old friends/roomies find themselves at odds tonight – at a tender age…let’s hope that merit and not the occasion wins out, that the friendship still survives… Teheran/Delgado, a moveable feast, it could happen again…most felt at the time we traded the right one but also remembered a splendid Delgado start at Fenway last summer…and Teheran had looked ill at ease on the mound a few times back then, some big flies too…but after the fact ain’t we all delighted now to have JT – a little smug too maybe, we got it right…
evaluate if you insist
a most uncertain ploy
so who’s the man, the boy?
conclusions you might soon resist.
Two things when i think of AZ – Goldschmidt’s bat, Parra’s arm…three things, Martin Prado... MLB TV doing a lousy job up till now showing any of Chipper’s ceremony – nada…if these kids both goof on the mound tonight it’ll be a double embarrassment, no? kind of, both Braves DNA…MLB just gave us a few hi-lights on Chipper…game underway
1st |
JT gives up 1 out dbl then K’s Goldschmidt and Montero..nice..DBacks lucky to be in Atlanta(87) – 114 back home tomorrow… |
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wasted…great opp fld 1 out dbl by Heyward, JuP scores him(bad throw Parra!!) but innings ends with Dan strike out with 2 in scoring position…Â 1-0 BRAVES |
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2nd |
Martin leads off, great reception, pops out..JTÂ k, walk, Mac catches SB for 3rd out..Chipper in the booth, always interesting…pity about that throw(yes, that throw)… |
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 single for JT, continues to look useful at the plate… |
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3rd |
 Teheran gives up l/off single, bunt, escapes impressively..Pitch count 57, Heinz.. |
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 Jason lead off single, JuP hits into d/play.. |
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4th |
Martin with 2 out single…JT now 6 K’s…both young pitchers to this point are a credit to the Braves organization…cool, calm and collected… |
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Uggla bloop l/off single, bases loaded 1 out after Parra loses one in the lights…JT up, bases loaded, good AB ends with sharply hit DPlay to 1st.. |
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5th |
 Delgado singles, both pitchers good all round game… |
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you guys that bitch about his pop ups – suck it up! Simmonds homers! Jup flies out to right, looks as good at the plate as BJ bad… FF is getting consistently robbed by this field placement, SS behind the bag..                2-0 BRAVES |
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6th |
JT strikes out the side, looking better and better, composed…Papa Jones pontificates about No. 7 who had the greatest quote- “if i knew i was going to live this long i’d have looked after myself better’…10 K’s for Julio.. |
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Mac scuttles another groundball out – you wonder what’s on his mind these days, millions at stake, he needs a good 2nd half…BJ doubles, i sure can call ’em! ..Pastor pinch hits for JT, great job by him, loved it…grounds out with 2 on.. Teheran’s line…6.0 4 0 0 10 |
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7th |
 Avilan pitching, 4 pitch l/off walk to Marteen.. d/play ends threat.. |
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Delgado done, he did well… 6.0 8 2 2 3 3K…their bull pen supposed to be hot..JuP walks, Freddie singles, BMac flies out… |
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8th |
Avilan retires l/off hitter, replaced…good job after 1st walk…Walden in..if you like Walden are you on Walden, Fond?   STFD, Walden’s been terrific… |
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our homeboy Zeke pitching…UGGLA TRIPLES – eyes wide shut…new macular degeneration report this week talks of success with miniature telescopes in each eye- seriously – what a solution…Captain Uggla at the helm..BJ walks..safety squeeze! RJ gets in the third run, Uggla in full flight…Simmonds balances his HR blast with his second(3rd??) pop up – you guys were right after all??    3-0 BRAVES |
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9th |
Kimbrel… great play Janish for first out..Kimbrel wild, walks Goldschmidt..gets the game ending DP…          BRAVES WIN !!  3-0 |
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 |
had some Kipling lined up to finish with tonight…we don’t need Kipling after this…the ra-ra we’ll save for another day when heads are down and spirits drooping…this was the Braves at their best – professional, everyone doing their job, Teheran the undoubted star…Chipper must have been pleased..
