New York Mets vs. Atlanta Braves – Box Score – September 04, 2013 – ESPN
If you think I’m gonna recap a game in which the Braves sent Kameron Loe to the mound in the top of the first…
This is the video for a single from the band, Johnnyswim, which consists of my wife’s college roommate and her husband. (Friend’s husband, not wife’s. I’m way more handsome.) Watch it, enjoy it, and buy their records.
Here, SP = Stupid Pitcher or Simply Putrid. Or perhaps “Sorry, People.”
And tomorrow we’ll take another day off—luckily, there’s no game scheduled.
They’re no Bullpen Death Roll, but they’ll do.
Excellent song. It had been played all day long on VH-1.
On the topic of “Looks Weird In A Braves Uni”, I’ll nominate Graig Nettles.
But the real winner has to be Livan Hernandez.
I say Loe goes 5 and 2/3, allows 7 hits, strikes out 4, and walks 2, while giving up 3 runs. It will be enough for him to get the win.
I thought Julio Franco looked weird in a Braves uniform when they signed him out of the Mexican League after four years out of MLB, but then he ended up sticking around for four more years.
Freddy Garcia, Shutdown Long Reliever. Give him all the spot starts in September!
@6: In what universe?
The “game” was already “played,” td.
K Loe: “Look, all I’m asking is for a chance to start and show someone that I’m worth taking a chance on next year.”
Braves: “You sure about that, K?”
K Loe: “Damn straight! I want the league to know what I can do!”
Braves: “Okay. We give guys shots when we can. Tell your buddies about us if you would.”
today happens
Braves: “Well. The league knows what you can do. Lucas Duda seems to be specifically aware of your talents…”
To be fair, Loe did look better than Dice-K, I think….then again IWOTM.
I’m embarassed – can’t say that I’m sorry I missed the game though. I have a feeling we may have endured Loe’s first and only start in a Braves’ uniform – at least I hope so.
There’s no shame in skipping a Wednesday day game with Kameron Loe on the hill and a double digit lead in the division. Hug your kids. Kiss your wife. Drive the economy forward. It’s all good.
Danny Kolb did look strange in general but also in a Braves uni.
Guess the Braves aren’t too interested in home field advantage in the playoffs if they’re giving Kameron Loe starts with only a two-game lead (coming into today) over the Dodgers.
Doomed, you guys.
@15, it’s a trade-off between wanting to stretch the advantage vs. trying to give young pitchers who are throwing career-high numbers of innings some rest.
Plus every now and then you steal one of those B-team getaway games. I’d rather have everyone as healthy as possible for October and let the home-field situation sort itself out.
At this point the only way we’d have to play the Dodgers in a 5-game series is if the NL Central winner is the team with the NL’s best record, which the Pirates are in third place for right now. If the Pirates start making noise like they’re moving to the front of that pack, I’d hit the gas again, but as things stand I’d be content to start Freddy Garcia every sixth day until the playoffs begin. (No more Loe though. I think today was just a function of Garcia having to mop up five innings on Sunday.)
RE: the “we are giving away HFA” doom variant
Right now, the only series the Braves are going to face the Dodgers is in the NLCS. That’s a seven game series with loads of rest days baked in between travel days and starts. The Braves have won in LA this year already. And seriously, there is no “home field advantage” in a seven game series. It just doesn’t exist, guys.
@18: +1. And that’s why the ASG *still* doesn’t mean anything.
Some of you have quite a bit more faith in our 1 1/2 and 3 1/2 game best record leads than I do. I could easily see us falling behind both and starting a 5 game set on the road. And given our record, I’d say there is significant anecdotal evidence that this team – not any and all teams – has an advantage at home.
You guys do realize the B lineup probably had a 50-50 shot of beating the horrible Mets today, and the only likely reason why everyone decided they didn’t give a shit was because we were immediately out of the game because of the comedy stylings of Mr. Loe, right?
How many times this year has our B lineup won these games? We’d have to define “these games,” but it seems like we’ve won more of these than we’ve lost. Fredi was not “forfeiting a game” today. It just turned out that way because we were immediately down 5-0, and therefore probably would’ve turned out that way even with a full lineup for the same reason.
