Once again, Julio Teheran was decent other than the gopherballs — but when that gopherball is a grand slam, it kind of doesn’t matter what you do the rest of the time. The slumping Freddie Freeman was given a day off, and the Braves’ bats collegially followed suit.
If Mac were here, A.J. Pierzynski would be in the doghouse and Willy Aybar would be the whipping boy.
But singling out the players for criticism seems almost hilariously beside the point. Train your anger where it belongs. At the suits who grabbed buckets of cash from Cobb County when the opportunity arose, sold every asset on the team for unreliable scrap, and laughed all the way to the bank. At Terry McGuirk and Bobby Cox and John Hart and John Coppolella and John Schuerholz and John Malone. They built this monstrosity from Abbie Normal bargain-basement beer league players, slapped uniforms on their back, called them a baseball team, charged money to watch them play, and copyrighted the broadcasts. I hope that they watch every Chip Caray call of every lousy inning of every miserable game of this fleabitten team and I hope that their Coke goes flat and their nacho cheese congeals into an inedible heap before the third inning.
In response to Smitty from the last thread, I thought about Phil Collins, but quite frankly these bums don’t deserve to be given that much respect. And anyway we don’t need any more misery.
So here’s a song that freaking rules.
Jim Powell – 4 starters for #Braves farm teams tonight: (Blair-Newcomb-Withrow-Fried): 20IP, 11H, 1R, 20K. Today’s news is bad, but not ALL bad.
@ryan c;
The strikezone in the ’90s was smaller than the strikezone today, unless the 2010s’ somewhat depressed walk rate and massively increased strikeout rates are just a mixture of pixie magic and Dellin Betances’ hair product. (http://www.fangraphs.com/leaders.aspx?pos=all&stats=bat&lg=all&qual=0&type=8&season=2016&month=0&season1=1990&ind=0&team=0,ss&rost=0&age=0&filter=&players=0)
I think I’m mostly mad at you for picking at one of the few (somewhat) bright spots from a terrible season. Wisler is two games into April, and young, and pitching for a horrible team managed by a lackadaisical ogre who was extended by a bunch of savvy real estate players, and kind of good, and you’re worrying about his average fastball velocity. Enjoy the misery or complain about something real, man!
PSA: The Braves have lost as many games in 9 games as the Golden State Warriors lost in 82 games.
True, Edward. Also, none of these Braves could make that squad.
I bet Stephen Curry couldn’t hit a breaking ball.
EDIT: Which, come to think of it, probably means we’d put him in left field.
Alright, so where are we at?
Injured:
Shae Simmons
Manny Banuelos
Dan Winkler
Careers Have Fallen off a Cliff:
Aybar
AJP
Arrested:
Olivera
When you think about it, we’re kinda lucky to be 0-9.
You forgot Inciarte
I haven’t been able to/have been blessed to be otherwise preoccupied from watching any Braves games. I hear all about how AJP’s defense is terrible. Well, wasn’t it terrible last year? The guy was a defensive horror show, dropping balls all the time. Is he even worse this year?
Didn’t liberty media plan to sell shares of the atlanta braves to fans and speculators this year?
I’m guessing those plans are on hold indefinitely
Until morale improves.
May the shit show continue! Can we at least get Fredi fired? Pretty please?
If you’re interested in having your blood boil…
https://mobile.twitter.com/DOBrienAJC/status/720759985869885441
Absolutely ridiculous. We couldn’t have taken on some bad salary to get a 3B, 2B, C?
The Johns are magpies in power ties.
@13 It is maddening. But usually bad salary comes with bad length of contract.
This team will start to play better. Not good mind you but better than right now. The team sucks but there has been a lot of bad luck too. Inciarte hopefully comes back soon. Maybe Aybar settles down. Freeman starts to hit and Teheran pitches better.
I remain calm hoping that some of the kids develop. I hope the team doesn’t rush them trying to get to 70 wins this season.
Just call me pollyanna.
At least the 2016 Braves are on track to make fans forget the 2003 Tigers….
Let’s see what the international pool is before we shake our fist at ownership. I mean, I’m all for shaking fists at ownership, but let’s see if we have good cause.
Here’s the thing–we haven’t seen a major FA signing go well in decades. Are we really so upset that pinch-penny ownership didn’t saddle us with another BJ Upton or Derek Lowe?
