Good game.
(Not really, but the Braves won, and Pure Evil was thwarted.)
The Braves jumped to a 4-zip lead in the first. Designated hitting fool Nick Markakis led off with a double; Freddie Freeman singled Nick home, and A.J. Pierzynski and Kelly Johnson walked to bring sometime leftfielder Jace Peterson up with the bases loaded. Jace did what any good corner outfielder would do and whacked a double to clear the bases and close the scoring.
Jhoulys Chacin followed this onslaught with five masterful innings. In the top of the sixth, Jhoulys drove in the Braves fifth run. Then the wheels came off.
The Marlins pecked away, scoring three in the sixth and single runs in the seventh and ninth to send the game to extra innings. Jason Grilli got the blown save; but except for Jim Johnson, our parade of relievers did not distinguish themselves.
In the tenth Jeffy failed after his fashion, and AJP dribbled out to first. Then the Braves awoke. Drew Stubbs walked. Jace dropped a pop fly in front of the Marlins no-doubles defense, and Mallex Smith lined a single through the box to drive in the go-ahead run.Matt Wisler retired the Fish in order in the bottom of the frame to save the Braves third win in a row.
How sweep it is!
The Ken Burns Jackie Robinson piece is excellent
Rob’s parallel universe continues, as the Twins won in 12 innings.
Apropos of nothing, last night I saw the Feelies play the 9:30 Club in DC, and it was one of the best shows I’ve been to in years. They were terrific, the house was absolutely packed, the audience was incredibly into it — we clapped them back out for something like four encores — and it was just a magical vibe. If you get a chance to see them, definitely do.
If our starters continue to average about 5 innings per start, then our bullpen is going to be cooked in a hurry. The bullpen logged 13 innings in three games, and that’s just not going to work. I wonder if they will call up the best performers out of Gant, Jenkins, Folty, and Blair and use them in a swingman/long relief role. Folty has a 0.90 ERA through 10 IP down in AAA, and Blair and Jenkins aren’t far behind:
Jenkins – 9 IP, 2 ER, 1.56 WHIP
Blair – 12 IP, 3 ER, 1.17 WHIP
Ryan Weber has been pitching well too: 3 APP, 8.1 IP, 0 ERA, .60 WHIP
So, there are options. I’d rather have no lefties in the pen (or one if Chevanka’s really any good) if O’Flaherty is toast. And at this point, if there is not going to be any positive improvement over the win total from last year, let’s just roll with the young players and have some hope to watch every night.
Fredi also needs to start using these guys for more than one batter
Lucas Sims had a great start today
Hitting is certainly contagious.
And nothing like a series versus the Hapless Halibuts to inflate my confidence in the Bravos in a supremely artificial way.
Pushing back Wisler sets up the rotation nicely for the playoffs.
Can we play the Marlins every week? Seriously, the only way our record is going to be respectably bad, rather than a 100+ loss disaster is by beating up on / having winning records against the Marlins and Phillies (and the other rubbish NL teams).
It’s hard to believe we are a better team without Olivera, but that’s exactly how it’s played out.
I want that number 1 overall pick!!! Stop winning!!!
Hey I think I kind of predicted this sweep a few days ago. You’re welcome.
@11- Then could you kind of predict wins against the Dodgers?
@4, In honor of Rob Cope’s parallel universe, I motion we stick with “Chevanka” as Hunter Cervenka’s official BJ nickname.
https://www.google.com/search?q=baseball+reference+chevanka&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8
I still haven’t watched a Braves loss this year. Unfortunately I will probably not be able to watch the games from the 20th through the 24th and the 19th is just a maybe.
#9 – I don’t know. It’s actually harder to see how Olivera makes us better.
Braves lose 3 in a row: 118 comments.
Braves win 3 in a row: 12 comments.
interesting.
Unfortunately, Olivera likely only made this team better as a competent 3b with an .800 OPS, which was the very reason Braves traded for him. As a woman-beating below average left-fielder, he’s nothing more than a problem.
@16, we are usually a little more lightly-trafficked on the weekends, so there is that. But yes.