Missed the game tonight. I see that Teheran went 6, only gave up 5 baserunners, but threw 103 pitches. Was he having trouble finishing off hitters? He threw first pitch strikes to 17 of 22. You would think that level of getting ahead and avoiding baserunners, he might have done deeper.
He struck out 10.
Did they mention on the broadcast that Hinske was DFA’d?
@3, Yes, they did.
@2
That makes sense. I suppose double-digit strike outs will put you above 100 pitches pretty quickly.
I missed the Chipper thread, but I’ll add here that one of my favorite memories was last year in Washington. I was at the game (part of a double header), and was bummed he wasn’t starting, but figured he would probably pinch hit at some point. Late in the game it was close and the pitcher’s spot was coming up soon, so I look in the dugout hoping to see him getting ready, and sure enough he’s pacing around and getting his gear. Finally he pops out and the Braves fans behind the dugout go nuts, even disrupting play for a moment. Then he steps into the box and cranks the first pitch over the fence. Couldn’t have asked for anything better as the last time I would see him play in person.
Nice recap, Blazon my man. Kipling will have to wait for another day.
Also missed the Chipper thread. My favorite memory was ‘meeting’ him at a Braves sponsored baseball camp when I was twelve. That was the summer of ’94, and he was still in his leg boot after blowing out his knee in spring training. We were grouped by position and I played third, so the day the Braves players came, he gave my little group a pep talk. I still have the Topps ’91 #1 Draft Pick (in his high school uni!) card I asked him to sign- with a ball point that was almost out of ink, because I was a dumb kid. You can see his autograph if you tilt it right. Likely killed the monetary value, but I choose to view it as unique. Wouldn’t sell it anyways.
RELEASE THE KIPLING!
I guess someone should have told Chipper Hinske was DFA’d because he was giving props to folks in the D-backs dugout during his ceremony and mentioned Prado and Hinske specifically. When he mentioned Prado they put him on screen but didn’t do that with Hinske (obviously) but it seemed strange at the time. I was disappointed the only players on the dugout rail during Chipper’s ceremony were Heyward and Schafer. The rest of the team was just sitting in the dugout looking bored for the most part.
Thank you, Blazon. Wonderful recap for a great game.
Jason may be ALL THAT after all. Good game for him. Keep it going, kid.
Julio Teheran is a stud, you guys.
Interesting, our 3 worst hitters on the season are all about the same in June and have greatly improved.
Uggla – .807OPS
BJ – .837
Jhey – .838
Did anyone mention that Kimbrell’s save tonight ties him with Wohlers for 3rd on the Braves career list @ 112. Only Garber and Smoltz are ahead of him. If his 2nd half matches the first, he’ll end the season 6 saves behind Garber.
“Yesterday, Doug Fister goes seven innings, gives up just one run and gets a no-decision. I go seven tonight, give up three runs and get a win. That’s why [wins] are a fluky stat.”
Max Scherzer on going 12-0.
Teheran, Med Dog, Minor are a pretty stout combo right now. I’m not worried about Hudson right now. Maholm is a pretty solid #5 guy.
Our rotation has been great right now.
I don’t think there is a team in baseball that has a #5 starter with 98ip@103era+.
This is OT but CHECK OUT MY STIRRUP SOCKS GUYS http://instagram.com/p/bJiMyQJ7mR/
Really wish the Braves would give players the classic striped stirrups that we wear for some of the throwback games. http://i.cdn.turner.com/si/multimedia/photo_gallery/0806/mlb.throwback.uniforms/images/braves.jpg
@ 18 UVA blue and orange.
JK
If anybody’s interested in a three-hour brain drain before the Braves game this afternoon, the Nats-Mets game is currently airing on MLB Network. And they’re using the Mets TV feed, so you get the good Mets announcers rather than the annoying Nats ones.
