Well, I started off the season with a running diary, so I thought I would finish the season off with
one. All times approximate.
6:15 – The daughters go off to dance class, so Mrs. Painter and I head out to a quick salad and
soup at the a deli. It’s raining.
6:25 – The Savannah Chopped Salad at McAlistair’s is quite tasty, and the company is delightful,
even after 22 years. It’s raining.
6:50 – We dodge the rain to head back home to find something to do before the girls get back
around 8:15. It’s become really nice to have another driver in the house. It’s raining.
7:00 – We find something to do. It’s raining.
7:04 – We need to find something else to do. It’s raining.
7:12 – I suggest to Mrs. Painter that once the girls get back we have a family game night. She
thinks that’s a fun idea. It’s raining.
7:25 – I teach Mrs. P how to play Roll For the Galaxy – a dice game based on exploration and
colonization of, well, the galaxy. I play a LOT of boardgames. If you’ve ever seen Tabletop, Wil
Wheaton’s Youtube series, then you’ll know the type of games I like to play. Mrs. P is NOT a gamer,
but she humors me, and actually picks up the idea of the game relatively quickly. It’s raining.
8:15 – The girls get back. Daughter #1 isn’t interested in RFtG, but daughter number 2 is, so a quick
three player game breaks out. I get an early development lead, and ride that to a 43-35-29 win
over the other two. Mrs. P, although coming in last, has a good time. It’s raining.
8:50 – We break out Dixit, which is similar to Apples to Apples, but with pictures instead of phrases
as the story idea. Mrs. P gets some revenge, nipping me by a point on the last play of the game.
The girls look to be enjoying themselves, amazingly enough. It’s raining.
9:45 – Oh crap, wasn’t I supposed to be recapping the game? It’s raining.
9:50 – I run upstairs to find it is the bottom of the eighth, and Daniel Castro, has hit a home run,
his second of the season. Jonathon Broxton is pitching, and the first pitch I see is cued down the
right field line by Castro, and Freddie Freeman chugs around from first to make it 3-0. It’s raining.
9:53 – Nick Markakis continues his season-long journey of not sucking terribly, and singles Castro
home from third through a drawn-in infield. It’s raining.
9:54 – Todd Cunningham with the 4-6-3. It’s raining.
9:57 – Arodys Vizcaino on for the non-save. Mark Reynolds fouls out to Freeman on the first pitch.
It’s raining.
10:00 – Vizcaino walks Brandon Moss after getting ahead 0-2. This makes him mad, because he
Hulks up and hits 101 on the gun to Kolten Wong, who lines out to Freeman. It’s raining.
10:03 – Pete Kozma is overmatched, as Vizcaino takes a bit off, and fans him on a 99 mph heater.
It’s raining.
Well, it’s been fun doing the Friday night recaps, and thanks to all you guys for the encouragement
and for sticking with the team. And for all you young’uns out there, now you know how we felt back
in 1988. But, I’m cautiously optimistic for the future. Now let’s get Shelby Miller a win tonight. It’s
raining.
Thank you, Mr. Seat Painter. How’s the weather?
Have the best three teams in baseball ever been from the same division (since 6 division format)?
What the Cards, Cubs, and Pirates have done is truly remarkable. Of course, based on Pythagorean records, they are 2nd, 4th, and 5th.
Perusing the standings, it is also remarkable that the Blue Jays and Royals are tied for the best record in the AL at 93-67, but their run differentials are +234 and +74, respectively. Their Pythagorean records are 103-57 and 89-71.
If only Pythagorean records were used to determine draft position, we’d pick first. The Phillies are 2 wins better than we are there with their sparkling -184 run differential to our -195. To our credit, half of that negative number came in the Yankees series.
It’s raining.
I do like Markakis. Solid is the best adjective.
Even as his skills atrophy, feels like a high floor for $11 m per year.
I’d rather Neck play left, but maybe his rehab will miraculously increase his range. Who knows? He’s not Heyward in right, but who is?
Yeah, that’s probably best at this point. He might be an above-average fielder there. That arm isn’t anything to right home about.
I’ll take a leadoff hitter with a .370 OBP. Too bad it was wasted on this bunch.
Go Dogs.
Peter Moylan
Antipodean toiling
perfected his technique
not his accent though which few consider chic.
The surprising thing about the Paco Rodriguez surgery is that it was only recently done. It was already known that he was hurt when the deal was made, and I just assumed that he had already had the surgery. Not only had he not yet had it, but he apparently continued not having it for several weeks…weird.
It sure seems like there’s a 0% success rate for these guys who opt not to have TJ right away, but maybe I’m just forgetting the cases where it worked.
