One run under the line Markakis,
One run under the line,
Sitting down next to a railway station,
One run under the line.
Braves had Alex Wood and he was dealin’.
Kevin Gausman almost went nine.
We cringe whenever Braves go to extras,
One run under the line.
Adonis Garcia, he’s Costanza hot.
Jim’s Johnson was limp, as you could plainly see.
Then Matt Weiters sang “Feliz Navidad” while he rounded bases.
The way that ball flew out of Camden Yards, it surely struck us dead.
Once again one run under the line, it’s awful,
One run under the line,
We sat down next to a railway station,
One run under the line.
I’m waiting for this team to trade some more players,
And hoping those trades turn out fine.
We sat down under a railway station,
And got squished by Number 9.
I was doing the back-up vocals in my head while I was reading. Nice, Cliff!
We gotta get Jesus Sucre back. Great job, Cliff.
Coop with the joke of the day!
Nats making a run for Papelbon. Good, this makes me hate them that much more. It would be a much better outcome than Kimbrel ending up there.
Good news from Gwinnett where the G-Braves hosted the Bull Durhams. Tyrell Jenkins pitched an 8-inning, 2-hit shutout with 5K/2BB. Black Betty bambalammed 3 doubles, and Peraza had a triple, a double, and a single. Closing things out with a scoreless inning was new acquisition Vin Mazzaro.
http://www.milb.com/gameday/index.jsp?gid=2015_07_27_dubaaa_gwiaaa_1&mode=gameday
Usually working with a bunch of Orioles fans is great, since our baseball worlds rarely collide and we share some mutual interests (they, for instance, hate seeing the Nats win, and I hate seeing the Yankees win). Today, however, working with a bunch of Orioles fans has not been so great. This could be a very long series for me.
@mlbbowman: Manny Banuelos will be placed on the DL with left elbow inflammation. Folty will likely start in Banuelos’ place tomorrow
With our medical staff, who knows.
Maybe collecting a bunch of pitchers who’ve had elbow surgery(ies) isn’t an optimal strategy. But it is what it is. We have to think outside the box to rebuild this thing quickly. Hope he’s ok.
Why not Perez over Folty? I still think Folty needs to become a set up/closer type.
Well, the Royals are going for it. First Cueto, and now Zobrist. Good on them.
Remember when, for several years, we all LOL’d at the Royals and thought how lucky we were to have had Frank Wren instead of Dayton Moore?
It did take Moore the better part of a decade to get to where he is right now, and there were numerous false starts along the way. If he’d taken over for Schuerholz we’d have been in a rebuilding phase a lot earlier than we were, and I’m not really willing to spot him a ten-year rebuild.
This is a man who willingly employed Jeffy after even the Braves had enough of him, remember.
Adonis Garcia, cleanup hitter extraordinaire
Moore built a strong farm system, Frank Wren did not
Moore got better draft picks (earlier) than Frank Wren. Also, Wren was held under slot because of Schuerholz position with the league. I don’t know if Moore and Royals were big “overslot” people, but the Braves absolutely were not. And eliminating the “draft and follow” was big. The Braves were the unquestioned best at that (Hanson, Medlin, bunches of folks).
The man who hired Ned Yost and took on Frenchy with a 3 year guaranteed contract like that is not a great GM.
Early draft picks busted and busted for Royals until FINALLY they got a few going and the older prospects matured. They did make a good strategic decision in going after defense.
coop at 2,
I missed incorporating that into the recap.
“Braves trying to deal with having no Sweet Jesus”
The current Royals aren’t the result of the original rebuild — they are (at least) the second iteration, after they screwed it up the first time by blocking their own prospects with retreads. They aren’t a model to follow, unless what you want is to see the same people fail over and over again until their number eventually comes up.
Our pitcher is hitting ninth. In an AL ballpark.
Yeah, I didn’t mean to imply that I wish the Braves had hired Dayton Moore. I was just struck by the current landscape and how quickly things change.
