After working a 12-hour day today, I came home to feverishly scrub my house for six hours in anticipation of my lease expiring tomorrow and my wanting my security deposit back. As much as I normally hate west coast games, I was glad for this one, since my plan was that having the Braves on would help keep me awake and distracted from the menial tasks I was finishing up. Neither Alex Wood nor Zack Greinke disappointed me in my goal. Both of them pitched gems, and tomorrow’s anticipated matchup between Julio Teheran and Clayton Kershaw has a lot to live up to after this one.
If you’re a fan of offense and don’t like pitchers’ duels, the most exciting thing that happened for the first seven innings of tonight’s game was the report/notice the Giants’ releasing Dan Uggla got, only to have it retracted a few hours later, sparking another bout of speculation and comments by paid analysts and social media analysts. If he doesn’t end up getting released with the Giants adding someone at the trade deadline, this “news” is not going to do anything at all for his confidence.
Both pitchers blinked in the 2nd inning, when Greinke gave up a double to Evan Gattis and an RBI single to Andrelton Simmons and Alex Wood gave the run right back with a home run to none other than Matt Kemp, who is rapidly becoming quite the annoyance. After that they traded scoreless frame after scoreless frame through the top of the eighth. Wood pitched into and out of a little trouble, but looked sharp and got key strikeouts when he needed them.
Wood successfully held Yasiel Puig in check, and Puig expressed his displeasure by failing to run to first not once but twice after hitting popups to the right side. As much as I love great defense, I was kind of hoping the Braves would make an error on those so that his immaturity would be thrust more prominently into the spotlight. One of the first rules to baseball is to run to first after you hit the ball into fair territory, no matter where it’s hit—it’s not rocket science.
While Alex Wood was earning accolades from Braves fans for his performance, BJ Upton was most decidedly not. BJ collected the golden sombrero, miring him in a stretch of seven strikeouts over eight plate appearances. All the warm fuzzies he managed to create in the first inning of Tuesday’s game when he manufactured a run with his speed and beat out Puig’s throw are most decidedly gone.
The eighth inning made things interesting, when Jordan Walden came on and got two quick outs before issuing a walk to, who else, Matt Kemp. Two-out walks always come back to bite, and this one proved to be no exception. A single moved Kemp to second and then Juan Uribe, whom I really have begun to hold an intense dislike for, drove him home. Andrelton Simmons made a great diving play to get to the ball, but he couldn’t get Kemp at home and then he kept rubbing his shoulder and causing great concern among those Braves fans who were still awake at that late hour. If that does cause some lingering problems, our upcoming impossible schedule looks that much worse. He was checked out by the trainers and stayed in the game, so hopefully he’s okay.
When all hope seemed lost, Justin Upton led off the ninth with a home run to re-tie the game, and if a west coast game isn’t great enough, extra inning west coast games are even better. David Hale looked sharp in the ninth, but back-to-back singles to begin the 10th with a wild pitch sandwiched in between sent him home the loser as Matt Kemp, fricking Matt Kemp, hit the walk off since clearly scoring the Dodgers other two runs was not enough for him.
In order to not be swept by the Dodgers we have to beat Kershaw Thursday night. That is really not a position you ever want to see your team in, but we’re Braves fans, and this is what we’ve come to expect from the team we all know (and sometimes love but always root for).
Natspo(s) delenda est.
This is the kind of game that reminds us how little progress this team has made since last year….wait, there is progress, we lost in the extra innings instead.
The Braves never win while you’re trying to move. You hope they will be exciting background, but they fail.
Walk Matt Kemp.
Once again great recap.
I was reading the game thread. What did Schafer do/not do that was bad enough for folks to be calling for his immediate, as in that nanosecond, release? He needs to be cut. He is a terrible player.
What is wrong with Heyward?
I guess this is not the time to discuss BJ Upton’s case for the Hall of Fame.
great recap Rissa, thanks…
How safe is that Security Deposit looking now?
Schaefer got picked off, killing an opportunity late. He swaggers around like he’s jungle Jim
Rivera. He’s due for DFA.
Wonderful recap for those of us who didn’t make it to first pitch.
Won’t happen tonight, though. Can’t wait to see this match-up.