I’d like to know which John it was that’s ultimately responsible for the trade with the Dodgers.
BTW, same ol’ Georgia. Sigh.
Alabama’s done kilt my dawgs.
Just wanted to pop in and note the pure comedy at 7:00 and 7:04 on your timeline, Seat Painter. I laughed out loud. Well done, sir.
And thanks to everyone, especially Alex, for keeping this place running. Still the gold standard of Braves commentary. Bring on the hot stove!
I have to say that Bama’s d line is one of the best they’ve ever had. Georgia is better than they looked, but their qb situation looks mediocre at best. A total disaster at worst.
I figure it’s going to rain until Christmas, when the Braves and Cards will have to play a doubleheader.
@12 – seconded and seconded.
Dunno how good Bama is, but I’m thinking UGA is going to be hard pressed to have a winning season. Everyone in the conference schedule can beat them.
Doubleheader to close out 2015. I’m sure the players are thrilled.
A traditional double header, at that. When was the last time one of those were played? I’m surprised MLB is letting them even do that, since all games tomorrow were supposed to start at 3:00. Starting the first game at 1:00 will mean the second game will start quite a bit after 3:00.
@16 – Totally disagree on Georgia. They have 4 good games and 1 horrible game. You can’t read too much into one game no matter how bad they looked – see Florida and Ole Miss right now for another example. Florida 38 to 3.
John @2
Pythagorean stats
did he log homers, strike outs and at bats?
surely nothing so new fangled
in which there was no trace of anything right angled.
@19, we aren’t watching the same games then. They struggled to move the ball against Vandy, and were lucky to escape with a win. Vandy dropped at least two sure picks. ULM and Southern moved the ball good against them. Bama is the only good team they’ve played and they got manhandled.
The entire season is on the line at UT. I guess you can look past losing to Bama – since Bama has better players at nearly all positions, and better coaching – but getting absolutely destroyed isn’t a sign of a good team.
#13
Bingo. Bama dared UGA to pass & they couldn’t do it. Neither QB could make the basic, simple play today, which had a cascading, negative effect.
Nice to see Dixit being mentioned in the recap. It’s probably my favorite game right now.
Played Puerto Rico and Power Grid to weather the rain last night at the Orr house. I was blessed with an abundance of corn, both markets, and a wharf in PR, but Power Grid was, as usual, harmful to my marriage.
LET’S PLAY TWO!
I heard Vern and Gary say Lambert has another year of eligibility left after this season. Is that a good thing?
I always have issues in PR – if I try a factory strategy, no one produces, if I try the corn strategy I get shut out of the wharves. I just cannot get the hang of that game.
I think the key to my success was being next to last in start turn order, so I got the free corn right off the bat, then I got a Small Market on the first Build, collected two coins on the Trader action plus the privilege plus the Small Market coin, and then I could afford the Large Market too. It was a fortunate turn of events that gave me an early coin lead which got me the Wharf before anyone else could afford it. I don’t think it would’ve happened if I started with Indigo. Also, only one other player had the guile to thwart me, which makes a big difference.
Haven’t played Dixit – can it handle big groups? We host a semi-regular game night with 20+ people, so I’m always looking for new big-group games. Mrs. Orr led a game of Funglish while PR was happening last night – it’s a recent acquisition in the Taboo/Catchphrase mold but is enjoyably challenging and can handle arbitrarily large numbers of players.
The original Dixit is designed for 6 players. A friend of mine bought the extension called Dixit Odyssey, which can be played by up to (I believe) 12 players.
21—UGA’s QB situation is not good, but for what it’s worth, not moving the ball against VU is not much of an indictment. We have a legitimately-very-good defense. Several future pros coordinated by one of the best in the country. The defense is doing the same thing to everyone it plays.
#25
Probably doesn’t matter. UGA has Jacob Eason the #1 QB recruit in the nation coming in next year.
#30
Agree. I watched the Ole Miss/Vandy game a couple weeks ago (love the SEC Network) & thought the same thing. If Vandy had any kind of offense…
We’re getting there. Actually moving the ball very well (at least by VU standards) and controlling clock — just shooting ourselves in the foot too often, particularly in the red zone. Still, these sorts of things are easier to correct than not being able to move the ball is. Pretty close to being solid again…
Shelby Miller has a 6-0 lead through 7 innings. He just hit for himself. Da Drought is Ova?
110 pitches. Does Fredi leave Shelby out there to get the shutout and end the streak?
The 25th time’s the charm. Shelby Miller is a WinnerTM!
It’s good to see the Braves have no problem competing against the Phillies and the minor league callups of contending teams.
