216 thoughts on “Brian McCann is the best catcher in baseball game thread: June 28, Braves at Mariners”

  4. No surprise, but Asencio was sent back to make room for Hanson. Maybe he can work with Luis Valdez and start keeping his pitches down.

    Anyone seen MRSA’s lineup today?

  6. Stu, I’m shocked to see you floating Minor in trade proposals. I think you’ve been hanging around Smitty’s barber too much.

    I know somebody is going to have to be traded starting pitching wise, but I’d prefer they be dealt for an outfielder that can play center or a younger shortstop, not Ryan Ludwick (admittedly a right handed bat need, but can’t play center) and a closer(TM).

  7. Ludwick can fake center as well as McLouth can, IMO. Even if the Braves don’t think so, he’d give us a ton more flexibility to manage when guys like Chipper, Prado, or Heyward are out of the lineup.

    And we need another right-handed reliever — why not get one of the best? Doesn’t mean we have to use him as a closer.

    As for Minor, someone needs to be traded, and I know nobody wants Lowe and the Braves aren’t going to trade Jurrjens. They’ve got too many MLB-ready or near-MLB-ready starters — and, for some reason, just drafted another — and I think those guys would do more good as trade bait for legit hitters than as a third insurance option in Gwinnett.

  8. Good lineup tonight…
    1. Schafer 2. Heyward 3. McCann 4. Chipper 5. Freeman
    6. Uggla 7. Hinske 8. Gonzalez 9. McLouth

  9. I now have 6 guys out of 23 (+ 2 DL) roster spots on the DL:
    Madson, J. Sanchez, Prado, Pujols, Lowrie, and Choo. This is getting absurd.

  10. Stu know that my barber gives the best trims.

    He is dead on, I think Minor is trade bait, especially if Medlen is close at all to getting ready to throw.

  12. Mauer has been able to play catcher only 60% of time since making majors. Missing so many games lowers his value. Mauer is 40% out.

  17. Is Schafer ever going to get taken out of the leadoff spot? This is getting ridiculous.

  18. 1. Schafer CF, 2. Heyward RF, 3. McCann C, 4. Jones 3B, 5. Freeman 1B, 6. Uggla 2B, Hinske DH, 8. Gnzalez SS, 9. McLouth LF
    2 hours ago

  20. Almost anyone else? Dude is hitting .222/.295/.316. I’d probably go with McLouth who at least has a .341 OBP if speed has to be there.

  21. Ten days ago I thought Schafer was here to stay. But with him sitting against a lefty last night, and McLouth playing, I think McLouth moves back to CF when Prado returns.

  22. It doesn’t matter who leads off. Stop whining about things that don’t matter.

  24. Stop whining about people whining; this blog is here to talk about baseball.

    It does matter who gets the most PAs, however small a difference it might be, there is a difference.

  25. I’m not against someone else leading off, but McLouth was right around those numbers as well when he was hitting 1st or 2nd. The majority of his OBP contribution has come while batting 8th.

    Just saying that I’m not expecting a huge improvement if/when Nate is moved to the top of the order.

  27. 25 — That’s fair, McLouth wasn’t quite as bad this season leading off as Schafer I don’t think, but your point is taken. I’m just ready to have someone who isn’t an automatic out leading off.

  29. Play me for the grumpy old man all you want, but there is no reason whatsoever for rational men to worry themselves over whether or not Jordan Schafer gets a fifth at bat while Alex Gonzalez or Nate McLouth don’t. You’re just whinging to hear yourself whinge.

  31. There’s no excuse for a grown man to speak to other grown men the way you choose to.

  36. 33 — Nah, Sam isn’t so bad, he’s just been posting this way since back on the a-b newsgroup in the age of usenet.

  42. You’ve got guts, braves14. I’d be way too scared of jinxing it if the Dawgs or Braves were on the verge of a championship.

  44. Who needs a closer when they have Halliday and Lee?

    Ichiro can hit homers, he just doesn’t want to change his style.

  45. Is it too much to ask for Jim Powell to work every game on the radio? And then follow me around in the off season and do play by play for my life? The hole that’s formed by his absence on days off is hard to fill.

  49. If I wasn’t invested in who wins, I’d find the constant insistence on “aggression” hilarious.

  50. Uggla is so terrible.

    You know, for all the grief I take for having advocated for a trade for Figgins…that would hav at least precluded the Uggla trade/extension.

  55. Chip’s two best calls tonight..

    “Cust RIFLES that one over Schafer!”
    “Cust TOWERING fly ball, man he got all of that one!”

