The Braves lost yet another game. They still have a chance to lose 100 and an outside chance to secure the number one draft slot for 2016. Therefore, almost everything but not all was lost.
On a happier note, my tiny baby girl Christina Louise is 47 years old today. Life is good.
How ’bout them Falcons?
Christina Louise
Brought coop to his knees
Her seventh and two score
Brought joy when the Braves could only bore
Congrats to your daughter coop – You nicknamed her “Ginger” right?
Coulda, shoulda, woulda, but momma said no.
Gotta say the display of dugout Natittude is pretty funny stuff.
Wonder how Baghdad Santangelo spun that fracas?
This lost season ends Sunday. How many days are there until pitchers and catchers report?
@7: My guess is about 135 from today. Gosh, that’s such a fast turnaround.
Jonathan Papelbon
has landed a slap upon
the throat of sweet Bryce
affection hereafter be cold artifice.
We’ve agreed to call Winkler “The Fonz”, right? That’s something we all agree with? Right?
Seat Painter, mostly stunned silence. After a while, he was trying to figure it out and said he lip-read Papelbon saying “run that out.” And he opined that a position player would no take kindly to a pitcher criticizing his work ethic.
The schadenfreude is delicious today. I recommend a double heap.
@10
We landed on Zuckercorn, if I remember correctly. Who wants a hot ding-dong?
Pretty sad when one of the major highlights of the Braves season so far is the Harper / Papelbon fight. I saw an early article (I think it’s been removed) that was titled something like “Harper brawls with teammate”. I’m not a Harper fan, but that fight was totally on Papelbon.
@7 – How long until pitchers and catchers report in 2016 or 2017?
@14 The phrase “Let’s go” typically leads to a fight.
There are few ethical principles as clear-cut as the one that says that choking someone is wrong.
A couple points of appreciation from the Papelbon/Harper fight:
1) While the ceiling of our best player is not as high as Harper, at least Freddie is a leader. It’s a unique dynamic on the Nationals where your best player is not the leader of the team.
2) I don’t see Fredi allowing this to happen, and Matt Williams is definitely not a good manager.
3) Our jerks (like AJP and supposedly Grilli, though I haven’t seen that bear out) have not done anything like this, nor do I think they would.
Also, can baseball please freaking drop the unwritten laws? Bat flips, running out a pop up, all this “playing the game the right way”, when is baseball just going to drop it?
Bryce Harper is a frighteningly talented young player. Papelbon is a malcontent and a stooge. That Matt Williams didn’t immediately tell Paps to hit the bricks confuses me.
Complaining about running balls out is for hacks.
@17 – Generally, yes. But there is the rarely applicable but still available when needed “bitch need be choked out” counter argument. Which, ya know. BRYCE HARPER!
C.J. Nitkowski polled some current and former players about the incident, and this is what they have to say:
http://www.foxsports.com/mlb/just-a-bit-outside/story/jonathan-papelbon-bryce-harper-fight-current-ex-players-support-pitcher-long-time-coming-092715
Given that Williams backpedaled his story to saying he would have removed Papelbon had he known fully what had happened, and Papelbons own immediate apology and none from Harper tells me that the only vote that matters is in and Papelbon decisively lost.
I know one thing, we have some guys on the Braves that could teach Bryce Harper how to play the right way without physically assaulting him. Get’er done Johns.
I am so glad this is an off day Monday. Trying to find something interesting to say about this bunch in the second half has been very difficult. Even with help from great song composers, how many ways can you say “Braves didn’t hit, Braves bullpen is wretched, Fredi is frediot, starter had an episode, young starter is a work in progress.”
Joe P…’The choke’s on them’
“Nation demands pro Jonathan Papelbon takes, Fox Sports provides them”
http://deadspin.com/nation-demands-pro-jonathan-papelbon-takes-fox-sports-1733365040
This Papelbon-Harper-Williams thing is so amazing.
And it gets more amazing with this about Matt Williams’ mother:
Jon Heyman @JonHeymanCBS 15h15 hours ago
Jon Heyman retweeted Philip Gardner
true story: williams’ mother was law-enforcement officer who arrested manson at death valley, 1969
Papelbon is out for the remainder of the year now. He’s dropped the appeal of his Machado-beaning suspension, and the Nationals have heaped the remaining four games on top of that. Brycie boy won’t play tonight.
New thread, as bledsoe fills us in on the fight.