So: maybe you’ve never heard of The Cleaners from Venus. They were an obscure lo-fi jangle pop band in Britain in the ’80s and never really had anything approaching a hit. They were essentially the brainchild of a guy named Martin Newell, who swapped out bandmates while making cassette recordings of songs he wrote; in the ’80s, there was a bit of a cassette-swapping underground in the UK, of whom the best-known band by far is Chumbawumba. Newell went solo with an album called The Greatest Living Englishman that received some attention because it was produced by XTC’s Andy Partridge; other than that, Newell has retreated to being musically obscure but moderately well known in his native land as a poet.
Anyhoo, he has been making solo albums pretty regularly for the last two decades, but he recently brushed off the Cleaners moniker, made a new album as The Cleaners from Venus, and started rereleasing the old cassette albums. Volume 1 came out last year; Vol. 2 came out today. I’m not plugging you to buy it; hell, I don’t even remember my old Amazon Associates link. But you at least ought to know about them. Here’s one of my favorite songs from the collection released today:
Jurrjens starting for the Orioles Saturday
@1 That’s nice to hear. Hope he pitches well.
Gametime 9:40 ET
Patrick Corbin (5-0, 1.75 ERA) vs Julio Teheran (2-0, 4.84 ERA)
“Patrick Corbin (5-0, 1.75 ERA) vs Julio Teheran (2-0, 4.84 ERA)”
Thankfully, Teheran Knows How to Win™. The Braves have not lost a game in 2013 in which Teheran was the starting pitcher.
@4
It appears Corbin does too! Joe Simpson’s head will spin!
He definitely knows how to win. It’s the applying of “knowing how to win” that is sometimes tricky. Choose win. It’s just the right decision to make. I want Julio to make good decisions.
I’m excited to see Julio pitch. He’s shaping up to be my favorite story line to follow this year.
I think he takes a slight step backward tonight. 3 ER in 5 2/3.
Almost a “quality start”. I’ll take it.
I don’t hate the “quality start” concept as much as some do. They didn’t label it “exceptional start” or “Maddux Bows Before You start”, but 3 ER in 6 innings gives you a chance to win.
(It’s the unearned runs that go along with the 3 ER that is usually the problem with this definition.)
Teheran and Medlen seem to pay a very high price for the few mistakes they make. Part of the maturation process, I guess.
Well, it’s also when you go 6 IP and give up 3 ER…and then go another 2/3 IP and give up 4 or 5 ER that screws up the whole concept too.
Haven’t looked at the exact splits yet, but it seems like we’re handling lefties pretty good so far this year, which I guess makes sense given our infusion of right-handed bats.
It’s a small (and strange) world when Chumbawumba get namechecked on a baseball blog – some of us have been trying to forget the lager lout (GB Trade Marking applies) anthem that was “Tubthumping” for some time now
I llok forward to the next musical interlude – but I need to listen to some Emma Stevens to get that damned tune out of my head
When does Venters visit Andrews this week? I wouldn’t anticipate good news.
In other music news, the Braves were not the only men who regularly wear helmets that reemerged to find glory and triumph yesterday.
Yeah, Venters is done for awhile.
Prado talked to Peanut: “The thing that makes me feel real good is that you know that you got traded and the [Braves] now look better. I’m happy because all of my ex-teammates can see that they gave up something, but actually got a better team. That’s what [Braves general manager Frank Wren] was looking for. He made a good move.”
@15, Sounds great for us. Not sure I’d like to hear that if I was a DBack fan.
Diamondbacks’ website still insisting both teams won?
Here is some good news from DOB
#Braves Beachy will start 1 more game in extended-spring training Sun., then go to Triple-A Gwinnett. Change from what we were told earlier.
Wow, Beachy is coming back fast.
Yeah, good problem to have. Who loses their position in the rotation?
@20
Teheran
Or is it Maholm?
Or Beachy to long relief?
@23 Or Medlen to long relief?
I wouldn’t be surprised if they treat Beachy the way they handled Medlen last year.
@24-I have an uncharitable theory–based entirely on my own experience of becoming a parent and finding that I was suddenly much poorer at my job–that Medlen’s performance this year reflects an altered focus.
I would put Beachy in the bullpen. We need help there.
As a general rule it is not smart to plug holes in your bullpen with capable starting pitchers–especially guys with three or four quality pitches, 9.5 K/9 ratios, and career ERAs of 3.00 or better.
28- But is it smart to take a starting pitcher who has not pitched in a competitive major-league game for a year and throw him right back into the rotation? Any bullpen assignment would be temporary, as was the case for Medlen last season.
That’s what Reed thinks of your mumblings about releasing him.
Wow, now that’s some trivia the D’Backs team just flashed on the screen. Apparently, Justin Upton is the first traded player to get four hits upon his return to Chase Field.
Gaaaaaaah, Dangit. Gattis scorched that.
Teams play Gattis as deep in the outfield as they used to play Bonds. They basically start standing on the warning track, and Parra still barely managed to get to his glove on that.
29-Obviously I would hope no one is going to get bumped from the rotation until Beachy shows he is ready. That can pretty easily be determined by his peripherals and scouting reports from his AAA starts. But if he has his usual control and velocity there is no reason to start him in the bullpen. Relieving is not actually any easier on a pitcher’s arm and he will not exceed an innings limit in three months or four months.
That fastball to Gregorius was a little too fat, but otherwise a good first inning.
Your job there is to strike out and clear the pitcher, Gerald.
Let’s get a good old fashioned GIDPrado here.
Nice double play!
So it was a HBPrado, and I was a batter early on the GIDP.
Well done, Julio.