Lester and Gomes to Oakland for Cespedes
@8 – Wow. Cespedes for a likely rental.
wowza
According to the A’s website, Cespedes T-shirt day is Saturday
A’s want that ring. Don’t blame ’em, but you can’t really buy it.
I got tickets hopeing to see Cespedes play in Atlanta.
WOW.
Great game, lousy finish. Guess we’re going with what we have right now, huh?
Thanks for the recap, ‘Rissa. Enjoy your returned deposit.
To me, that’s a terrible move. I understand the A’s think they have a narrow window but there’s no guarantee in the playoffs anyway. Apparently, Billy Beane is resigned to the A’s being terrible in a couple of years and is hoping to grab the ring now. Maybe the A’s are not as enamored with Cespedes as we assume.
Cespedes is a bit overrated–.262/.318/.470, injured a lot.
@17
That line would look good for us in center right about now.
I’m with sdp.
I strongly agree with both Seat Painter and sdp.
Saturday is now Tony LaRussa bobble head day in Oakland.
That does help explain it and it makes sense. He isn’t that good.
The A’s know what they are doing.
Also, Cespedes is a free agent after next season. Not like they mortgaged the future — they traded 1.5 years of Cespedes for 0.5 years of Lester and 0.5 years of Gomes, and opened up some budget room for 2015 in the process. Looks like a good trade for both teams, to me.
The A’s sent Millone to the Twins for Flud. They reelased Flud earlier this year.
Busy, busy Beaner. Now what’s what in the Wren’s nest?
Good to see you back, Stu. How’s the missus and the little Braves fan?
Hey coop, all is well; thanks for asking. Kate is great, and our little girls will occasionally watch the first inning of a Braves game with me, when I can stomach a Braves game. Our two-year-old actually asks to watch the “Barves,” not because I’ve intentionally taught her that term, but because she’s overheard me refer to them that way to her mother enough times. Hilarious/sad.
I’m probably not “back,” but I do scan the threads about once a week, and I figured Deadline Day might be a good time to hang out for a bit.
(For the record, it’s more a Braves-inspired ennui than any family obligations that are keeping me away. The VandyBoys showed me what baseball joy — true joy! — is, and I’m having trouble adjusting to these thoroughly-uninteresting Barves…)
I actually see this as being pretty fair for both teams as well. Gomes is struggling this year, but he’s only 33 and his career numbers are similar to Cespedes. Lester puts them over the top as the World Series favorite. Boston got something good for Lester, and the A’s are probably going to win the World Series.
I love the deal for the A’s. The Russell-for-Samardzija deal meant that they’d basically already pushed their chips to the table, and I don’t think that Cespedes kills their offense — really, Donaldson is the key to the offense and they’ve hit very well as a group thus far. They’re set to roll out a playoff rotation of Lester-Samardzija-Kazmir-Gray, which is a pretty great set of lefties and righties.
Stu, I’m so glad that your wife and daughters are well. I hope the team gets a bit more interesting, but I understand what you mean.
Appears Cespede’s four-year contract requires his outright release at the end. Thus, he can’t/won’t receive a qualifying offer.
Braves trade deadline acquisitions in the last decade:
2013 – Scott Downs
2012 – Reed Johnson, Paul Maholm
2011 – Michael Bourn
2010 – Rick Ankiel, Kyle Farnsworth, Tim Collins, AAG, Pastornicky, (Yunel), (JoJo Reyes)
2009 – Adam Laroche, (Casey Cotchman)
2008 – Stephen Marek, Casey Cotchman
2007 – Royce Ring, Octavio Dotel, (Kyle Davies), Ron Mahay, Mark Texeira
2006 – Willy Aybar, Danys Baez
2005 – Kyle Farnsworth
2004 – Tom Martin
@28 – Well done sir. I could never get my daughters or son for that matter to be even minutely interested in baseball.
And I agree, this team is pretty hard to get interested in. I think that if it weren’t for the enjoyment I get out of Braves Journal I’d be where you are.
Wonderful deal for both sides in Cardinals – Red Sox:
Red Sox get: Joe Kelly, Allen Craig
Cards get: John Lackey
Fine trading all ’round.
@32 was prompted by my feeling that doing nothing was going to amount to a horrible trade deadline for the Braves. Now that I’ve seen the list of the sort of things that have resulted from past trade deadlines, doing nothing seems like a relatively good outcome.
