SEC picks and game thread: Sept. 2, Mets at Braves

It’s that time again! Home teams in italics, Tennessee always picked to lose, and I spent as little effort as possible deciding.

Alabama 62, San Jose State 9
South Carolina 19, So. Miss 10
Georgia 41, Louisiana-Lafayette 6
Florida 51, Miami (OH) 0
Kentucky 17, Louisville 16
Ole Miss 16, Jacksonville St 3
Auburn 56, Arkansas St. 12
Arkansas 70, Tennessee Tech 14
Northwestern 20, Vandy 14
MSU 24, Memphis 14
LSU 40, UNC 10
Tennessee-Martin 7, Tennessee 6

164 thoughts on “SEC picks and game thread: Sept. 2, Mets at Braves”

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

    I’m glad I didnt bet. I thought for sure Glaus would start today at 3rd seeing as Bobby gave Freddie the start at first yesterday. Guess csg was right when he reported that Prado’s thumb is bothering him too much to play 2nd. If that’s the case, then it’s either Prado or Glaus and that’s a pretty easy choice for Bobby to make.

  3. LSU 40-10 is a bit pessimistic don’t you think? There’s no way the Tar Heels will stay within 30 points after the turmoil they’ve been through these last few weeks.

    Seat Painter
    UNC ’86

  4. Re: last Braves fight

    The last one I remember was a Spring training game in Vero Beach between I think Brian Jordan and Kevin Brown. Of course it wasn’t on the field it was down the right field line towards the locker rooms. I was there and all of a sudden you just see the entire benches empty as guys go running towards the clubhouses.

  8. Every time I go on one of these links to a site, I’m stunned by the idiocy of most of the comments. The criticism of Wagner for not celebrating a meaningless record after a loss just blows me away. If he did the opposite, he would be criticized for that too.

  11. @8, I actually agree. It’s almost an insulting record, too. Like among pitchers who weren’t able to make it as a starter, you’ve thown the most strike outs. Oh, wait, the most strikeouts of lefty failed starters.

    Celebration time!

  12. Actively avoiding the spotlight… I kinda like that.

    Re: Braves Scraps

    I was at a game at Shea for a Braves/Mets brawl, back during the ’94 strike season.

    Smoltz didn’t have it that day and he gave up a grand slam to this bummy Met to put the game out of hand in the middle innings. (Remember Ryan Thompson?) Next pitch, he drilled little John Cangelosi for the second time in the game.

    The dwarf Met charged the mound, got tackled. Benches & bullpens empty. Everyone got tossed. It somehow ended up on the cover of SI.

  13. Braves sweeping the Mets, USC vs Hawaii, a nice Utah vs Pittsburgh game…my wife’s withering stare is warming up in the bullpen.

  15. @12 – the best part of that brawl was Ryan Klesko charging in from LF and yanking two Mets players off of the scrum, one in each hand, and dragging them backwards.

    I miss Ryan Klesko.

  18. I also miss Ryan Klesko.

    10- Can you use your computer for other things besides Braves Journal and porn ? I had no idea.

  19. Not that it will matter much, but Louisville is the home team against Kentucky. UK ought to win handily despite it being the first game of the new coach.

  24. The Ole Miss pick is pretty good. About what I expect all season. Us fighting for 17 points and the opposition fighting for 10. Well except against the rest of the SEC west and Fresno and Kentucky. Then it could be opposition fighting for 17 and us fighting for 10.

  25. Why would Prado’s thumb prevent him from playing 2nd but not 3rd? I’m not being contentious, it’s an honest question.

    @ 12
    My friend who is a Mets fan told me that story and cited it as his reason for hating John Smoltz, more than ten years ago.

  26. How are the Mets this terrible?

    They handcuffed themselves in previous years by throwing money around promiscuously and establishing a pattern by which the only way they would improve their team was via the free-agent market. They spent a lot of money unwisely — the Oliver Perez contract, the insane Luis Castillo extension, overpaying for Jason Bay — and got unlucky with the injury to Carlos Beltran, who probably was worth the contract but may never be the same. Thanks to Bernie Madoff, the team basically lost the ability to improve itself on the fly and use money as a bandaid to fix all their myriad holes. So, instead, they’ve had to improvise. Sometimes that works out, like R.A. Dickey, and a lot of the time it doesn’t.

    Basically, they’re a mid-market team on the hook for a lot of big-market contracts. That’s a sure recipe for pain.

  27. 10-

    AAR, that’s fantastic. There should be a pop up warning box saying that every time someone signs on.

  30. Well, to be fair, I’d argue that Bay was a combo of overpay AND bad luck. This year bears little resemblance to his career arc coming into the year. Teams with money are allowed to overpay to maintain competitive advantage.

  31. #26
    Yup. Bad decisions, bad luck, bad combo.

    It’s really that hideous lineup that’s been the main problem.

    The Mets’ overall pitching, especially in that park, has been good.

  33. they said Prado has trouble taking the throws, but most of the pain comes from him making more of a side arm throw from second. He’s able to throw more over the top from 3rd and it hurts less apparently

  35. Going to watch the G Braves play at the Durham Bulls. Should be fun, but I’m disappointed there won’t be any Freeman… or really anyone else of consequence. :-/

  36. With Beltran Bay can get healthy if Pagan is for real and David Wright they have a good core IMHO.

  38. And then, of course, Reyes, who was pretty devastating from 2006-2008, but who right now is a speed guy with leg problems. It’s awfully hard to win when you’ve got two five-win players like Reyes and Beltran with major injury issues.

  39. Teams with money are allowed to overpay to maintain competitive advantage.

    Agreed. But that’s a major part of the problem for them. They used to have a lot more money — like when they gave $100 million contracts to Santana and Beltran — than they do now. They really couldn’t afford to come up short with Bay, and they really can’t afford to improve their lineup with him underperforming expectations.