Nice, Bethany.
And, yes, those throwback stirrups are cool.
Also, the Braves game is the free game on MLB.com today. Not sure how they do that — is it not a Fox game?
@15 The best use for wins is judging upcoming matchups against teams. If you got an 7-4 guy going against a 3-8 guy you feel good regardless of ERA. It’s the only stat that takes the whole team into account. A team has five 20 game winners and they get to play in a tournament in October.
@21
No, it’s not on Fox. Fox has the 7 p.m. slot this week.
aha. makes sense. thanks.
@18 – I like your Florence Knoll chair, too 🙂
@15 #Killthewin
Jason!
The Mets bullpen managed to hold on today. Can’t lose ground, 6.5 up if we win.
We are hilariously bad with RISP.
Bad pitch to swing at 2-0.
Jason took advantage of his second chance. Good on him. Ian’s still got his hitting streak working.
Now’s probably the time to mention I had a dream last night that Wren traded Heyward to the Diamondbacks, and I subsequently started a revolt against the Braves front office.
Go pick it Freddie!
Grounds crew is going to have to start mopping up the batters boxes, with the way we wet our pants at RISP situations.
He actually showed some range on that!
I mean, is it really necessary to bunt them over for Simmons? Isn’t Hudson just as likely to drive them in as Simmons is?
Well, this way, if Simmons somehow gets a hit, it’ll score two. I honestly think it’s about 50-50. Neither way bothers me.
Of course I was only joking, there’s no problem having your pitcher bunt. I was mostly just deriding Simmons.
God, that 3-1 pitch was a terrible pitch, and Simmons did precisely nothing with it.
Bring in the mop.
I’d be happy if Kennedy could maybe not hit people in the head when he pitches inside.
I’d like to see Simmons take some shorter cuts. I think he’s over swinging and trying to yank balls over the fence, and as a consequence is missing some very hittable pitches.
Hudson probably should’ve just beaned Kennedy if he was gonna do that.
It seems easy not to walk Ian Kennedy, given that he never swings: http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/ian-kennedy-the-hitter-who-doesnt/
Holy wow he killed that!!!
Gotta score em before they get in to scoring position, that’s the thing.
FREDDIE!!
My goodness, did he destroy that!
Great to see that from McCann. Let’s hope it gets him going!
What’s that, 0-5 with RISP now?
Jesus, B.J. Swing with two strikes!
The Braves are only really in scoring position when they’re at the plate.
Wow, Steve Avery still looks really young. Hard to believe it’s been 17 years since he played for the Braves.
Crazy throwback stat of the day: Sid Bream had 50 stolen bases in his career.
Braves 2, Dbacks 0, Andrelton -1.
Episode.
Braves 2, Dbacks 1, Andrelton -1.
Well, that was a short-lived lead. Hudson doesn’t remember how to pitch with a lead, because it had been so long since he’d gotten any runs to play with.
This Pollock guy is like Pastornicky’s doppelganger.
So, guesses on how many runs this Episode is going to result in?
This is not an episode. This is not an episode. This is not an episode.
Four.
Just saw a guy in the stands with a Clontz jersey. I’m guessing that was Clontz?
It didn’t end up mattering, as the runner didn’t tag, and Simmons cut the throw off, but… Johnson was late covering 3rd, AGAIN.
Hudson is a better hitting than Simmons.
Patented Simmons pop-up on the first pitch. Like clockwork…
I’m not as philosophically opposed to swinging at the first pitch as some, if you’re talking about a hitter with a specific game plan. But that’s just bad situational awareness. Your pitcher just hit after having a long inning on the mount. Take some pitches, work the count and give him a breather. A real leadoff hitter would know better.
A person who pays attention to things that happen during a baseball game would know better.
Hudson couldn’t have even been sitting down before Andrelton ended the inning.