Does anyone know what the future holds for the A’s? Are they still being blocked from moving to San Jose by the Giants?
They just renewed their lease at O.Co. in the last couple weeks. Don’t know for how many years, but more than 1.
Miller to the Tigers. There goes that option.
It’s cool, y’all. We have Walden and Hale. And Varvaro. And Avilan.
@32 – Ok, good. We don’t have to worry about picking up Farnsworth again until next year.
It cannot be understated what a disaster this bullpen is at the moment. Craig Kimbrel is the only thing saving it from being one of the worst in baseball, frankly. Walden is OK-ish. After that, there is no one else. Avilan is in the minors, Simmons is on the DL, Carpenter has apparently just disappeared entirely, Shreve is frankly not ready to be in the majors, Hale is a starter/long reliever and you don’t want him pitching in a game-breaking late situation.
I guess Juan Jaime could become worthwhile? He throws hard, so that’s good. And he was pretty much the only pitcher worth talking about in Gwinnett. Gwinnett’s bullpen is so bad, in fact, that we called up Chasen Shreve before he was ready instead of bringing in one of the guys currently pitching in Gwinnett. There is pretty much no hope from within the system unless Avilan and Carpenter figure it out and/or Simmons recovers. We desperately need to trade for somebody to help our bullpen IMO. If we get into the playoffs with this bullpen, we are entirely screwed unless we get a brilliant performance from the starter or a brilliant performance from the offense.
EDIT: I forgot about Varvaro, which I think is fairly instrusctive.
David Price is about to be moved. Not sure where. I’ll guess to one of the LA teams.
I think we end up with Denorfia
0.5 years of Johnny Gomes isn’t a good thing IMO. He’s a negative WAR play in ’14.
The guy I wanted is about to become a Yankee. Feels like I’ve said that before…
Gomes will be in a platoon. The A’s will move Hammel as well.
Price may be going to the Mariners. It will be fun facing Felix and Hernandez next week. Ugh!
By the way, I should have said this before, but thank you so much, ‘Rissa. This is a far better recap than that game deserved.
The pen isn’t worse than a lot of other teams’s pens. But it isn’t a strength any more, which is something it appeared to be a few weeks ago.
I’m gonna go out on a limb and say that our offense is the biggest problem. And it can’t be fixed. So there’s that.
Looks like Marlon Byrd to the Yankees was premature.
I want a starting outfielder. I want a Marlon Byrd-Gerardo Parra-Shane Victorino type. I want someone who will drive BJ Upton in to Jordan Schafer’s spot.
I’d also take Emilio Bonifacio, not as the same role. But because he’d be better at every bench role, except catcher, than our current bench. (Yes, he might make a better late-inning-home-run-threat than Doumit.)
As much as I don’t want Shane Victorino anywhere near this team, that doesn’t sound half-bad right now.
No way to Burn In Hell.
Denorfia apparently to the Mariners.
EDIT: It’s coming from Heyman, so, take it for what it’s worth.
The Brewers got Parra for two minor leaguers.
Our problem in all of this, is that all of our minor leaguers belong there.
That Denorfia to the Mariners thing has been confirmed, apparently. Miller to the Tigers has not, though. Neither has Byrd to the Yankees.
Byrd to the Yankees came from a fake Joel Sherman account.
@56, that, plus the fact that our owner refuses to spend more money on the team. The Dodgers can afford to have made hugely expensive mistakes on Andre Ethier, Carl Crawford, and Matt Kemp; we can’t afford to have made moderately expensive mistakes on B.J. Upton and Dan Uggla.
We’re not exactly have-nots, but we’re have-somes at best. That makes it awfully hard for us to compete with the moneybags.
Now the Tigers are apparently out on Miller. Still available. This day has just gotten so stupid recently with the advent of Twitter. I’m kind of thankful that I have a meeting at 3 p.m. and won’t be able to follow this crap all the way through ’til 4.
But, overall our management HAS gotten a lot of “win” out of the money even back through “the Golden Years”. They just need to spend more of it.
I think a few of the internal options can bolster the pen. Particularly after call up day.
But, other than maybe Gosselin or Kubitza now being ready or Peraza coming up mainly for “legs” in September, our position player crop is too weak to either (a) significantly upgrade our bench or (b) bring us back something to upgrade our bench.