Why are rumors swirling about Gomes? Who could possibly want to not only give him at bats, but to pay him and surrender prospects for him?
#19 – Veteran Leadership, “cant put a price tag on it”
Yeah — I’d be interested in Yan Gomes, but I can’t imagine that anyone apart from his own mother has much faith in Jonny Gomes.
I still don’t think it’s that much of a stretch to think that a complete rebuild will take 10 years. We are basically starting from nothing. There’s nobody left to trade except Simmons/Freeman/Miller…don’t be surprised if one of those does happen.
The only way to get better is through the draft and through free agency. The former takes time, and the latter won’t be happening until a solid nucleus is in place.
I can’t find the Gomes rumors. Where am I not looking?
krussell,
I think the Texas Rangers got better from
a. trading Texeira
b. trading A Rod.
When you take our pieces together (and Upton and Heyward was just this year’s play) we already have WAY more pieces than Texas got from us.
We cleared a lot more dead salary (not more by amount, but more by HOW dead it was) in clearing BJ / Melvin.
Olney said this today:
7. The Braves will continue to listen to overtures on their other veterans on cheap deals, from Jim Johnson to catcher A.J. Pierzynski to outfielder Jonny Gomes, who has an on-base percentage over .400 versus lefties.
Yeah, so grain of salt.
@22, it’s probably going to take more like 15-20 years. Just look at Toronto. Case closed. End of discussion.
We are not a complete rebuild….Philadelphia is a complete rebuild.
@23
“I still don’t think it’s that much of a stretch to think that a complete rebuild will take 10 years. We are basically starting from nothing.”
Starting from nothing would be a 60-70 win team with no pieces that one would reasonably expect to be productive players and still on the roster by the time the team is competitive. The phillies with Utley, Hamels, Howard, Papelbon, Lee are the perfect example.
The braves have their defensive and offensive anchors, both in their mid 20s, under control for several more seasons. As well as Maybin, who is an adequate CF with plus offensive abilities (right now at least).
In 2015 the braves have used 7 starting pitchers under the age of 25 and all of them are controllable for the next 3-6 seasons. Beyond these guys are several waves of young arms. It’s not unthinkable to expect the braves to graduate an average of 1.5 big league starting pitchers per year for the next 5 or 6 years.
I’d say the braves are a good catcher and a big bat away from having a competitive position roster, especially if Hart continues making the solid veteran depth moves he made this year (AJP, KJ, Uribe, Eury). The organizational depth to add the bigger pieces necessary is available. There will also be plenty of funds available to add veteran role players to the pen, the bench and maybe to the every day lineup or the starting rotation. The rebuild is well underway and this 75-80 win team to me looks poised to be an 80-85 win team in 2016 and a true contender in 2017…not the year 2525.
@25, I’m thinking we’re running out of things to trade. Re-shuffling spare parts isn’t going to do much. We lack foundational position players to build on. Our only remaining chips to trade are also arguably our only foundational pieces (though I’ll admit that I’m warming up to the idea of trading Simmons).
@27, the Phillies stupidly delayed their complete rebuild, but yeah we’re at least in better shape than them.
@28, I hope you’re right. If we can somehow get impact bats at 3B, C, and two OF slots (say at least 2 of the 4 need to be great) then I do agree that our pitching looks good enough to win. Timing things so that it all happens at once in the same year is going to be the challenge. Our pitching looks *way* ahead of our bats. The bats will have to come from FA or trades that weaken our pitching.
It does not take ten years to rebuild an MLB franchise, even starting with nothing. If it does, that’s evidence of front office ineptitude, not an inherent fact that rebuilds take a while. The Rays competed basically every year that Dayton Moore was telling fans to trust the process, and Neal Huntington turned around the Pirates in a couple of years.
If in 2017 or 2018 the Braves are no closer to competing than they are now, it’ll be time for front office shakeup.