Right. Extremely unfortunate. I just wonder why we thought he was a competent 3B. There is most certainly a trend with Cuban players struggling to assimilate. What I don’t understand is why organizations don’t deem it to be a prudent investment to put a $60K salary into a Cuban friend to hang out with these guys all day. I read in one of the articles that they did that with one of the Cuban players. That would just make so much sense to have someone the player likes and respects live, work, and play with the player considering how valuable they are. Perhaps the player rejects the “babysitting”. After all, why the heck is everyone around Johnny Manziel allowing him to live with Josh Gordon? I mean, come on. Piss your career away, why don’t ya?
I thought digging for gold with Olivera was a good idea, especially as Peraza is turning out to be a potential utility player and Wood has his questions. I suppose we will see what happens with the draft pick and Zach Byrd to see how the chips have fallen, but really, I’m just done with it. Alex Wood is a Dodger, Peraza is a Red, and Olivera is in the pen.
One last thought: He’s signed for another 3 years. He’s sunk cost. He’s found money if he turns into anything. If KJ/Mallex/Stubbs can handle LF, Peterson/Beckham aren’t completely terrible, then let him be a bench player and see if he can get his act together. After all, while he’s old on the calendar, he’s not old as a baseball player. He’s probably played as much innings as your average American 26 year old. Who’s to say he can’t get his act together, and we sign him for another 2-3 years after his contract expires? He’ll be 34-35, but he still should have some gas in the tank.
@19
Remember when his winter ball tam put him in left and Braves State Media came out and threw up the “Nothing to see here…” lines? Then he wasn’t hitting and they ran him off and BSM threw up more of the same.
It’s those guys jobs (DOB, Peanut…) to keep the front office honest, and they do a terrible job at it. They work harder defending them than anything else. I know sometimes they can be critical, but most of the time they toe the line.
That’s the thing I hate the most.
Seems to me that the winter ball team he was sucking for sent him packing. Not sure there could be a bigger red flag than that. Such a weird deal all-around. In the end it’s just a low-odds gamble that didn’t pay off. Usually you don’t spend tens of millions on such a thing.
He wasn’t going to help our next playoff team anyways. Him not working out hopefully doesn’t hurt much either.
I’m still not completely convinced the Hector Olivera will never be an effective major leaguer, but I will admit I’m not confident it will be in Atlanta.
I wonder how long of a leash Williams Perez has. 7+ ERA in 2 starts. 2 starts is short sample size, but if Blair or Jenkins turn in another few great starts, how do you not pull the trigger on one of those guys?
Perez get 5 starts tops if they don’t pitch better.
Once upon a time, organizations that employed beat writers would shift them around every few years, so that they wouldn’t go native. The organizations that employ beat writers covering the Braves have not done this, and our beat writers have done the only natural thing in order to maintain good relationships with the team they’re covering, since it stands to reason that they’ll still be covering them next year, and the year after that, and the year after that.
Don’t blame the beat writers, blame the AJC. (It’s hard to expect anyone employed by MLB.com to provide anything other than rose-colored glasses.)
Olivera may have all sorts of psychological/behavioral issues around assimilation (speculative), but once again, the issue folks have with him is primarily that he’s bad at baseball. Yunel Escobar, on the other hand, was terrific at baseball, but his behavioral issues sent him packing.
Regarding DOB and Peanut, their primary interest is to maintain employment, and maintaining access privilege is more essential in that vein than maintaining some high-minded ideal of journalistic integrity. To shrewd readers (like the BJ crowd), that makes them laughable transparent shills, but that is a minority of readership.
Wood starts against us on Tuesday.
I wish it was the Mets instead of the Marlins that the Braves swept, the drama would be a lot more delicious.
I’ve been impressed with DOB and Mark Bradley. Obviously you don’t want to sell the team down the river, but DOB and Bradley have been critical at times of the BSM (thanks Smitty).
Kimbrel just walked in the leading run in the 8th. 2-1 Jays.
