Finally a home game thread: April 13, Brewers at Braves
Don’t most teams get a game at home in one of the first two series?
115 thoughts on “Finally a home game thread: April 13, Brewers at Braves”
Cleveland just got Johnny Damon, who last year put up an OPS+ higher than any outfielder wearing an Atlanta uniform in 2011, for one year, $1.25 million.
Or as the Braves call that, “Livan and Durbin money.”
“Livan and Durbin money”–thats pretty good and the reality if quite sad. Its even worse that it happens when Atlanta has a surplus of young pitchers who could get experience, make contributions and possibly raise their market values….
I like to call it “less than what we are paying Matt Diaz”.
It is truly an awful thing that we are employing Livan, Durbin, and Diaz. That said, Johnny Damon wasn’t a good fit for us, anyway. He’s lefthanded, can’t play CF anymore, and isn’t going to carry us to a division title in the event Prado and/or Heyward repeats 2011. And I’m sure he wants to be a starter so he can get to 3000 hits.
I feel there’s a lot more things to worry about than whether or not we got Johnny Damon to play LF for us.
And how does Damon address the Braves’ seeming need for a RH power hitting middle of the order bat anyway?
Also, read on Jayson Stark’s ESPN column that the Rays have “been diligently following Braves catching prospect Christian Bethancourt.”
If the Rays want him that’s good enough for me that we need to pull an Orioles on them and make ridiculous demands – Longoria AND Hellickson maybe?
The only way we should trade Betancourt is if we got something ‘ridiculous’ in return….
Bourn Prado Jones McCann Uggla Freeman Heyward Pastornicky Hanson
@6, Stu’s big chance to acquire Mikie Mahtook…
@4, Yeah. I thought I read that Damon has an out clause for when Grady Sizemore returns, but it seems like there’s some informal agreement that he’ll get traded if Sizemore can ever manage to stay healthy. I’m fine hoping for a bounceback from Prado as a starter.
I would wager we’ll be seeing Betancourt as the starting catcher in Atlanta pretty soon.
My point is just that there are useful players to be had with your budget’s last 1-2 million, even recognizing the valid objections to Damon in particular. Our FO just seems habitually in favor of spending that slice of the budget on negative-utility players. It’s just annoying to watch competence bought for the same price.
I have heard that the Braves actually use some form of advanced statistical analysis but it’s hard to see where.
Bourne has a .309 OBP as a Brave. Ugh.
I think they do on defense.
For those of us who like to needlessly worry about the June draft here is a useful link:
At this point, my prediction is that the Braves will avoid HS players and go with signable college players–even if their ceilings are much lower…..
Yes, their defensive analysis is pretty in-depth. It goes like this:
“Can he play (second/catcher/third)?”
“He hit 25 HR (last year/the year before/three years ago).”
“But can he play (second/catcher/third)?”
“He hit 25 HR (last year/the year before/three years ago).”
Chipper scratched? Needs his knee drained.
I still have a cold, which I guess is actually a sinus infection. Anyway, I’m still in early-to-bed mode. I may stay up for the end of the game, but I will be dosed on too many things to write.
Matt Cain is pretty good at pitching.
With Chipper scratched for his liquid knee, does that push Prado to third and Diaz to left?
Who’s carring the game tonight?
Hey ya’ll, this is why we chop.
feel better, chipper and Mac.
I see the game on peachtree.
@23, Not if you’re on Dish Network. Braves.com says it’s also on FSSO, but not at my house. This is bullshit.
I like seeing Jair hitting 92 right away.
Where is KK when you need him??
So the infield grass was torn up and replaced, but the outfield remains the same. The effect is a two-town mess just beyond the infield dirt into the outfield. It would have made sense to replace it all, but that was probably beyond ownership’s budget, thus, there are probably 50 high-school fields in Georgia that look better than Turner Field.
@24 Does Dish offer the MLB Extra Innings package? If so, they’ve got a free preview going right now and the Braves are on one of the channels.
Game may be on MLB network depending on your region.
edit: It is on MLB network in my region (NYC)
nice start JJ.
