to Milwaukee we go…
watching sausages go racing
might be seen as self effacing
sadly for the Crew
Braun’s well overdue
PED’s, they need replacing.
Teheran tonight, always seems an extra buzz for Braves fans when he goes – the promise and vulnerability of youth…and Uggla starts? some confusion here re lasic surgery – when? if not already then are we the first MLB team to start a blind second baseman? didn’t one of the coaches say this week there are pitches he literally can’t see? UPDATE, not blind, Dan has new contacts, no more ducking curves…wow, exciting!
Brewers pretty dismal so far but needless to say there are some underperformers who with the Bravos on the horizon burst into full flower a week or so ahead – we get a lot of these, pitchers too… young Segura at SS sounds one to watch with the bat…ROOF OPEN
| 1st |  | 1,2,3… Peralta, great stuff, wild, Simmons wilder… |
|  |  | Bases loaded, no outs!! Ramirez SFly, JT great pick off, slim Juan 12 pitch AB pops out… 1-0 Brewers |
| 2nd |  | J Up deep fly out, Mac ground out, BJ s/o…..ho hum…read this book before? surely not… |
|  |  | Carlos Lee retires, 358 HR, good career/pension- no onfield ceremony…Teheran, single only… |
| 3rd |  | Uggla walks, new lens crucial.. CJ walks, Terehan poor bunt.. AS pops out(yuk)…JH grd out..nothing |
|  |  | first 2 on, good bunt..Gomez, big s/o..JF hpb, bases loaded, 2 out..escape again, still 1-0 Brew Crew |
| 4th |  | still no hits(they have 6)..FF s/o(2)…seems we’ve lost the last 6 games in this park, now they tell us… |
|  |  | lead off single, pitcher bunts, Mac interfered with, no call…finally we get Aoki out with RISP… |
| 5th |  | HIT! BJ, l/off single..Dan just misses, lenses on full song…JT squeeze? late break? ..AS line out,unlucky |
|  |  | lead off HR Segura, 3/3…living up to the hype…2-0 Brewers |
| 6th |  | Jason l/off walk, gets to 2nd..McCann pops out to end threat…he’s cold…bah |
|  |  | 3 up 3 down…why should they worry.. |
| 7th |  | ROOF CLOSING…this will make all the difference..(no it doesn’t)…but Dan walks again and looks good.. |
|  |  | Pitching change, Gearrin in…JT was fine, no walks,no support..6.1/8/2/2/0/5 1HR…Gearrin does the job |
| 8th |  | K-Rod pitching, 2 k’s, Success and Jason…Simmonds grounds out, good play Segura.. deja vu… |
|  |  | Alex Wood pitching, no glasses…2 fly outs, 1 k, no walks…lose those glasses |
| 9th |  | Henderson pitching…2 walks, 2 flyouts, McCann k’s as tying run, swings through 3 fastballs….. shut out… |
BREWERS 2 BRAVES 0
is it fair to say we are no longer a streaky hitting team, we are now a weak hitting team- in fact we’re currently very consistent as such, no? So in what can we take solace – Uggla, i am obsessing on his new lenses, he looked good tonight and just missed a 2 run homer in his first AB…he will have lasik in the fall they now say…new lenses for everyone else i say, mandatory…Andrelton must learn from Aoki how to bat lead off, he will…JT was JT, he’s fine…nothing else it seems
and then there’s our Hero, waiting in the wings…
when in this race with Eastern foes despised
we near the break do curse our ‘battled state
to heaven have we oft and sadly cried
that cross we must environs of home plate
yet ‘spite of all it need be understood
our pitchers hurl such thunderbolts from Zeus
our mighty sluggers wield their fearsome wood
(well, some of them, the others what’s the use).
while in these thoughts, the awful Mets despising
we most haply think on thee, astride the plate
the foetid fastball gloriously arising
from sullen earth sings hymns at heaven’s gate
for thee brave Gattis angels swarm the Ted
our foreign foes retreat, we happily to bed.
I just saw where Uggla couldn’t take a day off in spring training to have his vision properly tested, even though he saw the ball as ” a white blur”. Excellent decision making on his part. How long has it been a blur? How much have the Braves paid this idiot while he’s flailed away at the blur?
There are regular people out there who need Lasik, but they can’t afford it. We have a guy who needs it, the employer fully covers it as a job requirement, and yet he puts it off. The mind reels.
