One nice thing about major league baseball is that teams play every night for six months, so by the end of the season the luck has evened out and teams’ records reflect pretty well who they actually are. Playing 162 games also means that, while technically possible, the chances of losing all 162 games is so minute that no team has ever come close to it.
If 0-162, then, is not an achievable goal, one week into the season there are still a few numbers the Braves can shoot for to become enshrined in the record books. They are:
14—how many more consecutive losses the team needs to tie the ’88 O’s for worst start of all time. With the proper use of the bench and bullpen, this one looks quite achievable. Considering the team would have to tie this record when they are in Boston, it would also not be beyond the realm of possibility for them to break the record outright either.
24—the number of games the Braves play this month. What significance does that hold? That ’88 O’s team only played 23 games during that fateful April, and their lone win gave them a .043 winning percentage, good for the worst month in baseball history. If the Braves can manage 15 more consecutive loses this month, they would be in an excellent position to overtake this record, as well.
109—remaining loses needed to break the franchise record for most loses in a season. The previous record of 115 loses was set by the 1935 team.
114—remaining losses needed to overtake the ’62 Mets to become the worst team in the modern era. If the 2003 Tigers could come close to this, our bunch could certainly make a run for it this year.
127—remaining losses needed to tie the 1899 Cleveland Spiders for most loses in all of baseball history. This one would be really tough to reach, but with the start the Braves have gotten out to, not all hope is lost yet.
Stay strong, Braves fans. There is so much history to watch for this season.
To achieve their 7th loss of the season in as many games, the Braves and Jhoulys Chacin engaged in quite the pitchers’ duel in D.C. Chacin struck out eight in his Braves debut and never really looked like he had to work hard. To reward him, Fredi lifted him after six innings and 69 pitches to turn the game over to the Braves vaunted bullpen.
Chacin’s efforts were all for naught, as the Braves offense was stymied by Gio Gonzalez for the same number of frames. Fredi’s efforts to help put this one in the loss column were nicely summed up in the comments of the previous thread, but one I will highlight here was his decision to let the Frenchman hit for himself in the top of the 8th in a one-out, bases-loaded situation. Our old pal came through with a most predictable double play, while our other old pal had to wait until there were two outs in the 9th to get a pinch hit opportunity, one he used to drive in the Braves only run with a double.
KJ’s efforts were too little, too late, as they came after some bottom of the 8th shenanigans by both the Gnats and Fredi. Jim Johnson picked up the first two outs of that frame, then walked Anthony Rendon to put two men on in front of Bryce Harper. Fredi decided that pitching to Harper seemed like a good idea, and he brought Old Pal #3 in to do so. Alas, EOF is not what he used to be (and neither is he Arodys Vizcaino, who had to wait to enter the game after it had already been lost), and Fredi’s grand scheme backfired. A double down the left field line, just out of the reach of a diving Francoeur, plated two runs and put the game out of reach.
As far as losses go, this one was at least pleasant enough. A pitchers’ duel with some good supporting defense* always makes for a good ballgame, and beggars can’t be choosers.
*I was reminded tonight that with as painful as watching the Braves play shortstop has been this season following many years of being spoiled with the best defensive shortstop in the league, at least we don’t have to put up with Danny Espinosa on a nightly basis. There are at least some things we can be thankful for.
Gnats delenda est.
Smitty – my points exactly — if yo hit for a pitcher ib 7th who has only had 69 pitches and is in control yu at least come off the bench with best option .. Peterson ??? Come on …. there is NO excuse for not hitting KJ in the 8th for Francour .. he showed Francour All Star respect .. its a joke … any Mgr in the Majors would have hit KJ there and not even have to think about it …. I have been saying for a couple years on here that FG is the WORST in game MGR in baseball …. he proves it !!
Lineups going forward ..
against a Righty picher.
1. Inciarte – CF
2. Markakas – RF
3. Freeman- IB
4. Garcia -3B
5. K Johnson – 2B
6. Pierzenski – C
7. Aybar – SS
8. M Smith – LF
Against Lefty
1. Inciarte – CF
2. Aybar – SS
3. Markakis – RF
4. Freeman -1B
5. Garcia – 3B
6. Olivera – LF
7. Beckham -2B
8. Flowers – C
Yeah, Espinosa kicked one, but he’s actually an excellent defensive ss. It’s his bat and his arrogance that has plagued him.
Going tonight, as is AAR allegedly. We’ll see if the combined power of our midichlorians can turn the tide.
If I recall correctly, Cal ripken Sr. got canned in the middle of that 0-21 streak after loss 6. Replaced by Frank Robinson.
