I’ve been letting this slide, but I guess we should do the 2011 previews before the season starts. I’ve got Alabama, and Alex R. has Georgia. First come, first serve on the rest, apply below.
141 Comments
Advertisement
Use code “Journal” for a 5% discount.
What’s the html code for the dash through? The same idea as italics but with a “d”?
Same as italics, but with the word ‘strike.’
Thanks, Dan.Guess I should test as well
Sweet
My new discovery: Before you shell out $9.99 or more to buy an album on iTunes, check Amazon. You can usually download the MP3s for cheaper OR, if it’s an older album, you can buy a used copy of the CD for pennies. With shipping and handling, I’m looking at $3.25 for an album I was ready to pay $10 for.
I’ll take the Vols
DOB just tweeted a lineup that has Ross batting 7th and 8th. I prefer that to his original idea, where Constanza got the start. But it is gonna be brutal on Bourn, trying to cover 150 yards of outfield by himself.
Testing
(I feel embarrassingly happy for having learned this today)
Turns out I already knew it from using it in Facebook notes, but I was too afraid to try it on here for fear of it somehow being different.
@7, why don’t you mention that over at the AJC blog, just to enjoy the irate response you are bound to get?
Because today is boring, here is a quick photoshop of manager Gonzalez explaining to the press his recent starting outfield decisions:
http://i55.tinypic.com/n4gjld.jpg
Tennessee preview submitted.
Here it is.
10 – It’s unclear whether Dave O’Brien has any original thoughts of his own. He has the attitude, but little to back it up these days.
DOB’s in the midst of a twitter war with team heyward members at the moment. My feelings on the issue corresponded almost exactly with the severity of the back ache I was having – woke up this morning and I could once again tie my own shoes and the thought of Constanza in RF incited no urge to kill. I will dance a jig as he legs out 30 ft singles tonight.
He has the attitude
The name’s DOB
And I rock the telly.
I’m half Joe Camel
and a third Fonzarelli
12—A nine win season isn’t improbable
Uh…
Safer to play Constanza tonight. Zambrano is a switch hitter, which conceivably means that he could switch hands on the mound and be slightly better than righty-hitting pitchers. Way to cover all the angles, Fredi.
@17
Yeah, looking back at it, bad word choice.
Which word: “nine” or “improbable”?
🙂
Stu, you’re from Tennessee; we make allowances for overcoming such handicaps. 😉
Five Braves managers are in the Hall of Fame already. Name them.
Hint: None of them ever managed in Atlanta. Or Milwaukee, for that matter.
And I mean those selected as managers, not as players; Eddie Matthews and Rogers Hornsby briefly managed the team.
Gah, the game is blacked out for me.
Zambrano is only 30 years old? ….
Harry Wright, Frank Selee, Bill McKechnie, Casey Stengel, and Billy Southworth. (Although Stengel’s tenure in Boston- 5 1/2 years with no first-division finishes and a 373-491 record- certainly did nothing for his HoF case.)
Brian has it. There’s one other manager, George Stallings, who has the makings of a Hall of Fame case at his peak, but who wound up with a below-.500 record. And Joe Torre will go in as soon as they get around to voting on him.
THIRTY-TWO!!
32!!
Uggla’s back to hitting the solo home runs. I don’t like it.
Aww…just kidding. Awesome! All time Atlanta record is all his!
Also, there was Dave Bancroft (part of the Friends of Frankie Frisch collection of undeserving Hall of Famers in the 1970s) and King Kelly (HoF player, only managed for part of a season). And Cox, of course.
Hope Heyward is renting. A mostly successful bunt? Game over.
How’s this for a pitching matchup down at Gwinnett tonight ? Lil’ Tony Pena vs Julio Teheran.
Man it’s good to hear Bobby talking baseball again.
This is an abysmal strike zone.
CJ will likely take a couple games off per week
Man, I f’in hate Dan Uggla. What a terrible hitter.
I know! Still got an on-base percentage way under .300, good for the occasional home run but not much else… why’s he in the lineup again?
So to help those of us ‘watching’ gameday, did that hbp look intentional?
CHIPPER!!!!!!!!
CHIPPER! I loves me some power.
The Braves seem to own Carlos Zambrano.
Amazing.
Old man homer!
The old man can still hit ’em.
Wow. Go Chipper! Bobby in the booth for that one. Awesome! “Wow, what a swing!” says Bobby.
And in one swing, Chipper moves past Manny Ramirez and Richie Ashburn on the all time hit list at #82 and ties Manny on the all-time runs list at #57.
@40, Not to me. Inside pitch that darted in a little.
@40 I don’t think so, and neither did Uggla seem to.
Don’t think I’ve ever seen one of those face extender things that Byrd has on his helmet.
@48,49: Thanks – I figure if you’re trying to hit a guy, you’re not going to do it on the 6th pitch or whatever that was, but wanted to double-check.