And as far as starting Loe to begin with, if they think it’s a good idea to give Teheran a turn off, I’m gonna go with them on that.
It’s a gamble, but given the Braves’ schedule ahead of them I think there is sufficient reason to believe that the Braves will keep pace with their league rivals. The positives to pitching Loe today are that we certainly are allowing players to rest. The Braves lost today, and if they had continued on course without giving a day off for some there is no guarantee of victory today. And there was no guarantee of a loss, either, although many were concluding that before the game got to the second inning.
Hey, at least we know we rested some arms today. We’re going to need them later.
With the Dodgers doing what they are doing, let’s quit worrying about Home Field and rest our starting pitching as much as possible. Lord knows that the offense that we send in day in and day out is not going to get us a Series ring.
I want those other teams fighting for HFA to wear out their regulars, including the arms of their pitchers, before going into the playoffs. Hey, if HFA means that much to them, I say go right ahead. Meanwhile, we’ll be well rested and ready for action.
I am surprised Fredi didn’t rest Justin and Freddie. May as well.
Tomorrow is an off day. I don’t mind the B lineup but I really don’t understand the Loe start. There has to be some mid level arm in Gwinnett that would make more sense. Loe shouldn’t be on this roster for any reason.
@26: Crazy conspiracy theory follows, but what if Wren is planning on trading Loe and wanted to show him off to potential suitors? Some scouts/GMs probably don’t care about the score, but are looking more for placement, speed, endurance, etc. Sure, he got drilled, but maybe another team thinks he’s trainable or that he has “it.” And then Loe goes off to become another Wainwright.
I agree with one part of that, DG: It’s crazy.
It’s just hard to swallow that Lucas Freaking Duda had a game like today. I’m trying to rationalize the suckage of Loe.
Duda is actually a good hitter.
#27 – Loe was already DFA’d from two other teams this year. We DFA’d him a couple of months ago and reassigned him to Gwinnett. No one wants him. He’s 31 and cant tie Wainrights shoes much less pitch like him. My thought on a fringe starter from Gwinnett was the same line of thinking. Maybe we could showcase an arm. There is nothing to showcase with Loe.
Loe had some decent starts in AAA and the Braves FO didn’t see anyone else in the organization who they felt was ready for their major league debut. Of those on the 40 man, David Hale would be my first choice, followed by Aaron Northcraft, but I don’t think their chance of success was a lot greater than Loe. Loe’s WHIP and ERA was better than both of them.
I don’t think starting Loe was a big deal – it was a one game experiment and it didn’t work. Let’s move on and never look back!
The Dodgers exhumed the corpses of Edinson Volquez and Carlos Marmol to pitch tonight. Fredi and Mattingly must have had an agreement to punt today.
Choo just thrown out at home on a botched TWO OUT suicide squeeze in the bottom of the 15th. Say what you want about Fredi — no one is more puzzling to me than Dusty.
Shanah tovah to all. Happy new year, y’all.
Dodgers lose so we’re still two games ahead of them for HFA.
Nationals win so they pick up a game on us in the standings. No doubt Harper gave a stirring pre-game speech in the clubhouse before the game.
@35 You too Alex.
Pursuant to out recent discussions about whether pitchers today are really so much more fragile than the old timers, the opening segment on Olbermann tonight did a thorough takedown of the notion, pointing out (among other things) the number of those “300 inning pitchers” who were done by their late 20s.
Shana Tova!
Natspos want the second wild card. They picked up a game on the Reds, not the Braves.
I would love to beat Washington in the first round of the playoffs.
@34, Baker claimed it was Heisey on his own – no word on the telepathy device Heisey used to tell Choo to break for home.
@40
Or the entire team has come up with an elaborate series of signs to unwittingly spring ill-timed suicide squeezes without Dusty Baker’s knowledge. I mean, since we’re already through the looking glass here…
In all seriousness, the only possible explanation is that Baker forgot how many outs there were, right? I mean, what other possible logical explanation is there for that?
@41: The only explanation I can think of is the Spanish Inquisition, because no one expects it.