@17–Yes, Braves’ fans will await both the 2016 Draft (as well as the 2017 Draft) and July 2 2016 with great expectations.
Even with the international market, the Lazarito saga hardly inspires confidence….
The Braves were well on their way to rebuilding without having to trade Andrelton for what amount to very little. Maybe Chris Ellis develops into a #3-4 starter and Aybar regains his trade chip status (looks doubtful at this point) and Newcomb overcomes command problems. Last night he pitched 5 innings, walking 4, so he is a long way from being a frontline pitcher for the Braves.
In short, despite finding Arizona for a trading partner in the offseason and all the talk we have heard about paying attention to numbers, this FO has been quite reckless….
Alex,
I thought you were too young to appreciate MF.
I saw them in about 1979 at Georgia Southwestern College. UNBELIEVABLE.
Look y’all, it’s 9 games, so let’s not freak out. Wisler looks like he could be the 5th starter on a good team, and Adonis Garcia is already a league average DH. I’m fairly optimistic that this team will win multiple games, perhaps even dozens. I’m confident our winning percentage the remainder of the season is only going to increase.
Meanwhile, we can all root for shares of the Atlanta Braves Real Estate company to go through the roof as management wisely shepherds available funds.
The Winter is long enough without punting away the Spring too.
How can Wisler by the 4-5 starter … that role’s been taken by Teheran?
Chiming in on a couple of things…
That $84 million figure is not close to accurate. I keep a big spreadsheet that factors in the salaries of everyone on the 40-man (and 60-day DL) and all other guaranteed dollars. I have the payroll at $103 million, with another ~$12.5 million in various player incentive dollars that could be added to that.
Also, while the Hector Olivera aspect of the Hector Olivera trade is a total disaster, one other important piece of that deal (as I believe Rob alluded to) was the 40th pick in this year’s draft, which is pretty valuable. If it’s used wisely, and if Wood continues to suck and Peraza never amounts to anything, the Braves could still sorta come close to breaking even, kinda!
Honestly, is anyone surprised?
The Braves are in the worst television contract in baseball, possibly the worst contract in the three major sports, this despite being owned currently and historically by media companies. They had little to none of the income common to their facilities at and around Turner Field — parking belonged to the city, the stadium itself was leased from the city, even significant chunks of the concessions at and around, i don’t know, presumably related to the city recouping some cost of building it for the Olympics in the first place. They had very few avenues for revenue increase and several years of not drafting well had left internal cheap productive assets few and far between.
Moving to a new stadium with a better income stream for the team was the best strategic decision for improving the team the most and the most quickly. There’s the social economic gripes about catering to the North side crowd, but that’s the predominant spender for them. There’s the shitty part about the funding. But from a baseball standpoint it seems to me that getting a better income stream, and tanking for a couple of years to increase the quality of the prospect stream, is the quickest way to competitiveness if you’re going to be held to a hard budget by corporate owners who aren’t going to let ego drive decisions.
We should expect them to stink worse than a papermill port-a-potty, and just hope that Freeman isn’t injured in a way that effects his future, physically or mentally.
Doesn’t mean we have to buy a ticket. Probably some good games in Gwinnett and Rome this summer.
Shoot, maybe they can start web-casting those and Greenville.
#kidsTheseDays #inMyDay #wellWhatdYouExpect #NiekroYears #BostonBraves #WhatWouldTurnerDo
Nevin gets it!
Alex, great job on effectively wild!
@Edward
We can argue strike zone and it is debatable. There are many more factors to discuss other than sheer numbers (steroid era, average MPH, etc.) but I’ll say this: in the 90s the corners went on for days and the big 3 took advantage of that. Back to Wisler…
I get what you’re saying, and I understand that you think Wisler is pitching well. I think he’s showing plus control and that’s awesome. I’m concerned that he’s unfortunately lost 2-3 MPH since coming up and that his mistakes are going to get pounded. IMO, 92 with good control without a plus-plus pitch is back-end starter material.
@22
I agree. I also understand why people are frustrated. The Braves and Liberty Media have undersold this rebuild and it has jaded a few people. There are a lot more passionate/knowledgeable Braves fans out there than they think. They should be a little more honest about it (the Braves typically lie a lot.) Liberty Media shouldn’t have corporate earnings calls and joke about the situation like the did. I imagine there will be a change in tenor going forward.
