I think we all agree that the Braves should not try to buy their way into a wild card spot, and one would think that the five-game losing streak and Grilli injury would convince the Johns of the same. There’s a decent chance that the next three weeks will see farewells to people like Juan Uribe, Jim Johnson, and Cameron Maybin.
But I don’t want to talk about that. I just want to link to a song by Flipper.
Rock out, everybody!
I love the new Derby rules
Ditto. The contest was much more enjoyable and watchable with this new format.
Yep, first time in years that I’ve gotten any real excitement from the HR Derby.
New Derby rules make it much more enjoyable…Berman is still unbearable though
I don’t know if this is out of line. If it is I’m fine if Alex deletes it, but with absolutely no baseball, at all, of any kind whatsoever for 3 days, I thought I might mention it.
I play in a band. We play reggae, ska, soul, rocksteady… things of that nature. We spent a bunch of money recording an album and are trying to make the last little bit needed to master and reproduce it.
Check it out if you’re so inclined. http://www.thefreecoasters.com will drop you right on our Kickstarter campaign.
I agree on the new Derby format. Loved watching these guys just hacking at balls for 5 minutes straight. Seems like in years past you might have a guy taking 20 pitches in between swings.
It would never happen, but Id like to see them swing aluminum bats. I want to see some balls going 525-550
No problem at all, JJ. This blog is a three-legged stool — if it weren’t for music and SEC football, it wouldn’t be Braves Journal.
@5, huge fan of the rocksteady/ska/bluebeat genre, esp Prince Buster, Toots, original Wailers… all that early first wave stuff. Good luck with your project.
Three Legged Stool would be a good name for a band.
Three Legged Drummer would be an even better name.
How many legs do Williams have?
Thsnks Alex, thanks Spike. We play mostly what’s now called ‘early reggae,’ but used to be called skinhead reggae. Organ driven, up tempo like ska, but with the guitar strumming pattern of reggae. A little bit of rocksteady. We barely play anything with a ska beat, but because we don’t play roots or sing with a fake accent, people call us a ska band.
@11
Six.
@10 – I think you are focusing on “three legged” while I am focusing on “stool.” Either way, we’re priceless.
Unlike most years, I think I’m gonna kinda enjoy this All-Star break. No baseball is fine with me right now.
Flipper. Good musical choice for any moment of gnarled-up frustration.
Saw Flipper at the 688 Club in Atlanta in the early/mid 1980s. It was a typically confusing show for the hardcore kiddies —- Flipper was, after all, the punk band that intentionally made hardcore punk fans hate them. The kids wanted it fast, so they got confrontational by playing slow, methodical & droney.
For some reason, half the crowd expected the kinda speedy punk that bands like the Circle Jerks played, but got a noisy, rotting bucket of damaged art instead. As Margaret Cho might say: “If you don’t like me, I’m going to make you ha-a-ate me.”
By then, the hardcore-punk scene had begun to attract a larger set of interlopers (suburban jocks, military types, generic sociopaths, etc.) just looking to fight anyway, so we didn’t really mind that these people got irritated.
So, after the show, a buddy & I went over to the lip of the stage where the bass player (the late Will Shatter) was just sitting in a pile of cables and pedals. We told him how much we liked the show and blah-blah-blah.
He had his head down as he listened, but then looked up at us with these dead eyes and says, “Thanks, uh, but, uh, I gotta go. I think our singer is having a nervous breakdown right now.”
Made perfect sense to us.
I can’t believe this place hasn’t turned into Isbell Journal yet.
Ububba, that is awesome.
#16
A couple more 5-game losing streaks & you never know…
I wouldn’t mind if we kicked it on over to SEC Football Journal at this point.
How about that Jim McElwain, eh?! Florida Gators, SEC East Champs!
Seriously, if we don’t win the east with McElwain’s scheme, Muschamp’s defensive talent, and Georgia, Vandy, Missouri, Kentucky, South Carolina, and freakin’ Tennessee as our competition, then we got problems. Smitty, does Tennessee even have a football team?
I like to pretend that Ga Tech could win another national championship in my lifetime.