It’s on MLB network here too. I’ve got the game on two channels.
That was the definition of a beam.
Way to go BMAC!
Thanks for the tips, but no dice here.
“@23, Not if you’re on Dish Network.”
Try channel 152.
drat
Aright, that’s hilarious.
WTF?
AGony, like Livan, still a Braves-killer.
That’s about right. That about sums up Braves fandom, right there.
Well this has taken a turn.
Should have traded JJ when he was on fire last year. Hindsight is 20/20.
Jj morphs into Marc redmann
I’m surprised fredi lent hit Hayward 9th
So do they realize there is a game going on, or are we gonna talk about sandwiches?
I’m not trying to be funny but that guy was HUGE!
I hate Alex Gonzalez.
@35, “Channel not available for viewing in your area.” Thanks anyway. It’s radio for me tonight, I guess.
/Go Braves!
Camera shot: Bunch of empty seats.
Chip: Standing room only tonight, folks!
Crawling our way back in it. We’ve barely missed two homers tonight.
Hindsight is 20/20.
It was foresight for many.
R. Wolf caught stealing, pitcher to second
Brewers should know better than to try and tame a Wolf.
Reading this one on Gamecast, I don’t want to know what actually happened there.
Classic Prado PA, right there.
I am so, so thankful for Brian McCann.
That works!
Ding Ding Ding!
Enjoy it while it lasts.
“Our organization has always been able to keep our players whom we wanted to keep. And our hope is that we’re going to keep Mac. We hope he’s here for a long time. But I’m pretty sure he and his agent read the papers and watch television. And they may even log onto the Internet now and then. So there are no guarantees.” – JS
Brian McCann, best catcher in baseball.
god bless brian mccann
Well, whadya know?
What? What is this? What does it mean when the ball goes over the fence like that?
Leave Wolf in, PLEASE!
Man, these CGI effects are great – it looked *just* like Matt Diaz hit a HR.
First homer since August, 2010. Nice timing, Matt.
On mlb gameday “Scout: Randy Wolf has thrown 92 pitches but has plenty left in the tank”
After giving up a triple, walk, homer, single, homer in that inning. I wonder where those updates come from.
Jim Fregosi.
Tomas – you forgot the next line: ‘and he’s going to need it to drive back to his hotel ahead of the pitching coach.’
Chip is stunned Heyward was running on a 3-2, 2 out pitch.
So many runs. I haven’t felt this feeling in a while.
Yea I laughed pretty hard when Chip was like “And Heyward is running!”
Making two outs in one inning? That’s a case of beer by our softball team rules.
“Making two outs in one inning? That’s a case of beer by our softball team rules.”
Not many hit into double plays?
No, we don’t fine for grounding into a double play. But you make two outs personally in an inning and you get a fine form, filled out by myself and the other manager.
Fredi is a chubby chaser.
Now that it’s a Save Situation, i bet we’re gonna get O’Ventbreled
Ah, Jurrjens. Braves should have cashed in on him a couple years ago.
I’m very grateful for these hard hitting discussion that Chip and Joe have on air. First sandwiches and now retired tony la russa
Yeah, why is Joe so pissed about this?
Medlen the Fireman.
Medlen is such a stud.
Pimpbot 16 is in full effect tonight.
So, that just happened.
McCann lookes like the Hamburgler, stealing that base.
O’Grybo not really getting it done so far.
Gotta make this interesting, don’t we?
O’Flaherty is catching a ton of the plate. We needed that DP!
Wasn’t apparent that O’Failurety didnt have it?
You have got to be kidding me.
Well, the offense isn’t scoring any more runs. The bullpen better invent a time machine pretty quick, or this one’s a lost cause.
How many hanging sliders can EOF throw in one inning?
He hasn’t been right all spring. Gotta pull him fredi. He doesn’t have it
Geez. Slider down the freakin’ pipe.
86—What is Fredi supposed to do? Only your seventh-inning guy can pitch the seventh inning.
