Box Score
Sure, sometimes you’re going to win a game that goes 19 innings on a disputed call at the play that it sure looked like the umpire got wrong. Still, we needed this one, and I’m taking credit, even if I still can’t type worth a damn.
With one out in the nineteenth, Julio Lugo walked. Jordan Schafer singled him to third. It being the nineteenth inning, there was no was that the Braves could hit for the pitcher… Scott Proctor. Proctor grounded to third — actually, it looked like grounded out hard enough to turn the double play, even with the tag. Lugo looked extremely out. He was called safe, and Proctor has a win and a walkoff RBI.
The Pirates took the lead in the first with a triple and two singles, 2-0.
they made it 3-0 with a homer from the 8th-place hitter in the second. After that, Tommy Hanson was mostly in control.
The Braves tied it in the third. Consecutive two-out singles from MxCann, Uggla made it 3-1; Hinske walked to load the bases. Heyward stepped up and singled to tie the score.
The two teams then went into dueling Hibernation Mode. Normally I would describe it but I’m running out of wakefulness.
3-4 last night with a crucial IBB. He’s hitting .205. Time to change the tagline to Fear the Dan!
I think someone already said this, but Wren must be holding on to Minor becuase the braves plan on dealing Jurjjens in the off season. And he is our only lefty that may be MLB ready.
JJ or Lowe
Any good Braves rumors out there? It is very quiet.
Rosenthal says the Braves are “hot” after Quentin.
Peanut says Upton or Ludwick are most likely. Of those three, I know who I want…
If the Braves do go after a corner guy, I hope they’ll consider giving Prado a shot at shortstop on days when Lowe and Hudson aren’t pitching.
Bossman would be awesome.
Ok, I want Upton and Quentin
If they are dead set on getting a corner, I’d prefer Quentin. Wondering what he would cost. Delgado plus a lower level guy?
OK, so my new dream scenario:
1) Vizcaino for Upton
2) Delgado for Ludwick and Bell
Lineup for Hanson/Jurrjens/Beachy starts:
Upton – 8
Prado – 6
Jones – 5
McCann – 2
Uggla – 4
Freeman – 3
Ludwick – 7
Heyward – 9
For Lowe/Hudson starts, you bat AGony 8th and platoon Heyward and Ludwick (shifting Prado back to left), if Chipper’s healthy.
Who is the odd man out in a Carlos Quentin trade? Heyward?
I would let Prado try center before sending Heyward down and let Schafer come in to play center in the late innings.
Any word on how Mac’s doing?
I hope we don’t get Ludwick. He sucks and is actually a downgrade from Heyward.
He obviously does not suck, and he’s obviously better than Heyward against lefties.
@515,
True, but I think we need an everyday bat first. Then we can look for a platoon partner for Heyward.
You’ll note that step one of my proposal was getting BJ Upton to play center every day. And, considering Chipper’s health, Ludwick would likely be more than a platoon partner, especially if Prado played shortstop.
I haven’t paid as much attention to Heyward’s splits this year, but upon perusing them… well. He has gone from a .341 wOBA in 2010 to a .257 wOBA in 2011 against lefties. To be sure, his numbers against righties are also down this season, but he remains an above-average hitter against them nonetheless.
When facing southpaws, Ludwick would definitely represent an upgrade over Heyward (or McLouth, for that matter). I’d prefer Willingham, though, for that type of role.
Ludwick is a corner outfielder with a 92 OPS+. He sucks.
We should shoot for Upton.
518—Yeah, I would, too. If they could get Balfour or another righty reliever from the A’s in addition, that’d be great. I just like the idea of killing two birds with one stone in the corner-OF-to-sorta-be-platooned part of the deadline plan.
519—Cool story, bro.
Wow, that was some substance, there.
I just want to throw this out there: Denard Span has a reverse platoon split in his career, is a great defensive outfielder, and has some pretty excellent plate discipline. He’s also fast. The Twins want Drew Storen for him; that could be topped. I admit that I haven’t looked at his B-Ref page, but he’s basically a 3-4 (f)win player who is in his prime and under a reasonable contract. It’s too bad the Braves seem so lefty-averse. Between him, Rasmus, and Bourn, they may well have ignored* a number of nice CF options out there.
*maybe. What do I know?
re attendance: The population of the metro area has gone from 3 million in 1990, to 4 million in 2000, to 5.7 million in 2010. More people who could go to games, yes, but also more people to dodge to get there. I have friends and family in different parts of town, and the logistics of getting together with them now are just different than they used to be.
Edit: I have a feeling I just missed some sort of whacked out post. I hate it when that happens.
521—Don’t think substance is required to refute an obviously-false claim. Sorry.
522—Yeah, I wish I could believe that Wren doesn’t look at him and think, “Hey, that’s basically what Jordan Schafer can give us.”
I really like Span’s Twitter persona…
What’s false? He’s a corner outfielder with an OPS+ of 92. That’s obviously below league average from an offensive position.
