We didn’t want to lose this, this here game,
that we played. To win this
will surely make a winning team.
Alex Wood was better
than those desert snakes.
He pitched thunder! Lightning!
The way he scared Snakes was frightening
Nobody knocks, knocks on Wood, baby.
First two RBI’s were Alex’
But Freddie Freeman can blast.
Homer and 3 for 5,
Made him the hitting star.
Andrellton Simmons is hitting,
So all Man Crushes grow.
Thirteen hits of lightning
The way Braves pounded was frightening,
There’s no knock, knock, on Wood, baby.
It’s no secret we’re rebuilding
And so it goes.
When they win some, we’re happy,
And we can’t get enough.
One win in the desert.
It surely means so much.
Braves played thunder! Lightning!
In that town they are frightening.
It’s a lock, lock with Wood, baby.
You’ve got a lock, lock, lock with Wood.
I’ll have those horn sets in my head all day, thanks Cliff. A hearty thanks, not a sarcastic one.
And to that dastardly Rob Cope: Last place is a state of mind. I feel like a winner!
I didn’t know if anyone was recapping this one, so I did an ad hoc write up that was in process when cliff published. Rather than double publish, I’ll just put it here. Because I’m high maintenance and need validation for my cleverness.
Nice, cliff. Thanks for the ear worm. The OAO wants to know where the constant tune came from.
You are clever, Sam. Be validated.
just looked at potential free agent OF targets and the list is very blah. this team is a legitimate power corner OF bat away from being pretty good.
i wonder what Colorado would want for CarGo?
A taker. We do not want that contract unless it comes with a “Get out of Neck Cakes Free” card.
At this point we’d want neither player nor contract.
We don’t need no stinkin’ CarGo.
Just clone Uribe and let HIM play left.
I don’t think we are buyers at this point, nor should we be.
And, if we’re handing out validation, let me remind you since the ‘It Just Doesn’t Matter.’ recap Friday, the Braves are 3-0. I’m not sayin’ anything, but facts is facts.
Paint taken, Seat Pointer. Be validated.
@8
But we are a power bat and two pen arms away, lol
We really could make some marginal/non-albatrossy improvement at catcher, call up ManBan and find another reliever somehow, and it would at least make things interesting, wildcard-wise.
Dioner Navarro is now healthy, expendable to his team, relatively cheap, and projected to be as good a hitter as AJP has been, including his hot start, up to this point.
Three of our four three-city roadtrips are almost complete, and I’d imagine those are going to be the more challenging stretches of games on a team’s schedule. We’ve also played 7 more road games than home games. I could see this team benefiting from some extended stays at home. We are also 5th in the NL in road record, so that’s nice. We had said that if we were .500 on this road trip, that’d be ideal, and we just might. If we come home and rattle off some nice stretches, then this could get interesting. And if we are truly past the point where our 4th and 5th starters are automatic losses, then it could get really interesting.
Is McDowd still hitting, ryan c? Why not try an in-system mediocre arm at catcher first? Betty can’t hit or, seemingly, field, and his arm doesn’t compensate for the rest of his game; and we know AJP is a malignant pumpkin waiting to happen. Let’s go cheap first, and spend chips later if we still don’t get almost league average.
Is Julio considered our fourth or fifth starter, Rob?
McDowd is still hitting, but he’s 24 at AA. It’s not an impressive line, per se.
Julio is definitely pitching like a 5th starter, but I’m not concerned yet. Was there a point where Stults AND Cahill were in the rotation? Amazing how much Perez and Folty have changed the dynamic the past few weeks.
Catchers have weird career arcs, and the bat often comes last. I don’t think his age is a mark against him, but it does mean that he may still be a ways off.
O’Dowd’s numbers have been dropping, but M-Braves radio broadcaster Kyle Tait and I have been talking about him. They’ve been experimenting with him in the outfield and he looks like he could be on Ryan Doumit’s career path as his catching tools are mediocre, but his bat looks to be legit.
With that being said, Lavarnway has a much better chance to remove C-Beth from his duties.
At this point, I don’t believe any of the Braves starters can be pencilled in for a near-auto win like Maddux could be back in his prime. MAYBE Miller, next year, if he keeps up the pace for this year.
But, on the flip side, with the emergence of Folty and The Bills, the Braves don’t have a starter that you think WILL lose, like Kim Il Jong back in the dark days of 2007. (Or was it 2008? You know, the year after he turned back into a pumpkin.)
@16
Don’t forget Perez!
@19, 2006, actually.
I just wish the Braves would give Bethancourt an honest chance to fail.
Seems like the Braves have already seen enough of Betty.