If Sims or Graham hadn’t been facing serious concerns over the last couple of years related to injuries and ineffectiveness, that’d help too. But the high-ceiling guys are either in the majors or well below peak value. There’s just nothing much to do except hope that the good players keep mostly going to the other league.
I’m not too worried about the Cardinals getting Lackey and Masterson. If that’s the most that an NL team does to make itself better by the deadline, I’ll be thrilled.
Hopefully I’m not speaking too soon, but I’ve hardly heard the Nationals mentioned at all recently. Are they really not doing anything? I mean, I know their GM thinks he’s twice as smart as everybody else on the planet, and therefore probably thinks that he’s already assembled the perfect team, but…
Doesn’t necessarily mean anything. Almost every rumor that you hear doesn’t turn out to be anything, and a high percentage of things that wind up happening never made it to the rumor mill.
That said, I hope that they don’t pull anything off. And, if Ruben Amaro doesn’t manage to trade a couple of his assets, he should basically be fired immediately.
A lefty reliever, plus a bench bat, please?
#28
Nice to hear from you, Stu. And here’s to the ‘Dores (at least until Oct. 4).
Rosenthal has us out on Andrew Miller.
Maybe we’re trying to get Bonifacio and Russell from the Cubs?
EDIT: Crasnick has Andrew Miller going to the Orioles.
Wow, Nats might have picked up Asdrubal Cabrera.
Alright. I’ve gotta leave now, so I’m sure something huge will happen in the next five seconds. You’re welcome.
A. Cabrera would place SS or 2B?
Certainly 2B. They aren’t moving Desmond, unless they’re trading him.
Cabera is the kind of player that owns the Braves too.
Really hard to believe the Braves haven’t completed anything yet. It would be almost impossible NOT to improve the bench or bullpen on this team.
Rosenthal says Tigers landed Price.
72: Feel like this is Frank easing the white flag up the pole, slowly enough that fans won’t notice. This team isn’t good enough to make the playoffs, so why spend even lottery tickets on players with only short-term value?
I still think we’ll bring in Bonifacio and Russell.
We’re good enough to make the playoffs. We’re just not good enough to win anything. Those two would help.
Okay, yeah, so.. Probably not. Lame.
@74
If the playoffs started today, we woudl be in. I think we are good enough.
@75: I agree with Anon21: this team is not good enough to make the playoffs. I believe that will be abundantly clear after this stretch against the Dodgers, A’s, and other good teams. The Dodgers series has gotten off to precisely the start I expected. Gonna be a loooonnggg August.
And I don’t believe Bonifacio and Russell will be joining the team. It’s not mystery why the Braves didn’t acquire anyone today: they have nothing of value they’re willing to trade.
If we didn’t make a trade, I’m gonna be pretty pissed off about it. This flawed team would be in the playoffs currently and you’re not gonna try to make it better? Really? That’s just incredibly lame. Anybody who says this team isn’t good enough to make the playoffs is overly pessimistic. We’d be in the playoffs right now. And anyone who says this team can’t win the World Series if it makes the playoffs hasn’t been paying attention recently. Improve the damn team!
The Tigers rotation now has the last 3 AL Cy Young Award winners.
Martin Prado to The Bronx.
Bowman says we got something in under the wire… they allow time for paperwork to be finalized after 4. Says its “may not be significant, but it’s something.”
Haven’t we often gone after small pieces like we’re talking about now after the trade deadline? I guess the deadline has come and gone or can we still make announcements after 4:00 PM?
Wow Prado went to the Yanks, though. They picked up Prado and Stephen Drew.
As long as we did something, I’ll refrain from trashing my office. I’m glad that got posted, I was about to get worked up into a frenzy. I mean, how can you look at this team as currently constituted and do nothing?
That line by Bowman, though, should go in all the Braves advertising materials for the remainder of the year. “Atlanta Braves Baseball: It may not be significant, but it’s something.”
If we can get in, we can win. At that point, it’s a crap shoot. And nobody sensible complains that they lost at craps because their dice weren’t good enough.
There’s no reason this team can’t hold its own for a couple of months. Are they a great team? Of course not. Is anybody else in the NL?
#86
Agree. Get in & roll the dice.