Blame the tard that’s filling out the lineup card. He’s the one giving one of our worst hitters the most AB’s per game.
Jason has went to a 3-2 count every AB today.
As an aside.. I wonder what effect the fact that pitchers don’t hit in the minor leagues anymore might be having on the big league game.
For the two AAA leagues, the International league uses a mandatory DH in any game where either team is an AL affiliate. There are 8 AL teams and 6 NL teams. Pitchers only hit when both teams are NL. In the Pacific Coast League, the rule is the same, but with the adendum that even two NL teams can agree to use a DH.
Pitchers just do not hit, anywhere, except in the National league. So not only do none of our pitchers know how to hit, or know how to bunt, our players all come up having played “American League” style strategies. And they don’t know, like second-nature, things like “take a pitch or two after the pitcher hits.”
I hate the DH. But we’re fighting a losing battle here. Just bring it on already.
Lets go yard, Bmac.
Well damn. We’re out of good hitters.
Sad when opposing pitchers know that walks that put Braves into scoring position won’t hurt them. The D-Backs have us right where they want us.
Uggla still has one good skill left (well, two really).
Nice AB, Danny! I thought he was out for sure.
That was strike 3, and O’Nora knew it. He just didn’t call it.
Dan Dan the Walking Man. Not entirely sure that pitch was low though.
Yeah, that looked really close to a strike. I’m surprised he wasn’t rung up.
“I hate the DH. But we’re fighting a losing battle here. Just bring it on already.”
Defeatism. Teheran is emblematic of how all this talk about how “pitchers can’t hit” is nonsense. They can hit. At least some can. And it makes them better able to beat their opponents when they can hit and the other starter is a lazy or less competent athlete.
Nice job, Dan.
Way to go, BJ! I’ll take that.
Nicely done, Bupton.
Dude, Teheran is hitting .194. Looking like you can handle a bat ain’t handling a bat.
Uggla laid off two sliders in the dirt. If he takes that away from pitchers, he may have a chance to become half decent.
@83, In other words, higher than Uggla, Heyward and BJ have been hitting most of the season? 🙂
Our starting pitchers are hitting .200, .194, .139, .120, and .097. I don’t think we’ve cornered any market here.
EDIT- Actually scratch that .200. Huddy’s down to .188 with his AB’s today.
Wow, two runs on no hits. That’ll make up for being unable to hit with runners in scoring position. B.J. had a great AB there, though.
Watch Fredi pull Huddy after letting him make that last out.
Upton’s clown defense rears its head.
Great seeing Terry Harper in the booth. He looks 40 years old. It’s amazing he’s actually 57. I feel old.
Hudson would need to be an order of magnitude better at pitching to justify hitting him with bases loaded, two out in the fifth.
Eric Chavez sure would’ve looked good in a Braves uni for 1 year 3 million this year.
Officially a bad idea to leave Tim in.
Shoot. Huddy left in for one pitch too many.
Too many pitches left up in the zone, Timmy.
I’m not sure if I even like this team sometimes.
Tim Hudson lacks TWTW.
Can’t play with fire that often and not get burnt, Tim.
Huddy.
So, so glad we could waste that bases loaded opportunity for Hudson to go 2/3rds of an additional inning during which he coughed up the lead. Thank you for that, Fredi.
I’d rather have Uggla lead off than Simmons at this point.
Frediot with another classic here. I’m sure we can afford to lose 5-10 extra games a year because of our figgin’ manager.
Two shitty calls on Freeman.
There was reason to believe that Hudson could’ve gone two more innings at the time. I’ll leave it to you to decide whether that would’ve been worth it, but blaming what happened on Fredi instead of Hudson and Upton is pretty ridiculous.
There’s the old axiom that if you play for a run, you’ll lose by a run.
There should be another that if you try to save your bullpen, you’ll wear out your bullpen.