    Joe please just lay him out for all of us.

  58. Back to back national championships in collegiate baseball has got to be one of the longest odds in Vegas.

    As a Clemson fan, and as MRSA would approve, I tip my cap to the Gamecocks.

  63. Take away Schafer’s one game 5 hit performance this month and he’s 14 for 84. Thats a nice .166 avg from the leadoff spot. Factor in that Uggla has hit .169 in June and AAG has hit .188 in June. You are basically facing a pitcher in our 6, 7, 8, 9, 1 spots in order.

  64. Joe is such an idiot. Gilroy is the GARLIC capital of the world, not artichoke. (Which isn’t to say there aren’t a lot of artichoke’s grown in that area. ‘Cause there are. Gilroy is just more closely associated with garlic. That’s all I’m saying.)

  66. @45, I agree completely. He’s the first member of a Braves broadcast I’ve really liked since Skip and Pete. I would love for him to be on the TV so I wouldn’t have to do that radio delay crap all of the time.

    The string of crummy announcers, Powell excepted, we’ve had over the last few years make me realize how lucky we were to have Skip and Pete for so many years. Those guys were seriously great at their jobs.

  67. Joe – “Chip I dont know if you know this or not, but Gilroy has always been high on my list since its the Artichoke capital of the world.”

    Chip – “I thought he was going to artichoke up on that 2 strike pitch, but he didnt.”

    Just be thanking yourself if you arent listening to this crap.

    Also, fwiw, Gilroy is known for garlic. Castroville is the artichoke capital of the world. My gosh, their nonsense has me looking up this crap too.

  68. Hanson kind of pulled this start out of the fire. He’s at 85 pitches, so I think he’ll be done after 6, but 6 innings with 3 runs and a k/inning is pretty good for a guy who’s clearly missing his control tonight.

    Also, Nate should lose his Mc again.

  70. And why doesn’t Schafer hit the ball on the ground? Like, EVER? It’s so stupid for a guy with his speed to elevate everything.

  71. #70 – I think its because he’s not that good of a hitter and doesnt have much bat control.

  73. 67 – Good call. I was actually in Gilroy (of all places) in May, and it’s definitely the garlic capitol. Chip remains the worst.

  74. 67 and 72, it’s like a train wreck. It sounds so bad I’m almost tempted to listen to them!

  75. Just returned from The Bronx where Greinke got lit up like a Roman Candle. Let’s get a little bit of that firepower for one night.

    And congrats, Cocks.

  76. So when did Hanson shave the beard back? No wonder he’s leaving everything up.

    Pineda has been a boss so far, but we have a good chance to get to him here.

  78. AAG is a useless baseball player.

    After 2 straight walks, he struck out and I dont know if a strike was thrown to him.

  82. Home plate umps shouldnt be allowed to make check swing calls.

    Sure would be nice to get Tommy the lead here.

  87. csg-

    I wouldn’t even say Castroville is the artichoke capital, either. More the Salinas valley in general. (Although I guess Castroville does make that claim themselves….)

  108. I was just thinking: “There’s nobody else on the team I’d rather have at bat with 2 outs & the bases loaded late in the game—even against a lefty.”

    Way to go, B-Mac!

  113. Stupid Justin Smoak. Why couldn’t he have deflected that one away from everyone, too?

  116. This feels like last night–Sherrill came in, didn’t get the lefty, got the righty to fly to center, and didn’t get the next lefty.

    Last night, though, Linebrink came in and got a double play. Tonight Sherrill is staying in the game.

  132. Classic MRSA, leave him in until he give up a run. Is Venters going to get 2 days off? Or is Fredi sticking to him being “the 8th inning guy?”

  133. Crap, are we going to see Proctor?

    At least there’s some guy named Gimenez with a .175 BA up. Proctor has a shot against AAA players.

  134. Ackley is too good for Sherrill. Should have been Venters there–the two best hitters in that lineup just batted.

  140. So when Proctor gives up the lead here, can we take any solace that he’s that much closer to pitching his way off the team?

  144. Given a AAA player who tries to bunt until there are two strikes…

    Proctor is unstoppable.

  147. With the steal attempts and the catcher bunting with two outs, I have to entertain the notion that Fredi isn’t the worst manager in baseball.