As usual, Teheran is wild in the zone in the early innings. But man he’s a good fielder.
JUpton time.
Yeah, we need to threaten to release Reed more often.
So, the Scout thingy put this up –
That was pitch number 45 for Patrick Corbin; his effectiveness may start slipping, as he holds opposing hitters to a .197 average in the first 45 pitches but they hit .269 off him after that.
Worked last night.
Reed was really struggling at the beginning of the year. Then, he grew back the douchey chin hair and, consequently, he’s played a lot better ever since.
@41 Good hitter, too. Those two traits really give me a lot of confidence that his pitching will start to really come together.
Well, that was…embarrassing.
The shortest double in big league history? Really?
Teheran, you moron.
Freddie, you moron.
Uggla, you moron.
Foul ball, you moron.
Don’t suppose someone could explain that.
Was Freddie even going to have a play on the runner if he fielded that?
@50 The batter hit a bouncer that threaded between the Keystone Kops duo of Freddie and Julio. Uggla was racing towards first to cover, but when he tried to double back he lost his footing and rolled around like a beached whale trying to right himself. The ball rolled slowly into shallow right, allowing the hitter to take second.
To dig up an old term, appropriate that there were three “Prados” on one play when he’s in the house.
Does effing Laird even know how to call a changeup?
Was it just me or did Julio have him picked off?
@41 Need to add good pickoff move to his fielding assets.
52- Thanks, I guess. Sounds like one of those plays from the losing montage in The Natural. “Losing is a disease.”
Nice strikeout of Goldschmidt, though.
I’ll be damned, a changeup gets the strikeout.
With Reed Johnson playing better I have a strange feeling that someone will get an injury that no one knew about and will be forced to go on the DL when Heyward gets back. Speaking of that, when is the Lisp scheduled to come back?
Could have been worse.
Thank you Martin. I still love you.
Just two runs given up on that, seems quite fortuitous.
Corbin kinda reminds me of Mike Gonzalez with his pre-pitch set-up (minus the rocking) and fall off the mound.
I wonder if Simpson ever gets the urge to inflict some sort of physical pain on Caray.
Haha, Joe is picking on Harper. “Gattis isn’t even an outfielder, but he had a good sense of where the fence was there.”
After the NL Wild Card fiasco, I much prefer Chip’s goofiness to Joe’s smug, judgmental ass.
D’Backs and their announcers are on the warpath concerning Julio’s pickoff move. They’re taking issue with his front leg buckling slightly before leaving the rubber to throw over to first. So far the umps are ignoring them on this.
Dbacks broadcast just showed a bunch of kids with t-shirts on that said “S.W.A.G,” which stood for “Students With Aspiring Goals.” #1 on said list- learning how to properly use the word “aspiring.”
ps- I don’t mean to be a scumbag making fun of some admirable kids, I just wish their teacher had pointed out that perhaps “audacious” or “ambitious” would have been a better choice.
@64 But Joe was right. I saw the replay, it seems like Harper had no clue that he was about to run into a wall. He was hitting the wall at full speed.
Well, crap.
The only thing worse than a first-pitch out is a first-pitch DP.
Shortest half-inning in major league history?
At least we are drawing walks…keep trying guys…
Yikes. Corbin isn’t a bad pitcher, per se, but so far in 2013 he’s been mainlining liquefied four leaf clovers or something that indicates that he’s been insanely fortunate.
The good news tonight: Dodgers lead Nats 2-0 bottom 5th with Kershaw totally dominating so far (10 K in 5 IP w/ 1 BB, 3 H, 76 pitches).
Well done Julio.
Good work by Teheran, minus that whole Three Stooges thing back in the 3rd, which clearly wasn’t his fault.
You could PH McCann this inning if we get anything going – Nice thing about having three catchers is that Fredi might actually consider it.
goddam this guy has given up a couple of shots that have been caught.
And now Gattis got robbed too. Yuck.
Another solid outing by Julio. Well done.
Oh goody, Laird.
If Laird hits a home run, he will not only get cheers from Braves fans but his trade value will go up.
Way to go Fredi.
Making Heath Bell look good. Cripes.
Well, it was nice to have an offense for one game.
Braves now have been shut-out six times this year.
@86 But they only struck out 10 times tonight, so no free food giveaway for the DBacks fans!
The good news is that the Natspos got chainsawed by Kershaw and we will return home still in first place, which seemed impossible on Friday.
And we won’t have to face Kershaw this weekend. BTW, they let him throw 132 pitches tonight.
At least the Natinals also lost in LA, so we’re ahead for one more night.
Another shutout. Let’s go for the record. What is it?
This one doesn’t deserve a game summary.
This team has gone from being one of the funnest teams I’ve ever seen to watch to one of the most frustrating. Hopefully they’ll gain some consistency, but the shutouts and the sloppy play are painful!
Julio Teheran doesn’t suck.
Agreed. Unfortunately most of our hitters do though.
Any Braves Journalers heading to the game tomorrow? I figure I’m probably the only one out here, but thought I’d check.
@92 This is an all or nothing offense. I guess we expect that coming into the season.
Wren Released.
Lack of Evidence Cited.
Manic depression is a frustrated mess.
Maybe the Yankees wouldn’t mind picking up Laird and his salary. He doesn’t really have a place on our team now. Gattis hasn’t even caught since McCann came back.
I like Laird in the role of the 25th guy we’re never going to use.
Poor Julio. This was just a bad luck loss.
Recapped. New thread.
Did not expect to read about Cleaners From Venus at Braves Journal today. Didn’t realize Vol. 2 was out yesterday; for some reason my preorder hasn’t arrived yet.