104 – On the off chance that he could’ve made it two more innings, there’s zero chance he would’ve been a better bet to succeed the fourth time through the order than whatever reliever who would’ve replaced him. The only possible justification is ego protection because it was “only” the fifth inning. Well, I’m guessing his ego is pretty banged up at the moment anyway.
The optimum strategy is probably to pinch hit for Hudson there, but Fredi was pretty much sticking to convention wisdom. In other words, I don’t think many other managers would have done anything different.
I’m still mad at Justin for misplaying the first ball hit in the inning.
Fredi should just flip Simmons and Johnson for now. Simmons is one of our weakest hitters and he’s by far our worst base runner.
There isn’t an NL manager alive that doesn’t bat Hudson at home up two on 75 pitches in the bottom of the 5th. But don’t let me stop the wail-fest going on today.
@110 – So they’d all be wrong. This is better how?
I mean, if this is a must-win game, then fine. But it just isn’t, and for a bunch of people who all but claim that Fredi premeditatedly snapped Venters’ and O’Flaherty’s UCLs, this seems like kind of an odd argument, especially with a two-run lead.
Also, since no one else will point it out, he managed the bullpen pretty well in that seventh inning.
You can’t compare Fredi against your non-existent ideal of a manager. You have to compare him against other people who are actually freaking managing.
Sure he can. It seems to be de rigeur these days.
So BJ swings at a ball for strike three instead of looking at strike three. I’m not sure which is worse.
Welp. We’re gonna lose this one, guys.
Why not leave Avilan in to face Montero and Kubel?
Just saw that the Dodgers optioned Moylan back to AAA. He looked pretty good against us, but has apparently stunk up the joint in his other appearances. He and Prado are guys I’ll always root for, as long as they’re not playing the Braves! (Also, Jurrjens is back in the big leagues with Baltimore. I always likes him, too, and wished he could have lived up to the promise in a Braves uni that he once showed.)
@117 – indeed
Fredi was burning up the bullpen arms in a hurry.
good thing we wont get to extra innings :/
Avilan pitched over an inning last night, I believe, so that’s why he put in Walden.
EDIT Also, Walden’s been great, but he seems to be fragile and 4 appearances in 5 games might be too often to use him.
Simmons, you…. ugh. Idiot isn’t strong enough.
EDIT And he gets hit!
YES YES YES YES YES YES YES
OMG!!!!!! YES!!!!!!!
HEYWARD!! And alert baserunning by Simmons!
Great hit by Jason! And some heads up baserunning by Andrelton! Woo hoo!!!
That damn fool-base-running Andrelton scored. How dare he!
And way to go, Jason.
LOLdbacks
That was an odd turn of events.
RUN JASON RUN!!…. ok. Drive them in Freddie!
Yeah, I’d have sent Jason there, and I’d have been wrong. He’d have been hosed.
@130 Yeah I didn’t realize how shallow it was hit till they showed the third base angle.
More, please.
YES!!!!!
BMac!!!
HELL YEAH!!!
UGGLA!!!!! Man he hit that good.
I’m all for turning this into a laugher!
Okay, where in the world did this offense come from? This is fun!
Way to go, guys.
AND UGGLA TOO! Most runs since May 30 against Toronto.
lol Parra.
He thought for sure he was gonna throw McCann out…then he fell over. Actually made a pretty good catch, considering.
Chris getting in on the fun, too. Love it!
Save some runs for tomorrow, please.
You get an RBI and you get an RBI and you get an RBI.
Everybody gets an RBI!
It’s not often a PH gets 2 ABs in a game. This inning is awesome.
Well done. And as a happy accident, this a renders the Fredi discussion moot.
Yeah, and it gets Hudson off the hook, too. He was just pitching to the end score, not to the score when he was in the game.
Don’t feel bad, Adam. Tomorrow’s another day.
This game was a long game before that inning. I guess if you’re going to play a nearly 4-hour regulation game, winning it is the way to go.