Here’s a fun baseball think piece:
Tennessee will be way improved this year (and yes, Rob, I’m talking to you), but my fellow fans seem to think that we’re dark-horse SEC title contenders or something, which is a little much. That probably needs to be given another year to pan out.
As for Florida, if not winning the SEC East when you’re the fourth-best team in the division on paper means having problems, Rob, then I’d say you’re likely to have problems.
TN doesn’t have to win the East, but I think Jones is under some pressure to win at least 8 and really nine. Schedule favors them a bit, they’ve had a couple great recruiting seasons, and it’s time to deliver a couple of big wins.
#23
Exactly, Jones needs to have the kind of year where he beats a rival or two that isn’t having a down season. The bowl win was nice & a definite lift, but he really needs another signature win vs. an SEC opponent. That win vs. Carolina in 2013 seems like a long time ago because they really haven’t followed it up.
UT has given UGA a couple of tussles in Jones’ 2 seasons there, but they couldn’t hold onto the ball & found inexplicable ways to lose both games — a fumble thru our end zone in OT halted a potential UT win in ’13, then a QB fumble in their own end zone turned into a momentum-swinging UGA TD in ’14.
They’ve recruited well and somehow they’ve become the trendy East pick in ’15, but I still gotta see it.
SEC is impossible to call this year. Too many teams have unknown quarterbacks. At least one of these unknowns is going to have a great season. But which ones?
UGA’s window is closing. They didn’t win it when everyone else was down, so it’ll be even harder when UF and UT are on the upswing.
I agree with the larger point, but this Auburn man likes his unknown quarterbacks chances pretty good. Honestly though, it seems like Georgia has the inside track to at least get to the championship game. They could probably tolerate losses to Auburn and Alabama and still win a head-to-head tiebreaker with whomever else has a two loss season. A win against either or both would probably clinch it. They should be the favorite in every other game they play.
I have never realized before how short Hank Aaron is.
Sure would be nice if these artist would just sing the National Anthem the way it was written
#25
I hear you on the QBs. UGA’s Harper has an arm, but we’ll see if he can lead a team. Of course, he’ll be giving the ball to #27 a lot.
Last year was the real missed opportunity. Even with all the Gurley distractions, etc., they should’ve made it to the Dome.
But I can’t get too worked up about 2013. With the insane amount of injuries, any reasonable person would call 2013 just a season of preposterous bad luck.
BTW, they did win the East in 2011 & 2012.
#28
No Jose Feliciano fan, I’ll assume?
Im sure someone has already said this, but we shoulda drafted mike trout instead of mike minor.
Todd frazier’s LLWS hr http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=13256846
@29, I’d be more worried about UGA’s defense getting off the field. Stopping the run might be a problem. I would make them the favorite again to win the East, except that they are always good for a couple of inexplicable losses. And they have to play both Bama and Auburn. Might be a tough year.
@30, hard to believe Trout went 25th. In our defense, Mike Minor looks like a great pick compared to our first round picks since then. Hopefully this year breaks the dry spell.
#32
They seemed to handle Auburn’s running game just fine last year.
Rob,
I think Florida hired their Dooley.
5 years/ 7 million…70 million?…no, 7…
http://www.kansascity.com/sports/mlb/kansas-city-royals/article728381.html
Did you detect an awkward pause in the tv booth last night as KC catcher Salvador Perez came up to bat? they read off his 2012 5 year/7 million contract with the club, offered and signed after only 39 games in the major leagues…listening to Buck and his cohorts it seemed no one knew exactly what to say for a long while, lost for words, rara avis…
Yes he signed it voluntarily, grabbing at the security it offered him and his family back in Venezuela…now 3 years on he’s an All Star catcher who played a large role in the Royals’ run last year…not that that affected the Royals FO who seem happy to let it ride into its fourth year until, presumably, it gets uncomfortably close to renewal time when they will supersede the 5/7 with, say, a 7/85 which, say, is round about what he’s worth today…and if i were he i would hit the FA market then and not for the usual reasons…they have gotten 4 years of this guy for 1.5ish a year, long after he has proven himself as a player…they could/should have torn it up way back…and with whatever largesse they present him to re-up something real has been lost, on an uncomfortable scale, that he won’t get back…
if the Ayn Rand devotees would allow just a moment for reflection – there are two sides to this – there is a moral issue somewhere is there not? even the good old boys seemed to have got that last night on the air…what interests me, parochially, are there many here who agree? if this was the Braves would you be ‘comfortable’?