3 Grybos later… Interesting use of Kimbrel. They brought him in top of the eighth one out bases loaded.
#3
A couple years ago, I found The Feelies’ debut (“Crazy Rhythms”) in a used-CD bin. It’s all strummy-and-drummy (and hooky), but I was surprised at how well it held up over the years. And I love their cover of “Everybody’s Got Something to Hide (Except Me & My Monkey).”
The Grybo Trifecta is tough to pull off. Sometimes you just have to tip your cap.
Markakis should get more love. Just saying.
The over/under on the ratio of Markakis doubles to Markakis home runs is 11. Any takers?
This is the same Williams Perez we say last year. He’s just not getting out of trouble so far. A couple more bad starts and he’s swapping places with Folty.
@35
I’ll take the under – way under. I figure Nick will hit maybe a few more taters this year, sayt 5. In that case, he’d have to hit 55 doubles, which he has never done (career best – 48). I figure he’ll hit 5 HR, 37 doubles, with decent OBP.
I could be wrong but I think the braves started trading at $36 per share today and it’s at $20.49 currently
@32, their comeback album from 2011 (“Here Before”) is good too. They did a bunch of covers in the encores:
The Rolling Stones, “Paint it Black”
The Beatles, “She Said She Said”
The Stooges, “I Wanna Be Your Dog”
The Velvet Underground, “I Can’t Stand It”
The Modern Lovers, “Astral Plane”
Television, “See No Evil”
@26
I can tell you for one that this Braves fan’s issue with Olivera doesn’t have much to do with baseball. He assaulted a female. There’s no bad at baseball narrative here.
@38
http://www.advfn.com/stock-market/NASDAQ/BATRK/chart
There are apparently 33 million BATRA shares outstanding, valuing the Braves at a little over 660 million.
@41 – A share symbol is BATRA
http://seekingalpha.com/symbol/BATRA
Does Olivera play another baseball game for the Atlanta Braves?
@37
I really think it’s possible that Markakis has changed his approach to the point where he could turn in a 4 HR, 44 2B season, especially with some extra ABs being in the lead-off spot. I think his home run power is gone, but right now he’s spraying liners all over the field. He’s kinda fun to watch now.
@40, this conversation actually goes back way farther than this week, believe it or not.
csg at 44,
I would say the odds are around 50% yes and no. Who really knows.
A lot of that depends on when the more detailed facts emerge and what they are. Almost nothing on this has been posted up since 4 / 13.
There was one report that the complaining witness was somebody he knew. Big strike against him. A “professional” wouldn’t produce the same outrage (some, but not as intense).
Next, what actually happened to the complaining witness. Sounds like it might have been more than one push / punch, etc. Almost not good for Olivera.
I will say that IF the Braves were sure or close to sure they could use the “general morals” clauses to end this, they probably would cut him. I think otherwise they slow pedal for a while until he starts costing them money again. One issue is the money itself. The other is that out of 29 other Major League clubs somebody will sign him and the Braves would be on the hook for everything over Major League minimum.
He’s currently under administrative leave by the league, pending investigation. The Braves have to be careful because the union will — justifiably — fight any attempt by the team to try to get out of paying him the money they owe him, particularly before the investigation concludes. (And, as W.C.G. said a few posts back, the facts in these cases are often incredibly messy and the truth is rarely particularly clear.) But I think we can treat him as pretty much a mental writeoff moving forward.
Beckham to DL; Ryan Weber up. Good for him. May he not suck. And may Jace Peterson continue to not suck.
@44
80% chance he does
Looking at the upcoming Dodgers series, one win would be fine by me. Make it happen, Julio.
Three morning questions…. When is Ender able to come off the DL? Will he be ready to go then? Mallex down or Jeff gone?
@52
I’d think Weber or Castro before Mallex right now.
Rio Ruiz
ascending the Majors with ease
it helps that at third
an unexpected shuffle has occurred.
Kanekoa Texeira
his Krakatoan fastball, can he still steer her?
summoning Thor
for the smoke and the fire, just a little bit more.
John Gant
would like to be able to pitch but he can’t
lost in the shuffle
his feet contribute a barely balletic kerfuffle.
New thread.