Shelby Miller
has just pitched the quintessential thriller
those by football seduced
would have been better off reading Proust.
A winner on the season’s final day — fitting, I suppose. At least he won’t have to spend the winter & spring with the streak.
Miller and Heyward
had been cast in a trade some thought wayward
in battle conjoined
one singled, the delight of the other most happily coined.
Oh. My. Gosh. do the Falcons look good. Imma go ahead and get my hopes up.
@30, I didn’t mean to disrespect Vandy’s D. I saw the Ole Miss game too and I know they are legit. I just feel like not being able to open running lanes against them told me enough to know that it wouldn’t be possible against Bama. Not against Florida either.
Last day of the season, and baseball is still awful at replay. In theory the idea of replay is growing on me. The problem is in practice it just doesn’t work. How was Cunningham not safe there?
When’s the last time the Braves swept a team while not allowing a run the entire series? Additionally, if the score holds up, they could have two shutouts in the same day. I’m sure it’s been a while since either of those things happened.
This Wisler kid is growing on me!
Did Chip just tell AJ “good luck in the play-offs”?
Falcons? Well, this is getting pretty interesting. Hate to get ahead of myself here, but I’m not seeing a particularly terrifying schedule ahead of them. Interestingly, if they beat Washington next week, they’ll be 4-0 vs. the NFC East.
#40
If they stack the box & dare you to throw, you’d better be able to accept that invitation. Didn’t happen yesterday, didn’t happen in the first half of the Vandy game either.
Complete a couple of passes, even simple dinks & dunks, and that can soften up the defense in design & execution. Do that & all of a sudden, play-action has a different impact, the D must account for all receivers, etc. It’s more than just man-blocks-other-man, it’s a way of creating a different math equation — fewer guys to block, more room to run.
In this offense (pro-style, non-spread) vs. a legit D, one phase really depends on the other. Pass opens run, run opens pass. When your QB can’t complete a screen pass, a simple buttonhook or a series-opening toss into the flat, there’s no reason for the defense to respect anything other than the run.
Gives us all a different appreciation of Hutson Mason, eh?
@44 I assume he was talking about A.J. doing color with Fox in the ALDS.
Who is the color commentator?
@41, on why Cunningham wasn’t called safe after the replay:
Conspiracy theory: could MLB be trying to protect its umpires by padding the stats against overturned calls for the end of the season?
More likely theory: these reviewers just really suck.
I mean the color commentator for today’s game. I just can’t place his voice.
Rob, it’s Nick Green.
I hope I don’t jinx this, but looks like Wisler is going for the “Maddux.”
@48 My theory is it’s because the umps manning the replay station are all old guys who are technilogially inept. MLB has given them access to every angle from every broadcast, and all they can do is hit play/pause on whichever view happens to pop up first. So they watch that a few times and if they see they may be able to get away with backing their guy, they pull the “not enough evidence” card.
But it also wouldn’t surprise me in the least if they are given a percentage at the beginning of the season and told to keep the overturned calls under it.
Fred’i should be fired for this move alone. Rookie starter with 2 outs in the 9th, only 105 pitches in a meaningless game.
csg,
I think it is better to protect the arm and get him the win. I am on game day, but he seems gassed.
I was all for sending him out to try to finish it, but that seems like enough to me.
Holy crap! This is Wisler’s game to win or lose. So frustrating.
Edit: Game over. A sweep of shutouts. Need to do some research on that now.
Woot woot! Shut out the cards for the series! Thanks Braves Journal! Thanks for the poems, blazon!
I think that’s the most pitches he’s thrown, but I’d have left him in.
Edwin’s been okay
Wonder how 3 straight shutouts will affect the Cardinals psyche?
@45, most of Bama’s losses have been to spread teams. Not playing with a dual-threat QB is intentionally handicapping yourself (in the college game). UGA won’t take the next step until they finally come to this realization. It’ll be after Richt retires I guess.
I guess we all kinda knew that the QB situation was going to be dicey when the chosen starter is a guy that couldn’t play at Virginia, but I don’t think we thought it would be *this* bad. Ugh.
Braves first time shutting out the Cards in a series in over 2000 contests between the two teams. Second time the Braves have had a shutout sweep in their history. I know the Cards’ regulars played basically none of that series, but it’s a fun way to end the season, nevertheless.
Thanks to all of Braves Journal for this season and all of it’s ups and downs and especially Alex! It’s still my favorite place on the internet! As an old guy who started following the Braves back in 1970, I love this site and although I never met Mac, I miss him!
@58: The Cardinals will win the WS on a Jason Heyward HR and Adam Wainwright on the mound.
Recapped.