So there are two issues…the morality of what the Royals continue to do…and when was the last time the talking heads in the booth were, literally, lost for words when a stat was read, parrot fashion, off a card and then they realized they would still be obliged to comment on it, it was so raw?
@35: For years, and especially during the 1994 strike, I have been bombarded with messages that I’m supposed to care how much baseball players get paid. We see them compared to public safety workers, military members, teachers, etc. Somehow, MLB owners have convinced fans that these “savings” from deals like Perez’s will be passed on to fans. It hasn’t happened. It will never happen. I’m guilty of getting upset at Uggla’s deal. But it only “hurt” the team because of some arbitrary cap that Liberty put on team salary. Again, ownership doesn’t mind if we get upset at Uggla. That takes the focus away from the fact that all they have to do is invest a little more in the team to make it better while eating his deal. They can’t do that, though, otherwise their profits may go down. The horror!
More savings being passed on to Braves fans: http://m.wsbtv.com/news/news/local/braves-fans-seeing-sticker-shock-over-ticket-price/nmmqz/
They timed the new stadium perfectly. We’d be near the bottom in attendance for years to come without it. The 75-win product on the field is hard to fix and will take a lot of time. The spike they’ll get from the new shiny stadium might be enough to keep some execs fat and happy despite the bad baseball team.
I tend to agree with W.C.G. that the greatest trick the devil ever pulled was to convince fans to root for owners and GMs instead of rooting for players, especially when it comes to contract disputes.
Here are my SEC Predictions:
East
UGA 10-3
Tennessee 9-4
Mizzu 9-4
Carolina 8-5
Florida 7-6
Kentucky 5-7
Vandy 3-9
West
Bama 11-2
Auburn 10-3
Arkansas 9-4
LSU 9-4
A&M 8-5
Ole Miss 8-5
Miss St 7-6
If an owner and a player enter into a contract, and the contract is felt to be unfair after some time (someone is getting a really bad deal), I think it is reasonable (yes, perhaps moral even) to mutually renegotiate the contract. Most people believe the Royals are getting a steal and Perez is getting fleeced, and they should renegotiate–I’m one of them. I can understand why the Royals ownership might want to stick to the current terms, however–it’s certainly in their best short-term interests, even if I think it’s unfair or even immoral.
I think it should go both ways, though. I also think some players should probably just retire or take a pay cut instead of inflicting harm on their teams with horrendous play and payroll engulfing contracts. I also understand why some would rather stick it out and be better off financially for it. Nevertheless, this has been a decidedly unpopular and roundly excoriated idea around here. In fact, I’m not sure who exactly has been siding with the corporate fat cats–nobody on Braves Journal.
I think Tennessee is still a year away. I think they win Bowling Green, Western Carolina, Kentucky, North Texas and Vandy
Toss ups: Oklahoma, Florida, Arkansas, UGA, Carolina and Mizzu. I think they beat Oklahoma, Florida, Carolina and Mizzu.
They lose to Bama, UGA and Arkansas and go to the Outback Bowl and beat Wisconsin.
For some reason I think Florida wins the East. All they have to do is be remotely competent on offense (as opposed to complete trainwreck). The Cocktail Party will decide it.
UGA might be able to win a lot of games by never throwing a pass…but they have too many decent teams on their schedule for that to always work.
It just breaks my heart that Twins fans criticize Joe Mauer, who was a hometown hero until he actually got paid what he was worth, for the size and length of the contract that the team voluntarily offered him.
I think it’s fair to say that a lot of the criticism of B.J. Upton, who was trying hard and yet failing miserably, was predicated on the number of dollars on his contract that he was costing ownership.
Nobody is sympathetic to Melvin Upton. The team gave him the contract. But it’s a two way street. If you make many millions, then expectations will be high.