@mlbbowman: The #Braves gained some concern for Banuelos when they saw some FBs that registered 86 & 87 mph during Friday’s start in St. Louis.
I agree that the pitching is way ahead of the bats and I’m concerned that we didn’t really add many bats when we traded away so many big pieces. Additionally annoying is that the two position players closest to the bigs are both punchless speed demons who make the one big league ready position player that we did acquire this offseason in Jace Peterson entirely redundant.
If Mallex Smith is legit and outfield of Maybin, Smith, and Markakis is serviceable. We just need a big bat at 3b and C. Starting pitching is solid and we have depth. We need to build back the bullpen
Guys drafted right now are likely 4 to 5 years away from playing for us. So the draft isn’t applicable to 2017’s outlook. What are we going to do in order to improve the team by 10 or 15 wins in the meantime? We’re banking an awful lot on an impact FA signing or two…it’s been so long since we had one that worked out well, I think I’ve forgotten what that looked like.
@33, if Albies can play a major-league SS then maybe we can use Simmons to get us that big bat at one of the corners. I’m ok with punch-less speed-demon at SS. I just don’t want half our lineup to look like that! “But we can just move Jace to 3B and play them all…” Yuck.
@35
As far as adding through free agency, here are our payroll commitments for the next 5 years:
2016….$57.869
2017….$58.319
2018….$54.469
2019….$45.869
2020….$38.502
There will be plenty of money to add some solid guys, although I think the caliber of player we need to add is more likely to be added via trade. Still, I think after an addition that will cost prospects this offseason, we will have additional funds to round out the roster depth and make this team pretty competitive for 2016 and beyond.
@36
I wasn’t even talking about albies, he’s a few years out. I was talking about Jose Peraza and Mallex Smith! Albies seems to have a little more XBH power than those two guys, despite his tiny frame.
Mets’ reliever Jenrry Mejia suspended a 2nd time for PEDs — out for 162 games.
Papelbon traded to Washington, apparently.
RIP Banuelos. Remember when Beachy had inflammation?
Freddie! Welcome back!
As ever, CJ actively, aggressively — and perhaps intentionally — remains hot garbage.
I am fine with trading Julio Teheran. I think I’d be fine with releasing Julio Teheran, as a matter of fact.
From staff ace to borderline fifth starter in four months. That’s just depressing.
Julios era is 4 runs lower with lavarnay as catcher.
It’s also worth noting that in his career, Julio Teheran has never given up a run while pitching for somebody else. There might be something to that.
Julio sucks.
Forget about trades and free agency; the first priority of this organization in the upcoming offseason is to figure out why this pattern continues to repeat itself with our elite young starters.
I feel like it’s almost impossible to completely evaluate the re-build without one essential component: the payroll that’s been cleared. We’ve discussed the trades, what we’ve gotten in return, but we didn’t just receive prospects in return for our assets; we got a ton of money as well. I’d like to know where the $60M in payroll is going. Based on my understanding of their accounting, this isn’t monies that can be carried over to another year(s). I’m understanding it to be “use it or lose it” to Liberty Media. I also don’t understand how the international bonus pool money works, so I’m not sure if they were able to turn excess payroll room into more intentional signing money. I’d need clarification on that as well. If that money is being re-allocated into another area, that’s great, and it’d have to produce some kind of return. If it’s going back into the pockets of Liberty Media, then that would infuriate me. But if the Braves traded off JUpton, Kimbrel, Heyward, et al, cleared payroll and received prospects, then what’s keeping them from letting those prospects mature and trading for similar players when we’re ready to compete, say, at the end of 2016?
Julio looks already used-up to me. He doesn’t have the command needed to have his fastball sit at 89-91. He’s clearly not throwing as hard as he did a couple seasons ago.
