It was only the Phillies, but Julio Teheran was outstanding, perfect through six, 18 up, 18 down with six strikeouts. Sweet, Julio. Then Freddy Galvis led off the seventh with a single. Oh, well.
The Braves got a tainted first inning run on a weak groundball that the second baseman misplayed for an error but which later became a ringing double to the outer edge of the infield. Gotta love that home cooking.
Anyway, Jome Julio went eight and a third, gave five hits and a single walk, struck out a bunch and left the game in Peter Moylan’s hands with runners on first and second. Cameron Maybin ALMOST and should have caught a flyball in medium depth centerfield for the second out.
He could have. He should have. He did not, so Moylan got the call.
Peter got Jeff Francoeur on a fly to right, but Andres Blanco singled in the tying run. Now the best that could happen for Julio was a no decision, and the Aussie ended the Phils’ threat on a flyball to center that, this time, Maybin caught.
With one out, Andrelton Simmons bounced a single off the plate and took second on the ill-advised throw. With Jace Peterson hitting, Simba swiped third. Andrelton’s such a good ballplayer, even if his hitting lags the rest of his game. Jace walked, and A. J. Pierzynski’s up with the game on the line.
Whack! Single to center. Simba scores. Braves win 2-1.
How sweep it is!
Bittersweep actually, since the race for the number one pick is all that’s left for baseball’s two worst teams to play for. My sorry Braves can’t even lose better than anybody else, so it’s fitting that they settle for number two. That’s what they’ve played like since the surrender.
In other news, Mike Foltynewicz was hospitalized with blood clots in his arm. Let’s hope it’s nothing an aspirin regimen won’t fix. Get well and hurry back, Folty.
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Man, when you get swept by the September 2015 Atlanta Braves, you know your team sucks.
The Phillies have earned that #1 pick.
Braves’ Mike Foltynewicz hospitalized with blood clots in arm
http://www.wsbtv.com/news/news/local/braves-mike-foltynewicz-hospitalized-blood-clots-a/nnjhd/
JC’d
This has been an encouraging end of the season for Teheran. He’s 3-1 with a 1.93 ERA in September. I’d love to see him ride one more strong start into the offseason. He’s still only 24, after all.
WARNING: ARBITRARY END POINTS CHOSEN
If you throw out Olivera’s first week in the big leagues, he’s had a .275/.341/.425 line since. Far from ideal, but much better than what his overall line has shown, and the OPS is third among regulars. I wonder if the Braves could ever slide him into 2B and get a better 3B. It wouldn’t break my heart to package Peterson in a deal for a 3B.
I really wish we could see, at this point, how our regular lineup stacks up against our division’s. There’s so much noise in the numbers with all the players we’ve ran through the organization this season. A Markakis/Olivera/Freeman/AJP/Swisher/Garcia/Maybin/Simmons lineup, from an OPS perspective, is not competely different from the Nats’ lineup of Span/Escobar/Harper/Zimmerman/Espinosa/Taylor/Ramos/Desmond lineup they’ve been trotting out there. I wouldn’t dare do the numbers, and I don’t know of a site that lets you add specific player’s numbers together. One could argue our bench is already better.
I don,’t think we should get too excited about the current crop of players. There are a few keepers, a small core to build around, most will be gone within a couple years.
i’ve been disappointed in Oliveras. He does appear to have potential, but his game needs a lot of work. I expected more from him as a 30 year old. He’ s a big man. Don’t know about second base.
Also I haven’t seen any speculation about the Braves hiring any of the GM caliber executives currently looking for employment. The Braves don’t have a GM. Any thoughts?
When was the last time the falcons won at NY? I think we are seeing something different this year…
Hoping this is the real Julio…and trying not to daydream about a Price/Shelby/Julio top of the rotation for the next 5 or 6 years
@1 I can personally attest to the value of the Play Index subscription. Hours of nerd-out time await you, Bravesjournalers.
Great outing by Julio. It was a tough sliding play for Maybin in the 9th, but when you get there, we expect you to catch it.:-/
Braves mantra going forward: “At least we’re not the Phillies”
Things seem to be evening out for Jace and Cameron now that we’re nearing the end of our long haul.
#6
Last time? 2004. They’d lost 3 in a row here before Sunday, including that 24-2 playoff game.
But before that, they’d won 5 in a row here (between 2004 & 1982.)
Looking at the numbers…. somewhat oddly, the Falcons are 12-12 all-time vs. the Giants, going 4-8 at home, 8-4 on the road.
The all-time points are NYG 437, ATL 434. That’s Georgia/Auburn-like close.