@43
The Gators are only returning four guys on offense. Their defense will take a step back as well. They play seven teams with equal or more talent than they have.
I think I actually agree with John that, if I had my druthers, these deals would get renegotiated. I don’t know how you’d decide which deals should be up for renegotiation…perhaps a player or team that thinks their deal is out-of-whack could appeal to some sort of independent panel who decides if a deal should be renegotiated and then it goes through some sort of arbitration process to do so. It would never happen, obviously, but it would be better than the current system where a player gets screwed over or a team gets screwed over for multiple years without any recourse.
As far as siding with ownership, in my case it’s not that I side with ownership per se as much as that I root for the Braves, not player X. If player X is no longer a Brave, I no longer root for player X. If player X’s contract hamstrings the Braves, that’s bad because I want to see the Braves compete for championships. If player X’s contract is a rip-off in favor of the team, that’s good because that’s more money the Braves can use to compete for championships. This is an oversimplification, obviously, as owners could always just throw more money in the pot, as was mentioned earlier, and when it comes to labor negotiations, I generally find the players’ side more compelling than the owners whining that they’re not making year-to-year profits off their teams (never mind that the value of the team is going to freaking double by the time they sell it and that any yearly losses can probably be written off anyway), but on a day-to-day basis, I think that’s why it seems like more people are on the owners’ side than the players’. This is not an individual sport, it’s a team sport. And it’s not an NBA-style team sport where the individuals can become bigger than the teams, either. At the end of the day, people are rooting for their team, the interests of which are represented by their team’s owner.
@44, I get what you’re saying, but I don’t think that’s fair to say at all. I can’t imagine a fan actually losing sleep over how much money Liberty Media losing on Dan Uggla or BJ Upton. I for one couldn’t care less whether some faceless corporation profits on the Braves, except for how that translates into having a winning team in the future.
From a fan’s perspective, you have a guy who is the biggest free agent signing in team history and who takes up 15% of the payroll who ends up being basically the worst player in the league. Ire is directed at the player for disappointing us, at the GM for making such a foolish signing, and at corporate ownership for not loosening the purse strings. There are lots of ways to direct anger, and they are not mutually exclusive, but the one that it is your consciousness every day is that underperforming player you’re watching on TV.
Gondeee’s mid-season prospect rankings. Our international signings, Pache and Cruz make the list. Mallex Smith and Albies jump. Rio Ruiz takes a deserved tumble.
http://www.gondeee.com/
@46
Four returning starters is extremely misleading. Powell and McGee were not starters (McGee due to injury), and both will play a huge role in the offense this year. Frankly, I wish they were returning less. That offensive unit last year was full of bad coaching and schemes. I’m happy to get Robinson, Harris (or Grier), Powell, Taylor, McGee, and the pieces on the offensive line in with Nussmeier/McElwain. Don’t worry about “starters returning”; there’s plenty of skill talent as long as our offensive line isn’t as terrible as it seems right now. If Powell slides to the slot, we’ll have two strong RBs, two strong WRs, a pass-catching tight end, and plenty of depth.
And plus, we still have plenty of talent on the defensive side of the ball.
#45
Chubb & Co. should open up the passing game. The bowl game against Louisville really showed that as a successful template — pound, pound, pound, go deep.
A lot will depend on the 2 very talented WRs — Malcolm Mitchell, who hasn’t been quite the same since his knee injury 2 years ago, and Isaiah McKenzie (“The Human Joystick”), who has blazing speed & incredible moves, but unproven hands. I suspect they’ll try to use him a little bit like Percy Harvin, a lotta bubble screens, get him in space, but also use him as a deep threat like Bob Hayes/Cliff Branch (have him outrun everyone & hope he catches the ball).
And, of course, QB Brice Ramsey, who’s on top of the depth chart, will have a lot to do with their fortunes. (I have a terrible mental block about him & I keep calling him Bryce Harper.) The kid has quite an arm, but he’s certainly going to need more than that.
On Georgia football,
Ramsey’s upside is first year Matt Stafford. His downside is bad Wayne Johnson. But, if he is near downside, Bauta will be playing isntead and he will probably be Hutson Mason with the ability to tuck it and run over people.