By the way, watching it as it happened, Heisey spent a long time outside the box staring at the 3rd base coach. I was wondering why, since it couldn’t be the squeeze. Indeed, I think one of the worst things about the legitimately timed squeeze is that the batter usually behaves so squirrely just before it happens.
Third baseman was back, Heisey squares, and Choo just takes off thinking the squeeze is on. I can’t see it either, but there’s an explanation.
http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/gameday/index.jsp?gid=2013_09_04_slnmlb_cinmlb_1&mode=video
The play
I actually called a two out- two strike squeeze once, but I was coaching jv baseball with a kid hitting that hadn’t put a ball in play all season. It worked, but like I said it was Jv, so it was like playing the Astros
There are plenty of times a suicide squeeze with two outs works brilliantly. The third and first basemen are playing back, the pitcher is not thinking about fielding a bunt, the hitter lays a good bunt down either line, and he’s on without a throw and the game is over. If the Paid Professional Heisey could have gotten an easily buntable ball down, it would have worked brilliantly.
Plus, Heisey is a .239 with plus speed, so their best shot at getting Choo home is on a bunt single. It ain’t gonna be with a screamer through the box.
Final thoughts on the Loe start.
1. There are no better options in the minors right now. The better options are either hurt (Gilmartin) or in the low minors. So you go with the journeyman.
2. While the 2013 Braves team didn’t get much out of Loe’s start today, the Atlanta Braves franchise did. The Braves have a sterling reputation among players for being a stand-up organization who does right by players in their system. Their respect and treatment of Loe and Garcia, and their willingness to give them a few spins around the bigs to try to catch on somewhere again next year, is one of the things that make players think highly of the Braves org. There isn’t value in Kameron Loe’s outing for the 2013 team, but there is value in maintaining a reputation among players for being run by people who respect players and keep their word (even if it’s just a handshake agreement with a journeyman reliever that they’d give him a shot if the opportunity arose.)
nice piece in the Times this morning on Georgia Tech’s new announcer..
47 – I do not agree with your point #1. And I think the Braves do not either.
Apparently, they just called up David Hale, one of about a dozen guys in the minors that are probably a better choice than Loe for a spot start.
Even odds David Hale does about as well as Kameron Loe.
Unless they call up Lucas Sims (odds of that are 0%) then I’m not really interested. September call ups are mostly about rewarding guys for being in the system or giving guys a chance to showcase themselves to other teams. The Braves are pretty good about this kind of stuff.
@44 In Dusty’s defense, Choo did not look like he was executing a suicide squeeze there. If so he would have been further down the line and taken off earlier.
I am contemplating the fact that, for the Braves, September callups might be about preserving the health of the arms on the A-team. They might also be interested in clinching their Division and HFA.
That said, they may as well call up every arm on the 40-man. I do not think there are any service time concerns. There better not be payroll concerns. We should have a pretty big chunk of change that was originally allocated for the big mid-season acquisition.
Of course, the M-Braves are in the playoffs, so we might yet see Jaime and Northcraft when their season concludes.
Gilmartin isn’t hurt. He’s not good, but he isn’t hurt.
Gilmartin’s been fighting a bum shoulder all year.
@53
I think it does start their clocks.
Smitty – I do not think there is anyone to be concerned about from a service time perspective. Not on the 40-man pitchins crew.
Also, I think “starting their clocks” overstates the service time cost, since the “clock stops” when they go back to the minors.
Any player on the 40-man is already recording one of their three option years.
Wasn’t Garcia pretty effective in relief of Loe? If you need another spot start, I say go with him.
Yes, but IWOTM. Speaking of, at least we got through a 3 game set with them without losing anybody important for the season/extended time. I call that a win every day.
And FWIW, we finally won the season series (10-9) with the Mets, the only NL East club that’s really given us trouble this year.
Braves are:
10-5 vs. Miami (4 left @ Mia)
12-4 vs. Wash (3 left @ Wash)
8-4 vs. Philly (7 left: 3 @ Pha, 4 @ Atl)
I think there’s a good argument to go with random AAA starter and tell Garcia he is once again “the guy that comes in if that other guy falters.” If Garcia is intent on it, he wouldn’t be the first old starter on his last legs that got two or three more pension years out of slopping up the bullpen.
New thread.