@21 — Yeah, likewise. It’s tough for me to read Bethancourt when they won’t ever start him three days in a row without doubling back to the A.J. Pierzynski well. Yeah, he’s sucked, but his role has been infuriatingly undefined and they won’t give him consistent ABs. This season is for figuring out if he can hit, and they won’t do it.
Barring something unexpected happening like the Brewers making Jonathan Lucroy available, I think the Braves should gauge interest on expendable pieces, audition prospects, and otherwise sit tight.
By my figgerin’, the Braves are now 24-15 when the starter is not Stults or Cahill. We are 2-10 when one of them starts.
JohnWDB, since I’m not inclined to do the research and you obviously are, how much does the record improve when you include Julio in the excluded pitchers list?
I love Julio, but he’s not been stellar this season. I worry that something’s amiss with Persian Julius.
Despite how much fun this team has been the past three days and how generally entertaining this season has been, the Braves are really absolutely average in almost all categories. Still leading the league in strikeouts though.
We are 7-4 when Julio starts. He has been terrible in 3 or 4 games, and we’re not used to that.
He was terrible in 3 or 4 games last year, it just took him longer to do it.
Here’s my count:
S.Miller, 8-2
J.Teheran, 7-4
M.Foltynewicz, 3-3
W.Perez, 2-1
A.Wood, 4-6
E.Stults, 2-6
T.Cahill, 0-3
Now that we no longer have Stults, can’t we subtract those games from the record?
Yeah, for a while there we were only winning games by fits and stults.
Think I’ll take a nap so I can watch the game tonight. I may have said this before, but late start games suck.
So I was off by one. We are 24-16 when the starter is not Stults or Cahill.
If Bills and Folty continue pitching decently, and we don’t lose a starting pitcher to injury, I think a .500 record is very doable.
I think we can at least make it interesting w/o another bat. Especially if Kelly comes back raking.
Yes please to bullpen arms. Or bring up ManBan.
This team is not at the point in the process where they trade useful pieces for a rental bat to compete for the 2nd WC.
Sam,
a alternative) the useful bat is useful through, say, 2018.
b alternative) the useful pieces are very redundant (say, pretty good shortstops, of which we have MANY)
Then that wouldn’t really be a rental, it’d be a long-term strategic deal. The point is, short-term considerations shouldn’t drive this team’s strategy. Paying through the nose for extra wins in 2015 will hurt us in the long run.
We should sign Justin Upton to play LF in 2016. I hear he’s always wanted to play for the Braves.
It’s June. Here’s my all-star ballot:
AL:
Cabrera
Kipnis
Iglesias
Donaldson
Vogt
Cain
Trout
Jones
and Nelson Cruz because I guess pitchers can’t hit
NL:
Goldschmidt
Gordon
Simmons
Arenado
Posey–whose presence on this list is never safe
Harper
Upton
Holliday
Upton and Holliday are both LF’rs correct? I also think Brandon Crawford will be the NL starting SS. Pederson in CF
Bench could be McCutcheon, Agon, Bryant, Stanton, Etc.
Rizzo will be on that bench, too.
If we can get Shelby and Simba to the ASG, that’ll be a pretty good day’s work.
You wanna trade Simva and ManBan for Joc Peterson I’m down. I’m not interested in a mediocre nothing that might fool Cobbites into thinking this team has a shot come August.
Before I go postal on you, Sam, please tell me Simva is not Andrelton Simmons. Otherwise, you are daft, dude.
We’re 2.5-3 games out. We can make 2.5-3 wins’ worth of additions without threatening our WFF fantasies. I agree with what smitty said a couple weeks back: that we made a little push for Lucroy shows the FO thinks it’s possible to strengthen the team this year without messing up the future too.
Bethancourt has not been behind the plate more than 2 games in a row all season. I do understand that we are winning right now, but this season is really about seeing what we have. AJP is not our future. Bethancourt might not be either, but we will never know unless we start treating him a like our starting catcher. I am not sure of who keeps saying it on this blog, but I agree with them in that Bethancourt just looks like he should be able to hit. He might be one of those players who needs to get in a groove at a plate to get going which he will never do with his current playing time situation.
Also, Both Bethancourt’s and AJP’s slash lines were abysmal for the month of May, but AJP’s were actually much worse that Bethancourt’s.
So, I posed the question yesterday: If Simmons has a 100 OPS+, with his defense, is he an All-Star? What say ye?
I’ve been saying it. Bethancourt has hit some ropes right at people. I also saw him hit an opposite field blast in spring training on an outside corner pitch at the knees. He’s getting some good hard contact but his BABIP is awful. He will hit a little. We don’t need him to hit like Yadi to be a useful player.
I think so, Rob. I am not unbiased.