I don’t think anybody’s great in the NL, but it’s hard to look at the Dodgers roster & not think they’re the closest thing to it.
DOB: “Waiting for confirmation of James Russell to #Braves deal.”
Chicago Sun-Times’ Gordon Wittenmyer: “Source: Russell and Bonifacio to Atlanta.”
Wait…so Peter Gammons may have actually been right about something? I just assumed that was BS out-of-hand!
Now we wait for the price to come out..
Russell and Bonifacio would be great gets.
DOB confirmed it. We’re getting Bonifacio and Russell. No word on return half yet.
jjschiller, good call!
Cabrera sucks — he’s kind of a similar hitter to Andrelton Simmons right now, except that he’s four years older than Simmons and was much better three years ago before mysteriously turning into a pumpkin. He’s better than Danny Espinosa, so this makes the Nationals better, but he doesn’t really move the needle a whole lot.
By the way, I forget who it was, but whoever was chastising me for making fun of Peter Gammons always being wrong the other day can feel free to come out with my serving of crow.
Braves acquire Francouer, DFA Schafer.
I honestly cannot believe how stoked I am that we got Bonifacio and Russell, and am worried that says something about my expectations for this season.
They make us marginally but measurably less crappy!
Bonifacio could take Schafer’s, Gosselin’s, or arguably Ramiro Pena’s job. He’s not good, but it’s not a high bar.
sdp are you trolling?
Bonifacio and Russell to Braves for Chip Cary.
@101
Good lord, I wish.
Victor Caratini was the price.
Yes, he is trolling.
Bonifacio could become BJ’s platoon partner as well.
Did we give up Bethancourt?
Edit: Nope, apparently Victor Caratini
Just trying to give a couple heart attacks.
Braves sent Vic Caratini to the Cubs.
Victor Caratini is an okay prospect, but well behind several guys.
Good trade.
Since I’ve never heard of that guy, I’ll rely on somebody who follows the low minor leagues more than I to tell me if this was a good trade. You’re gonna have an awfully tough time convincing me it wasn’t, though.
I liked Caratini, but whatever. Russell has been terrible this year against lefties. It’ll be interesting to see how Fredi uses him at the beginning.
So who do we send down/dfa?
Caratini was our second pick last year. This makes a lot of sense. He isn’t nothing, but, you know, this is what the farm is for.
And you kind of figured that it was always going to be Russell, with Andrew Miller sucking up all of the oxygen.
Schafer will be DFA or Gosselin. One of a few guys in the pen will go down.
Caratini can hit… in a hitting-thin system. It’s a price.
I was wrong about the Braves not getting Bonifacio and Russell, so maybe I’ll be wrong about them not making the playoffs.
Honestly–nothing would make me happier.
Not to pile on a guy who’s really struggling, but Schafer’s getting picked off 2B last night would be a fitting final act.
Bonifacio is a marginally useful part, but I don’t understand Russell…just seems a junk balling lefty w/reverse platoon splits. Am I missing something?
Gondee has Caratini as the #8 prospect in the Braves system.
He was a second rounder in 2013, supposed to be a catcher who could hit, but power hasn’t been there yet, all average. Might have to move off catcher, 3B a possibility.
Caratini can hit, but he is a long ways from here. He is also blocked by several guys.
In the immediate term, Jaime was just called up when Shae Simmons went on the DL. He’ll probably go down, and we’ll have 2 lefties (with Shreve) for a little while.
I expect Gosselin to go down, because they Braves, for some reason, don’t throw away garbage.
Not to be negative (maybe a little) what does Bonifacio give you that Constanza can’t give you for free?
And isn’t Russell Downs Lite?
Bonifacio plays the infield, too.
Now the Yankees are going to designate Brian Roberts. I’d pick him up, too.
This bullpen could use Scott Downs at the moment. On last year’s bullpen, Downs sucked noticably. On this year’s, Russell is potentially the third best reliever we have right now.
Big, big fan of this trade. Two guys who are better than whomever they’ll be replacing, and at the cost of an expendable sorta-prospect. Not bad, considering the complete lack of funds.
This doesn’t move the needle in any way shape or form unless they put Bonifacio into the starting CF role. But like @120 says, we could’ve just put Constanza out there and accomplished the same thing for free.