I recall someone mentioning this before, but I just discovered I can listen to Sutton and Powell’s broadcast over the video feed on MLB.TV. I don’t know how new that feature is but I love it!
I’m liking the way Minor is pitching tonight – he’s not trying to nibble too much, and he has a good, quick rhythm on the mound. Not quite Cliff Lee-esque yet, but definitely steps in the right direction.
Holy crap, Georgie!!!!
So. Umm….
Yeah.
I give up.
All hail Constanza.
Have not seen such a hot start for a minor leaguer called up by the Atlanta Braves since Francoeur in 2005.
Joe Posnanski » Posts Why Hitting Streaks Matter (Sort Of) «.
T-Bone!
Jason who?
Kidding kidding kidding…
Ah, hell, call me Jimmy Chitwood. Constanza stays.
Well that’s it. The train done left the station now. I’ll refer you guys to my comments when Francouer came up, and hope I am less accurate this time.
Maybe Heyward could net us Yunel from Toronto? Heyward for Yunel and the sign-stealing man in white. Make it happen Wren!
Wish Mac would tell us if he thinks Constanza is for real. He has been oddly silent on the whole thing.
Thanks, Mac… That Posnanski piece is quite good.
64- Yes it was, but I’m glad he was wrong when he said “I need to hurry and finish this and get it online Friday afternoon because there’s a darned good chance the streak will end tonight.”
61: I think one huge difference between Constanza and Francouer is the former is found money who will get sat at his first 0 for 10, whereas Francouer was hailed as a corner stone of the franchise.
EDIT: Ready, steady, Freddie!
FREDDIE! And Zambrano’s BP session is complete.
Edit: And DAN! Man, the Cubs are just gluttons for punishment.
A Freemer!
I like this Freeman kid – let’s keep him.
Man, this is fun.
Is this what it feels like to be a Phillies fan?
This is fantastic. Zambrano’s face was like, what the hell is going on?
Is zambrano even trying to get the Braves out?
Damn, this is getting embarrassing. Keep it up!
Let’s do this number retiring thing more often. Smoltz next, let’s go ahead and retire Chipper’s uni. Work our way down from there.
When did we last have 5 HR in a game?
LOL
What a pansy. Chipper, on the other hand, is full of class. Other than not getting hit, he barely moved the entire time.
Asshat
Amazing, I love it.
Confession: I love Carlos Zambrano. He’s just so hilariously crazy, I can’t help it.
And that Joe Simpson is going all Joe Buck on him only makes my heart grow fonder.
To answer my own question after a quick baseball reference search, it appears that the last time we had 5HR in a game was April 17, 2008 when we beat Fredi Gonzalez’s Marlins 8-0 in Miami. Smoltz was the winning pitcher; Kelly Johnson, Chipper (x2), Teixeira, and McCann went deep.
Let’s see what sort of teammate Minor is.
Wha’appen?
Makes me wonder if maybe the Uggla hit earlier was intentional.
82—Chipper didn’t get hit, and Z’s own teammates hate him; it would be beyond stupid for Minor to try to retaliate in any way. On top of that, the ‘pen could use a break. The “good teammate” thing to do is go out there and pitch well.
Zambrano threw at Chipper
I’ll do the South Carolina preview as I have for countless years now.
@82 – I’d prefer Minor shows his loyalty to the Braves by pitching 7 – 8 innings and saving the arms of our good relievers.
Were both benches warned? Otherwise, we get a free one (not that I condone that sort of thing, at all.)
@85, Agreed.
@85 My thoughts exactly.
Minor is pitching well, i dont want him to throw at some loser on the Cubs.
“Let’s see what sort of teammate Minor is.”
What archaic thinking. Who cares? Zambrano is gone and Minor should just try to pitch eight innings if he can.
I don’t think anyone on the Cubs likes Zambrano nor do they give a shizzle if he wants out of the game so badly. I tell you though I would not want to brawl with this year’s Braves.
94—Yeah, seeing Heyward, Freeman, and Hinske lined up and ready to go kind of fired me up.
@94, Hinske, Uggla, Hanson…yeah, no thanks.
Retaliation for someone throwing at a HOF, China doll fragile star is definitely in order. Doesn’t have to happen now but it should happen.
That was all sorts of awful by Prado.
That was an ugly play…
Hinske seemed ready to go after he threw at him. I still think Hudson, even though he’s not the biggest guy out there, could go crazy on some guys.
Hanson would probably cry in a brawl.
I’ve learned that the tall gangly guys are some of the best fighters. Those would be some bony knuckles.
Heyward looked to be the first out of the dugout. Of course anything he hit would slowly roll to second! ZING!
Tyler Durden: OK: any historic figure.
Narrator: I’d fight Gandhi.