*weeps openly at work*
Mark Bradley fires the first shot in the AJC this morning.
Peanut fired a few shots on Twitter last night
I’m sure the front office says the Simmons trade, and the team’s paltry return for a star, is Frank Wren’s fault.
I love this blog. Great recap, ‘Rissa!
‘RISSA! Now that’s a recap! Woo-hoo! Welcome back.
I thought we mighta got us one of them W things right there. I think like Fredi manages, like my Braves play. Woe.
Swanson went 3-4 with a double two walks and three runs scored. Albies had a double. Riley hit a home run.
So there’s that.
@5: miss him, I do.
@1, well said
@5, @8, what if the thing we failed to consider was if defense is actually underrated by advanced metrics…
Great job ‘Rissa.
The Simmons catch came in a big game situation, too. That was the lead-off batter in the ninth inning of a 1-run game.
@13 – From an aesthetics/fan experience point of view, it is of the highest importance. There’s a small handful of things that are more pleasurable to watch during an actual game than spectacular defense, and almost all of them are extremely unlikely. We had on of the only guys ever who could provide spectacle on a regular basis, pretty much whenever he got an opportunity to, and we gave him away for the promise of future strikeouts followed by an inevitably disintegrating arm. That’s kind of why I’ve taken Coppollela’s moves so personally – he didn’t just dismantle the team and trade away my favorite players, he did it in a way that maximized unwatchability. It makes me think he might’ve never actually sat through a baseball game before he took over.
Was Olivera hurt yesterday? Seems really weird to sit him against a LHP unless there was an injury concern.
@15, A hypothetical Braves team could open the season 0-7, but a talent like Andrelton would be reason enough to go to games or tune in on TV.
@16
I don’t know how reliable this is but it may have something to do with it…
Great.
http://www.talkingchop.com/2016/4/13/11421126/hector-olivera-arrested-in-alleged-domestic-dispute
Oh, fantastic.
Scumbag.
Ahahaha. Barves!
(mandatory edit that domestic violence is not a laughing matter, only that EVERYTHING exploding in this FO’s face is.)
Well, this season is going well.
This team has hit rock bottom, and begun to dig.
OK, you guys who hated the Olivera trade were right.
This would certainly seem like the low point of the narrative of the Hector Olivera trade. People seem to hate Jose Peraza, so watch him get called up next week and then win RoY.
I think he’s going to have a bad time.
They can’t blame Wren for this one.
I hated the Oliveira trade when it happened, but had some faith in what the scouts were projecting for him. The braves should do the right thing here. If he’s guilty they should cut him.
Hold on now. Story says he has yet to be charged by APD with anything. So there may be more , or rather less, to the story.
@28 I agree.
MLB spokesperson: Hector Olivera has been placed on administrative leave and the commissioner’s office has begun an investigation.
Deadspin is now piling on Fredi.
Is this the darkest hour in recent memory for the Braves?
I’m willing to hold fire while the investigation takes place. And I admit that I’m morally conflicted because of the way the team treated Bobby Cox’s domestic violence — and, frankly, the way I treated it — as a private matter that could effectively be swept under the rug. I don’t think there should be a blanket policy on domestic violence. But I didn’t like it when the Braves signed Julio Lugo five years ago.
If the man beats women, I will be happy to see the back of him.
I wonder if Olivera has a morals clause in his contract?
@29 is important to note that before we start jumping to scuzball type conclusions.
@28 i agree, though I had no basis to hate the trade. Read a piece where Olivera got together with FG to discuss what he needed to do to make it and kind of drank the kool-aid at that point, hearing all the right things, I was ready to be happy. I guess it’s easy to say the right things to a reporter though. I hope this works out somehow.
@32, yes.
But judging by recent history, not for long.
If you read any of the articles about this guy’s off field stuff you’d not be surprised by this one bit.
The braniacs behind this trade are the ones entrusted to the ‘rebuild’.
Just when you think you’ve hit rock bottom…
Fire somebody. Anybody.
The scout that pushed for Olivera..
The genius who thought it was a good idea to trade an above-average lefty starter under cost control for the foreseeable future.
The manager, for reasons discussed.
None of these will happen, because ownership is focused on its real-estate business.
I didn’t know he had off-field problems. I just hated the trade because of giving up young players (one of which was already an effective mid-rotation starter) for a 30-year-old minor leaguer with a concerning medical history, who would play for a team that wouldn’t be any good until he was at least 33. I could barely even conceive of a scenario where we would be the clear winners in the trade. Now, you throw behavioral stuff on top of that…wow. I’ve crossed the Rubicon–these guys are narcissistic morons.
