Mike Minor made his season debut last night, and what a debut it was. 7 2/3 innings of no-hit ball, giving up only a little duck snort flare to Billy Hamilton which tied the game at 1 after a walk to Zack Cozart.
Huh? Minor has started 19 other games and has a 5-8 record? Suuuure…tell me another.
Well, the only issue with Minor wasn’t his propensity to give up the occasional solo homer, which was surprising considering that the game was played in the Reds’ Little League home field, but that he walked four, the last being the aforementioned Cozart. Minor was challenging the hitters, but Gerald Laird kept calling for 3-2 curveballs that Minor just couldn’t get over. Of course, nobody on the Reds was hitting the ball, so that’s like complaining that Giselle Bundchen is only 5′ 11″. Other than that, the Mike Minor of 2013 was definitely on the bump last night.
The Braves offense was hitting Reds starter Mat Latos hard, racking up 9 hits in his six innings of work, but couldn’t group the hits together in any useful way. The Braves used 3 singles by Freddie Freeman, Justin Upton, and Chris Johnson, and a Tommy La Stellaground out to plate a run in the third, but that was it until Justin Upton announced his presence with authority in the top of the 12th with a towering two run shot off Manny Parra. Craig Kimbrel finished up for his 38th save.
That’s two good starts in a row now for Minor, against Oakland and now this gem versus the Reds. If he’s rounding into 2013 form, the rotation should be solid for the stretch run.
Minor earned a whopping 0.2 WAR last night from Fangraphs. That just doesn’t seem fair.
Clever. Recap right after my rant so no one sees it.
Rant read. I concur.
It’s not out of line to repost it. People do that.
I saw it, as well, and also agree. It’s very easy to say “I don’t care that he has a no-hitter, get him out of there!” when you wouldn’t have to deal with the team mutiny.
There’s no way you pull a guy with a no-hitter in the 8th. Maybe in the 5th if he’s thrown a ton of pitches or something.
1: Well, he walked a lot. It was the kind of game where if he had completed the no-hitter with 5 walks or so, you could easily point to a couple dozen better-pitched games this season that weren’t no-hitters. (Edwin Jackson had a no-hitter a few years ago that was just a flat-out bad game in which he got lucky.)
Re: the rant from the end of the last thread, I think the simple answer is that the criticism about Fredi running his bullpen into the ground was always stupid. Relief pitchers routinely threw 100 IP in the ’80s, and human arms have not become weaker since then. If you have even a decent relief corps, use it all the time.
While so many would have used Kimbrel sooner, good ole Chip Caray said that Fredi did an “excellent” job managing the pen last night.
@8
I really honestly don’t think it makes that big of a difference. In a vacuum would I use Kimbrel first? Maybe. I’d definitely wait until an inning where their best hitters were due up, but I’d probably do it. However, given the fact that Kimbrel hasn’t exactly been great in those situations and the fact that, like it or not, non-closers seem to get the yips when thrown into save situations, it’s not the slam dunk a lot of people think it is. If you’ve got a middle reliever you trust, throwing him instead of the closer in that situation is not ridiculous. (Now, whether or not we should’ve trusted Varvaro or Hale is certainly up for debate.)
Having relievers you trust makes the situation different, but we’ve seen the Hales show too many times in extra innings. Who else said “oh crap” when Brayan Pena almost took him deep to dead center last night?
I have zero issue with Fredi letting Minor stay in the game with a no hitter and 95 pitches in the 8th. No manager in baseball would consider pulling him.
@10
Yeah, Varvaro and Hale are probably pushing it. Would I use Walden first? Yes. Would I use Carpenter or Russell first? Probably, depending on how both were pitching and what part of the opponents’ order was due up. Would I use Avilan first? No. Would I have last year? Yes.
@10 With the one glaring exception, does anyone have an issue with Fredi leaving Minor in for the eighth?
at the game last night…contrary to what some here think Cincinnati is a great town to watch a ball game – crowd 31K, boisterous, good humored, noisy…they gave Mike a great hand when he walked off…
sitting behind first base you’re almost in the direct line of Andrelton’s throws to Freddie…things of beauty, paced according to his assessment of the particular runner…back to back to back in the first…
CJ…he had a good game particularly defensively when the heat was on late with the no hitter close…on two plays he had to come in hard to this left, awkward pick ups, off balance throws, he made both under much pressure…then his bat alone survived the Chapman onslaught which made our hero leading off look silly 1,2,3…i wish the Regression tripe here would stop – at his contract rate he is value for money…
Chapman – Kimbrel plus…at least to look at, live…
Bonifacio looked overmatched at the plate all night (bring back you know who)…TLS and Goose did not…
Billy Hamilton…apparently you have to be at the game to grasp fully the impact this special type of player has on everything – the crowd, the opposition, his own teammates, he was a true gamechanger…it’s one thing to watch him run on tv, quite another to feel the swelling roar of the crowd…his bat was a surprise also, he can hit(around .270 and almost 50 SB’s, three last night…plus he did his best JHey impersonation speeding in to make a great diving grab on a blooper from the great man himself…watching him and what he can produce make you question why these rare people are not paid at least at the level of your average slugger, they do more…where do we/can we find one? How much effort/resources should we put into such a search?
then the bottom of the 12th…Justin had continued his molten form all evening and the Reds started to run out of pitching…2 innings was apparently 1 more than enough for Parra…that majestic moonshot will remain in the memory.