@90
O’Flaherty pitches the 7th. It’s immutable.
Unless Fredi has a serious say in his 25-man roster, I’m not putting this on him. He has a 5-man bullpen.
O’Flaherty just ain’t the same pitcher so far… hope he gets it back.
Of course he did face a barrage of righties… Fredi might need to re-think his use. His rightie splits are atrocious.
Don’t blame Fredi, blame the flowchart.
@93. I was thinking he same thing. Like fredi is rifling through papers saying. Wait a minute. This is like auto pilot. Why do I do
Earned runs given up by O’Flaherty:
2011: 8 2012: 4
Seventh game of the season, and he is already halfway to last year’s total.
Keep doing that, Freddie.
There you go…
Freeman looks a lot like Buzz McCallister.
@101:
Yay, we’re 3-4.
HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOPE!
Good gritty win to keep fighting back!
Dish Network, FWIW, carries all the Peachtree games on their sports alternate channels. It was on channel 447 tonight. Always check those sports alt channels. Mine are listed channels 444-454.
Heyward is sportin’ a gaudy line in the early going.
I have to say that Jason looks much better. He had a couple of nice at-bats. And, while I realize Keith Law doesn’t care much about speed, it sure is nice to have someone like Bourn able to fly around the bases. But the starting pitching is awful.
I guess it’s always nice to see Randy Wolf.
Speaking of, ahem, beast mode… Brian McCann was 4 for 5, 4 RBI, incl. a 2B & HR, and his one out was a burning liner.
Good win. I liked Jason’s Jasons out in the outfield with the hockey masks. Anyone know those guys? Think it was a Friday the 13th only thing, or will they be back? Even if they were planning to just do it once, lets get them back and add Freddy’s Freddys with the Kreuger masks / claws. Combined they can compete with the Chefs and Cans for best pun-themed fan group in Braves history.
I feel compelled here to keep alive the memory of Marvin’s Free Men, of which ububba and I were members….
I too, recall that group, and felt like a spiritual member at the time, if not an active one.
Cleveland just got Johnny Damon, who last year put up an OPS+ higher than any outfielder wearing an Atlanta uniform in 2011, for one year, $1.25 million.
Or as the Braves call that, “Livan and Durbin money.”
“Livan and Durbin money”–thats pretty good and the reality if quite sad. Its even worse that it happens when Atlanta has a surplus of young pitchers who could get experience, make contributions and possibly raise their market values….
I like to call it “less than what we are paying Matt Diaz”.
It is truly an awful thing that we are employing Livan, Durbin, and Diaz. That said, Johnny Damon wasn’t a good fit for us, anyway. He’s lefthanded, can’t play CF anymore, and isn’t going to carry us to a division title in the event Prado and/or Heyward repeats 2011. And I’m sure he wants to be a starter so he can get to 3000 hits.
I feel there’s a lot more things to worry about than whether or not we got Johnny Damon to play LF for us.
And how does Damon address the Braves’ seeming need for a RH power hitting middle of the order bat anyway?
Also, read on Jayson Stark’s ESPN column that the Rays have “been diligently following Braves catching prospect Christian Bethancourt.”
If the Rays want him that’s good enough for me that we need to pull an Orioles on them and make ridiculous demands – Longoria AND Hellickson maybe?
The only way we should trade Betancourt is if we got something ‘ridiculous’ in return….
Bourn
Prado
Jones
McCann
Uggla
Freeman
Heyward
Pastornicky
Hanson
@6, Stu’s big chance to acquire Mikie Mahtook…
@4, Yeah. I thought I read that Damon has an out clause for when Grady Sizemore returns, but it seems like there’s some informal agreement that he’ll get traded if Sizemore can ever manage to stay healthy. I’m fine hoping for a bounceback from Prado as a starter.
I would wager we’ll be seeing Betancourt as the starting catcher in Atlanta pretty soon.
My point is just that there are useful players to be had with your budget’s last 1-2 million, even recognizing the valid objections to Damon in particular. Our FO just seems habitually in favor of spending that slice of the budget on negative-utility players. It’s just annoying to watch competence bought for the same price.
