A week ago, Spike identified the Braves’ effort in a 4-0 loss to the Cubs as “one of the most cap tippingest performances of all time.” I humbly submit last night’s snoozer as even cap tippinger.
Shelby Miller pitched heroically again, as usual, and as usual he came away with nothing to show for it, not even a lousy copy of the home game. He allowed just two hits and two walks. Unfortunately, one of each came in the eighth inning. Fredi yanked Miller with a pitch count of 102 and men on first and third and one out. It was a more or less reasonable decision. So was bringing in Avilan — after the trade of Jim Johnson, he has arguably been our most consistent non-Grilli reliever all year, and Grilli isn’t exactly used to coming in with bases occupied.
One sacrifice fly later, though, the Cardinals had all the margin they’d need, and the Braves went meekly down to the relief tandem of Seth Maness and Randy Choate.
Shelby Miller and Carlos Martinez have been two of the best pitchers in the National League all year, so you expect a low-scoring game. Still, you don’t expect the Braves to lose 1-0 when they outhit their opponents 7-2. But the Braves grounded into four double plays in this game, and that was all St. Louis needed. Tough loss, Shelby.
I didn’t get to see the game. I’m not sorry but am disappointed for Miller.
Does Shelby get points for degree of difficulty in lineup faced?
And a tip of the cap to you, old chap, for a succinct recap, apropos of game that may as well have been watched with the fast-forward function.
Zac, when you mentioned Seth Webster in the last thread did you know he had pitched a 7-inning, 4-hit shutout last night?
So this is the 26-year-old minor leaguer who was signed by the Braves this year, having no official MiLB experience. I did a tad of research and saw that he played at Nichols State from ’08-’12 and then must have transferred to Louisiana College for 2013. Lost a year in college to shoulder surgery, so he got a later pro start. He played for the Schaumburg Boomers of the independent Frontier League for the last 2 seasons and reportedly pitched them to the championship.
http://www.boomersbaseball.com/clubhouse/roster/2013/220/seth-webster/
I’m late weighing in on this but I hate the hell out of KJ/Uribe trade. I guess 2.5 million is 2.5 million but the return is underwhelming. I could have wrapped my brain around it if we had gotten an outfielder prospect or managed to dump CJ’s contract but two middling pitching prospects? Don’t get me wrong I had no pretensions that we would make the post season this year but it sure takes the fun out of following this team.
At least Hayward didn’t go 5 for 5 with 4 homers a triple and a steal of home last night. I’ve seen little league teams with more pop than last night’s lineup.
Greinke vs DeGrom going on right now at Citi Field. Fun to watch.
John, I saw he was having a good game. I took a peak at his stats and wondered why he hadn’t been in the minors longer. Thanks for the link.
Who’d a thunk the Mets would be the team to break Greinke’s scoreless streak?
@4, agreed. It was a pretty boring return and I don’t love the trade either — they were useful pieces of the major league team, and the guys we got back really aren’t very interesting. I’d rather we paid their salary and gotten better prospects. But who knows? Maybe they plan to use the salary relief to set up another deal. I hope so. In a vacuum, it feels like we did the Mets a favor.
“Our loss is #Mets’ gain.”
—Fredi Gonzalez
I agree that the return feels a little light, based on what we know, which is what makes me think someone with the Braves thinks they know something different about one or both pitchers we’re getting in return.
Stinks to lose those two, but I admire the commitment to the vision.
Yes, I don’t disagree with that. I am generally willing to give our guys the benefit of the doubt when it comes to scouting pitching. Goodness knows they appear to have been right about Wisler, Banuelos, and Miller, and I like a lot of what I’ve seen from Foltynewicz.
Wacha should just walk Freddie 3 times today. There’s really no reason to pitch to him with Adonis Garcia behind him
Boola boola, Ryan!
It would have been nice, if we were packaging two guys together, to get one $5 prospect in return, instead of one $3 and one $2. But past that, $5 is right. Neither of these guys is under contract for another year, neither of these guys is really a starter on a first division team. Uribe was on the bench behind Justin Turner in LA.
They are not young, they are not controllable, they are not “upside” players. They are bench upgrades, and a chance to catch lightning in a bottle. They are Emilio Bonifacio last year.
And the people who hate it on concept, what it says to the fans, what it means to “the game,” whatever that means… were any of you complaining when the Cubs sent us Maholm and Reed Johnson? Those poor Cubs fans. Or when the Royals sent us Farnsworth and Ankiel? Were the Royals damaging the very nature of the game by sending role players away to a contending team?
When we are in the hunt, and rosterbating about who might be available, we talk about how unreasonable the losers at the bottom are being. But when we’re at the bottom we should hold out for more, because 78 wins will be much more entertaining than 73?