@34, Smitty, it is astonishing that 1 month into Olivera’s major league career, all we have to hope for is that we can cut him without financial obligation. What a disastrous flaming turdpile of a trade this was.
@39
I don’t think the FO needs approval to fire Fredi, or really anyone.
I’m really thinking we are going to see changes soon. Fredi may not be the only one in trouble either. If this team loses 120 games, there will be lots of pissed off fans staying home next year.
The only way I’ll feel better about this trade is if Alex Wood is revealed to be a serial killer.
Anyway… I don’t know which data cell the scouts put something like this, but it would’ve seemed worth mulling over:
http://www.tmz.com/2015/08/01/mlb-star-hector-olivera-drops-300k-on-swagged-out-pimp-van/
Yeah that was one that came out before the trade. Enough for me to say “do not want”.
1988 update:
Game seven: April 12, 1988, Houston Astros at Atlanta Braves
ASTROS 320 003 000 8-13-0
BRAVES 300 000 000 3-4-1
W: Nolan Ryan
L: Zane Smith
Braves now 0-7 on the young 1988 season.
1988 Zane Smith would solidly be our #2 starter
I can’t believe Fredi forced Hector to do that. Surely, this is the last straw.
Called up Daniel Castro. Peanut says he could be playing SS tonight and Aybar moving to 2nd
Cutting him based on a morals clause is not the answer to the problem. They save $6M per, yippee, and Liberty Media makes even more money. They can’t spend the money mid-season anyway.
I’m also interested to see the details before making a judgment.
This ruins my 0 HR prediction for Francouer.
Well… we’re still only 2 games behind the Mets.
You’d think Olivera would lose his visa over this if convicted (it was a visa issue that held him up in the Dominican Republic last year after his defection). So in regards to his continued employment with the Braves, the situation would work itself out naturally, in the parlance of “Office Space.”
Well, just a second there, professor. We fixed the glitch.
If the Braves ended the year with fifty wins, twelve of them against the Mets, that’d be a successful 2016 for me.
Criminal defense lawyer checking in. Domestic violence allegations are a) serious and b) factually murky 9 times out of 10. It’s going to take some time before the facts come clear here. Standard warning to withhold judgment applies, etc.
Did I just defend Hector Olivera? Strange times we live in here. There’s still no defending that trade, though.
I linked to a piece about Sam Hinkie the other day because I think a lot about Sam Hinkie in the context of this team. (He grades favorably, actually, as he at least was internally consistent as to his own strategy.)
Anyway, the closing graf of that piece went like this, and @15’s point about the Simmons trade made me think of it again:
“Here’s what else I know: There’s a game called Soccer Manager that I’ve been playing for the better part of six years now. You play as the front office of a soccer team, buying and selling players. Through a quirk of game design, Soccer Manager offers some easy opportunities for arbitrage. You can buy players at their minimum asking price and, so long as they don’t get worse, you are guaranteed a profit in a few months when you resell them. In that respect, you can collect players like assets and move them around until you are eventually wealthy and your team is stocked with good players. You never actually play the game of soccer in Soccer Manager; you just log in at 4:30 p.m. and check your scores. It’s an abstracted vision of sport, in which players are just assets and success depends on seeing little more than numbers on a spreadsheet. When logging in over the past few years, I’ve occasionally found myself thinking of Sam Hinkie. This, I’ve thought, is what basketball must look like to him. He was not wrong about many of the sport’s underlying structures, but he was not right about the latitude it allows managers or the human element that cannot be simulated away.”
Good points. And good players tend to get more leeway than bad players. This is the dark underbelly of a lot of the criticism of Delmon Young over the years – he’s not just accused of assault, he also sucks at baseball. There’s a reason the Steelers got rid of Santonio Holmes but not Ben Roethlisberger. Right now, I doubt there are any Braves fans much willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. That has to do as much with his bat and glove as with the murky facts of the case.
That’s like OOTP Baseball or Baseball Mogul. You can play with the assets, and you’re almost guaranteed a return. Of course, no humans involved. I went from the 2014 Braves to a 120-win team in 3 seasons.
You just wonder how much the shuffling of the roster affects comfort level. There were three balls that dropped last Saturday night and Sunday afternoon, that I know of, that would have been caught, in my opinion, if the CF had been employed by the Braves for more than a few days. One was the 3-run homer by Adams that cleared Stubbs’ glove by a couple inches when his vertical jump was about 2 inches off the ground. You can’t just shuttle people around and expect flawless transition. They’re not widgets.