Simmons needs to be hitting 8th .. he is NO leadoff hitter .. with his upper cut pull swing . If only Pena had not got hurt .. he is the leadoff guy we need .. he can play 3rd,2nd and spell Simmons at short so he could start 3 or 4 games and take off a day .. bat Heyward leadoff .I know he aint much better but he does go opposite filed every now and then .. J Upton and McCann have fell off the earth like J Upton and Uggla .. cant seem to get these guys hitting ..it SO SO SO SO SO SO SO ..I thought these guys were major league players .. they let a guy who the highest ERA in league throw a 2 hitter on them ..pathetic .. a change need to be made cant trade Uggla, Upton or Mccann cause of big contracts .. how about a hitting coach ?? that wont work ..players dont listen to those guys ..they do what they want … last night pitcher was wild walked 2 and Simmons swings at 1st pitch .. are these guys not thinking or paying attention .. stupid stuff
Either Uggla is telling the truth and he’s an abject idiot, or he’s fabricating excuses for why he’s been so terrible.
Thanks for the recap, Blazon. Everyone has done such a great job here, it’s the only thing that’s making this streak of bad play bearable.
Frankly, I’d prefer that Uggla was telling the truth about vision problems (because that would mean there’s some chance that he will now start hitting better). Perhaps this is motivated thinking, but Uggs looks like he was seeing the ball well last night. Fingers crossed!
Winning with a blind team is special.
Apparently, the modern theory of hitting is “See the ball, hit the ball.” Dan was having trouble understanding the first part and figured he’d focus (sic) on the second part and get around to the first part when he had the second part down.
All this is just setting up the inevitable storyline: after the Nats pull within one game, Wren fires Fredi and reinstates Bobby, whose first move is to reinstate Chipper, whose vintage performance sparks the Braves to sweep all the way through the entire playoffs. You read it here first.
You mean to tell me that Braves and Uggla knew of sight issues in Spring training and waited this long to do anything … well the Braves are run by some bright individuals huh ….
That brings me to my second gripe with the Uggla situation. The Braves could have told him in the spring, “Get your eyes fixed or get benched.” Or could they? I’m not sure what the CBA allows. Can MLB teams force players to have medical procedures? I mean, he did sign a contract to play at the best of his ability. But if they knew about it and still played him while his batting average (and the team) suffered, shame on them.
@6, I agree. I’d rather have an idiot playing second base than a blind man. Not that there’s anything wrong with being blind. It’s just that vision is kind of important to playing baseball. At least an idiot can be trained to do simple tasks through a learned pattern of grunts and squeaks.
@7, 🙂
@9, First belly laugh of the day. Thanks!
@10, I don’t believe there’s been any word that the Braves knew about Dan’s eye problems. If they had known, I really don’t think they’d let him play through things when all he can see is a big blur coming out of the pitcher’s hand. They’d send him to a doctor right away.
That’s why I think this is just a face-saving routine by Dan. It’s human nature to want to find some way to explain away one’s terribleness by blaming external forces or undiagnosed ailments. It buys sympathy and time for Dan. He gets an undetermined amount of time to see if the contacts work. We’ll all reserve judgment and let him work through things. When that fails, it’ll be time for Lasik. He can get through the end of the year on that.
It must be suffocating to feel so helpless to get your numbers up when in your heart of hearts you know it is probably just deterioration that comes with age that’s doing you in – and not the kind that can be fixed with contacts or a surgery. A huge part of him is probably very embarrassed about his play since he came to Atlanta.
But, and I mean this seriously, let’s hope that his story is true and he’s just been too dumb to get contacts all this time.
It’s face saving to make yourself sound like a moron? Fair enough. I hope he’s stupid too, and proceeds to hit well for the rest of the year. I’m not holding my breath, though.
@13, If you’re moron enough to not get a severe case of declining eyesight corrected, then you’re moron enough to make poor calculations in how to characterize your failings to people. Morons do moronic things by habit.
PS: I don’t consider stupidity to be a necessarily negative trait in athletes. For many, it’s a virtue. (Jury is still out on Andrelton.)
@12 — i would bet they ( Braves) did know about it see below from article:
Uggla believes the contact prescription could be a night-and-day fix for his struggling offensive game, which is why he visited the team eye doctor on Thursday to have his sight tested. He had previously been diagnosed with an astigmatism in Spring Training, but Uggla said he didn’t take the right approach to wearing contacts at the time.
“I thought I’d instantly be able to see twice as well as I could before,” Uggla said. “They couldn’t do all the tests that they probably needed to in spring. They couldn’t dilate it, because I’d be out a whole day.”
OK Im not getting this he didnt want to out a whole day in SPRING TRAINING ..thats when you do things like this. The more I read about this the more I say are you kidding me ??
@12 – also the commemt below:
A huge part of him is probably very embarrassed about his play since he came to Atlanta.
YA THINK !!!!!!