If we lose its Fredis fault and if we win its a happy accident. Tough gig.
Good win for the good guys.
151- That’s in the dictionary definition of baseball manager, Spike.
So there’s half the season, and we’re on a projection for 94 wins. I’m sure we’d have all taken that before April.
And a 6.5 game lead. That anyone would take
Snake sweep?
#151
Hey, maybe Fredi’ll end up as our Cito Gaston. No respect, but, y’know, hardware.
This team is really fun to watch play home games. I was not expecting us to pull that one out. Glad to be proven wrong!
Also, the Royals just DFAed Francoeur for assignment. Did not see that one coming.
Someone will pay him to play and that’s real sad.
Francoeur isn’t even useful against lefties anymore. .246/.292/.311 (.604) against them on the year.
@151
That is not at all what I said.
Diamondbacks trivia: The team record for most wins in a season is 100. Which season did they achieve that high?
Seven walks and three HBP. Hard to lose getting on base like that.
@157. If even Dayton Moore doesn’t want to keep frenchy, I don’t know who would…somebody in Japan or Taiwan?
@162, There’s always winter ball. El Jeffy Blanco.
Francoeur’s days as a professional baseball player are numbered.
Do not sully the Legend of White Bear with the taint of Jeffy.
Good weekend for Chipper’s # retirement so far.
Now can we please put Andruw Jones in the Braves HOF already?
#166
Let’s hope they do once he retires from playing ball in Japan.
I have almost forgotten that he is playing in Japan now. Frenchy can definitely join him there.
@18 The Braves FO actually tried to bring those striped stirrups back a few years ago. Not a lot of players show sock, of course, but some did. Oddly enough, it was such a different look from the navy-legged look that everyone has been used to since the late ’80s that the general response was tepid to negative and they never tried it again.
Possibly people also found the overall effect a little busy, visually; the Braves’ home uni, while utterly gorgeous, has about as much going on as you’d ever want a baseball uni to have: the multi-colored yoke and stripes, the three-color chest graphic, the tomahawk (much better in red than black, IMHO), etc. It’s not a model of simplicity like, say, the Dodgers’. The stirrups maybe felt like a stripe too far. 🙂
Andruw and Javy should both go in the Braves HOF, I think. Neither should have their number retired, though.
@169 I’d wager it has more to do with the players being lazy and tasteless. If Braves fans are ok with the zillion different uniforms we have, I doubt the groused about socks.
Any word on The Return of El Oso?
Really happy for him, but why couldn’t McLouth be this good for us?
Is it me? It’s me, isn’t it?
He’s on pace for a 50sb, 4 WAR season. Madness.
@171 You’re probably right about the players’ opinions carrying more weight. Also, I’ll give you “lazy,” but I’ve found soaking them overnight in a Tabasco-molasses marinade actually perks their flavor right up. 😛
@172
He still hasn’t resumed baseball activities of any kind. Probably gonna be the All-Star break, at least, I would think.
mmmmmmmm… players.
It has been a long time since I posted on here, but I try and check semi-regularly even though posting is blocked at work.
I made it to the game today thanks to a good friend who had 4 tickets for FANTASTIC seats that they couldn’t use. I took all three of my kids and even in the heat we had fun (well, the 7yo was really only happy when she was on the jumbotron or eating chips, but it counts!). Was nice to finally attend a win.
Oh, I put my Eephus League scorebook in the bag finally (I’ve been forgetting to bring that thing to every game I’ve been to since I got it), but trying to manage a 7, 9, and 16 yo (ok the 16yo didn’t need managing) meant I didn’t get to actually score the game.
Also, traffic was worse than usual… I didn’t get up to Gwinnett until 10 o’clock thanks to wrecks and construction and every danged road I turned on being blocked.
@175 Haaaaaaa. I love it.
@178 Glad you got to go and get such good seats!
“If OBP is so important, then why don’t they put it in the scoreboard?” -Jeffy
Recapped.