I’m also in the “Play Betty Now” camp. The Johns may already know he’s not the answer, but he’s had little chance to change their minds.
I really like catchers like Posey, Lucroy, and Molina, but I do not envy the teams that have them. It is never good when a majority of your offense relies on the output of your catcher. All you have to do is look at what happens when you lose them. Example A: The Brewers this year. Example B: The Cardinals last year. Example C: The Giants in 2011.
Basically, I’d rather have 2 solid Catchers who can give me an AVG of .250 with an OBP of .300 with a solid OPS. I think Bethancourt could get the AVG, but needs to work on the OBP part of his game. With that, the OPS would come. If he can’t, we might as well find out this year. If he can, we can fill the back up role with cheap solid veterans with short term contracts.
And yes, I do realize a team hurts when you lose any focal point of the offense, but a catcher is only going to give you 130 games a year tops anyways. Toss in the fact that it is a high injury position and you just do not need to invest big money into that position which is what you have to do to get catchers of the highest quality.
What’s the deal with Matt wieters? He’s a free agent this offseason but is he mortally wounded?
@49
He was injured almost all of last year and has not played yet this year. He is a solid defensive and offensive catcher when healthy. The Braves would be crazy to pursue him for two reasons. One: He will be a 30 year old catcher with a history of a significant injury. Two: Scott Boras is his agent which will mean he will be seeking a bigger payday than we should risk just because of his past success.
#13
I like the optimism, which comes easier after a coupla games like Sunday/Monday.
Still can’t say I’m exactly “all-in” on this bunch, but I remain surprised that we’re not 7/8 games below .500 right now. We’re probably where we should be, and for the moment, I’ll entertain the notion of possible improvement. (Outside the closer, the bullpen is really not good, so… I’m trying here.)
Obviously, the team is no great shakes, really—-but it’s not nearly as painful/depressing to watch/listen as it was in July/Aug/Sept of last year. (OK, Stults & Cahill have brought the pain.) Offensively, we’re right in the middle of the NL in most categories—-with 2nd fewest HRs to go with the fewest strikeouts. So there’s that. Again, the bullpen has been the worst in the league and that’s hard to take over & over. But…
Remaining positive for the moment, after 51 games, we’re on pace for 83 wins and that’s not something I thought I’d see. Miller has been as terrific as Julio has been concerning. However, I do appreciate those games when a pitcher guts it out, like Julio did on Sunday. He had no stuff, but managed to hand the lead over to the beleaguered (and apparently not-all-available) bullpen. Those kinds of performances are to be remembered. Hopefully, he can find his mojo soon.
Listening to the game in the car on Sunday, in the midst of a rain-soaked, death-march down I-95 from Providence to NYC, for some reason I had an odd feeling that the game was never out of reach, even after we immediately coughed up the lead. And when Crawford booted the possible DP, I actually wasn’t surprised with the bloop and the base-clearing double. Dunno why, really, but sometimes the “theater of the mind” can take you places-—you really want to believe. (And ain’t it great when your radio announcer’s bases-loaded call includes, “All the way to the wall!”)
So cut to the next scene, I’m fist-pumping to Jace Peterson on a packed Tri-Boro Bridge. Gotta take your joys where you find them. Hopefully, with this bunch, there will be a few more like that this summer.
Danville Braves: Fired coach Peter Moylan.
Gwinnett Braves: Signed pitcher Peter Moylan.
Once upon a thread, Braves Journalistas discussed their favorite baseball books. I mentioned Mark Harris’ Bang the Drum Slowly. Ububba said that it had been made into a movie with Robert De Niro.
I hadn’t seen the movie then but just caught it for the first time on one of the movie channels. Something got in my eyes, I guess. They watered. Hope the Braves can follow that act.
Arab Doubles…that sounds like an interesting evening…
Cakes’ failure to kill the rally cost us a run.
Great hit by Hank Mardukas!
Arab singles is the best Nick name ever 🙂
A huge bag of fucks
Full-fledged Episode, with a big whew at the end.
Shelby has nothing tonight.
Neither does Collmenter…just we aren’t taking advantage so far
Joe Simpson: “Get off my lawn!”
Joe is such a sanctimonious ass. I really can’t stand him sometimes.
Simpson sure is palpably angry at that security guard.
Chip: “Maybe he kicked him because he’s ON twitter. I’m assuming that’s how this new fangled technology works.”
“Take the out, stupid.”
Isn’t this the first time this year Miller has given up more than two runs?
I don’t care what the alternatives are; I don’t want to see Gomes against RHPs ever again.
@66 I’m with you. Why Gomes is playing tonight is beyond me. Also, since I tuned in late, is there a reason Maybin is sitting for the second straight night?