@10
Not moving Cameron earlier was a gamble. I don’t think we get as much for him this winter
We weren’t going to get anything great for him at the deadline either. He’s still better than anything we have in the organization for CF.
Maybin’s best attribute is that he wants to be in Atlanta. At present he’s better and cheaper than ALL THE MONEY, but I’m not sure he’ll be better than Mr. Smith next year.
#7 in this ranking (hey, I did all the clicking for you)
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2564903-re-ranking-all-30-mlb-farm-systems-after-the-2015-milb-season/page/25
Austin Riley not on their radar.
I’m not sure what we have with Smith. I think I have the same concerns with him as Peraza. Not enough power to be a regular. That high OBP will drop some against major league defenses, and you can’t steal 1B.
That said, if he can put up a .700 OPS then play him next year and spend Maybin’s money on other stuff.
Is Maybin a problem? Above average center field defense with a 93 OPS+ and high stolen base rate? I think the problem is that we have no power in LF, RF, SS, 2B, C, and maybe even 3B.
@17“I think the problem is that we have no power…”
You really could’ve stopped right there. The Braves have far and away the least power hitting of any team in baseball – as of today, 88 HRs and a .357 team SLG. The next lowest team HR total is 111 (the Marlins) and there are already 4 teams with 200+ HRs – Orioles, Yankees, Astros, and Blue Jays.
Speaking of the Yankees and home runs, I just realized that Brian McCann is up to 26 long balls already. As you might suspect the home road splits are pretty extreme. One can bitch about the Yankees having all of the money, but one also has to admit that Cashman knows what he’s doing.
We do have good pitching prospects, but what kind of attrition can we expect as they try to make the jump from the parking lot, across the highway, to the ball park? Surely they can’t all make it.
I thought the Yankees would be sorry they signed McCann. They may still, but they’ve gotten fair value for the first 2 years of the deal.
@17
I think “above-average defense” is at least subject to some skepticism at this point, and Maybin is a contributor to the team-wide power outage, not one of the bastions of hope.
I mean, I like the guy. But he’s not demonstrably better than any of the other mediocre Braves.
Did I miss something? Markakis isn’t in the line-up again tonight. I assumed he was just getting a day off yesterday.
Anybody flying the (white) flag in Flushing this week?
I’ll be there tomorrow night. Wisler vs. Verrett — thrilling stuff.
#19
He has his moments. Of course, lefty pitching & lefty power has been the recipe since the Miller Huggins Era.
@20
Bravo, sir. Bravo.
#5: “He’ s a big man.”
For you.
We’re not playing the Phillies, so Olivera must sit. Worst platoon ever.
@20, “No one ever makes their first jump” – Tank
Well, that took all the zip out of his duda.
That could have been a lot worse.
Daniel Murphy continues to amaze with his boneheaded base-running. As a runner on 2B, he forgot how many outs there were & turned a potential big inning into a weird inning-ending DP. Never seen that before.
Mets radio announcer Howie Rose: “Everyone knows that, over the years, Daniel Murphy has had his follies on the basepaths. But that one might’ve just won him the Oscar.”
@26
If Olivera doesn’t play well, it will be extremely painful.
@28- Appropriate, since this season has been as much fun as a 30-story pratfall onto asphalt.
@18: Do you happen to know the last MLB team without a hitter to reach 20 homers?
How does a team not hit 100 homers?
Tonight is Shelby’s 23rd straight start without a victory, breaking Carl Morton’s record, and is now the franchise’s record holder. I hope Shelby doesn’t have the same bad luck that Carl had later in life as he did in his last years of pitching. Because of how bad this team is, Shelby is approaching Anthony Young territory.
Lost in the documentation of all of Shelby’s bad luck is how did he miss the Phillies both of the last two series?
Nine runs in seven games and we’re 4-3 in that span. That makes the last week easily the most impressive of this dumpster fire of a season, even with three of the wins coming against a Phillies club that would struggle in the Carolina League.
And Shelby’s last start of the season is projected to be the second game of the Cardinals series. His old teammates will take pity on him and he will get the win.
@33…according to Baseball Reference (and sponsored in part by my recurring insomnia), the Royals did it last year; Alex Gordon led the team with 19.
So it seems Folty’s blood clot situation was a good bit more serious than initially reported. Per the AJC:
“Braves right-hander Mike Foltynewicz, diagnosed with blood clots in his pitching arm, had successful surgery to remove the anterior half of his first rib on Monday.
He will likely have a related but less-invasive procedure before his expected release from the hospital Thursday. Foltynewicz will continue a treatment of blood thinners for at least six weeks, and a Braves official said there was no timetable for his return to baseball activities.”
@38: Thanks. I wouldn’t have expected it to only be one season ago–and from the AL champion at that.
recap up