Matt ‘The Dark Knight’ Harvey swooped into Atlanta last night, and routed the various henchmen, flunkies, and lackeys that Fredi ‘Joker’ Gonzalez ran out to attempt to bait him into the latest death trap. Some timely assistance from Curtis ‘Robin’ Granderson, however, in the form of a second inning grand slam off Bud ‘Poison Ivy’ Norris, and another 4th inning solo shot was enough to send the whole motley lot off to Arkham Asylum, where no doubt, the incompetent guards will cruelly let us escape tonight to try to win again.
A depressing fact gleaned from the broadcast last night – the Mets have 44 extra-base hits in their last five games, while the local nine only has 27 all season. And when you consider that Granderson, by himself, almost outhomered the Braves on the season last night, you can see why IWOTB are on pace for a crisp 40-122 record.
I’m beginning to think we might be a bad baseball team.
“You really felt like the Braves competed in this one”
“Just one mistake was the difference in the game”
-Chip (probably)
Mets vs. Barves is the free game tonight on mlb.com tonight
@2 – sounds like a fair value.
Worst team. Worst offense. Worst defense. Worst manager. Worst playing field. Worst announcers. Worst front office. Worst owners.
Best blog.
We have a chance to be a memorable team….like the 1988 Braves, 2003 Tigers, 1962 Mets, etc….
4-12 puts this team on a 1962 Mets pace. Just saying.
At least the 1962 Mets had some charm….hard to imagine what our collection of 2nd rate trade chips will be remembered for…..
There are actually 3 teams with worse run differentials than ours: Philly, Milly, and Cincinnilly
It’s hard to believe that 6 teams have scored fewer runs than we have: Philly, LAA, Cleveland, Chisox, TB, and Miami
Looking at team stats, there doesn’t appear to be any category where our Braves are threatening the mean. If our team has a strength, it’s OBP, where we rank about 21st in MLB.
Foltynewicz and Blair both need to be in the rotation no later than June. One of them is starting tomorrow, and I assume the Braves are going to pull the plug on the Norris experiment pretty soon if it continues going like this.
Fact: Jarrod Saltalamacchia now has twice as many homers as the Braves…
Simms is starting across town tonight
Marksberry up but it may only be for one day. Roger is working with EOF so they aren’t cutting him just yet
The crowd sure looked sparse for a Friday night game.
The final Turner Field game is going to be deserted, isn’t it? Hopefully it won’t be as embarrassing-looking as the Expos’ final series at Olympic Stadium.
Checking the box score, looks like a strikeout at the plate and a costly error in the field for Frederick. He’s having an abysmal April. Get it together, old man.
He seems to be taking my advice.
I just tuned in and I’m glad I missed the first 5 innings of this contest. Should be another easy win for the the mets who inexplicably have gotten hot just now.
The Aybar is set low.
Our bad pitching can make any team look bad. Seriously, how many soft tossing guys can we bring up and put in the pen? Seems like every pitcher sits between 88-92. Viz is the exception. I still think Folty needs to be a reliever
Jonathan Morales homered tonight for Rome, his 2nd. He’s hitting .350 on the young season. We just might have a catcher in 3 years.
Chris Ellis pitched a 6 inning 0 ER game and is just dominating through 4 starts.
Love hearing Joe complain about not having a lineup setup for 3-run homers…
In Joe’s defense…there is no defense, but the Braves’ main problem isn’t so much lack of homers as general offensive ineptitude. Aybar, Castro, Francouer, Stubbs, Peterson…these guys are terrible, pitiful, awful, and with Freddie Freeman hitting like aybar, there’s little hope for runs. If everyone were getting on base and lashing doubles like Nick Markakis, we wouldn’t be so lustful for homers.
Yeah ok homers
Gant pitched pretty well too. 6 IP, 1 ER, 7 K. Though he did give up 3 BB.
Could Garcia grab a LF’s mitt in a few months? Ruiz is now hitting .373/.431/.576 in AAA.
The Braves now have four starters at AAA that may perform better than Norris. Folty, Blair, and Jenkins have sub-3 ERAs, and Gant, after his most recent outing, has a 3.68 ERA and a 1.02 WHIP. All but Blair are struggling with walks, as the other three all have a BB/9 of 4.5 or more.
Mississippi also has four starters performing well, as Ellis, Newcomb, and Sims are all doing well, along with a guy named Brandon Barker, who I’ve never heard of. Newcomb and Sims have struggled with their control too (6+ BB/9), but Ellis has only 8 BB in 23 IP.
Toscano sucks.
Success:
http://www.ajc.com/news/sports/baseball/from-braves-outfielder-to-minor-league-pitcher/nq92K/
“Matz helps keep Mets hot with 8-2 win over struggling Braves”
To be clear, the streak is now 2 consecutive wins for the Mets, and this after taking 2/3 from the Phillies. I can’t figure out what made them so hot just now. It’s like they caught lightning in a bottle. I do wonder if they can keep it going against upstart Cincy.
Ellis and Barker are indeed pitching well. Barker appears to have quietly become a solid prospect. He was under the radar last year, but was quite effective. I am glad to see the Braves take him seriously….
Newcomb has great stuff, but he has yet to show that he has made any real progress with his control….
Haven’t seen Mike Soroka’s name mentioned. 4 starts at Rome, 20 IP, 1.00 WHIP, zero homers, 3 BB, 23 Ks.
He and Fried are starting out well, while Touki Toussaint is not.
If I had to bet on one of the Braves’ pitching prospects to make it big, I would choose Soroka….