Defensive line is a little of a question mark. Linebackers may be the best unit in the country (starting and 2 deep). Defensive backs will be a little better than last year, overall.
Special teams have been a puzzling negative in most of the past few Richt years, though overall last year was better. Dooley level special teams would have added an extra win almost every one of the past 5 years.
So, I would put it like this (regular season).
12 – 0: 5%
11 – 1: 10%
10 – 2: 25%
9 – 3: 25%
8 – 4: 15%
7 – 5: 5%
6-6 and worse: 5%
@44 No, there is no moral component to his financial choices, and the team absolutely should not tear up his contract because he has performed well. At the time it was signed there was no such guarantee, and its perfectly rational for a player to favor security in the face of the unknown that is his future performance over maximum dollars. The team likewise is taking a risk that he flops, and so is not willing to go as high. If teams are expected to then redo the whole thing once a player’s value becomes better known, then there would be no reason for them to ever offer such guarantee in the first place, which would hurt those players to whom it might appeal.
It’s no one’s business, frankly, but Perez how he values the various factors that go into a contract. For all we know he’s going to get hurt tomorrow and never play again, and he’ll be thanking the stars he valued security.
Sorry, that was meant for @35
The structure of baseball free agency that guarantees 6 years of compensation far below value makes any crying over bad player deals just laughable. For example, Tampa got 4.4. two 3+ and 2.8 WAR seasons out of BJ for 15M . Ownership is way,way ahead on balance even factoring in every bad contract ever awarded. That players will choose lowball contracts is a planned function of this artificial salary depression that exists solely for the benefit of the cartel that operates the sport.
#52
From what I hear, Bauta is the gym-rat, everybody-loves-him, leader type, but not as talented at Ramsey.
Special teams have had spectacular highs (like 2012) & unfathomable lows (like 2013), but they should be able to return some kicks.
Essentially, I tend to agree with the idea of splitting with the 2 Alabama schools – do that & that’s probably a good way to get on the Atlanta Highway (perhaps for a rematch).
@44, any twin fan that doesn’t see the entirety of Mauer’s career as a stupendous bargain is nuts. 12 years of 4war/season from CATCHER at what, 12M per? Where can we get that?
Jon Morosi @jonmorosi 1h1 hour ago
Sources: Mariners and Braves discussed deal involving A.J. Pierzynski, but he’s not the catcher Seattle is close to acquiring.
Pierzynski for Taijuan Walker. Get it done Johns!
If we can sell high on Pierzynski, we gotta do it. He’s a 38-year old backup catcher who had a hot April.
@55, I totally agree TB got a great deal for BJ Upton, even factoring in the investment in his draft bonus and minor league development. And still, it doesn’t make it feel any better to be a fan of the team who paid him for that prior production without getting any positive return–especially when we haven’t had a good premium free agent signing since Andres Galarraga.
@53, all very good and reasonable points. If the MLBPA wants to prevent players from signing bargain deals, they need to have an insurance pool to protect against early-career injuries. It would tax actual free agent paydays to offer a hedge against missing out on that payday.
@39: specifically, I think the Devil’s particular ingenuity was in making player salaries a matter of public record and discussion, while making ownership’s finances as opaque as possible. Search Google News for “NBA lockout Adam Silver” today for a good example as to how that lets ownership control the terms of public debate.
I’m not sure how to feel about Perez. It’s the first case I can remember since Longoria of an MLB player being so radically underpaid that there’s casual talk of tearing the contract up and restarting. Most of the time, that casual talk is in the direction of an Upton or a Mauer or an Uggla who is underperforming his deal. MLBPA have fought hard for fully guaranteed, not-mess-withable contracts, and I don’t think they’d want to mess with that on behalf of one edge case.
I feel like if I argue that the Royals have a moral imperative to renegotiate Perez, then I have to stand with John upthread about Melvin et al. having a moral imperative to retire or otherwise give money back, and I don’t feel that way. You get what you negotiated, and really as fans it’s not our business. We just want the best 25 on the field, full stop.