I have heard that the Braves actually use some form of advanced statistical analysis but it’s hard to see where.
Bourne has a .309 OBP as a Brave. Ugh.
I think they do on defense.
For those of us who like to needlessly worry about the June draft here is a useful link:
http://www.baseballamerica.com/blog/draft/2012/02/2012-aggregate-bonus-pools/
At this point, my prediction is that the Braves will avoid HS players and go with signable college players–even if their ceilings are much lower…..
Yes, their defensive analysis is pretty in-depth. It goes like this:
“Can he play (second/catcher/third)?”
“He hit 25 HR (last year/the year before/three years ago).”
“But can he play (second/catcher/third)?”
“He hit 25 HR (last year/the year before/three years ago).”
Chipper scratched? Needs his knee drained.
I still have a cold, which I guess is actually a sinus infection. Anyway, I’m still in early-to-bed mode. I may stay up for the end of the game, but I will be dosed on too many things to write.
Matt Cain is pretty good at pitching.
With Chipper scratched for his liquid knee, does that push Prado to third and Diaz to left?
Who’s carring the game tonight?
Hey ya’ll, this is why we chop.
feel better, chipper and Mac.
I see the game on peachtree.
@23, Not if you’re on Dish Network. Braves.com says it’s also on FSSO, but not at my house. This is bullshit.
I like seeing Jair hitting 92 right away.
Where is KK when you need him??
So the infield grass was torn up and replaced, but the outfield remains the same. The effect is a two-town mess just beyond the infield dirt into the outfield. It would have made sense to replace it all, but that was probably beyond ownership’s budget, thus, there are probably 50 high-school fields in Georgia that look better than Turner Field.
@24
Does Dish offer the MLB Extra Innings package? If so, they’ve got a free preview going right now and the Braves are on one of the channels.
Game may be on MLB network depending on your region.
edit: It is on MLB network in my region (NYC)
nice start JJ.
It’s on MLB network here too. I’ve got the game on two channels.
That was the definition of a beam.
Way to go BMAC!
Thanks for the tips, but no dice here.
“@23, Not if you’re on Dish Network.”
Try channel 152.
drat
Aright, that’s hilarious.
WTF?
AGony, like Livan, still a Braves-killer.
That’s about right. That about sums up Braves fandom, right there.
Well this has taken a turn.
Should have traded JJ when he was on fire last year. Hindsight is 20/20.
Jj morphs into Marc redmann
I’m surprised fredi lent hit Hayward 9th
So do they realize there is a game going on, or are we gonna talk about sandwiches?
I’m not trying to be funny but that guy was HUGE!
I hate Alex Gonzalez.
@35, “Channel not available for viewing in your area.” Thanks anyway. It’s radio for me tonight, I guess.
/Go Braves!
Camera shot: Bunch of empty seats.
Chip: Standing room only tonight, folks!
Crawling our way back in it. We’ve barely missed two homers tonight.
Hindsight is 20/20.
It was foresight for many.
R. Wolf caught stealing, pitcher to second
Brewers should know better than to try and tame a Wolf.
Reading this one on Gamecast, I don’t want to know what actually happened there.
Classic Prado PA, right there.
I am so, so thankful for Brian McCann.
That works!
Ding Ding Ding!
Enjoy it while it lasts.
“Our organization has always been able to keep our players whom we wanted to keep. And our hope is that we’re going to keep Mac. We hope he’s here for a long time. But I’m pretty sure he and his agent read the papers and watch television. And they may even log onto the Internet now and then. So there are no guarantees.” – JS
Brian McCann, best catcher in baseball.
god bless brian mccann
Well, whadya know?
What? What is this? What does it mean when the ball goes over the fence like that?
Leave Wolf in, PLEASE!
Man, these CGI effects are great – it looked *just* like Matt Diaz hit a HR.
First homer since August, 2010. Nice timing, Matt.