This is, sadly, where we’re supposed to be, where we have a terrible major league team and tons of pitching prospects performing well. At every level you have pitchers who have the potential to be major league starters, just not today.
Norris, Aybar, Grilli, and AJP were supposed to be trade bait, and not a single one has worked out. How did we go 0-4 on those guys? At least KJ and Frenchy have actually not been bad.
@30, Francoeur with the .599 OPS and KJ batting .152? They’ve been bad, too.
On the bright side, Daniel Castro has been every bit the SS we traded Andrelton for. That’s like found money!
Are you serious? How did I miss that? Gosh, they are all terrible. Francoeur, of course, we’d expect, but even KJ.
How does none of this fall on the shoulders of Fredi?
Fredi’s not out there weakly grounding into the 6-4-3s. The Braves are letting him twist in the wind, so they don’t have to pay another manager.
Went to last night’s debacle. I still think this is the worst team I’ve ever seen. And with Freeman starting off like one of the worst players in the league, we may actually be worse than I thought.
Though he did hit a ball past the outfielders last night, something we haven’t done much of this year.
I am excited to see Blair today. A taste of the future.
I think they make a free-agent splash, the team under-performs, and they fire Fredi. Why waste a perfectly good scape-goat when your team isn’t supposed to be good yet?
#35–I am also looking forward to watching Blair pitch. I would not be surprised if in time he becomes an important part of the Braves’ rotation….
Mmmmhhhhhh
The sinker isn’t really sinking so far, nice changeup. What a catch by Jace.
I will make a bold prediction notwithstanding today’s results. Blair will be one of the few bright spots for us this year. He will even get a vote or two for Rookie of the Year.
When I asked who would be in the rotation on 4/1, 6/1, and 8/1, no one predicted that Blair would be in the rotation by even 6/1. Literally nothing has worked but Castro, Garcia, and Markakis. Even Vizcaino clearly has a red flag since he can’t handle a normal workload. At some point, when your entire collective team is under-performing, you have to look at the common denominator: Fredi. Yes, he’s not grounding into 4-6-3’s, but he bears some responsibility. Forget the scapegoat routine; just get the right person on the job.
Fredi’s usage of 4 or 5 relievers per-game is certainly a good reason to want him replaced, but don’t you think he’s doing this under direction of the front office? They are frantically auditioning a bunch of pitchers, all of whom are C and D level prospects at best, and hoping someone emerges.
Pretty much everyone on the entire major league roster needs to be replaced. Let’s get started on that right now. I want to lose with rookies, not guys that should be retiring.
Three legitimate questions I would love to know:
1) What’s the historical cost-to-benefit on making players Super 2? Is it problematically probable for the organization?
2) Does “rushing” players hurt their development if there’s minimal pressure?
3) Does utilizing starting pitching prospects in relief hurt their development? Meaning, two months from now, if everything stays the same (major league team is historically terrible and 8 or 9 starting pitchers in High-A and up are performing well), could you keep Jenkins, Blair, and Folty (and Banuelos, if healthy) in the pen, logging consistent outings off 2-3 innings?
Also, Folty put in 7 IP, 0 ER, 7 K, but with 4 BB today in AAA.
By this point next year, I’d can Fredi and everyone on staff.
Fredi will be replaced before next year. That’s the only thing about the rebuild that I am absolutely certain of.
It wouldn’t surprise me to see him replaced this year around the same time that Albies and Swanson are called up.
McDowell would be second to go
You do have three supposed manager candidates already on the payroll with Perez, Pendleton, and Porter. Why not give one of them a crack at an interim position for 80 games? Seriously, what’s the worst that can happen? Aren’t we already there?
Chevanka will save the day.
Newcomb today 5IP 4H 1R 4BB 3SO
Mallex really hasn’t been very impressive so far. When is Inciarte coming back by the way?
It’s going to be tough with Newcomb. He’s going to be a nasty lefty, #2 prospect in the system, ERA in the low-2’s, probably in AAA soon, but he’s not going to be ready for the major leagues because he can’t throw strikes. So tantalizing.
La Stella with a HR and 2 doubles for the Cubs, Hayward with four hits and three RBI.
Just tuned in. How was Blair?
@43, I am legitimately Intetested in question 3. I would imagine it does because relief pitching and starting are fundamentally different. it’s also just far less reps because the outings are short and you don’t get permission to pitch your way out of jams. I might even think a starter could develop bad habits in a relief role, such as pitching to strike everyone out
You have to be high to get any enjoyment from the Braves’ Major League club. Thus, I’m rooting for this losing streak to continue through next Saturday, bringing the record to 4-20.
Well that was a fun little thrill. Boy the mets are HOTTTTT!
On pace for a nifty 36-126 record now.
At least Castro is showing up to play everyday
@43,
1 Depends on the player. Obviously it behooves the Braves FO to pinch pennies. I doubt it’ll matter that much in Blair’s case.
2 It’s not just the pressure, it’s not being overwhelmed by competition that’s doing more correctly at once than a minor league player’s going to accustomed to dealing with.
3 It depends on what the pitcher needs to work on. If they’re approaching their innings limit and are no longer all that challenged in the minors, it can only help their development to put them in the ‘pen. More likely, they need to learn how to get through an order three times and build up stamina.
EDIT: Reinforcing our bullpen probably isn’t the best way for our baby pitchers to get their command/control in order.
@53 I was pretty impressed by Blair. He doesn’t have the stuff to pitch up in the zone against MLB competition, but he’s got pretty good control and a solid idea what he’s doing up there. To me, he looks like a mid-rotation guy as soon as this season.
Recapped.