Not much to say tonite for a nationally televised game. That is…
Unless you are an absolute baseball lover and truly enjoy the ups and downs of the 162 game season
OR you enjoy hearing about donkeys, baggage handlers or the notion that Doug Fister will compete for the MVP.
Fister, a career 50-52 pitcher took control of the game and blanked the Braves bats, scattering 5 hits, all singles and controlled the game through 8. He really was fun to watch with that herky-jerky pitching motion. Certainly makes the game seem faster.
The Braves best chance came in the first after singles by BJ and Freddie, but ended up with nothing. Freddie Freeman made a great over the shoulder sliding catch to put out Jayson Werth. Evan Gattis extended his hit streak to 20 with a single in the 6th.
Julio Teheran (6-5) pitched mostly well with the exception of temperamental breakdown with Gattis. He struck out a season-high 10, at one point had four in a row. With the exception of Anthony Rendon, who had 3 hits and 2 RBIs, Teheran did not have much of a problem controlling the Nats.
Washington takes a 1/2 game lead of Atlanta in the NL East.
Ervin Santana goes tomorrow against Tanner Roark.
Same lineup…BJ #2.
Two campaigns now: #FireFredi #ShutitBJ
I can’t believe Fredi hasn’t moved BJ out of the 2 spot. Is he that hardheaded or does he think BJ is going to turn it around?
Santana and Gattis seemed to have trouble getting on the same page last time out. I guess that’s something to watch for today.
Batting BJ second makes absolutely no sense. Batting Justin in the six hole makes even less.
I think you are being a bit ungenerous to Fister. He is a very good pitcher, maybe not CY, but he is damn good. I guarantee the Tigers are wishing they had him back at this point. But he is obviously the kind of pitcher that destroys the Braves. And you can’t really expect the Braves to win every game against the Nats.
Having said that, the first inning was very discouraging but not unusual.
I want Freeman hitting in the 3 spot and Fredi isn’t going to have three lefties starting a game so my lineup would be LaStella, Jupton, Freeman, Gattis, Heyward, CJ, Simmons, BJ, P. I get so frustrated watching BJ play baseball (lazy misplayed balls and a terrible approach) and it pisses me off that we have him for 3 more seasons. I’m on board with both campaigns.
I think he’s giving BJ every opportunity to turn it around. He has shown signs of getting out of it. Had some bad luck, but the results are still better than last year.
I’d rather have Hey in the 2-hole, but at least he’s not a double-play candidate.
I wouldn’t say lazy, I just don’t think he’s that coordinated.
Lazy, bad approach, tempermental, I would throw those adjectives more toward the man at third.
Chris Johnson for Martin Prado. Who hangs up?
Diamondbacks. (But I would be happy)
What’s DeJesus contract look like and can he still play CF? TB isn’t going anywhere this year and could move him. He’s hit leadoff before.
@9 DeJesus is on the DL with a fractured hand.
Eh, well scratch that then. BJ put up a great 1 pitch AB
Santana throwing gas in the 1st.
Damn thought that was a DP.
Then LaRoche almost takes his head off. Ball game.
I have come to dread Santana’s starts.
BJ is such a waste. That was a worse at bat than normal as at least it usually takes 3 pitches for the strikeout. On top of his worthlessness, Santana really proving his hefty salary of late
So far, this game sucks.
14 –Me too.
I hate Chip.
I’m surprised at the lack of discussion of the bizarre interchange between Teheran and Gattis. That was just weird.
Why wasn’t McDowell or Fredi out there early on to get things back on course? Teaching them a lesson? Really?
That moment offered so much insight into so many of the clogged arteries of this collapsing team.
I just wonder where Never-Ready Fredi goes in his mind all the time.
I’d say we should break up the Braves, but they may already be broken.
Great escape, Santana. Runs! Please.
BH (black hole) Upton carries the Braves hopes all the way to shortstop. Bench him, trade him, release him; but get him out of the lineup now.
@19 That was bizarre. What was more bizarre was that Fredi, Teheran, and Gattis after the game all said different stuff about it (Julio: the two sets of signs frustrated me b/c it was taking so long; Gattis: the two sets of signs weren’t the problem, etc.) None of our pitchers seem to be as in sync with Gattis as they always were with McCann. Last night was not the first time they showed some frustration (although it was the most noticeable).
Last year, the team seemed to be pretty close, but things started to come apart at the seams the last week of the season and in the postseason. The offseason did not seem to help as much as I had hoped it would.
Perhaps we could trade both Uptons and Johnson for Prado and Delgado.
Edit: I’m sorry I’m wearing my grumpy old man clothes today. Just shoot either me or BH (or both).
@6 Signs of getting out of it? June has been his worst month yet. BJ hasn’t looked like a regular for a playoff caliber team for 4 years. I think he is what he is at this point. I’d love to delude myself and think one little mechanical adjustment by WHIP (Walker, Hitting Instructor Professionelle) will bring 2007 BJ back, but it ain’t happening.
La Stella has seen over 1/4 of all of the pitches Roark has thrown? That’s pretty incredible.
BH again. Despair!