    They basically are going through a lot of the same problems that the mid-’00s Braves went through with the Time Warner payroll contraction. Except their farm system, GM, and ownership are worse.

  40. The Wilpon situation is the big unknown over there—how much did the family actually lose to Madoff & how will it impact them going forward?

    BTW, the Met fans have gone back to calling him “Fred Coupon.”

  41. The mets are just ill-conceived more than anything.

    Theoretically, they could be good, but everyone knew Bay was brittle, K-Rod wasn’t worth what they gave him, Castillo and Frenchy sucked, and Reyes had issues. (this doesn’t even mention the lack of bullpen and overall organizational depth)

    That many if’s was bound to catch up eventually….even with Dickey and Pagan being pleasant surprises.

  42. Bethany, Do not park near a high rise. Man fell from 39 stories and destroyed Dodge Charger. He survived/

  43. I love Peachtree games. Our cable company broadcasts some kind of direct feed with no commercials, and I just watched a chorus sing the National Anthem.

    Also, no Chip.

  44. Except for the one in Coors Field bizarro land, the Braves won every series that started in August, including the 4-gamers.

  45. Food for thought: The Braves could very well end up with the Rookie of the Year, Batting Champion and Cy Young winners this year.

  58. It’s amazing that the Braves manage, finally, to shed Jeff Francoeur–only to add Nate McLouth and Melky Cabrera. It’s also amazing that both those guys will be on the postseason roster.

  60. I wish Lee weren’t so crappy as a Brave. Or that Bobby would bat Diaz ahead of him in the line-up against Santana.

  72. Joe doesn’t know what the harm is of running hard out of the box. Does he not realize that Cabrera is fat? Fat guys don’t like to run.

  76. No, Joe, that third of a second he would have gained running at full speed vs almost full speed would not have gained him a base. Geez.

  83. That was a single which, after the drop, was still a single. You don’t risk an out trying to squeeze an extra base out of that, even if you’re hustling like a dyed red head in an indie German movie. That drop might send a runner home from second, maybe, but not make a single a double.

    Good job on the catch, Melky. Nice. Quick read, too.

  89. Looks like the Mets’ new SS, Arias, has replaced the suckitude which Frenchy took with him when he left town.

    EDIT1: Crap. Send Heyward to AAA!

    EDIT2: Just kidding.

  91. See, but Ike Davis won’t be charged an error on that, even though if he had made the play, Omar wouldn’t have had a chance to reach. It was an indirect result.

    However, Hudson is charged earned runs even though the runs were a direct result of an error.

    ?

  93. That’s too easy to look up. I prefer questions like the one a couple of days ago, “Who was the last person to lead in each of the triple crown categories at the All-Star break?”

    I imagine that by the time you write something to find that out, the answer is on the screen, and you lose.

  94. Sixteen pitches in the last two innnings. Hudson’s figured out that he’s still pitching against the LolMets.

  96. @94, Are they still the LolMets now that Frenchy is gone? I imagine the Rangers will emerge from bankruptcy as the RoflRangers.

  98. Looks like McCann’s strategy of “get to 0 – 2, wait for Santana to throw a meatball changeup” didn’t work a second time.

  99. at 50 pitches through 4IP, we arent doing ourselves any favors against Johan

    all 3 guys had 0-2 counts

  100. @99, I know. The team needs to remember how it won when Josh Johnson was dominating. Make him throw a lot and wait for him to go home.

  101. Luis Castillo’s walk up music is the theme to Louis CK’s new show “Louie”. Great show by the way.

  102. 96- Their closer put himself out for the season by punching his father-in-law. Their owner lost God-knows-how-much in a pyramid scheme. Their stadium is named for a ward of the government. And of course, they actually thought Frenchy was worth acquiring once. They are, and will remain, the LolMets.

  103. Utley up with the bases loaded – 1 out

    he hit a sac fly to cut the lead 4-2, Howard flew out to end the inning

  104. It is kind of crazy that Hudson, after the horrendously long first inning, has only thrown 72 pitches through five.

  106. Here’s to a hellish night in Denver.

    FWIW, Met radio announcers say they were walking outside the press box and they ran into Frank Wren—who was with Fredi Gonzalez.

  108. I really hate when announcers start talking about stats. Wright no HR’s in 104AB vs the Braves. Very next pitch – HR

  128. Lots of hard hit balls when I’ve been watching. Lineout double play. That ridiculous catch by Duda at the wall – interesting route there.

  132. yeah, what the hell is wrong with Moylan. Dont understand leaving a reliever out there after walking two straight either

  133. 132- The Mets meet that incomprehensible decision with another one: giving us an out when our pitcher doesn’t know what area code home plate is in.

  134. @129–looks broken–terrible August for the Aussie–1.9 WHIP and only 3K/9

    @12–I was also at the Smoltz-Cangelosi brawl game–Cangelosi was a little guy but he had some fight in him

  141. OK, D-Lee. It’s time to make your mark.

    EDIT: I hate the Rockies.

    EDIT #2: Sigh. Starting to hate Lee. Which I hate.

  156. You’d still need someone to hit for the pitcher if he got on, though.

    Edit: Though I guess we got plenty, I forgot we have a deeper bench now.

  158. Utley grand slam. 12-7 Phillies. Why couldn’t the Rockies suck this badly when we visited them?

  162. This is one of those games that just happens. I’d have to imagine four game sweeps against anyone are rare. As bad as the umpire sucked against the Braves those last few innings, without calling that pitch EOF doesn’t get that call against Hessman with runners on earlier.

    That said, this would suck a lot less if not for the Phillies playing tonight in that God-forsaken park in Colorado.

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