That said, I hope for his sake that Perez has a better agent now, and that such agent can leverage his current performance into a reasonable extension more in line with his current value, in exchange for giving the Royals a few more years of control. That might make everyone happy.
I long ago made a player compensation proposal that would solve a lot of problems: give the players, in aggregate, a share of all MLB revenue (TV, gate, concessions, etc, etc) and then let the Players Association divvy it up. The Players Association would bargain over the aggregate percentage and work rules. At that point, teams would be free to make whatever trades they wanted, but money would only figure into a trade to the extent that a team had actual money problems. Salaries could be public or not, because under this scheme no one would care. I should add that I suspect both players and owners would hate this proposal (although I suspect the lower echelon of players would earn more under it). Anyway, it has no chance of ever happening, but I never understood why teams had to pay the payrolls when the league guarantees a percentage of all revenue to the players.
Look at the schedules. Missouri is once again winning the East.
@ Kentucky
South Carolina
Florida (which is their *homecoming* game; seriously, get MAD, Gators)
@ Georgia
@ Vanderbilt
Mississippi State
Tennessee
@ Arkansas
Look at this trash. While they’re playing Vandy four times or whatever, UGA’s West slate is Bama and @ Auburn. Missouri will lose in Athens by about 40 and win the rest of their games. Unless Georgia eats its damn Wheaties the entire year, Mizzou’s going back to Athens.
If we take away the two impotent losses to 2013 Auburn and 2014 Alabama in the SECCG, here is Missouri’s record against the West’s big three teams since joining the SEC in 2012:
vs. Alabama: 0-1
vs. Auburn: 0-0
vs. LSU: 0-0
What is this? What computer is puking out these schedules? How is this even possible?
Since joining the SEC in 2012, here are the teams Missouri has beaten that finished the year with winning conference records:
– 2013 Georgia
That’s it, and in that game, Georgia was without Todd Gurley, Keith Marshall, Michael Bennett, Justin Scott-Wesley, and Malcolm Mitchell….so basically about 95% of the offense. When Georgia has played Missouri full strength twice in Columbia, they’ve won by 20 and 34.
As a Georgia fan, I’m expected to loathe Florida, Tennessee, South Carolina, Trek, and the Barn…and Lord knows I do. But there’s nothing like my disgust for Mizzou. They are the X-Pac of the SEC (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/XPacHeat ) and should be dropkicked back to the Big 12 where they belong.
#64
I hear you, but Mississippi State & Arkansas aren’t complete walkovers, certainly nothing like the East bottomfeeders — hell, MSU might have the best player in the conference.
Also, it should be noted that, due to the conference expansion, Georgia & Alabama have managed to avoid each other in the regular season the past 2 years. Those home-&-homes got pushed back to this year & next.
@64, you could be in the West, you know…
Really at this point it’s two separate conferences that get together every now and again for what feels like an OOC game. League expansion without schedule expansion has that effect.
Oh http://scores.espn.go.com/ncf/recap?gameId=400610182
the http://scores.espn.go.com/ncf/recap?gameId=400610180
horrors http://scores.espn.go.com/ncf/recap?gameId=400610178
the West http://scores.espn.go.com/ncf/recap?gameId=400548359
would be http://scores.espn.go.com/ncf/recap?gameId=400548337
Just announced Freeman will not return this month. Just shut him down until he’s 110% ready and sell off Uribe, CJ, KJ, AJ, JJ, and Aardsma for whatever you can get.
We might as well bring up Bethancourt now and see if he’s learned to catch or just include him in a trade also.
Missouri’s entry in the SEC was fortuitously timed with some greater than expected downturns from Tennessee and Florida. That won’t last forever.
Also it’s official that Brantleys out for the year now. That defenseive line is going to need to turn it up a little bit As Brantley was the sole returning starter.
http://mweb.cbssports.com/ncaaf/eye-on-college-football/25241962/missouri-dt-harold-brantley-to-miss-whole-season-lucky-to-be-alive
I’ll admit this much…if UGA can get competent QB play – specifically on the play-action game that will be wide open against everyone they play – then they will go undefeated. My hesitation is due to the fact that the backup QB at UGA pretty much never ever sees the field, even if games are well in hand in the 4th quarter. Ramsey is just a giant unknown. There will be chances-galore for him to make huge plays as everyone will be stacking the box to stop Chubb and company. What happens next is anyone’s guess.