I’m with DG; Wren needs to check with someone to find out what kind of recourse there is to finding out that one of his most expensive players hasn’t been able to see for half a season and decided not to tell anyone. Uggla’s made several million dollars under the false pretense that he’s healthy. (Of course, then we’d have to find out who told or implied to Uggla that he couldn’t miss a day of spring training so that he could see properly.)
Next, what’s the outfield’s excuse?
No one ever fines players for doing things to play when hurt/incapable… ever. The closest was when Jeff Kent lied about a motorcycle accident (also Ron Gant — but he didn’t lie about it). Think Derek Jeter — he came back unready to go full strength and hurt the team in the process — but the Yankees dare not complain. Maybe, just maybe, there’s a closed-door conversation with the manager.
AAR
Post of the Year!
Mac would be so proud.
Go Braves!
Hey, the Notionals lost.
The game is on, as is the bad baserunning.
@19-
I was at the game! I scored it with an Halfliner! It was awesome!
The top of the first represents everything that drives me insane about this team.
So Hand is on a 60 pitch limit today. Its too bad we’ve allowed him to complete his first 3IP on 24 pitches.
24 pitches through 3 innings has to be some kind of record. They only wanted to get 4 innings out of this kid, and the way we’re going he’s going to pitch a one hit shutout.
@21 YAY HALFLINER
60 pitch limit and they’re swinging away like this? Fire somebody. Seriously.
Maybe Walker needs to find new employment.
I’m not belittling anyone, but would it be possible for us to score in this series? Please?
it seems we all must theorize
those balls smote hard towards the skies
they travel far and wide
except those from our side
which most resemble infield flies.
So, it’s pretty clear that the hitting has trailed off as the season has gone on. Looking at June numbers, the thing that stands out to me is that the team ISO is 23rd in the majors. They’re still striking out, but not at a record pace. In fact, the Braves are 6th in Ks. So they’ve traded a few strikeouts for much less power. Not sure if there’s a relationship there, but it’s clear that without power the Braves offense is pretty awful.
Please tell me this isn’t ballgame. Please.
Ballgame.
Things are getting episodic in Milwaukee. Way to go the other way, FatJuan.
And Fat Juan beats us.
Wow, kinda surprising Schafer didn’t throw home there, guy was just at third when he got the ball.
Why was Simmons playing so close to 2B? That looked like a double play ball off the bat.
Yeah, it’s Andrelton’s fault.
@36
It’s not anyone’s fault. It’s bad luck, really. The Braves have had elite run prevention lately, but the offense has been really, really bad, and so it’s sometimes easy to forget.
Because Juan never hits the ball that way, hell, he never even made contact in Atlanta.
What do we have now, 3 singles in 14 innings or something like that.
edit: your welcome, thanks BJ
Why the heck did you swing at that, Freddie?
WOOOOO BJ! Nice hit, bud.
EDIT: I really, really hate the standard announcer BS about how McCann is typically ‘clutch’ because he ‘likes to hit in these types of situations’ but since he’s only 2-12 this year, it means he hasn’t been clutch. Come to me with some stats that show McCann has been more productive over his career with runners on base, and we’ll talk. Until that point, can it with the stupid, cliche statements.
In other news, I’m extremely frustrated with how poorly the Braves have been playing recently.
Nice stroke, BJ. Let’s get something going here now.
McCann is sporting a .575 OPS in June.
Okay, Bravos. Hand is out of the game so swing away!
Sigh.
Hey guys, you’re in Milwaukee now. Take a whiff of the smelling salts. You’re allowed to beat this bunch.
The question is fast becoming: will the Braves score on the worst rotation in baseball? Tune in tomorrow to find out!
You’re actually SUPPOSED to be able to score here, guys.
Chip, on international baseball: “One day, I’d love to see a true World Series.” I hate when people say this. We have a “true” World Series. It’s called the World Series. And we have an international baseball showcase, and it’s called the World Baseball Classic.
Runs allowed in the last two innings? Of course we’ll let Hudson bat again? He never has episodes where he gives up lots of baserunners, does he?
Gah, this team is getting on my nerves.
Got a baserunner? Get him thrown out!
@50 .. might as well try .. they aint gonna hit him in
Simmons swings at ball 4.
Have these guys literally forgotten how the game of baseball works? You cannot win without scoring runs, and you cannot score runs without reaching base safely and staying there.
I must say, it’s taken a confluence of many different factors to allow the Braves to get shut out for 20 consecutive innings (and counting): awful hitting (heyyyy look an infield popup!), bad luck, good and/or fortunate opposing defense, bad sequencing of offensive events. We’ve got it all, folks!
I paid $140 for my tickets to his series. The Sausage Race is great, but it isn’t worth that much. I want a refund.