@54, reminds me of Ken Griffey baseball for Nintendo 64. Other teams wouldn’t just up and give you their good players, but with enough iterations, you could pry them away. The software allowed you to win the trade by 2-5%, so you just had to keep swapping. With enough boredom and lack of any social life, you could trade your way to an all-star lineup. Frank Thomas batting in between Barry Bonds and Ken Griffey anchored a formidable Braves offense in 1998.
We (the blog, I mean) really do deserve better.
@42, he is a well-documented mouth-breather…
Fuck Olivera!
@15 & @17 I watched the Braves last year strictly because of Simmons. I’m still looking for a compelling reason—heck, any reason at all—to watch them this year. Having a bad team full of lovable bums that are watchable would be much better than this. As I watch more of these guys I might change my opinion, but knowing that any player I may decide is fun to root for will probably be traded in July makes it really hard to want to find anyone to root for, too.
KJ in left field batting 5th. Sad, but losing Olivera on this team doesn’t have a negative impact.
I really don’t see why KJ isn’t getting more playing time.
Well, Rob, he probably will now.
On Olivera. One thing I thought of is that we are coming off of an offseason when possible suspensions for two Latin American (non U. S. born) players were pending. Both of them got suspended for domestic issues. I guess doing this kind of thing should have been done. There should have been a talk in the clubhouse on domestic abuse and the consequences in the law and on the team. And one version should have been delivered in Spanish to the crowd that doesn’t use English as a primary language. If that was not done, part of that IS on Fredi. If it was done, then Olivera is certainly a piece of work.
I’m just not sure a human person needs a talk about the impact of such actions. If a player hits a woman, never should that fall on Fredi. There may be a cultural divide on this subject (and I won’t tread there), but it’s not a MLB manager thing, IMO.
@60 – You can always root for KJ. He will probably be traded in July, but we will most likely re-sign him next December.
@43, The kind of personality type that funnels that kind of money into that kind of…thing…is probably also the kind of personality type that’s going to be up at 4am on gamedays doing other kinds of…things.
Ah well…that’s what the good lord made uppers for, I guess.
I have tickets to the April 27th Braves game in Boston. In the unlikely event that they have a chance to tie the 88 Orioles at 0-21, I will be there to see it (assuming no rain-outs between now and then).
Fun with small sample sizes: Interesting to note that across A, A Advanced, AA, and AAA, 3 of the 5 OPS leaders (starting at least 6 games) are shorstops. No surprise that Dansby Swanson is up there, but I wouldn’t have expected Sean Kazmar and Ray-Patrick Didder. The other 2 leaders are centerfielders – Keith Curcio and Mallex Smith.
So you’re saying there’s a chance!
Dansby is crushing. 5 doubles out of 10 hits.
Swanson might be a nice player, maybe, doubt it, but maybe. We need a Chipper Jones. Don’t see one.
At this point I’m rooting for 0-for-April. Give me a reason to tune in. Let’s try for history.
Actually we need about 20-25 WAR from position players. Freeman should be good for 4 even if he doesn’t inprove much from here. If Albies and Swanson combine for 8, you’re halfway there. It is a lot easier to win if you have a superstar, but you don’t need one to win, especially if you’re a pitching-based team.
Yup. Book is out on garcia.
We-e-ell, Matt is having a bit of trouble this inning.
Freeman couldn’t hit water if you shoved him off the dock.
“Losing is a disease … as contagious as bubonic plague: attacking one, but infecting all.”
So is freeman not healthy or what?
Jarrod Saltalamacchia just hit his 100th career home run. He’s crafted himself a pretty fine career in the big leagues.
You can trade Aybar for some sunflower seeds and a spit cup any time you want, Coppy.
Good for him.
As much as I like a good old-fashioned fast-paced pitcher’s duel… blech.
A nice, crisp, regular-baseball loss. A nice change of pace from the error-prone, bullpen-meltdown, utter-failure-in-the-face-of-every-opportunity kind of losses we’ve been privy to so far. A refreshing change of pace.
Freddie Freeman sucks.
I have an idea that would make everyone have more fun pulling for the Braves and would help us for next year. We call up players according to the best names. Hearing the announcers trying to pronounce the names and the nicknames we could come up with would be awesome. We’re already off to a great start with Chacin and Mallex and Ender will be back up soon. The next call ups in order should be Touki Touissant, Ray-Patrick Didder, Dansby Swanson, and Ozzie Albies. I like Daniel Castro but his name simply isn’t creative enough. There is no way we could do worse and it would be fun. Any other suggestions?