BJ just struck out in a key situation? I’m shocked.
La Stella’s at bat might be the best leadoff at bat we’ve had all year.
That epitomizes why BJ has no business batting second.
Does BJ have any business batting anywhere?
BJ Suckton
31 — No, and certainly not in the place that statistical analysis says one should place the best hitter in the lineup.
$14MM huh…
Wren should never sign a major FA from outside the organization again.
The laws of probability do show that the Braves have to score a run again this season, right?
BJ takes strikes and swings at balls
Hey, a run! Neat.
A run!
Glory! More, please.
This team is hard to love.
Fredi has to get tossed there instead
Baseball is still a child’s game. Certainly our Braves act like children.
@41, agree. Was just going to write how much I miss Bobby in these situations.
That was a miserably poor call on the checked swing.
CJ cannot lose his head there, but he’s Mr. Anger Mismanagement.
Is losing CJ really that big of a deal? I think it makes us better.
Okay, Fredi, that’s enough for Santana.
Chip won’t shut up with the “SPRAYED DOWN THE THIRD BASE LINE”
Six outs to score at least three runs. Odds are not good.
@49 Three outs to score four. Odds just got even worse.
Summer swoooooon
La Stella has played good enough defense. That wasn’t easy.
Seems like Avilan allows every other batter to reach. .500 OBP?
This team is coming unglued. It’s pretty ugly to watch.
Lollygaggers. Whiners. This is becoming a loathsome lot.
We have so many people on the roster that should not be in the major leagues.
Uggla, Schaefer, Avilan, Bupton. You just can’t win with that much junk on your roster.
I guess I’ll take 2-2 on the road. As poorly as we’ve been playing I was afraid of getting swept.
I’d be nice if Mr. Manager got out of the dugout and started some shit. Maybe someone will see him care and be, I dunno, INSPIRED? Mr. Manager does all the same conventional, borderline ineffective game management as Bobby, but seemingly without any of the personal qualities that made people want to saw of their arm for him.
1 run scored in the last 18 innings. Just superb. This team has so many holes they should change the name to the Atlanta Swiss Cheeses. Great day for Gattis’s streak to end.
Id rather have Schafer in the lineup over BJ at this point.
@ajcbraves: #Braves and manager said not concerned about 2 bad offensive games this weekend, said #Nats pitchers had much to do with it.
Yeah, ok…
@60
.205/.273/.332 is awful, but it’s not quite .190/.254/.259 awful.
We do not have a solution to the outfield on the 25-man roster.
Now to point the big finger at Fredi, though: BJ Upton has the third most plate appearances on the team this year, just behind Heyward and Freddie (who are tied with the most).
He has the 11th lowest on-base percentage.
It could be worse !
With Saturday’s 0-3 loss to the Nats, Fredi Gonzalez continued his ascent up the Braves franchise leader board, this time in the loss column. His 243rd loss as a Braves manager moves him into 14th on the venerable franchise’s loss list, past Al Buckenberger.
Buckenberger, ended his managerial career and baseball career by guiding Boston’s NL team 3 seasons, 1902-1904 as it became the bottom dwelling franchise many associate with Boston.
Buckenberger’s Beaneaters’ (as the Braves were called) record of 186-242-9 was achieved in 3 short seasons, the first of which in 1902 he guided the Braves to a 73-64 mark good enough for a third place finish even if it was 29 games behind the NL pennant winning Pirates. The 1903 team lost 80 games, falling to 6th place and the 1904 group lost 98 games, 51 games behind John McGraw’s Giants. At least the Phillies were worse! The Beaneaters finished the season with a 5 game losing streak, interrupted by a tie. The last two losses came against the Phillies.
As an aside, McGraw’s Giants behind Joe McGinnity and Christy Mathewson won 106 games but the NL refused to play the AL in a post-season match-up that would have featured the Boston Americans (Red Sox) 2nd consecutive appearance in the World Series.
Losing is a disease. Like syphillis …
Maybe it’s time to take a major hit to the outfield defense then. Let Doumit play LF or Gattis and call up Bethancourt.
Can someone PLEASE tell Andrelton Simmons that the rules of baseball do not require you to swing as hard as you can at EVERY pitch?
We’re about 2/5ths through the season, we’re 38-37 with a negative run differential. We just lost another SP to season-ending injury.
Are we sellers at this point?
@65, one would think the hitting coaches might have noticed that and said a word or two about it to Simmons. Holy crap does he suck right now. In my opinion there’s no amount of defense that can make up for a giant black hole on offense. I’m so disappointed to how he’s started this season. I really thought that 2014 was the start of him becoming an above average hitter. Boy was I wrong about that so far.
Well, I was about to watch the replay of the game due to missing it earlier, but then, I read this blog. There is no way I am watching something that sounds so frustrating. From what I gather, it was the Braves imploding. Honestly, It might have been the best thing that could have happened. When teams have a really horrible game, it can mean a turning point. This might lead to a roster shakeup in the fact that maybe the front office will realize they need to drop some dead wait and bring up some kids to fill the bench that will have that fire to produce. I say bring up because we have no trade value at this point with any players that we would be willing to give up. Also, there are not many teams out of their race, so I do not think there will be a lot of selling this year.
