Arizona Diamondbacks vs. Atlanta Braves – Box Score – June 26, 2012 – ESPN.
Pretty easy win for Tim Hudson. The Braves got five runs in the first two innings and he coasted from there. Arizona never got more than one man on base after a third-inning homer.
Michael Bourn opened the scoring with a leadoff homer. Chipper Jones and Freddie Freeman led off the second with back-to-back doubles, and Andrelton Simmons singled Chipper home. He scored latter on a Jason Heyward sac fly and then Brian McCann singled home Bourn.
Other than the Arizona homer, nothing much happened untin Freeman’s fielder’s choice scored Dan Uggla in the seventh. Freeman went to third on a Simmons double and scored on a Hudson sac fly. In the eighth, McCann singled in Heyward. Anthony Varvaro pitched the ninth.
When the Braves play like that, a man can dream a little.
Bowman has a new blog up stating that Greinke is atop the Braves wish list if he were to become available but only if they were able to sign him to an extension.
When considering a one-game playoff or a best-of-5 NLDS, I can dream with Hudson & Hanson at the top of the rotation.
The other guys tend to be dreamkillers. Fingers very much crossed on JJ…
Sabathia goes on the DL this morning, then this afternoon, Andy Pettitte gets hit by a line-drive, breaking his ankle—out 6-8 weeks.
Rough day for the Yankees (sniff, sniff)…
We don’t need anymore teams in on the pitching market…
No chance the Braves pay Greinke what he’ll command on the open market. Bowman really isnt saying much there since the Braves always have players at the top of their list but costs always gets in the way.
Sucks for the Yanks.
@6 Roger Clemens comeback?
Wind must have been blowing out in Wrigley today. At least when the Mets came to the plate, anyway.
I tend to doubt that Greinke will ever be calling New York home.
But, if Clemens ever returned to The Bronx, we’d get to hear this again:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fdtn0Z4o8cM
#8
As Mets radio announcer Howie Rose said, “Daniel Murphy hasn’t hit a HR in 11 months, and now he’s hit 2 in the span of 25 minutes.”
Supposedly Greinke wants Matt Cain $ so the contract would be north of $100M. That’s unlikely to happen, so the Braves would get a 1/2 season rental and a sandwich pick.
If my understanding is correct, they’d get no sandwich pick.
Want no part of headcase Zack Grienke. Maybe he’s turned a corner but he hasn’t had a consistent enough career to deserve Matt Cain money. Frankly, I’d rather extend Bourn.
With the asking price the Braves may be better off going for Garza.
No way Grienke goes to NYC. Given his past issues with anxiety, I’m not really sure where the market for him is going to be. Maybe St. Louis? The Braves actually seem like a pretty good fit as far as it goes. 6/$100M for Grienke might be doable, but I imagine he’ll go for more than that. And of coures it would preclude any signing Bourne, who I want to keep more and more with each passing day….
Same lineup as last night.
Chase Utley back in the lineup for the Phillies.
Cain has never won the Cy Young award, either. Greinke’s gonna get paid.
Wonder what the Indians would want for Derek Lowe?
Jeez, Simmons, play some shortstop.
I think keeping Bourn is priority #1, but can we afford him?
Woooooof I had forgotten about Drew’s ankle injury.
Tommy fastball velocity looks good. 90-92.
Brian better start hitting. His defense ain’t much.
And Utley homers in his first at bat back…
Woo!
Jason Heyward’s age is no excuse. If he can’t start producing, then we should try to trade him.
Keep it going, Jason!
GO BALL!!!! WOOOOOO!!!!!
He’s good.
Dan looks so bad right now.
McCann and Uggla back to back don’t inspire much fear right now.
In other news, Utley has a season OPS of 5000.
I hate to say this, but Tommy’s looking good.
Hudson and Hanson and pray for a…monsoon?
has Hanson’s “new” delivery sapped some of the zip off his fastball? he used to sit between 92-94 and now he’s consistently 89-92.
Half a biscuit more, Chipper.
33 — It’s probably a combination of the shoulder injury and that he’s throwing 2 seam fastballs now.
I like Hanson’s Maddux impersonation.
If you’re not going to spend big on Greinke, who do you spend it on? He’s been a stud since 2008.
I think Hanson is still terrified of re-injury.
I remember both Hanson and Jurrjens touching 96 during their first year.
Bummer, Jason.
What’s worse?
The new twitter segments, or the rain delay radio show on the radio broadcast?
Well done, Tommy.
Arizona’s players must have a hot night planned at the club and they want to get out ASAP.
Right now, Jim Powell is talking about the WAR rankings of our outfielders. He’s so awesome.
At this moment in time, Uggla sucks.
Struggla.
Let’s score a few more runs, Braves.
Scott Diamond is Minnesota’s best pitcher this year and it’s not close. The rest of their pitchers are garbage. Wish we still had him.
All charity gratefully accepted.
Tommy Hanson hits about as well as I do, so walking him is definitely some charity.
Woo! Luck!
Nice inning. BMac also sucks at this point in time.
Dude, Brian went 2-for-5 and knocked in two runs yesterday. Give him a day.
Whew!
No can do, Alex. Brian must be perfect all the time.
CHIPPA!!!
There’s the Chipper we were looking for.
Chipper Jones is still my hero!
Old man homer!
Trevor Suckhill
After all this time it’s still just amazing to watch his swing.
The best thing about Tommy as a hitter is that he looks like he knows he’s terrible.
Tommy’s twitter byline: Starting pitcher for the Atlanta Braves. Not a very good hitter.
Way to go, Tommy.
I hate Tommy Hanson.
Bullpen’s rested. Hold ’em, boys.
I just hate him. I can’t help it. I hate him beyond his flaws. I just hate him.
Venters is ready to be discarded.