I am a big fan of the new stadium and am glad the City of Atlanta bungled things. This is the best thing to happen to the Braves in a long time. It is also 30-45 minuets closer to me.
@Stu
How do you figure it’s different than the list on baseball-reference?
@25
I think Wisler is trade bait.
Agree with Nevin.
I don’t feel it’s the Braves job to entertain me. I feel it’s their job to compete for a championship, and it’s up to me to find that entertaining or not.
If you can’t reasonably expect to compete for a championship in the present year, I think it’s a reasonable action to use rules as written to make the present year productive toward the eventual pursuit of a championship, and hopefully a string of chanpionship-competitive seasons.
I think some here are questioning whether the Braves are even doing that, using this year as a means to achieve an eventual championship and a window of competitive seasons. That’s fine or whatever, but I don’t think the facts bear that out just yet. I think, as JohnWDB said, we’ll have more evidence on that after the draft and international period.
I’m ready for the Braves to become the Rays next year with 2-3 veterans on the 25-man roster and a crap-load of young talent! I really want Braves to go get Lucroy. I think this team is in need of a catcher who’s intelligent.
Thanks, John @24! I was on a podcast with Ben Lindbergh, Aaron Gleeman, and Sam Miller, talking about the Braves and Twins’ winless starts. I made the (extraordinarily persuasive) case that the Braves’ start has been far more depressing.
Here’s the podcast, if anyone else would like to listen: http://www.baseballprospectus.com/a/28932
The team’s all around disappointing. I fully expect despite their epic suckage, they’ll still find a way to be “good” enough to only get the third or so draft pick.
28—At first glance, it looks like they’re not including the 40-man salaries of guys in the minors or any of the ~$12.5 million in potential additional salary that’s based on incentives. (They’re also missing Shae Simmons…and maybe others I don’t immediately catch upon initial review?)
The biggest difference appears to come from our treatment of the Swisher and Bourn contracts — they’re discounting them by $15 million combined, whereas I’m assuming that cash from the Indians, received in August of 2015, went toward the 2015 budget. If you split the difference ($7.5 million in ’15 and $7.5 million in ’16), my numbers put us at ~$95.5 million this year, with a maximum of ~$108 million, depending on incentives reached.
Edward…”lackadaisical ogre”…
Oh, thank you for that. Will chuckle about that one periodically throughout the day.
P.S.: This does raise the question–why did we never call Fredi “Shrek”? Or did we?
@23- Nevin, the Braves are awful. Straight awful, not just winless. We all have our eye on the future–do you come here a lot? It’s all we talk about. But I’m not okay with absolute embarrassment on the field, and off the field, and the lack of accountability among various members of management for the overwhelming, repeated embarrassments. We don’t need a pep talk about future revenue streams.
And while it will (presumably) open up future revenue streams for the Braves, the new stadium is part of the embarrassment. I’m embarrassed at the lack of infrastructure planning around it, embarrassed that the Braves seem to be deaf to the trend of people with disposable incomes moving back to the city in huge numbers, embarrassed that we are spending money to replace what was a perfectly functional stadium, and embarrassed for the Cobb County residents who were kept in the dark about the project, lied to about its costs, and will pay the bill.
More money in the organization is an appropriate goal, a laudable goal–but not at this cost. This is trash.
If I might offer my worthless opinion on Wisler, I watch him pitch and I think “this is a guy who can get major league hitters out”. His fastball has some pretty terrific run, but he has occasional placement issues that will likely improve with experience.
For example, there was a pitch at the top of the zone to Harper that ran away from him and out of his swing plane, so Harper ended up swinging under it and missing. I don’t think that was a fluke. But, there was a pitch to Werth that ran right back into his wheelhouse that got crushed. Maybe that was just poor control or maybe he just needs to learn that the same pitch that is tremendously effective running away from a lefty can be a meatball to a righty. Sure, he may just end up being a back end starter, but the potential is there to be a #2 or #3.
Here’s the Google sheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1auJaHME_enCTHWnMHj7g-dJKCkR-OVmqFSgtUBbTP6E/edit?usp=sharing.