The idea is to win championships. And we ain’t winning anything this year. If either of those guys gives us 24 relief innings of 102 ERA+ in a year where we are in the hunt, that’s way more valuable than if Kelly Johnson goes off and hits 14 more homers for us and helps us put a stranglehold on 3rd in the division.
Short-sighted half-measures are what leads to sending Mark Texeira off for Casey Kotchman. Are you in, or are you out? If you’re out, when will you be back in? Focus on that. John Hart is nailing it, as far as I’m concerned.
Right. But if we could have sent them the $3 million they gave us in salary relief to get $8 worth in prospects instead of $5, I’d have preferred that. We already slashed the life out of the payroll; we can afford to spend to get better prospects, like we did with Touki Toussaint.
@15 – I agree with that. But there’s just no telling who else was interested, and if paying that money would have put anybody in to our range. If the guys the Met’s valued at $8, we didn’t, and the guy we wanted was $10, then you settle for the guys you like and keep your money.
I REALLY don’t think there’s a lack of creativity in this front office, judging by the kinds of deals we’ve made since the new regime took over.
Excellent speech from Smoltzie. Miss those guys.
Many of the names Smoltz called out in his speech were predictable (loved how he mentioned Andruw!), but I was pretty surprised to hear him say something about McCann. That was actually kind of cool.
I’m not sure what people expect the front office to do. We don’t have pieces that are both marketable and expendable. It’s too early to trade any pitching. We just have to be patient and hope we draft great the next few years.
Timing everything so that we can compete for the division in 2017 is not going to be easy. I think we’re going to have to trade Simmons in order to make that realistic.
No way there’s enough evidence to reverse this call.
This long delay is just them trying to find a way to give this to the Cardinals.
Seriously, there needs to be a time limit on reviews, and after that time passes if they can’t figure it out, the original call should stand.
What a total crock. This sport is crooked. Whatever they have to do to help the Cardinals.
That was BS
I would move Fredi up a few notches if he’d have lost his mind and gotten tossed there.
That call was pretty much garbage. A five minute delay is unacceptable and it shows the umps must have really been searching for a reason to overturn that call. Clear and convincing that was not.
Kozma hits worse than a pitcher, why walk him?
The Reds trade Cueto to KC, so they’re going to be stiff competition in the race to the bottom.
Chip: Wacha spelled backwards is Achaw!” Oh boy.
@28, wokka wokka
Familia just blew the save after a Degrom masterpiece
I hate the Cardinals. Just thought I’d throw that out there.
Adonis! You beauty.
Wisler seems to be another excellent piece we got back from the Padres.
Watching Wisler battle Matt Holliday the fourth time thru was a delight. Kid’s got it.
Gave the kid a shot and he pulled through.
I was pretty down on the salary-dump aspect of the trade, but I didn’t see a move like Touki happening. At this point, the only downside I see is whatever effect on attendance came from dealing a fan-favorite.
Haha Uribe with the walkoff.
All there really is to do, even if it sounds blasphemous, is to hope the Mets surpass the Nats. One of them will win. And good things shouldn’t happen to Dan Uggla, and they should happen to Kelly Johnson.
As much as it pains me to say, I agree that hoping the Mets overcome the Nats is what this season is going to boil down to. Since I don’t think either Wild Card is going to come out of the East, it would be absolutely hilarious if the Nats miss the postseason for many reasons, not the least of which was Harper’s “where’s my ring?” comment. And now that KJ is a Met, he makes it infinitely easier for a Braves fan to be okay with that team winning the division in a season where the Braves biggest competition is with Miami for the 3rd/4th spots in the division.
Nationals missing the playoffs would be sweet. I can already see the #clowncollapsebro tweets
What do you guys think of Ryan Lavarnway? I want him to get more PAs.
Please check your e-mail, Alex.
I agree, braves14. He’s earned more playing time.
Would rather see the Nats win the division, then flame out like they always do in the first round. Any extension of the Mets’ 2015 season would be intolerable around here.
In his third rehab start with @GwinnettBraves, Willams Perez allowed 1 hit over 5.2 scoreless with 0 walks & 5 Ks. #Braves
— Kevin McAlpin
What’s the potential rotation next year?
Miller, Teheran, Wood, Wisler, Banuelos, Folty, Perez
Is that the correct order? Trade Teheran for a couple of bats?
Love seeing this young acquisitions play the game well.
Couple of years – – we got a team! A winner? I don’t know – – but a team!
Wait until he throws back to back shutouts, then trade him for Mike Trout or (gasp) Bryce Harper.
@44 Seems about as low as you can sell Teheran. Doesn’t sound right to me unless the new guys are very low on him.
Recapped.