On another note about Gattis, we all have to remember that he is still learning the the finer points of the game as an everyday catcher. The Braves still have the 5th best ERA in baseball and the most quality starts. Some of that has to go to the pitchers and some of it to Gattis. In the end, we have to have his bat in the lineup. He could move to LF, but does everybody remember what happened in the playoffs last year? He might hit a HR for us, but he would surely cost us a few in the field, too. His value is at catcher, and we would be crazy to move him.
Those who say bring up Bethancourt and move Gattis to LF. This could not be a worse move. Yes, we all hear Bethancourt’s defense is MLB ready, but his bat would just be another piece of dead wood in our lineup. Also, his defense might be good, but he still has no idea how to call a game at a MLB level which puts us in the same situation behind the plate. If we moved Gattis to LF, we would be better served just to start Laird who we all know calls a great game and can get on base at least above a .300 clip, although barely, at the major league level.
Also, I am willing to bet that B.J. Upton will not be in the 2-hole come Tuesday’s game. Something tells me after just watching the post game commentary from announcers and reading a couple of articles about the game, Fredi might realize he has to show that he is willing to make a change.
In closing on a happier note, I watched all of La Stella’s at bats on my DVR from the game. He might have been 0-3 with just a walk, but he looks like his stingy self of old as far as plate discipline. Maybe he has calmed himself down and will get back on track.
@65 He said it himself in an interview, but he has been doing that his whole baseball life. Asking him to change a career long habit would take a bit of time.
@69,
Well, I understand it would not be easy but I don’t see how he can make much progress as a hitter unless he controls his swing a little.
@58,
I don’t understand how a manager starting a argument is going to help the team start hitting. These aren’t Little Leaguers. Do they really need the manager to argue with the umpires to light a fire? If so, they have a lot more problems than Fredi Gonzalez. The problem with the Braves isn’t “showing they care.” It’s the fact that the lineup if filled with lousy hitters.
I’d betcha BJ Upton is a drain on the whole clubhouse.
I just wonder what Schuerholz is thinking. He knows (or should) better than any of us what the difference is between this moribund and unwatchable bunch and teams with less talent that were happy warriors that overachieved.
He’s got to look at all these horrible approaches at the plate that go unchanged (and apparently unchallenged) and wonder if his coaches are actually seeing what he’s seeing.
He’s also got to look at the lineup and the wretchedly misallocated resources and wonder how it got so out of control.
It ain’t getting any better, John. Time to clean house.
I know it’s easy to pick on the GM when times are tough, but a lot of us on this blog criticized the BJ, Johnson and Floyd deals when they made them. Maybe the wisdom of the crowd could do better at long term deals than the braves GM? This team is so flawed that I don’t think I want to watch them in another one game playoff.
@72 Well, it was obvious that we needed a better bullpen in the early 90s and what did JS do?
@mbraves: Jose Peraza with another hit in the ninth. He’s 4-for-5 with a run scored and 2 RBI tonight. #MBraves
73 – there won’t be a one game playoff for this bunch.
I think the guy who put the team together has to be responsible for its performance. The manager may be a clown and the hitting coach a drooling idiot, but, at the end of the day, it’s the quality of the players that makes a winning team. I’m skeptical about the idea that “clubhouse chemistry” makes a difference; I think chemistry is more a result of winning than a cause.
I think Braves fans have become prone to overrating the quality of the talent on the team. It’s just not that good a team. Jason Heyward is a great outfielder and baserunner, but he is not a special hitter. I’m no expert on hitting, obviously, but every TV color man that sees Jason comments on his problematic swing. Justin Upton is good but not great. Gattis has had a great year. Freeman is a fine player. After that, what do you have that excites you? Tommy LaStella?
Whenever teams struggle, fans say that they are flat and lack fire or whatever. I don’t believe that; these players don’t want to suck. They just aren’t that good.
wow…a full hour mid morning with nothing posted, times is hard..
So, Peraza Projection #17…
what’s next? easy…he is going to be asked/told to play a different position…2B,3B, CF…maybe all three in turn…what’s your preference?
mine,3B…package CJ with some jailbait and ship him out…like the guy but his mix of temper/DP’s/base running is toxic…
thus we get Peraza leading off, TLS second…just how much would that be worth in these dreary, dreadful times of predictable run starvation…would also get BJ out of the second spot, please…
6 hits in his last 2 AA games…SSS? BS…use your eyes and your brain…what’s there to lose, we are dreadful up front…
#18 will be published soon, know you can’t wait…30 days, max…
‘and when the strife is fierce, the battle long
steals on the air the distant triumph song
and hearts are Brave again
and arms are strong
Hallelujah! ‘ Hymns Ancient & Modern
changed my mind re 30 days wait…
rereading #17, #18 is clear, now…
convinced myself…
PERAZA is the next PRADO.
wanna bet?
OT a little but does anyone know a Comcast exec I can kidnap and torture until they agree to carry the SEC Network?
Clock is ticking …