If you catch any errors in numbers or process, let me know.
Listened to the podcast Alex, I enjoyed the calm and collected takedown of the front office. They all have to go.
I have no idea why anyone can be pumped up about the new stadium unless they’re going to be close to it. The Barves are playing with Cobb County house money, and they sure as hell aren’t putting anything into the actual product on the field, and from that, they’re building a lame Ted knockoff that immediately starts in the lower-third of MLB stadiums. The original “stadium in a forest” renderings were cool, I even had to admit. But this looks like an overgrown minor league stadium in the middle of an office park. I mean, I guess the luxury boxes will be boffo on the inside, but for the plebeians, the new stadium sucks. I’d take Wilpon’s Money Memorial Stadium over this half-assed effort.
edit: And I have never in recent years seen a stadium development process that was so lacking in actual renderings. Tells me all I need to know.
I’m pumped about the new stadium precisely because I’m so far away from it. Don’t really care about game experience or location other than to the extent they affect revenue, the projections for which are all very nice. These days, I make it to one game per year if I’m lucky.
If I lived in Atlanta, I’m sure I’d be a lot more upset about it and not nearly as able to focus on the aspects of this process that Nevin nailed in 23.
I’ll admit to my base instincts: I’m more OK with Atlanta bending over backwards for Arthur Blank because MBS looks friggin cool.
MassiveEvilGloboDynaCorp took Klobb County’s dollars and took them straight to the gentlemen’s club. Sure isn’t going into the stadium.
@stu
Biddle wasn’t on MLB roster when injury happened, only on 40-man. I don’t think he’s getting 507K. Wrong? Right?
Also, don’t guys like Mallex get prorated portions of that 507K for their time up in the bigs, not the full 507K?
Actual is in thousands, not millions. Salary accumulated based on number of days actually on the roster. Banuelos is only owed $2,899 so far this year, but if he stays on the DL/MLB roster the entire year, it’ll get to $507,500. If he’s demoted to the minors at any point, he’ll be paid the MiLB salary and never get the full $507,500. If he’s traded, the Braves won’t be responsible for any of his salary beyond the date he’s traded — doing the “actual” allows me to track things like this so that I can see what the Braves actually spend on these guys for the year.
Regarding Biddle, I was just guessing about how he would be treated. I assumed 60-man, like 15-man, accrued him MLB service time and therefore MLB salary. Do you have a citation showing that someone in his situation only gets paid minor-league wages?
EDIT—
(You changed your questions a bunch while I was responding, but I’ll leave the above answers, too.)
Regarding Mallex, yes, it’s prorated (accounted for in the “actual” column), but he still has a shot to get the full $507,500, since 172 MLB service days = a full year, even though there are something like 183 actual days on the MLB calendar.
And clarifying on Biddle: My salary estimate is based on that fact that he’s presently on the 60-man and has nothing to do with what roster he was on when the injury occurred.
@44
Yeah…I altered my original post as I caught my mistake.
@44
If injury occurred in Minors while on the 40-man roster, they receive MILB pay with the added 40-man boost. That’s what I’ve been told by guys that know more than I do.
So, what would you say is your biggest discrepancy from your numbers to Cots numbers? The 15 million spread over 2 seasons? The amount of $ TJ victims make during their recovery? https://www.baseballprospectus.com/compensation/cots/national-league/atlanta-braves/
Same as with the B-Ref chart, which is very similar: the cash from Cleveland, the 40-man MiLBers’ salaries, and the incentives.
“Liberty Media Corp. acquired the Braves from Time Warner in February 2007. Under the deal, Liberty swapped 60 million shares of Time Warner stock in exchange for about $1 billion in cash, the Braves and a group of Time, Inc. magazines. The companies valued the Braves at $461 million, and MLB owners approved the deal in May, 2007. Turner Broadcasting, acquired by Time Warner in October of 1996, had purchased the Braves for $12M in 1976.
Forbes magazine valued the club at $1.18 billion in March, 2016.”
You’d think they could afford to invest more in their real estate assets here…
After doing a little bit more digging, I’m pretty confident that my Biddle salary projection is accurate.
He’s on a major-league disabled list, so he gets major-league salary (and service time). The Braves could have left him on the minor-league disabled list, where he’d have continued being paid like a minor-leaguer (and accruing no service time) — but they chose to open up a spot on the 40-man by putting him on the 60-man list, and that added roster flexibility comes at the cost of a major-league salary (and service time), as I understand things.
