The battle of the “Great April / Horrible May” teams. Either they will at least get to mediocre (a split of this 4 game series) or somebody will “right the ship.” Braves ship is a little more right as of last night.
Mike Minor was very good, but not spectacular. 2 runs over 6 2/3 is better than a “minimal quality start.” Minor got the “win.” But, what we have needed was quality at-bats. Maybe Jordan Schafer’s yesterday will start a new trend. In a few days, we will know if it is a trend.
It was 3 to 2 when Minor left. You know you had a good inning when your pinch hitter gets to bat twice in one inning. Ryan Doumit’s triple slash for the 8th inning was .500/.500/2.000. That usually works. But, the whole game everybody worked Wily Peralta and his “followers” hard. Peralta was at 50 pitches in the 2nd inning and 22 were balls.
I remember watching local / regional spot telecasts of the Milwaukee Braves in 1965 with Dizzy Dean doing play by play. That was to whet our appetites for a team. My father had played “dead ball style” baseball for years until my mother made him stop when he broke his leg sliding into second base for THE SECOND TIME.
Wren stated his plan is to keep Ughla as long as he succeeds in his role. Ummmm…?
So he’ll release/trade him in 2009?
To David at the end of the previous thread — lengthy discussion of Heyward’s defensive value begins here:
http://bravesjournal.us/?p=11727#comment-1495890
But his role is to sit on the bench. He’s great at it!
Pour encourager les autres, as the French used to say.
@1 Where did you see that? What the hell is his role? Come off the bench and get hit in the leg?
Hey, I’ll take a pinch hit-by-pitch any time I can get it!
I was a little worried with the score 3-2 heading into the 8th with 3 or 4 minutes left on the condensed game. But turns out the bottom of the 8th took a while. 🙂
@5, anyone who could do that consistently would actually have a pretty good OBP.
Hell, Uggla is more effective using his leg than he is with a bat. I mean the ball actually comes into contact with his leg.
Are the condensed games on atlantabraves.com? Is that the same as the highlights?
Should I complain about Heyward some more? I’m not superstitious but he did go 3 for 4 last night.
Yep, the condensed game goes up the next day. Here’s a link to yesterday’s:
http://m.mlb.com/video/?content_id=33004233
@5
http://www.myajc.com/news/sports/wren-on-the-braves-offense-you-have-to-be-concerne/nfzc7/#2a0de92f.3465929.735373
http://www.sbnation.com/lookit/2014/5/19/5732010/i-just-watched-andre-ethier-play-johnny-utah-in-a-live-version-of
Andre Ethier plays Johnny Utah in live version of the greatest product of American cinema, Point Break.
Can you summarize the article for us non-subscribers, Ryan?
It’s not a subscription.
It isn’t actually behind the paywall. It’s an interview with Frank Wren where he admits that the offense hasn’t been good, but doesn’t give any indications of what he’ll do.
Still not sure the gameplan with keeping a 25yr old at Gwinnett. Worst case scenario, he upgrades the bench when he replaces Uggla.
Former Brave Mike Hessman hit his 400th Minor League homer today. Get it done, Wren!
About Uggla: Wren said the Braves are apt to keep him. “That’s our plan right now. We’ll see if he can be productive in this role.”And that role would be … deep bench? “A bench player or whatever it becomes. That’s really in the player’s hands. If he produces, he’ll be back in the lineup.”
So what is more likely? Uggla playing his way back into the lineup or:
A flock of Dodo birds being discovered in Alpharetta.
Someone proving that Mark Teixiera is not a douche.
Jeff Francouer becoming a super star.
Atlanta being voted most drivable city.
The United States winning the World Cup.
I guess the original Fredi Gonzalez had communicated to Wren that Uggla is still being a good teammate and all and given that Ug is still popular with his teammates maybe Wren doesn’t want the backlash that occurred last post season. Or Frank doesn’t know what sunk costs mean.
Cool stuff from Joe Posnanski/Tom Tango/Baseball Musings.
-Joe Posnanski does a great job explaining the thought process behind Tom Tango’s new version of pitcher wins. This version weights outs recorded v. runs allowed and still ties it to whether the team won or lost: http://hardballtalk.nbcsports.com/2014/05/19/down-with-the-pitchers-win-up-with-the-tango/
-Then, Baseball Musings has a leaderboard. You can do it for any season, but I’ve linked the 2012 season so we can reminisce about how good Kris Medlen was: http://www.baseballmusings.com/cgi-bin/AssignedWinsTracker.py?EndDate=10%2F03%2F2012&EndYear=&SortField=PAW.AWML&SortDir=desc
Let’s keep the top-3 in the line-up going tonight. When they’re getting on base, we’re winning games.
Regarding Uggla, I don’t think there is anything else that Wren could have or should have said publicly. Uggla clearly doesn’t have a role any longer.
Wren must still be hoping he can get someone to take on part of his salary before he cuts him loose, and it doesn’t do any good to talk him down, nor is it fair to Uggla. I thought Wren would have given up by now, myself.
If the Braves thought La Stella was the answer, he would be playing second today.
20 – Respectfully disagree. For one they really wanted to give Uggla every chance to regain some value, but they also probably want to see what they have in Pastornicky and Pena. La Stella is getting his first real taste of AAA so it’s not beyond the realm of possibility that they want to give him at least a couple of months there to adjust.
In other news the Red Sox just re-signed Drew so that option is off the board.
.285/.374/.333/.708 – La Stella through 41 games.
I’m going to do a 180 here inspired by Dusty @21.
We keep Uggla, we just don’t play him. Close to the deadline we package Ugs + Hale + a prospect + some money. I would include Bethancourt or Terdoslavich in the prospect role and trade them for salary relief and a sack of balls or a used mitt or some guy. If the Braves only get 5 million in salary relief that’s 5 more than they get by releasing him. AND they let La Stella get some more AAA time. Penanicky isn’t going to be as bad as Uggla so you don’t lose much in the short term.
Game thread is up.
I’m pretty sure if teams wanted Stephen Drew (including the Braves), he wouldn’t have just been signed in May. I get a player like Roger Clemens getting signed later in the season, but it’s a little looney for a player to hold out until the end of May to get a contract. I don’t care who his agent is. It didn’t work for Ervin Santana, and I can’t imagine Drew feels great about his contract.
@17
The US could luck it’s way into at least getting close to winning the World Cup this year. All you have to do is ADVANCE in 7 games, you don’t even have to win them. You could finish 0-0 and win on PKs in every knockout game and win the world cup so I’d say that’s at least PLAUSIBLE. Dan Uggla becoming a productive major league hitter again does not seem plausible.