@67
They were talking like he has a minor injury of some sort. I hadn’t heard about it, either, but they said something to the effect of Fredi giving him the Bobby Cox honorary extra day off after a clean bill of health.
EDIT: Seems to be a tweaked adductor muscle, according to Peanut’s article. He’s expected to play tomorrow.
Thanks Nick.
Wowowowowow
Yeah baby! Take that all you Johnny Gomes skeptics!
Gomes silencing his critics.
Thank you Mr Gomes for making me eat my previous words!
This is crazy
I do not agree with pinch hitting for martin here. We need innings still.
Holy crap, man! Where did this rally come from?
That’ll do Cunningham..
Fredi’s pinch hitting strategy is determined by chicken entrails spilt on a glass coffee table.
Did we sign Francisco Rodriguez?
Did Cody Martin, who recently pitched five innings at Gwinnett after retiring only two batters in the fifth just get pulled for a pinch hitter after the team had already taken a two run lead that needs to be protected for four more innings?
Well great
@79, easy guy. That’s a barbaric yawp. No criticizing Fredi. It makes you a vitriolic hater
He just died of a Massif heart attack.
What an imbecile! Why would that doofus swing at the first pitch??? Thanks, dude!
It turns out that Masset is human for “Veal.”
So Stults is gone, Veal is gone, Jaime is gone, Thomas is gone (not to mention Marimon, Cornely and McKirahan). What will it take to get rid of Masset?
To be perfectly fair, I kind of liked Thomas.
Someone vaguely competent to replace him with?
This bullpen steals my joy
I guess my problem is that if you have players on your team, you have a tendency to use them. If there isn’t another competent pitcher anywhere, sign Julio Franco to pinch hit.
So, what will the Braves do when KJ gets activated?
A. DFA EYJ?
B. Send down Ciriaco
C. Send down Cunningham
Personally, I am hoping for A. Even Ciriaco has more value than EYJ, and I think Cunningham has showed more than enough value on defense alone. He, also, shows flashes with his bat, too.
And if they’re on the roster Fredi will also misuse them. He does much better when we have 4 unnhittable relievers to pitch the 6th-9th
Good example. Keep EYJ to pinch run and DFA Masset.
@89, some of us thought keeping EYJ after spring was absolutely brain dead. We thought that we needed to see if Eury Perez or Opie had value.
@92
Do you want a medal? A piece of cake? An honorary degree?
Well, back into the spin cycle we go…
@93, do you want a hug? A rub? A tug? We can work out a transaction here
FUCK!!!
Frustrating
Ugh. This bullpen.
Ugh. One batter too many.
Hey Chip, is there anyone on this freaking planet who cares about how many times a home-run ball has landed in the goddamned pool?
So, maybe we should take him out.
Rating the bullpen arms:
Grease fire: Grilli, Avilan
Dumpster fire: Johnson
Hindenburg: Everyone else
i hope we score more, but if we don’t, I’m comforted by the knowledge the Sam Hutchesons of the world will explain to us all that nothing could’ve been done differently and that we’re all heretics for questioning that.
Joe Simpson=Captain Obvious
@102
Because Cody Martin was a guaranteed success who obviously had no chance of imploding…
Should he have left Martin in? Probably. Would the same thing have happened? Uh…yeah. Because every single one of these guys not named Grilli, Johnson or Avilan are a collective black hole, in case you haven’t freaking noticed!!!
@104, wonderful job doing his work for him. It really is. remember, the person who raises the intelligent critique is actually the idiot. He’s totally oblivious to everything, The mindless Fredi defenders are actually the ones with razor intellects.
You forgot the part where when I criticized the move as it was being made, you were supposed to call it “second guessing” and other such bloviation.
It’s possible to raise the intelligent critique without pompously trying to make sure everybody knows you’re the Smartest Person Ever every five seconds. I promise.
And I’d still like to hear what your solution is for when we have to use somebody other than those three guys. Because, like, it’s gonna happen eventually. And anytime it does, we’re doomed.
@106, just check up on how Sam responded here:
http://bravesjournal.us/?p=13077&cpage=1#comment-1615344
It’s not my fault some of you guys just go on unprovoked tirades when Fredi is insulted. You need to work that out with your shrink.
@107
I fail to see what that has to do with me. Whatever, I should’ve just let you continue to argue with yourself when no one was disagreeing with you. My fault on that.
@108, you chose to make it personal. you don’t have to be personally offended when someone uses big words or confident language. I mean, unless you’re a narcissist who can’t stand for someone else to think he’s “the smartest person in the room”
Man, those hot wings are going to tleave a bitter taste tomorrow.
#101
And there you have it.
101 made me think of https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5-55LM1Wws
Recap is up.