On mlb gameday “Scout: Randy Wolf has thrown 92 pitches but has plenty left in the tank”
After giving up a triple, walk, homer, single, homer in that inning. I wonder where those updates come from.
Jim Fregosi.
Tomas – you forgot the next line:
‘and he’s going to need it to drive back to his hotel ahead of the pitching coach.’
Chip is stunned Heyward was running on a 3-2, 2 out pitch.
So many runs. I haven’t felt this feeling in a while.
Yea I laughed pretty hard when Chip was like “And Heyward is running!”
Making two outs in one inning? That’s a case of beer by our softball team rules.
“Making two outs in one inning? That’s a case of beer by our softball team rules.”
Not many hit into double plays?
No, we don’t fine for grounding into a double play. But you make two outs personally in an inning and you get a fine form, filled out by myself and the other manager.
Fredi is a chubby chaser.
Now that it’s a Save Situation, i bet we’re gonna get O’Ventbreled
Ah, Jurrjens. Braves should have cashed in on him a couple years ago.
I’m very grateful for these hard hitting discussion that Chip and Joe have on air. First sandwiches and now retired tony la russa
Yeah, why is Joe so pissed about this?
Medlen the Fireman.
Medlen is such a stud.
Pimpbot 16 is in full effect tonight.
So, that just happened.
McCann lookes like the Hamburgler, stealing that base.
O’Grybo not really getting it done so far.
Gotta make this interesting, don’t we?
O’Flaherty is catching a ton of the plate. We needed that DP!
Wasn’t apparent that O’Failurety didnt have it?
You have got to be kidding me.
Well, the offense isn’t scoring any more runs. The bullpen better invent a time machine pretty quick, or this one’s a lost cause.
How many hanging sliders can EOF throw in one inning?
He hasn’t been right all spring. Gotta pull him fredi. He doesn’t have it
Geez. Slider down the freakin’ pipe.
86—What is Fredi supposed to do? Only your seventh-inning guy can pitch the seventh inning.
@90
O’Flaherty pitches the 7th. It’s immutable.
Unless Fredi has a serious say in his 25-man roster, I’m not putting this on him. He has a 5-man bullpen.
O’Flaherty just ain’t the same pitcher so far… hope he gets it back.
Of course he did face a barrage of righties… Fredi might need to re-think his use. His rightie splits are atrocious.
Don’t blame Fredi, blame the flowchart.
@93. I was thinking he same thing. Like fredi is rifling through papers saying. Wait a minute. This is like auto pilot. Why do I do
Earned runs given up by O’Flaherty:
2011: 8
2012: 4
Seventh game of the season, and he is already halfway to last year’s total.
Keep doing that, Freddie.
There you go…
Freeman looks a lot like Buzz McCallister.
@101:
Yay, we’re 3-4.
HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOPE!
Good gritty win to keep fighting back!
Dish Network, FWIW, carries all the Peachtree games on their sports alternate channels. It was on channel 447 tonight. Always check those sports alt channels. Mine are listed channels 444-454.
Heyward is sportin’ a gaudy line in the early going.
I have to say that Jason looks much better. He had a couple of nice at-bats. And, while I realize Keith Law doesn’t care much about speed, it sure is nice to have someone like Bourn able to fly around the bases. But the starting pitching is awful.
I guess it’s always nice to see Randy Wolf.
Speaking of, ahem, beast mode… Brian McCann was 4 for 5, 4 RBI, incl. a 2B & HR, and his one out was a burning liner.
Good win. I liked Jason’s Jasons out in the outfield with the hockey masks. Anyone know those guys? Think it was a Friday the 13th only thing, or will they be back? Even if they were planning to just do it once, lets get them back and add Freddy’s Freddys with the Kreuger masks / claws. Combined they can compete with the Chefs and Cans for best pun-themed fan group in Braves history.
I feel compelled here to keep alive the memory of Marvin’s Free Men, of which ububba and I were members….
I too, recall that group, and felt like a spiritual member at the time, if not an active one.
From ububba…
“…a burning liner.”
Sounds like a urinary track infection.
Recap is up.