Okay, yeah… Jose Constanza put up an OPS+ of 64 in 2012, and 43 (FORTY THREE) in 2013.Let’s just nip this little burgeoning argument in the bud.
Brian Roberts is old, oft-injured & finito. Stay away.
Russell has given up 9 Grybo’s this year as well. I’m not really a fan of this. When the best part is it potentially get Schafer off the team, it doesn’t seem a great deal.
@127 – Phil Gosselin pinch hit for our team last night. In the 8th inning, of a tie game, against a first place team.
Bonifacio can play anywhere so I guess it’s good that we’ve added a super-sub, but this team needs offense and this guy ain’t gonna help much. And I’m not excited about a soft-tossing lefty reliever that can’t get lefties out. We have internal options that can’t be that much worse.
Well get excited anyway! It’s all we have left.
OK…an hour ago, any trade for a bullpen arm or bench bat we could’ve made would’ve made us better. Now that we’ve made it, this trade is no good because it does nothing but drop a shitty bench player and reliever from the roster? I’m confused.
So, Bonifacio is better than B.J. against both lefties and righties. Why are we talking about platoon here? He should come in and take over that spot in the OF when he is not serving as the replacement for Johnson, Simmons, and La Stella on days they might not be in the lineup. Basically, Bonifacio is not great but deserves full time at bats over B.J.
Also, Bonifacio’s numbers career wise are much better than Constanza’s and Bonifacio is an actual super sub player who has started much of his career that can cover most positions while Constanza is an OF bench player.
Our bullpen has been near the top of the league all year. It’s not a problem. Scoring more than 2 runs has and will continue to be the problem.
@126: in a total of 107 ABs over those two seasons. Look at his Gwinnett numbers. He’s what he’s always been, for better and for worse: He’s a Bonifacio who can’t play the infield.
A lot of people love to say “internal options” like it’s a guarantee that a guy will do exactly 85% of his AAA numbers if he’s put directly in to the big leagues. It’s like Phil Gosselin isn’t hitting .143/.143/.143 and the league isn’t batting .300 off Chasen Shreve (1.40 WHIP).
You know David Carpenter who we’re all done with? The league is hitting .309 against him, 1.55 WHIP. The only difference between Carpenter and Shreve is, Fredi gave Carpenter enough rope.
If we had internal options that couldn’t be that much worse, don’t you think we’d have seen them by this point? There are none in the high minors. There is nobody in Gwinnett who would be anywhere near as good as James Russell. If Emilio Bonifacio is a complete failure here, he’ll give us what Jose Constanza would’ve given us.
And our bullpen was near the top of the league. It’s now missing Avilan and Simmons, and Carpenter has fallen into a vortex, apparently. This bullpen that we have right this second is league average, at best, and if it’s that, it’s only because of Craig Kimbrel. Our middle relief is completely and totally godawful!
@135- Alright so, other than having 3 positions he can’t play, not being a switch hitter, and the statistics (singles) supporting his case coming from AAA (where defenses aren’t as good) you’re right, same player.
Bonifacio is a multi-positional BJ Upton w/no power, Russell has a negative WAR this year.
The former is marginally useful (assuming he isn’t afflicted with the same talent killing infection that seems to have permeated the Braves bench the past few years), but I don’t see it in the latter.
@136 – By all means, close the book on Shreve after 5 innings.
@139 – 1) I’m not talking about releasing him. I’m talking about not COUNTING on him. 2) It’s not May anymore. We don’t get to watch him crap the bed and swap him out for the next lefty in line, like we did with Thomas.
He might be great. That doesn’t mean he should be the first lefty in the pen.
I bet Schafer is DFAed for Boner’s spot.
Is Bonifacio the Braves’ new leadoff hitter?
@138: Exactly. I’m glad we agree.
Being a switch hitter doesn’t matter. Only the performance matters.
He oughta be. Only regulars with better OBP’s are Freeman, Heyward, Gattis and La Stella.
I’m afraid he’s going to pretty much ride the pine and take time away from Ramiro Pena and Jordan Schafer. I’ll be shocked if he’s the full-time CF. Pleasantly shocked, but shocked nonetheless.
#129
So get a guy who’s finished to replace him?
So I take one day to finish cleaning out my house and then work, come back and find you guys let Martin Prado go to the Yankees. For shame.