He might be marginally useful as a guy with a .750 OPS against LHP. So would Jeff Francoeur. I wouldn’t trade a legitimate prospect for him.
Got it bad, got it bad, god it bad
I’m hot for Quentin
525—I don’t recall advocating that a legitimate prospect be surrendered for him. I suggested Delgado for Ludwick, a useful part, AND Bell, a useful part who’s also going to be a Type-A.
Do we like Quentin? I don’t know much about him.
If we got Bell all the sudden our bullpen is rock solid again. I’d say yes to Stu’s proposal even though I don’t think much of Ludwick, but only if we get Upton too.
@529, You’re like the poor kid who wishes for a pony every Christmas. Best to taper our expectations. 🙂
Will the Braves wait until Sunday to do anything, if they do anything?
On attendance, there are an infinite number of excuses that could be thrown out there. And I’m sure that in specific cases, some of the excuses are perfectly valid. Generally speaking, though, it all boils down to the fact that it’s not the hip thing to do anymore, so people aren’t gonna go out of the way to go do it. If it were the in thing to do, none of these excuses would matter, people would go anyway.
@530 I’m like the poor kid who’s parents are freaking rich and won’t spend any of it, ever. FRANK.
My personal issue with the stadium is the location downtown instead of in the suburbs and traffic. Also, current gas prices are stopping me from making many 3 hour trips.
Do we really want a guy with an ERA under 1.00 (O’Flaherty) as our sixth-inning guy/LOOGY? Wouldn’t that kind of be wasting him?
I’m like the kid who asks for a real dog and gets a stuffed animal. Like wanting Pence but getting Jordan Schafer instead.
Would anyone here do Beachy for Upton?
@532, throw in a ring or two and a couple more flags and you’d be surprised how trendy it would become.
#535 – there will be plenty of opportunities for all the guys. So, yes Im fine with that and its not wasting him. Venters/EOF/Kimbrel will all need some off days.
@536, And when you lose the stuffed animal, you’re given a Pet Rock named Nate McLouth.
Rob
I like Quentin, but do you send Heyward to AAA? It dosen’t solve our CF issue. I think Quentin is our Pence fall back option (maybe?)
It is starting to sound like we over vaule prospects though. That is a shame, this is a good team that could be made great with some tweeking.
Right now, Hunter Pence is like the mystery blonde in the T-Bird (Suzanne Somers) from “American Graffiti” & we’re all Richard Dreyfuss.
If Beltran costs Zach Wheeler, I’d hate to think what Carlos Quentin costs. I’m pretty sure we won’t get him.
I’m not sure why everyone is focused on the corner bats when the easiest upgrade is CF, and there are multiple options available (Upton, Bourn).
@537 – Hell, I’d do Rosie O’Donnell for Upton.
Elton John is a Braves fan, right? Let’s trade him.
@543
I agree
All of the Atlanta pro sports suffer from the same problem (including the now departed Thrashers… sniff, sniff). Besides the actual venue itself there is almost no other “life” around it. If you attend a Predators hockey game in Tennessee there is all kinds of cool night life right around the arena. Anyone want to hang out around the TED? I didn’t think so. Anyone want to hang out around Philips? Nope. The Ga Dome? Not so much… all of the venues are placed in areas where development of night life is not really encouraged or feasible. Put a venue near Buckhead and maybe you would be onto something. One would think owners and city leaders could observe other cities which are successful and learn something about how to build a venue and its surrounds into an experience.
Every time I see a game at Turner Field, I’m surprised by how aggressive the homeless people are on the trains and in the parking lot outside. This is coming from someone who grew up near San Francisco and lived in New York for 4.5 years.
I’ve often thought the Braves, having a regional fan base, should play a couple of weekday home series a year at other venues around the Southeast. I wouldn’t be surprised if they were able to sell out a number of SEC football stadia, if they only go there one series every five or six years. It would increase fan interest (and merch sales) throughout the region, and it would provide higher gate revenue if you pick some of the weeks with the lowest projected attendance.
I’m convinced that Frank Wren reads this blog and then, for some perverse reason, decides to do the opposite. “They want me to improve the team at the deadline? Ha! I will show them.”
The last two years, the Braves have had good teams but have entered the latter part of the season with obvious holes and/or injuries to key players. The response last year was Derrick Lee and Rick Ankiel. I fear that it may be the same type of thing this year.
If MARTA took you anywhere close to the stadium it would be a whole lot better. Right now if you want to take MARTA to get to the game you have to stop at and walk through Underground to get to the buses and stand around waiting for them to take you to the stadium. I don’t really have a tough time getting to games, when I go it’s usually during the week when I’m on campus and it’s actually fairly easy to get to the stadium from Georgia Tech. But if you’re in the suburbs and want to make it to a 7:10 game you have to use 75/85 at a time that isn’t the best to use those interstates, and it’s especially bad this summer because of the construction being done inside 285.
Also, as Hap mentioned, there’s nothing to do around the stadium after the game. If you want to hang out with some friends afterwards you have to make your way back up to Midtown or Virginia Highlands which can be a pain as well. Those roads aren’t the best after games and finding parking around there is awful as well.