This year, I bet on the over/under on the number of games I’ll attend at the Ted this year. It was 1, and I took the over. I’m going to lose that bet.
@75, Finally, a good idea from Bravesjournal
How is it that through good teams and bad teams, through old stars and young rookies, through changes in management, through the fundamental passage of time…how is it that the Braves still have trouble with junkball pitchers? 4 hits on Tanner Roark.
“And in Maalox they’ve got a dandy little leadoff hitter, and he can go grab the ball in center field as well. Reminds me of a young Billy Bruton. After him they’ve got, let’s see, Nick Maracas? Well he’s got a musical name, and he can sure whistle the ball through the box.”
Guys, this Braves team might suck.
Not a single one of these cats is worth a damn. Swanson nope. Albies nope. 10 Years plus. Mallet nope. Wisner nope. Nope. Nope. Nope.
@85- I know that’s not usually how that saying goes, but I figure, if you saw any of these guys walking down a dock toward a boat, you wouldn’t want to leave a thing like that to chance.
I think the Yankees from Interstellar may have fielded a better team than this bunch.
Alex Wood is kind of garbage now, Jose Peraza is and was always nothing, and we still managed to lose that trade. Dark days, indeed.
With the way we are going, we are trying to get another Chipper through the first overall pick of the draft. I think we are at least 2 years away (on top of the current one) from being truly competitive.
Not 2, 4. Every position needs to be upgraded
I didn’t think it would be this bad. Amazingly the Twins haven’t won a game either. Doubt we’ll be the first break the duck.
Not to justify anything at all, but this is quite an interesting read re. integration of Cuban/Latin players into the US:
http://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/mlb/2016/03/28/cuban-stars-money-cant-buy-smooth-assimilation-usa-mlb/82345218/
This team makes me weep.
Those July and August Braves-Twins interleague matchups are going to be fun. Now we know that neither team can go 0-162.
I think all of you guys are way too pessimistic. They’ll be competing for an International Council of Shopping Centers VIVA award for the most outstanding example of shopping center design by 2017, and they should be favorites going into ’18. Stupid Frank Wren, trying to win baseball games when the VIVA awards were right around the corner.
In other ex-Braves news, LaRoche and Blaine Boyer spent November wearing hidden cameras in Southeast Asian brothels to help rescue underage sex slaves.
http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/15159499/adam-laroche-goes-deep-decision-walk
Working through a nonprofit called the Exodus Road, LaRoche and Boyer conducted surveillance in brothels and tried to determine the age of the girls — known only by numbers pinned to bikinis — and identify their bosses.
“Something huge happened there for us,” Boyer says. “You can’t explain it. Can’t put your finger on it. If you make a wrong move, you’re getting tossed off a building. We were in deep, man, but that’s the way it needed to be done. Adam and I truly believe God brought us there and said, ‘This is what I have for you boys.'”
It would be so fun to watch these games at a bar with Wren.
@ 100 – Thanks for sharing. Very interesting and admirable stuff regarding rescuing sex slaves. That is one of the vilest things that can be imagined. Our family spent some time with a group of girls from Moldova that had been rescued from that. Apparently if you are a female orphan there and turn 13, the mob is after you immediately.
Did anyone watch the game? If so, did Wisler use more than 2 pitches this time?
Spending a month in a brothel must have been pretty hard. I’m surprised they could keep up the ruse for so long.
@100: I enjoyed the read. Thank you.
Top Prospects Turning Heads After Minor League Season’s Opening Week By Rick Weiner , Featured Columnist Apr 14, 2016
“Dansby Swanson has reached base safely in each of his first seven outings with High-A Carolina, delivering four multi-hit games along the way and leads the Carolina League with five doubles. But as the 22-year-old tells MiLB.com’s Michael Avallone, he’s not getting caught up in his hot start to the season.
“You can’t worry about results,” Swanson said. “It’s about having quality at-bats and staying in your routine day after day. Whether you have success or not, you only control what you can control. My preparation each day takes care of the rest and will ultimately let me be the best version of myself.”
@103, I saw the first couple of innings. I wasn’t watching when he gave up the homers, but he looked good. Solid mix of pitches, pretty solid command, good composure, exactly the kind of outing we hope to have from the young guys.
The problem with Wisler is that his pitches rely completely on location as he doesn’t have a true plus-plus pitch. His fastball graded out at “plus” but that was when it was clocked between 92-95. However, he’s not reaching that this year and a 92 MPH fastball missing up is going to be HUGE in a batter’s eye.
@106 – I swear I’ve heard Tim Corbin say the same exact thing.
Recap is up.