  161. If he wasn’t a ss AAG wouldn’t be in the majors, he lacks so much plate discipline!

  162. Starting to hope Venters doesn’t get picked for the All-Star team so he can get the rest

  177. MLB umpires are astonishingly bad. I’m constantly amazed how the sport is not embarrassed by this.

  179. So close at home, probably safe.

    Let’s hope we get last night’s Kimbrel.

    Kimbrel vs. Ichiro… this is interesting.

  184. MLB refusing to fully adopt instant replay is like refusing to believe Earth is round.

  185. Thanks to spike, all I hear in my head when the crowd chants is “Yum yum yum yum yum yum … yum.”

  197. Although I thought Heyward was safe too, the umpire’s call was not unbelievable. The check swing strike was pure BS though.

  199. Really some great lines tonight:

    “like watching a chess match played by 6-year-olds”

    “like a hot girl who has never read a book”

    I love this bar.
    ——————

    DLowe v. King Felix? I hope Bethany is running the Pat Dye Marathon today.
    ——————

    You look at South Carolina’s players and think “scrappy”. Then you look at their accomplishments and think “badass”.

    Congratulations, Gamecocks.

  200. Small sample size, but Braves have been 21-12 since Schaffer was called up. Brian McCann, the best catcher in baseball, deserves much of the credit, but Schaffer may be good luck charm.

  202. With tonight’s win, the Braves have now played half of their regular-season schedule, and won 46 of them. At this rate we’ll win 92 games, just ahead of last year’s 91 wins (and very likely enough to win the wild card – from 2003 to present, no NL team has needed more than 92 wins for the WC).

    Current offensive team leaders (excluding those with too few ABs):
    HR – McCann (14), Uggla (12), Freeman (9)
    RBI – McCann (46), Chipper (43), Prado (33)
    OPS – McCann (.924), Freeman (.762), Prado (.761)
    R – Prado (36), Uggla (35), AAG (32), Freeman (32)

    Extrapolating to a full season, only McCann and Uggla will hit 20 HRs, only McCann will drive in 90 runs, only McCann will put up a .900 OPS (or even an .800) and Prado will lead the team in runs with around 80. Not exactly stellar offensive production. Thank the good lord for our pitching.

  204. Just a thought: if Freddi is as bad a manager as everyone here thinks and the Braves are still on pace for 92 wins,
    what does that say about the importance of the manager? As a side note, one of the knocks against Jim Riggleman was that he was a good in-game manager, but couldn’t manage the clubhouse, whatever that means. So, maybe it doesn’t matter how ridiculous the lineups are or how dumb the in-game moves are. Everyone says, for example, that Joe McCarthy was the greatest manager of all time. But he had, at different times, Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio, Lefty Gomez, et. al. How good a manager would you need to be to win with those guys? He didn’t do so great with the Red Sox even with Ted Williams.

    Really, it doesn’t matter what the manager does during the game, except in rare instances. If you have better players, you win. And, whatever you want to say, the Braves play hard for this guy. Everytime you think they are doomed, they find a way to win a game or a series you think they have no shot at. IMO, if you are going to blame the manager for his mistakes, you ought to give him some credit when things go well. Unless, that is, Freddi is to blame for Uggla hitting like me, having a Little League centerfielder, Heyward being hurt, Chipper aging rapidly, and AAG being AAG.

  205. Now we have to worry about Bethany breaking down from overuse just like Venters and young starters. Double sigh

  207. I don’t see the issue, really. If caught-stealings are such a big deal, why don’t they put them on the scoreboard?

  209. I’d still rather have Figgins and his 2.5 years / $21.5 million still owed than Uggla and his 4.5 years / $57 million still owed.

  211. I’d still rather have Figgins and his 2.5 years / $21.5 million still owed than Uggla and his 4.5 years / $57 million still owed.

    Ain’t gonna say it, but am sure gonna think it.

  212. I’d rather have the Uggla deal. He’ll break out of his slump.

    Why do I think that? Well, I will selectively choose a stat with a small sample size that supports that point.

    Uggla Late and Close, 2011:
    .283/.387/.604

    Although some might say that’s due to it only being 60 PA, I choose to believe that when the pressure’s on, he locks in and overcomes whatever mental block he has during the rest of the game.

  213. @204,

    I read somwhere once that a manager’s in game calls decide the outcome of 5-7 games a year.

  215. Ichiro said the double steal is an “obvious play” down 2 with a 3-0 count. Someone should tell him to read the link in #206….If the steal is successful it just makes the Braves walk Smoak there. There’s no added benefit. Maybe he’s covering for his manager, but it sounds as if he did it on his own and Kennedy just followed.

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