Tyler Durden: Good answer.
Narrator: How about you?
Tyler Durden: Lincoln.
Narrator: Lincoln?
Tyler Durden: Big guy, big reach. Skinny guys fight ’til they’re burger.
up 5, with 2 on and 0 out, i’m ok w the lisp hitting here and going 1-2 more innings. good to get the phrbi from conrad, but i would have been ok w the sac bunt and leaving him in for 1 more.
True or False: John Grabow makes more than our entire active (25-man roster) bullpen.
97: Agreed.
Costanza could have tagged from second on that one.
Like Skip used to say: Boy, this is fun.
Simpson’s foaming at the mouth about Zambrano is pretty comical.
The one thing about listening on the radio is it’s not Joe Simpson.
Looks like we’ll get Zambrano on Aug. 22 @ Wrigley.
And yes I absolutely do condone retaliatory strikes.
Will Heyward ever see the field again after Constanza’s night tonight?
Freddie Freeman is about to be hitting .300 in mid-August. If anyone else (with a name that does not rhyme with Bimbrel) wins ROY, I say we riot.
Good choice getting Vizcaino in the game there. I’d run him back out for another inning.
Ernie Johnson has passed away according to Joe.
Dan, save at least one of those for tomorrow!
Agreed on Vizcaino. We need to do everything possible to build up his confidence in low-pressure situations like this.
I’m going to hell for this, but that was funny the way Simpson announced Johnson’s death; the crowd loudly cheered as soon as the words “has passed away” exited Simpson’s lips because of Uggla’s single.
Yeah, Heyward will be back, but his path is becoming very interesting. What to do? My guess is you just wait around until someone gets hurt or the sizzle cools on T-Bone.
In the meantime, though, it’s nice to be rolling. Early in the season, i thought Heyward and Uggla were just holding the offense back. But that is no longer the case. 😉
The Giants last 20 home runs have all been solo.
RIP: Ernie Johnson Sr. Don just announced it on the radio. Damn.
Ernie Johnson passed away??
Chip Caray with another idiotic Chipism: “I don’t think any of us would be sitting here today if it weren’t for Ernie”.
I grew up listening to Pete, Ernie, and Skip. I got a bit queasy when Joe announced Ernie’s passing, like a bit of my childhood was now gone, but Chip’s quote was just stupid. Man, I sure do miss good announcers.
RIP Ernie. We all missed ya already!
Sutton sounds choked up but he’s pushing through it.
Ernie fathered many of us.
The Old Righthander was, is and ever shall be the voice of the Braves. R.I.P.,Ernie.
For the young bucks that dont know how great Ernie and his voice was. Static in the clip. Sorry…
Crazy…the score in the game in the video was also 10-3
Too young to enjoy Johnson’s announcing live, but judging clips and videos I’ve seen, it’s clear that he really had a great voice.
OT: Congrats to my hometown Warner Robins for another trip to the LLWS. Powerhouse.
Cubs announcers are praising the young Braves relievers. Check it out, guys: looks like we’re finishing a win here without seeing O’Flaherty, Venters, & Kimbrel OR Sherrill, Linebrink, or Proctor. Hurrah!!! The Killer Vees have it.
@106
It is in fact true that Grabow makes more than our current bullpen. 4.7 million vs. 4.2ish. Cubs can sure pick ’em.
I can’t decide. Does Varvaro have a really straight fastball, or a really fast straight ball? Help me….it’s serious.
Phillies just lost to Washington, 4-2.
I jumped on board with the Braves in 1982 when I was 11. Besides having a really great voice for calling games, Ernie connected me with the team legacy back to its days in Milwaukee. His wonderful stories about pitching in those days, dealing with all those larger than life personalities, made baseball and Braves history more real to me.
130: That’s messed up. And awesome! 3.1 innings of really solid relief.
Not that we finished many Braves wins seeing Proctor in the game, but we definitely won’t see any in the future.
But I agree; it’s nice to see the usual suspects getting a night off this evening. Let’s do this again tomorrow.
My folks gave me a transistor radio for Christmas in 1974, and I remember many nights over the next couple of years when I would put it under my pillow and listen to Ernie’s call of the game. There’s no way he wasn’t an extraordinarily nice man. R.I.P.
Uggla or Constanza for MVP?
Recapped.
I think I watched every single game in 1993. I would come home from school, do my homework, and turn on TBS at 4:30 PT to watch Ernie, Pete, Skip, and Don call the games. Despite a tough conclusion to that season, it was a pretty magical one to watch.
We lived near San Francisco and went out to Candlestick when the Braves were in town. My dad caught a Dave Justice homerun at one of the games and the camera caught him giving the ball to me. Skip and Ernie both commented, “That kid wouldn’t give that ball away for $100.”
RIP Ernie.
140: Great story, Rob. Do you have video of that?