No MLB time accrued. Doesn’t make sense that he’d get a 400K raise to rehab.
Sure it does. Look at the difference between the Pirates’ treatment of him and the Braves’ to see why the full salary projection makes sense. Why would the Pirates have DFA’d him if they could just put him on their own 60-man at no increased cost? They wanted him off their 40-man but didn’t want to pay for him to be on the 60-man — the Braves, on the other hand, were willing to pay to put him on theirs.
@36
Yep.
While I appreciate the dose of fiscal reality, I think it misses a fundamental point:
This team isn’t competitive.
Don’t worry about this losing streak you guys, Coppy is on it!
“The Braves are a gold-standard organization, and to start out the season in this manner is embarrassing and unacceptable,” said the guy directly responsible for the dumpster fire masquerading as the 2016 Braves.
Also, interesting piece of data: to this point in the season, the Braves apparently have the oldest group of position players (weighted by playing time) in the NL. As the article notes, the Braves are super depressing.
Coppy keeps using that word “unacceptable.” I do not think it means what he thinks it means.
You guys are being too hard on him. It’s his job to put lipstick on his own pig. The current clown show is totally embarrassing and unacceptable–to fans. To him, it’s a necessary step in his overarching plan, and to heck with impatient fans, but you can’t say that publicly.
Man, Julio Teheran sucks. He’s 25 years old. What has happened to him?
But the common denominator when 23 of your 25 active roster players struggle is the manager, and it’s becoming difficult for me to conclude that our entire roster has fallen victim to spontaneous career combustion.
Coppy didn’t really provide Fredi with any comfort there did he? I think a couple more mismanaged late losses and he’s gone
Reading between Coppy’s lines, I think if this team is swept in Miami and comes home 0-12, then Fredi is out.
AAR @56: inconceivable.
B-but, Chip and Joe said yesterday that Fredi Gonzalez’s win percentage with the Braves proves he’s a winning manager.
@58
The team’s grand plan to win this year was to sign Beckham and Francouer, what part of this season is different than their careers in general?
They’ll wait until the team is 4-20 or something, can Fredi then act like it’s progress and they’re doing things. They all have to go.
@52
My understanding is they didn’t have a 40-man spot for him and keeping him there for 1.5 years is a long time.
The Coppy interview on mlb.com is pretty interesting. You gotta’ love this Q&A.
“MLB.com: Is manager Fredi Gonzalez’s job in danger if this losing continues?
Coppolella: We care about Fredi, and we all hope we can turn things around and start winning games. That will take pressure off everybody.”
That is a pretty impressive non-answer.
Not to be political, but does anyone remember those “miss me yet?” billboards with George W. Bush on them?
Some should be erected around Turner Field, except with Wren’s picture on them.
@Stu, I always appreciate your commitment to the long game. But circling back to an exchange last summer – am I allowed to call the Olivera trade a tire fire yet?
Fredi’s odds of being canned are, literally, getting shorter, so there’s that, out of all this.
@65, that’s great. It’s like “Is his job in danger if he keeps losing? Well, if he starts winning, he won’t have to worry about that, now will he?”
If they keep losing, all of their jobs should be in danger.
Fredi’s been a dead man walking since Hart put up the yard sale sign after ’14. The really interesting question is who’s the daughter-heir to the scapegoat throne? They’re going to have to sacrifice Fredi before the team’s in any position to win for the next manager – that can’t have been the plan. Does the sacrifice of a spotless McDowell at season’s end buy them enough time for current minor leaguers to not just graduate but contribute?
How do people here feel about the Astros rebuild? Was it a disaster? My perception is that smart baseball people think the ‘stros are a pretty good org and they didn’t bail on the process even though they were awful for 3 seasons (though they did go through a couple of managers).
67—Have you seen what the guys we gave the Dodgers have done? I don’t think it’s a tire fire, although it’s obviously not looking good for the Braves scout(s) that sold the FO on Olivera’s bat. If Paco Rodriguez returns to form post-TJ (which I expect) and they hit on the 40th pick (who knows?), even considering the $32.5 million dollar black hole that Olivera appears to be, they’ll still pretty much break even unless Peraza becomes a first-division starter or better (could happen — for fantasy purposes, I hope it does).