It seems all of MLB went slightly nuts today, with the exception of the Phillies who apparently didn’t make any trades because other GMs weren’t “aggressive” enough. My head is still spinning trying to catch up on all of the lack of aggression today.
But seriously, those of you who are not happy about the Braves trade, it’s not like our bench could get any worse. So, there is that at least.
I’ve seen a lot of people complaining about how Martin Prado is going to the Yankees. I’ve yet to figure out the reason people should give a crap.
@145 – Justin Upton would disagree.
Bullpen guys burn out quickly. I’d definitely rather ride with Shreve than Russell, and had the latter been charged w/two more runs and his ERA was sitting at 4.5, I doubt anyone would be clamoring to trade for him. Dude is the definition of mediocre and had negative WAR 3 of his 5 years in the show.
Shreve may not be great, but definitely hasn’t shown he isn’t. Regardless, we’ve drafted enough college closers over the past few years, I’d just try them out until one sticks…and if they lose it, you cycle them out. That’s generally how you find bullpen guys anyway: Hammond, Venters, Moylan, Carpenter, Avilan, Moylan, O’Flaherty, Holmes…you could go on and on…hell, even Jorge Sosa and the Lisp were decent at one point.
In other news: HE’S BAAACKK
With McCann and Prado on the Yankees, I feel a tinge of remorse for hating them so much. However, it’s nowhere near enough remorse to make me stop. They still are and will always be the evil empire.
@151
What the hell? That guy is still playing professional baseball?
Remember when we traded him for Edgar Renteria and everybody lost their minds over what a bad trade it was? Good times.
@151 I’ve wondered where he went. Man he’s 30 now.
The team is better. If it had been Caratini straight up for Bonaficio its still a good trade. Russell has experience and that counts for something.
Yeah…shocking he’s only 30. Renteria has been out of the game for 3 years now
Goddamn if Schuerholz didn’t sacrifice a goat or something to come off ahead in that one.
The question becomes, why are we trading for Emilio Bonifacio when Edgar Renteria can be had for free?
The fun part of this is going to be when they play Bonifacio against lefties and sit Heyward.
Bonifacio vs LHP: .408/.432/.592 (1.024)
Heyward vs LHP: .152/.220/.232 (.453)
BJ Upton vs LHP:.165/.311/.188 (.499)
I imagine, yes, Heyward will lose some AB’s against lefties. So will BJ.
How soon can Bonifacio get to Dodger Stadium? Kinda need him tonight.
Not until tomorrow.
I’d keep Heyward in for the defense, but if BJ never faced another lefty starter the rest of the season, it’d be appropriate.
Heyward should never sit
@163 – That did wonders for Andruw Jones career.
Tonight’s no-hit victims:
BJ Upton 8, La Stella 4, Freeman 3, J Upton 7, Gattis 2, Doumit 9, Simmons 6, Gosselin 5, Teheran 1.
“Gosselin, you’re in! Now go hit Kershaw!”
Aren’t there laws against hazing a guy like this?
Tonight’s about as guaranteed of a loss that you can have. Outside of facing Capuano or Lilly.
@149 I will never be able to not root for Prado. While I root for the guys with the tomahawks across their chests, when a guy gives his all for us while he’s in that jersey, I want to see him continue to do well after that, especially if he’s traded away. A guy I root for mixed with the pure evilness of Yankeedom puts me in a moral delimma.
Fangraphs gives us about a 1-in-3 chance of winning (32.1 percent, to be exact). Not good odds for a Major League Baseball game, to be sure, but not exactly a sure loss, either.
The Yankees seem pretty harmless this year. I don’t think they’re going much of anywhere. I’d say root away, because the chances of having to watch them lift the Commissioner’s Trophy are almost nil.
Encountered another baseball fan today who asked me about “Duggla”–not sure if it was an accident or if he legit thought his name is Dan Duggla.
Basically, we got an okay deal today for what we had to work with.
Bonifacio should start every game we are facing a left handed pitcher in CF. Russel is an actual pitcher instead of a left hander specialist which means we can use him for a whole inning instead of waisting a pitcher against one batter. He has great numbers against right handers which is great and just average numbers against lefties.
All and all, we did get better today with the trades. Not a ton better, but better.