•As many as eight teams are in on Pence, tweets Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports, including the Phillies and Braves. Rosenthal says the Astros are listening.
-MLB Trade Rumors
I think the talking heads are just making things up
Sure, but it has always been that way, and at one point, they were getting 3M a year. A MARTA station would not have helped the 2008 Braves, even if it was free and stopped off in front of my house.
“•As many as eight teams are in on Pence, tweets Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports, including the Phillies and Braves. Rosenthal says the Astros are listening.”
-MLB Trade Rumors
If this is true and you are the Astros, don’t you have to trade him?
But Jon Heyman told us we were the last team in on him!
WHO CAN WE TRUST!?
houston being smart for once and holding out for the absolute best deal? the apocalypse may happen before august 2.
I thought Derrick Lee did pretty good for us.
Braves sent Wilkin Ramirez down to make room for bullpen arm, Anthony Varvaro.
Probably reading too much in to it, but I think Wren
must be confident he’ll be making a move, if he’s going to go 10 days minimum without Ramirez with Schafer on DL, Chipper and Uggla nursing strained quad and calf, and an OF of Prado/McLouth/Heyward and only Hinske to back it up.
@555
My barber.
He says Wren has taken so long becasue he is working out a huge deal.
ATL gets: Pence, Bourn, Brad Ziegler, Conor Jackson
Oak gets: Prado, Austen Wates
Hou gets: Minor, Delgatto, Willingham, the Lisp
I was just saying to Stu yesterday that I think Span would be a sneaky good alternative to Bourn. He’s pretty much 90-95% of Bourn without nearly as much of the hype.
By the way, Hideki Irabu died.
Suicide by hanging, apparently. Yikes.
http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2011/07/28/hideki-irabu-found-dead-suicide-suspected/
DOB, new mouthpiece of the organization, says that Carlos Quentin is a perfect fit for the Braves b/c of Heyward’s struggles and goes on to talk about Heyward being sent to the Minors or benched. YIKES!
It would be beyond stupid to do such a thing, so of course, that’s most likely.
Does this mean Heyward really isn’t hurt? I keep telling myself that he’s hurt and the organization is too stupid to DL him.
So, who’s in CF tonight? Span? Upton? Bourn? Byrd? McLouth?
@563
Let me rephrase my own statement by saying that DOB speculates Heyward would become a part time player or be sent to AAA, not necessarily benched.
Interesting tweet from Jeff Schultz…
“Frank Wren, Bruce Manno came downstairs, talked to Fredi Gonzalez for 5 mins, went straight back to office. That’s all I know.”
How would you guys like this lineup?
Furcal
Prado
Chipper
McCann
Freeman
Uggla
Quentin RF
Heyward CF
If this Stark piece is true –
“Clubs that have spoken with the Braves say they have three primary names on their buy-a-bat shopping list: Hunter Pence, Josh Willingham and Ryan Ludwick. The Braves looked into B.J. Upton, but don’t seem prepared to pay a big price for him. We also haven’t heard much that suggests the Braves are still bullpen shopping.”
– then it’s likely some here will be disappointed. That Bourn and Span are not at the top of the list, and that they’ve given up on Upton, and that they’ve stopped looking for a right-handed reliever: all of this suggests the FO is as uncreative as many here have feared.
Wrote a long post, thought about it for a second and realized that it’s just too idiotic to get worked up about.
Oh and it’s most interesting that the CW seems to be that Uggla is gonna keep right on rolling along.
/and thinking about how long of a leash Uggla has gotten, and how short Heyward’s has been leads to some unpleasant places.
@568
“Wren made a motion with him arm, almost a waving motion.”
“I see Manno and Gonzalez shaking, perhaps in celebration?”
“Wren just looked at his watch. Time to make a deal?”
“I just heard the word ‘buy’ before they went upstairs. That’s all I know.”
Is it just me or does anyone else have the feeling that the Braves are going to do something really stupid?
@571, that’s understandable. He kept rolling along for a number of years before he came to Atlanta. It’s reasonable to think that the half season is the anomaly, not the years that came before it.
@571-edit, I don’t think it’s unpleasant to think that they give a guy with a long track record a longer leash than a guy with one good year and no prior major league PAs.
DOB’s all over it, too: “Don’t know significance, but Wren & asst. GM Manno walked w/ sense of purpose to field to talk w/ Fredi for few minutes, then back upstairs”
Wren: “Do not forget to come to my daughter’s recital this weekend. She will be very upset if her Uncle Fredi misses another performance.”
Heyward, in fact almost nobody, has ever been as bad as Uggla was through the first 80 games of the year, and the bench word never came up. In fact, he’s STILL outhitting Uggla, and by a nontrivial amount at that. Not to mention his “one good year” was better than any year Uggla’s ever come up with.
Wilkin optioned, Vavarro called up
Ludwick not in tonight’s lineup.
Hey, I finally got online! No recap today (or tonight) but I do have a game thread for you.