Uggla also got some glasses that he can wear when his eyes get dry from the contacts. See here: http://lacecosmetics.files.wordpress.com/2011/12/owl.jpg
Rifle throw there, BMac.
@56 – nice.
That was almost a disaster as the Brewers’ base runner runs out of the basepath uncalled and Johnson barely throws out Segura.
Am I watching a replay of last night game …. cant tell .. anybody know ??
@54, You forgot to include crappy or lame opposing starting pitching. The higher the ERAs and the lower the SP pitch count, the worse we seem to do.
Some more good contact by BJ.
What is this? A break?
Nothing Uggla can’t waste, I’m sure.
McCann. Same difference.
BJ starts hitting everybody else quits … I think id rather have it the other way please.
60- No, see? We’ve got three hits today, not two! That’s so much better and not a total failure against the league’s worst pitching.
At the cable stares a Barves fan
And a Stoic by his trade
for he carries the remembrance
Of every Smith who didn’t score –
or Yank who made him cry out
and curse Mark Wohlers name
“Throw the fastball, you’re a moron!”
But this Barves fan still remains, lie la lie….
Mccann needs his eyes checked …
“The Barver,” nice.
The poetry is better than the baseball.
Damned with faint praise indeed
tomorrow marks 31 games in 31 days. Assuming a loss today and tomorrow brings that stretch to 15-16. next week brings the royals for 2 bookended with very much needed days off.
How bad could they need the days off when they no-show pretty regularly anyways?
I think a lot of our recent offensive woes stem from not having Gattis around to not play.
#69
Baseball? Who’s playing baseball?
Offensively speaking, this is Rip Van Winkle ball.
Agreed, John R.; but who knows how often he would have played? When he returns from the DL, if he doesn’t start three or four days out of five, Fredi will be guilty of criminal negligence.
Good looking inning by Wood. It’s good to see him recover from a lead-off double.
Several thousand Brewers fans just got up and left after the 8th. They know what we know — our team is no threat to come back.
That was so Andrelton.
Except he ended up being safe. Not very Andrelton.
Finally, the Braves benefit from Fat Juan’s bad defense.
Andrelton…. Why are you so stupid?
Yes, why can’t you be wonderful like the golden one whose name shall not be besmirched?
81- Another three hours blighted. Honestly, when does Gattis come back? It’ll be nice to have one plate appearance per game to actually look forward to.
I’m going out and have little interest in recapping this debacle for the moment. Recap will be up either late tonight or early tomorrow.
Gross.
Sigh. We have to win again at some point. Too bad we’re not taking advantage of these games against bad teams.
AAR/ Blazon, just copy the post and run it again for tomorrow’s game thread. It’s not like anything changed.
Maholm gives up at least 5 runs tomorrow, count it.
I’m totally serious when I say that I’ll be shocked if we make the playoffs.
This is an unpleasant stretch of baseball.
@1
That ought to be grounds for voiding the remnants of his contract.
It probably isn’t, but it should be.
What’s cooler than being cold? Ice cold!
The 2013 June Swoonin’ Atlanta Braves
Relatively SSS, but in the past 13 games, the Braves are 4-9, scoring only 18 runs in the 9 losses with 34 runs overall. This may be a June swoon, but getting swept by the Padres, losing a series with the Mets, and potentially getting swept by the Brewers doesn’t make me feel good at all. Averaging only four runs a game during the wins puts more pressure on the pitching staff, the only bright spot on this team right now. At least they are keeping them in the games. If my math is right, they’ve only given up 48 runs in the 13 games. The offense is definitely to blame, and Wren/Gonzalez need to do something…fast. Someone mentioned firing the hitting coaches in an earlier thread, if I recall. You know what would be a radical move? Firing at least one of Walker/Fletcher and hiring Chipper.
There are two good hitters on this team. Gattis and Freeman.
@24 I meant to note my use of my Halfliner in the recap Thursday night. It was essential to the task. My favorite feature was the notes area, which I used to note the uniforms worn that night (a favorite focus of mine). I must also praise the choice to have the facing sheets oriented in such a way that one can simply flip the whole thing over, back and forth, without having to turn it around. And of course the graphic design, as previously mentioned, is just perfect.
My wife (who is not particularly a baseball fan) likes to score the game to keep herself occupied when she accompanies me to the park. She’s gonna flip when she sees this.
They should at least start fining players for making outs on the first pitch.
Nothing restores hope for the future like rosterbation. Who is the player that plays at a position where we could realistically upgrade and gets on base enough to mitigate our obvious weakness? Whoever has been saying on here that Aramis is the best fit might be right.
@91
That’s a brilliant idea.
Recapped.