Cliff Lee looks like he blew out his elbow tonight…right after the Phillies decided to make no moves at the deadline. Ouch.
Phillies are beating up on the Nats at least, so maybe we’ll get a free pass.
It’s a sign that the Phillies should fire Ruben Amaro…but they’ve ignored all signs so far. Hopefully, he remains employed forever.
Well it might have been 33% to start the game. Now it’s more like 1%
Game is already over.
Ballgame. I expect little more than a series of batters curling into the fetal position upon stepping into the box.
The amazing thing about Amaro is that he can ruin a team both by trading AND by standing pat.
Wow. Color me surprised. For that alone relative to the 10th inning last night, keep Gosselin and DFA Schafer.
Now that the no-hitter has gone out the door is there really any reason to stay up and watch this?
@ #180
Watching Hanley Ramirez strike out twice has been very entertaining.
@180
To see how many more runners we can squander on the basepaths. If I never see B.J. Upton attempt to steal another base, I will be content.
Kershaw is not gonna let you string three hits together. Hard to say stealing wasn’t the right call, especially when he beat the play anyway.
But that pop-up slide looks so cool. The umps just have it in for him.
Good play, Tommy.
Good start, Julio. Too bad this game could go 20 innings and we still wouldn’t score two runs.
At least we’ve capitulated quickly. “Zipping right along …”
A four pitch inning.
I hate Andrelton Simmons. I hate him, I don’t care who knows it. Make him go away. He’s Jeff Francoeur all over again.
Julio Teheran is a hell of a pitcher, and this is one of them cap-tipper type of games.
I’m not gonna go as far as jjschiller yet, but seriously, Andrelton…STOP HITTING INTO A DOUBLE PLAY EVERY SINGLE TIME YOU’RE UP WITH A RUNNER ON FIRST!!!!
We should trade some garbage for Jimmy Rollins, who is under contract next year, has a better on-base AND a better slugging than Simmons, and who still rates out as a plus on defense, and then trade Andrelton Simmons in the off-season for somebody’s whole farm system, and hope that one more season is all Peraza needs to be ML ready.
Whatever the step down in value from Simmons to Peraza with the glove will be made up for by the fact that Peraza can’t be worse with the bat than Simmons is, because lets face it, no one could possibly be, and the presence of the prospects you got for Simmons.
And that makes Fredi 3-for-3 in getting scoreless innings out of his starter when pushing them an inning too far in this series. Seems unlikely that would be the case and we’d be 0-3 in the series.
Is that our first CG of the year BTW?
EDIT: If B.J. gets caught stealing here, you’re allowed to freak.
When 2-0 feels like 22-0 …
Schafer to pinch-run. What could possibly go wrong?
Oh God no! Schafer as the tying run again!
I love La Stella.
They always wait until the 9th, and they always fall short.
Anybody sending Schafer now?
Peraza can’t be worse with the bat than Simmons is, because lets face it, no one could possibly be
Hi, I’m a Braves fan. Allow me to introduce you to a close personal friend of mine:
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We’re about to test the tie goes to the runner theory here.
He’s safe.
Tie goes to the runner, right?
I don’t know if there’s enough there to overturn it.. But, MLB does have a certain love for it’s major market franchises.
Amazing.
We’re not trading Andrelton & we shouldn’t.
Safe… nice.
Be a hero, Evan.
PLEASE use your brain, Evan.
Bah!
They always wait til the 9th, and they ALWAYS fall short.
Andrelton has been a wizard before and will be again. But he gets the goat’s horns tonight.
One run on nine hits…huzzah!
3 double plays will do that to you.
I sure wish we could cash in those runs Andrelton “saves” for real runs. This offense certainly isn’t going to go out of its way to put any on the board.
Ask the pitchers if those runs saved are “real” or not….
Shreve optioned to AAA for Russell
Gonna be Gosselin who’s optioned for Bonifacio, right? I know some folks were thinking his acquisition meant the end of Schafer, but Schafer’s out of options, and if they were going to get rid of him, they wouldn’t have DFA’d Vasquez…right?
Sansho: I’m not discounting Andrelton’s defense (heck, he’s one of the best defenders in MLB), but at some point his lost offensive opportunities eat into the defensive runs saved.
Recap is up.
Seconded. Frankly, I’m not sure whether you’re real, DG.