?
Louth bats for the 2nd time in the inning.
Minor is a born winner, huh?
Ross half way to cycle
I bet the Mets blogs are just oozing with love for Castillo.
Ross does have a triple this year.
Does Luis Hernandez count as a crappy ex-Brave? That would give the Mets six on the 25-man.
Venters: he’s good at baseball.
Was it really necessary to have Venters pitch tonight?
That could be Jeffy’s last ever strikeout in Atlanta!
This game has really sped up since the grand slam. Looks like both sets of players are ready to call it a night.
Are you thinking Frenchie won’t have any more ABs for the rest of the series?
He might be traded tonight.
I think the Cardinals might be done.
Ross with a triple and a grand slam in the same game….give the man an extension
btw, DOB is reporting that multiple teams are still calling on Glaus and Wren is listening to offers. Im guessing no one will give us enough to justify moving him for the playoff push. He’ll be pretty valuable to us if healthy
Glaus will not be in Atlanta next year. Is there a RH 1B in organization?
I really look forward to having Glaus dh in the world series
169 — No, but there’s a Freeman.
PaulV, Barbaro is RH
168 — Yeah, I don’t see how a minor league filler player we’d get in return would be more valuable. That is, unless Glaus tanks, but he seems to be hitting again.
Why did Bobby burn both Venters and Saito tonight? Especially when Saito can’t pitch on back-to-back days? I think a 7 run lead would be safe to use Farnsworth instead of Saito.
Barbaro should be on our bench next year.
I read the Glaus rumors on AJC earlier. Thought nothing of them until now.
#174 – great question
#174 Apparently having watched Moylan’s arm fall off Bobby wants to see a left one fall off as well.
175 — I doubt that happens. He can only play 1 position, and the Braves don’t even think he can play that one considering he has been DH’ing all year.
which AL team would covet Glaus?
@180
Tampa Bay
Recapped.
How many more times do we get to play the Mets this year?
Goodness, they suck.