Nothing will cure what ails you like the Chicago Cubs.
The Braves got the scoring going early. In the bottom of the second Ryan Doumit drove in Evan Gattis. Then Andrelton Simmons drove in Chris Johnson (who was seven for eleven this weekend) making it 2-0.
After the Cubbies tied it up in the fourth, Gattis bounced one off the Capitol Dome. El Oso Blanco doesn’t hit any cheap ones.
In the seventh, Jason Heyward went downtown driving in Dan Uggla. Uggla did his best Roger Dorn impression and took one for the team. Ian Thomas pitched a solid eighth and David Carpenter spelled Craig Kimbrel and picked up his second save and finished off the sweep.
Aaron Harang was very good today. He got in a few jams, but was able to wiggle out of most of them. He struck out nine over six innings. Let’s hope the magic continues.
Happy Mother’s Day for all those who qualify. Remember, she couldn’t be a mom if it wasn’t for you. Give her a call to remind her.
10,000 losses for the Cubs. The Braves should feel honored.
smitty, you got linked to by the ajc.
Really?
Yeesh, Brandon Hicks hits his 7th bomb today. Where did that come from? Why didn’t he do that when he played for us?
Good for him. But he can’t say we didn’t give him a chance.
You overstated the penicillin’s potency by a run.
IWOTC
@5 Really? I only remember him as being the designated pinch runner. Let me check his stats….
EDIT: We gave him a grand total of 26 at bats. Not that he is doing very well right now as he is hitting below .200.
I don’t really feel like the Braves did give Hicks much of a chance. He had a grand total of 28 PA’s in the two partial-seasons he was with the big club.
And there are a lot of guys who don’t adjust to the big leagues right away. It isn’t that uncommon for a guy to knock around the league a bit before he figures it out.
But at the same time, teams that feel they are close can’t wait on a guy like that. The Braves teams that Hicks played on won 89 and 91 games.
I can’t say that I blame the Braves for that one.
@9 I just find it interesting that we never even gave Hicks a chance to be a backup infielder when his defense is supposed to be his strength.
The Athletics gave Hicks seventy PAs in 2012, and he rewarded them with a sweet .172/.243/.391 line.
You guys are fretting over a player whose career OBP is .263.
@11 The word “fret” is an overstatement. Just a side conversation on the day we swept the Cubs and curious why AAR would say the Braves said we gave him a chance.
As you said, we really shouldn’t care much about Hicks around here.
Love the swing Heyward put on his dinger earlier. Thigh-high, outer-half–those are the pitches he should be driving every time.
Come on, Jason. Keep it up. Drive the damn ball.
Why is Alex Wood listed as the starter for next Saturday when we already have an off day on Thursday? The entire rotation is going to be given a week between starts. I’d just keep Wood in the ‘pen for now.
Wouldn’t be surprised if Fredi changes the schedule or skips someone in the rotation for an extra breather. In fact, I expect it.
Because Alex Wood has earned the occasional start.
Sitting in the outfield I was yelling at BJ on that final play. It’s like he misjudged the ball from the moment it was hit. He jogged in and never quite got there. Thankfully he made a nice sliding catch to end the game.
Harang seemed to labor at times but got the job done. I say keep running him out there until he turns into a pumpkin. Once that happens Wood/Hale can come back and take his place in the rotation. this pitching depth is nice but damn I wish we’d score more consistently.
Are we giving the Cubs a run just for futility’s sake? I only count two runs in the box score.
Even with a .198 batting average (and a .235 BABIP), Brandon Hicks is clearly better than Uggla (and not to mention way cheaper).
It’s particularly annoying to see how productive/valuable Omar Infante has been the past few seasons.
Uggla only has about 1.5 years left on his contract. When will Wren lock him up?
#14 – Fredi announced that Wood would get occasional spot starts during his time in the bullpen. It will help manage his innings, I think they mentioned around a 170 inning number.
Regarding Wood and the 170 inning number the Braves use for him: is this a manifestation of the Verducci effect? And if so, well, wasn’t that pretty decisively discredited?
Sorry for the double post but I figured I should at least include a link supporting my claim that it was debunked:
http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=19497
I’m saying that we gave Hicks a chance because he spent two full seasons at Triple-A for us, 2010 and 2011, where he hit a grand total of .235/.311/.399 in 694 plate appearances, and no one ever said that he was Andrelton Simmons with the glove. Notwithstanding the brief cups of coffee, he never was able to hit his way out of the high minors.
In all, he had 2618 minor league plate appearances in the Braves farm system, and he hit .244/.339/.432. The Braves gave him a whole lot of chances before they gave up on him.
http://www.baseball-reference.com/minors/player.cgi?id=hicks-001bra
2618 is the year in which the Chicago Cubs will win their next World Series title.
@25 To be fair, there is only one Andrelton Simmons!
Why are people concerned about Brandon Hicks? We have Ramiro Pena and Tyler Pastornicky, who are essentially the same thing. Vaguely useful, no-hit, kinda-glove utility middle infielders who fill out the 25th spot on the roster aren’t hard to find.
Uggla hit a foul ball hard yesterday. I guess that will earn him 3 more starts.
26 — People are talking about Brandon Hicks because he has more home runs than Freddie Freeman and his OPS would be the 4th highest in our lineup.
Were the Braves right to give up on him? As AAR explained, yes, they were.
I just looked at BJ’s last 28 days on Bref. Can’t say he is regressing when he never started progressing.
Why 28 games? His last 7 he’s batting .111/.190/.222 (.413). The 20 before that he batted .247/.344/.383 (.727).
Just picked the time periods shown on Bref. Unwad your panties.
Okey dokey then, tough guy. Suit yourself.
@31 – sorry that was uncalled for.
Game thread is up.