Lots of ifs, but in short: I’m less enthused about the trade than I’ve ever been, but most of the shine has worn off what we sent to LA, too. It wouldn’t even be among Dave Stewart’s three worst moves!
64—The Braves don’t have a 40-man spot for him, either, which is why they put him on the 60-day DL. The Pirates could have done that, too, but they didn’t want to spend the extra ~$425K it would have required.
I am a fan of the Astros rebuild. I’m also a fan of our rebuild, except for the brain-dead Olivera trade and, to a lesser degree, the hasty Andrelton Simmons trade. While I do agree with the sentiment that this team is a total embarrassment, I don’t totally understand the garment rending over that fact, since I think drafting #1 is more important than saving face and drafting #5. It seems like what ticks everyone off the most is the fact that management is seemingly insulting their intelligence. I say “meh, what do you expect them to say?”
First off the Astros were not dismantling a young, successful team. In addition, the Astros front office was up front about the idea that it was going to be a long process, not promising that they would remain competitive in the interim then showing no clear will or ability to do so.
Cot’s, BPro, Spotrac, and Google (likely pulling from one of those first three) all seem to agree that Biddle gets the MLB salary ($507,500) while on the 60-day DL. For the two of us who care about the answer to that question.
Today’s lineup looks like an 0-9 team’s lineup if I’ve ever seen it!
1. Markakis, RF
2. Castro, SS
3. Freeman, 1B
4. Garcia, 3B
5. Beckham, 2B
6. Francouer, LF
7. Flowers, C
8. Stubbs, CF
9. Perez, P
5 of the 8 non-pitchers in the lineup should be batting 8th. At least we have Castro playing shortstop. Perez’s .069 career batting average, combined with a .198 OPS probably makes him the worst hitter in the lineup, but not by much!
The first problem with the Olivera trade is that, generally, when your team isn’t expected to contend for another three years, you don’t want to trade cost-controlled players and prospects for older guys who may be past your prime by the time you have your next good team.
The bigger problem with it is that their scouting process appears to have utterly broken down.
I guess I didn’t follow the propaganda from the Astros’ front office during their rebuild. I’m just used to glib, boilerplate statements from management in Atlanta sports, and I generally ignore them.
77—It’s a scouting failure. Don’t really agree with the age thing, other than to the extent the scouting failure removes your ability to credibly apply specific assessments in lieu of the general age curve understanding. It’s a truism that you’d rather have a 22-year-old All-Star making the league minimum than an 31-year-old All-Star making $8 million, but it’s not so clear which you’d prefer if the older guy were clearly better.
In other words, if Olivera could really hit, even at 33 or 34, he could help the next good Braves team and could easily have more value (given his contract) than a cost-controlled non-star prospect like Peraza, either as a Braves player or as trade bait for prospects/young guys better than Peraza.
Alas, it does not appear that he can really hit (baseballs)…
I still think it’s too early to call Olivera a scouting failure. He put up good numbers in the Spring (so what), and looked bad in a very small sample size when the season started – last year he was below average, but a .715 OPS in his first 79 mlb at bats is way too early to make a judgement in my opinion.
Character should also be considered in scouting, but I don’t know if his track record foreshadowed the events of recent days. Maybe it did, but I wasn’t aware of it. I’d be interested to know if there were any previous character red flags.
To put the bad start of the Braves in perspective, Olivera’s .211 average is good for the 4th best average on the team among players who have batted more than 15 times!
Clever, Stu.
@4
I bet a co-worker in late February that the Warriors would win more games than the Braves this sports year. Stakes are $50 and a night bartending in a tutu. I feel good about this bet.
@83, not that the Braves will win 73 games, but what hypothetically happens if it’s a push?
No chance this team wins 70 games
Of course not–we’d have to go 70-83 from here out. I don’t know if this team could play .500 ball at AAA (I say that in all seriousness).
#83
Get him/her fitted for the tutu.
Of course, you can go double-or-nothing & see if the Braves can catch the Spurs (67 wins) — trickier bet, sure. It can be another $50, but the loser must bartend wearing a Boban Marjanović mask.