A great night at the old ball park…in Cincinnati!
Billy Hamilton
Heyward has the day off. Bonifacio is in right field and leading off.
You don’t pull a guy throwing a no no thru 7.
It was a lot easier when 80 of 95 wins saw the starter go 6, O’Flaherty pitch the 7th, Venters the 8th, and Kimbrel the 9th. It’s really easy to second-guess when the players don’t always make the managers look good. To paraphrase Steve Sarkisian, you look like a genius when you draw the play up on the white board, but talent makes it all work.
@13
Great post @blazon. It was a joy to read something that positive.
Also, I am really liking what Fredi is doing with the lineup lately. He is not allowing it to become stagnant at all. He seems to have at least one different person starting every night, and it is working. We might not always agree with what he does with it as we all have our opinions about the perfect lineup, but whatever he is doing right now is working.
Keep it up Fredi. We all play forum manager in here but none of us truly know the amount of pressure on a manager’s shoulders on a daily basis.
And to paraphrase Cherilyn Sarkisian:
If I could turn back time
If I could find a way
I’d get replay on Posey and Braves would be in the World Series to stay
If Wren and Gonzalez are “accountable”, then so are Schuerholz and McGuirk. If bad free agent signings are used as an impetus, remember that Cox, Schuerholz, and McGuirk were a part of the recruiting team for BJ Upton.
listening to the call in rain delay show really helps you understand why Skip was so mean on it.
holy cow, i wish you guys were listening. its just surreal now.
Please tell me someone asked how to calculate slugging percentage….
SLG = TB/AB
I remember listening once and someone called to ask Skip what a “walk-off homer” was. He was, uh, rather annoyed.
Caller: I just love that boy that runs the bases for the Braves. He’s so precious.
Ingram: Which one is that ma’am?
Caller: That little boy who runs the bases – he’s just darling.
Ingram: He’s our favorite too, ma’am.
The deal discussed at the deadline for BJ was for Edwin Jackson. Would have liked to have seen it happen.
@24: Goodness.
Skip, explain to me and Sam Holbrook the infield fly rule.
If only Sam had called into to the show, Skip would have set him straight.
You don’t pull a guy throwing a no no thru 7.
For the record, Bobby Cox did in ’91. (6th, but I think it’s on point)
http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/ATL/ATL199109110.shtml
The Peach Clobbers can’t hit anymore, and the solution to that is to trade Gattis?
@30, You don’t know what the return would be / what other moves would be made in conjunction with a Gattis trade, so why get all worked up?
I imagine it’s quite clear to the front office that we need a more consistent offense.
@31 He didn’t seem “all worked up” to me. I think it’s a valid question as to why some seem so eager to trade away our third best hitter, especially absent any particular reason to believe such is even on the table.
32 — Bowman wrote that the Braves think Bethancourt is ready and that the Braves may explore a trade for Gattis in the offseason.
@33 Which merits a days’ worth of back and forth, imo, at best. But really, how often do the idle musings of Peanut ever come to fruition? Still don’t see why some seem so giddy at the prospect.
@32, From yesterday’s thread:
Did someone just slightly suggest that the Braves trade the Legend, El Oso Blanco?
Get a rope.
Not exactly comforting rhetoric.
I wouldn’t characterize myself as “eager” — I’m just saying I understand why the Braves would trade him — and I don’t think anyone else on here is anything approaching eager either. Quite the opposite. All I see is AJC-esque context-less butthurt.
I didn’t feel “all worked up”, but okay.
Better get a run here. Don’t want to see Chapman in the 9th again.
Should have Heyward hitting for BJ.
Should have Heyward hitting for Doumit.
Should have Heyward hitting for Emilio.
Santana looks pissed in the dugout.
@29. Good lord, could you imagine if we ran that lineup out today? Crackpipe Nixon rightfully leading off, then jeff f’ing Treadway, along with gred olsen and raffy belliard at the bottom. Talk about holes in the lineup! Its funny how the game seems to have come full circle in 20 years, from 4 no hit glove guys in the lineup to massive offense, back to a lot of no hit glove guys.
The reason Gattis is the most mentioned name for trades is because he is the most viable option to get some return for, and his position dictates it.
Gattis is a catcher and just a catcher. He is a liability anywhere else because his defensive woes completely cancels out his offensive positive. Also, he has been in the league 2 years with a DL stint each year which is troublesome for a player who already has at least 1 to 2 rest days a week dictated by his position.
Catchers do not last. It is the one of the things that people agree on in baseball. I would rather take a drop in catcher offensive production if it will allow us to improve with the addition of an everyday OF or perhaps a more consistent 3rd baseman.
Basically, Gattis appeared in 105 games his first season and is on pace for 113 this year. As much as I would miss him, I’d rather get financial flexibility and a consistent player who will appear in at least 140 or more games a season. If a trade of Gattis does not allow us to unload a bad contract though such as B.J., I would keep him because it is probably not going to be worth it at that point.
Simmons just swung at 2 pitches that were each a foot off the plate.
How do you not send Heyward to the plate here? #frediot
Because we have PH’r Ryan Doumit
@29 Cox did the same thing to Damien Moss (remember him?). He had thrown something like 120+ pitches through 7 if I recall correctly and walked 56 or so guys…
Recap is up.