@67-The quotes from the Braves front office are ridiculous regarding Freddie. “We gave him an injection and thought it would just be two or three days, then we did some more tests and realized the injury is more serious.” What the fuck is wrong with this team’s medical staff? Their franchise player and they don’t even bother to figure out what exactly his injury is? In certain respects this team’s front office is still a total shit show.
Freeman should be out for the year. The writing has been on the wall for a month. Let’s go ahead and get a top 5 pick.
@66- The only two SEC West teams who have beaten UGA since the SEC went to 14 teams were 2013 Auburn on the Fail Mary and 2012 Bama in the SECCG, which…you know. ’13 LSU was a back-and-forth UGA win. Everyone else, the Dawgs have walked all over. (They also went 3-0 against the West the year before expansion for good measure.) We ain’t skeered. Our dumbass losses come against the East. Speaking of which…
@70- Georgia’s blowout loss to Florida last season should remove any possible semblance and sort of benefit of doubt for this program for all eternity. Losing on the road in the rain against a desperate South Carolina team, you can excuse. Losing to ’02 Florida- who wasn’t terrible- you can excuse. Losing to ’04 Tennessee- who wasn’t terrible- you can excuse. Getting blown out at ’07 Tennessee- who wasn’t terri…well, most of the time they weren’t terrible- you can excuse. Losing to ’10 Colorado, well, that Georgia team was terrible too.
The Florida game? Georgia was coming off back-to-back blowout wins on the road against Mizzou and Arkansas. Florida had just been humiliated at home against that same Mizzou team, with chants of “Fire Muschamp” coming down from the half-capacity crowd. Georgia had an East championship in their grasp and a whiff of the playoffs. Florida was playing out the string. And the Dawgs come out and lay the biggest egg of the season. The same team that humiliated Auburn’s offense- which hung 44 points on Bama and 41 on LSU- couldn’t stop a simple running game out of Florida. Absurd. Can’t ever trust ’em after that.
Also, every time I saw Ramsey last year, he made it evident why Mason was always the starter. I like the kid, but.
#73
Florida essentially ran the same dive play at Leonard Floyd all day. It was like he was trying to rush a non-existent passer & kept getting easily sealed off. UF broke off a couple of big gainers in the 2nd quarter & figured, “Why change? They ain’t stopping it.”
For the first time in almost forever, DOB and I agree:
Do #Braves brass think Simmons’ bat is going to catch up to his Defense?
For his bat to catch up to his defense, he’d probably have to hit about .350 with a .450 OBP annually.
Yeah, beating Georgia was pretty great. I mean, there was like nothing else to hold on to last year, so humiliating Georgia? Yeah. That was probably the highlight. 🙂
Is it baseball yet?
What do the batting line do you Journalistas think would make Simba a non-liability at the plate?
I’m thinking something in the .275/.330/.380 range maybe?
.260/.310/.380 with fewer than 20 GDP on the season.
Very few players could possibly have both sides of their game be as good as Simba’s defense. His offensive equivalent would be Trout, Cabrera, or Harper, and their defense will never be on par. You could never expect Simba’s offense to catch up with his defense, but like the others, I think a .275/.330/.380 range would make him an All-Star. I wouldn’t be surprised if his career was very similar to Ozzie Smith’s. He had a career 87 OPS+. And Ozzie is a HoFer, so it’s hard to get worked up about that.
@78, If Simba reached base 33% of the time, I’d do backflips. I really thought he was turning a corner early in the season.
Interestingly, I looked on BR.com yesterday at Simba’s advanced stats. They say his GIDP rate has only made him 1 run below average this season. I found that hard to believe but I have nothing but gut feelings behind that.
Fangraphs is doing a series on players with the most trade value. Freeman and Simba so far, 10 to go. Barring a surprise, I was wrong on Shelby.
New thread.