@79, my bigger issue is just that the whole point of the rebuild is to find good young guys to build around, who will be on the team the next time you’re good. If you can find a really good guy in his early 30s, he may be worth making an exception. But in general, I think it’s not the right way to go.
@84
No money changes hands but he still wears the tutu.
@87
Last night after Harper’s GS, he said, ‘Well, I’m gonna need to find a big-ass tutu.’ (Both of us being fat guys is what makes this part of the bet compelling). Re: the Marjanović mask, even we have limits, man.
When things are going bad, everything they hit finds a hole.
LOL Adonis.
Is brooks Conrad playing third tonight?
We might get no-hit tonight too.
And think–management felt Adonis was the better infielder between him and Olivera. I think they were right about that part.
FSN please fix that sound problem for the love of God. This is hard enough to watch already.
This is the worst team any of us have ever seen. Kinda cool, in a weird way.
I dunno. Muting Chip has its perks
Wei-Yi Chen has faced the minimum through 5.
I think that should be this team’s nickname: The Minimum.
A lot of pitchers will garner accolades for pitching “gems” against this lineup. A lot of teams will “get well” or reverse a skid against this Braves team.
I’ve seen enough of Twin Bills. Time for Folty or Blair.
@100, in related news the “suddenly streaking” Nationals have suddenly “opened up a lead” against Philadelphia
The Nationals first 21 games are played against the Braves, Phillies, Marlins, and Twins. Can you imagine how insufferable the analysts will be when they start 19-2?
Did Simpson just say he was happy to see Freeman pull the ball for a hit, and that he was hitting too much to center and the opposite field?
@104, that’s what I heard
@71: I was living in Houston during the Astros rebuild. Those were some bad teams. The 2012 team in particular (won 55 games, went over a month in the summer with only winning 4 games) was just brutal to watch. But that team wasn’t as bad, or as painful to watch, as the 2016 Barves.
The other thing with Houston is they didn’t give away Justin Upton, Andrelton Simmons and Jason Heyward. This team has been intentionally gutted by a trio of terrible front office decisions.
Copella should be getting a little heat too
Why are we bunting? Let Mallex take second then bunt
107, Houston got fleeced by US for Michael Bourn. They made out well in the Hunter Pence trade but probably not so well as we did in the Heyward deal. And both those players had more controllability than heyward and upton.
Markakis doesn’t get much love on this site but he’s a stud.
@110, what we are left with now is unwatchable baseball by our favorite team. I thought that a good young core of players was being built with Heyward, Wood, Kimbrel, Simmons and Freeman. If you’re not left with a bitter taste from the ashes that are left from moving those players, then I just agree to disagree.
@111
Motion to rename Cake “The Stud”
@112, you were suggesting Houston didn’t trade away exciting young players which isn’t true. My emotional reaction to our own rebuild is beside the point.
Braves lead!
GORDON! We might actually do that thing where we don’t lose!
Four out save? I like it
“Four out save?”
Fredi must be feeling the heat!
Every save is a four out save with this defense
Holy crap.
Go crazy! Go crazy!
Enjoy it guys, that’s our win for April!
Eight more wins to .500!
Good move by Fredi going for the 4 out save
72 wins to tie the Warriors.
Braves just have problems with Washington and St. Louis. Sweep the Marlins, tear off 9 in a row, and let’s see where we go from there.
Looking like playoff contenders IYAM.
Hard to believe….
Ohmygodthankyou
“BRAVES WIN” is actually trending on Twitter right now.
I think my Yahoo Sports app is broken. It says the Braves won 6-3 after being down 3-0.
GO CRAZY? DON’T MIND IF I DO!
Great Simpsons episode.
It bears repeating that until we get to Philly on 5/10, we play 28 of our first 31 games against Washington, St. Louis, the Dodgers, Chicago, Boston and the Mets. I do get the feeling Fredi will be canned, but before the emotion of all the losses get here, it certainly seems like Fredi was doomed to be canned before the season ever started.
so prior to last night’s game I have only been able to watch 2-3 innings of 2-3 games. Last night I was finally able to sit down and watch the entire game uninterrupted. I would like to apologize to everyone for taking so long. Clearly I needed to watch the game in order for the Braves to win. Sadly, there is a chance I will not get to watch tonight’s game.
Recapped.