And there goes another.
We’ve seen this play before, I fear.
Was the radar gun malfunctioning or did Jonny throw some of those sinkers at 88 mph? Most were 94-95, but the others didn’t look like sliders apart from that last pitch.
Tommy Hansuck
Jonny Suckers
Well, that was quick.
Venters looked pissed off and more like his old self on that last out.
/optimist
@70
Gameday said those 88 mph pitches were changeups. But then again, Gameday admittedly is notoriously unreliable at times.
Ugh. Just ugh.
Play some defense, boys!
Hating Tommy Hanson is like hating a nearly-maimed racehorse when it doesn’t place. It’s just cruel. He’s not what he was, or was about to become. I’m sure he’s struggling with it himself.
Well done, Dan.
Do what you do, Kimbrell.
Kimbrel is so nasty it’s disgusting
I love that guy so much.
Yes! Way to go, Kimbrel!
Craig Kimbrel is a bad man.
Well done, World’s Greatest Closer. That win was harder than I wanted it to be.
Roberts looked a bit lost there.
Kimbrel is a one-man firing squad right now. That was absurd!
Craig “Unfair” Kimbrel strikes again!
Hanson has a 3.59 era, but please continue berating him
Tommy Hanson is easily the best Braves pitcher to be completely despised. He’s pretty much Kevin Millwood, and Braves fans treat him like Albie Lope
Tomorrow’s mound matchup is pretty intriguing: JJ, the relative reclamation project, vs. Trevor Bauer, “the next Lincecum” making his MLB debut.
@90 We will lose 2-0.
“We will lose 2-0.”
Doubt Jurrjens will give up two or fewer runs, unless he exits the game early. That Red Sox game was probably a fluke, considering the 2012 major league ERA of over nine before that game and the ERA of over five in the minors this year too.
I’ve been following with interest the periodic updates here of the NL WAR rankings of our outfielders. That is, until I saw those rankings were generated using a system that declares Alfonso Soriano the third most valuable FIELDER in the NL (for the record, Bourn, Prado, and Heyward are #1, #2, and #5). Have you seen Alfonso Soriano play the outfield? FanGraphs really REALLY needs to go back to the drawing board on its defensive numbers. These untenable outfield stats have been going on for years.
Updated NL WAR rankings:
Bourn- 5th (down 1)
Prado- 6th (same)
Heyward-8th (same)
Uggla- 21st (down 1)
Chipper- 49th (up 11!)
Simmons- 60th (down 4)
McCann-70th (down 3)
Freeman- 75th (up 2)
The pitching is still too discouraging to display, but I will say that we have 2 active pitchers in the top 30:
Kimbrel: 21st
Hudson: 23rd
Fangraphs really doesn’t like Tommy Hanson.
@90 – Yes, very excited to see JJ v. Bauer. I have Bauer in my league.
I saw Bauer ptich in AA a few weeks ago, homes can bring it.
Well, if the Braves can win one more game this month (not a sure thing at all), they will have a winning June. With all the ups and downs, that wouldn’t be bad considering the schedule.
Saying Zach Greinke is at the top of the Braves’ wish list is like saying Emma Stone is at the top of whathisname’s wish list. About the same likelihood of either coming to fruition.
But impeccable taste in either case. I never could fault that dude for his predilections….
Assuming the Braves pick up both Hudson and McCann’s options, the Braves will have around 30 million dollars to play with, which is plenty to extend someone like Greinke, but hinders the re-signing of Bourn. Now, the Braves could trade McCann in the offseason (even saying it sounds gross), opening the door for other catching possibilities via free agency or in-house and have money to pay for Greinke and a 3rd baseman/LF.
It would be nice to see Gattis play in person to know if he has what it takes to be a Major League backstop, or at least be as good defensively as McCann. I think the experimentation with Gattis in LF has more to do with trying to get him ready for a late season callup rather than his poor defense at catcher. I’ve scoured the web for a defensive scouting report on Gattis, but found none. Anyone have a first hand account?
I saw Gattis in Pearl before he got hurt. I’m not qualified to report but he looked fine playing catcher to me. Didn’t witness any glaring mistakes and his arm looked ok.
I just heard Jim Bowden argue that DeWayne Wise should be fined and suspended for a game. That guy is a fucking idiot.
@97
We have a better chance at signing Emma Stone to fire off t-shirts and dance on top of the dugout as a Braves girl.
@102
If we did that attendence might increase which would have a positive impact on payroll.
(Hey, we can dream, right?)
@99 – Despite the absolute crap McCann gets around here for his defense, there’s evidence to suggest that he’s pretty good at getting strike calls for his pitchers.
This (http://www.hardballtimes.com/main/article/evaluating-catchers-framing-pitches-part-3/) suggests that from ’08-’10 he was worth 1.5-2 wins/season just based on framing, and that he was essentially the best in the league at it over those years.
This (http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=15093) suggests a more modest value, but he was still in the top 25% or so of all qualifying catchers.
It’s true that he gives up runs on stolen bases – in 2011 runners earned about 12 runs against him, in 2010 he had his best year only giving up 3 runs on steals (that’s according to wOBA weights for SB and CS multiplied by McCann’s SB and CS against).
The point is that “at least…as good defensively as McCann” is probably not realistic for Gattis who’s already been moved to LF in AA, since, when you consider framing, McCann probably comes out somewhere around neutral to slightly above neutral defensively, and that’s probably a little above MLB average.
Evidently CJ Nitkowski is joining the Braves radio postgame show. Hopefully he’s replacing….is it Jay Howell? I can’t remember. Anyway, the guy who sucks.
Wow – Howell gone? This truly is turning into a day of days.
105 — You mean not all of them suck?
Recap. Sorry for the lateness, I was at the doctor.
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