Road Julio has just been one long Episode all year long. I know I should stop being surprised by this since it’s almost August, but I am still amazed at how terrible Julio looks every road start. Did anyone follow him in the minors the year he stunk up the joint in AAA? I wonder if he had similar problems that year that he is experiencing this year.
Miller, Freeman, Simmons, and Teheran will all be getting major raises next season. Majority of the cleared $$ will go to them right?
@32
What in the world does it mean to gain some concern? Peanut, you’re a good reporter and a tone-deaf writer.
Weird thing going on with the radio tonight where I can hear camera shutters clicking over the sound of Jim’s and Don’s voices.
45 – really?!? So why in the world does AJ ever start with him?
@53, we acquired some new concern. More than we had previously. Lol. He needs a full-time editor.
@49 – one would hope they’d expand payroll quite a bit for 2017. The buzz around this team is in a terminal nosedive with the casual fanbase. They have to make a few big moves and turn things around. Next summer should be more interesting.
Mets’ Syndergaard perfect thru 6 IP vs. Padres.
Julio Five-ran.
Csg@45
Fredi?
If there is a chance he calls a better game he should be in. Julio is much more important than keeping A.J. happy..
@52
We didn’t really save a ton of money THIS season. Basically the money we saved dealing Heyward, Mudge, Jupton and Craigers was spent on Maybin, Quentin, Cahill and Arroyo. However, all the dead weight contracts (aside from the Angry Hatter of Stetson”s) will be off the books next year. Even after accounting for the substantial raises for the nuclear braves, the payroll clocks in around 58MM (per cott’s contracts). When people talk about “saving money” it’s about no longer being committed to the 33MM we owe Mudge and whatever crazy amount (even for the best closer in the game at the time of the signing) was committed to Kimbrel.
Conversation with a young wife, who knows nothing about baseball and is content with that:
“I just don’t understand why you don’t watch more games. They’re on practically every day.”
“I just can’t take it. It hurts too much.”
“But all you ever talk about, think about, are the Braves. What’s the big deal?”
“I can’t stand it when they don’t score any runs.”
“You can’t expect them to score every day, can you?”
(Sigh)
@61
joe orton/david mamet…same league…lovely…punch line unanswerable.
I forgot about the salary collection of Maybin/Quentin/Cahill/Arroyo. Either way you slice it, one would assume that the Braves will have significant amount of money to spend in the FA market or take on via trade in the 2016 or 2017 offseasons. Can we seriously not buy enough talent this offseason to put us over the hump? Simply put, if you have $40M to put into the FA market, how many WAR does that get you? Add that to the win total, and subtract the WAR of the players they’ll be replacing, and that should be a reasonable guide.
Not sure how I’m going to be able to root against the Nationals now that they have Papelbon.
Julio Teheran – – he does not like 2015. he does not like Freddi G. he does not like pitching in a transition year. he does not like getting yanked from games. he does not like throwing strikes. he does not like keeping his balls in the ballpark.
I’m glad all of this comes in a write-off year. otherwise i would not like julio.
Dan Kolb could’ve given us a better start tonight folks. Even if he had to take out a few extra water coolers.
Count me among those skeptical that they ever spend all the savings.
45 — Small sample size. But I like Lavarnway, he had a great minor league track record and nobody has given him much of a chance, so it would be worth a shot.
@45 – agreed. Lavarnway could be diamond in rough.
Alex, please check your e-mail. Thank you.
Apparently Folty is starting tomorrow. David Carpenter (no, the other one) was off the 40-man roster because he was out of options and had to be designated for assignment the last time he was sent down. He was called up for one day and now has been designated for assignment again. Was there no one on the 40-man roster we could’ve called up?
Kind of a big deal…
http://deadspin.com/hall-of-fame-decides-bbwaa-members-more-than-10-years-r-1720676660
Have any of the rest of you knuckleheads felt better in the last two weeks about the Braves – – because you know we won’t be competing for the playoffs this year?
It always has helped me to cope with the losses to know that we are out of the picture.
Recapped.