The Braves used the long ball tonight to break a 10 way tie for the team lead in pitching wins, as
Matt Wisler and Freddie Freeman led the team to victory over the Phillies at Citizen’s Bank Ballpark.
After giving up a run in the first on a Ryan Howard groundout (and if that shocks you, I have a
bridge in Brooklyn I need to unload quickly – give me a shoutout at
#RyanHowardKillsAtlantaAlwaysHasAlwaysWill for details), Wisler settled down and went 6 and 2/3
innings with 7 strikeouts and, more importantly in this ballpark, only 2 walks – one of them
intentional, before giving way Hunter Cervenka to finish the 7th. Wisler, left with a 2-1 lead, thanks
to Freeman’s 2 run shot in the 3rd.
The Braves broke it open in the top of the 8th. Mallex Smith led off, and reached second on Maikel
Franco’s throwing error. After Ender Inciarte moved him to third with a groundout, Gordon Beckham
blooped one over the drawn in infield for the 3-1 lead. Nick Markakis then hit his first dinger of the
year, and like that, the Bravs had Reitsma Room for Bud Norris to pitch the 8th. Norris walked the
one guy you can’t fault him for
(#NeverIMeanNeverPitchToRyanHowardIfYouAreWearingATomahawk), but surrendered nothing else.
In the top of the 9th, Freddie dialed 9 again, this time driving in Inciarte, who had walked. Alexi
Ogando finished up (#ThankGoodnessRyanHowardDidNotGetToThePlate).
Anyway, we got Da Bills pitching for us tomorrow – if it doesn’t rain, that is
(#TheOnlyWayRyanHowardWillNotDriveInARun).
It’s amazing what happens when you can leave the yard with a little bit of regularity. It really concerns me that they started “practicing hitting home runs in BP” and all of a sudden we have half of our season’s home runs in the last week. Is it seriously new information that power is derived from a slight uppercut? Is Seitzer having them watch Tom Emansky videos highlighting flat plane, low finish swing mechanics? Crazy.
Erick Aybar is 1 for 3 with a walk since the chicken bone was removed from his throat. Truly this is a new era. Let’s turn the page on the old Erick and throw our full support behind the new Erick.
Woke up, tuned into the bottom of the 9th of the Dodgers leading in San Diego. Up comes Melvin and walks off with a two-run HR. Melvin’s sixth of the season. Walk-off. 787 OPS. Melvin.
@2. Yes, a new page and a new nickname: The Chicken Choker.
Urban Dictionary defines the phrase “on like a chicken bone” as “definitely happening, with good or exciting results.” Perhaps a fair portent for our man Aybar! On the other hand, there’s all the other definitions for ‘chicken bone’ on Urban Dictionary. Which I strongly recommend you never, ever google.
Here’s the article from the AJC regarding the article referenced by Timo in the last post (#24): http://m.ajc.com/news/sports/baseball/chipper-jones-managing-braves-no-comment/nrQpD/
I must piggy-back on what Timo said, in that Fredi is a gracious guy. To openly tell someone they would basically take a demotion post-firing just to have a chance to work under that person is the definition of being a team player. I’m in HR, and we rarely see things like this in today’s environment. I know that sounds silly, but Fredi knows not to burn bridges. He’ll be back, but not as the manager. Mark my words.
Bethancourt moving to the outfield?
http://m.mlb.com/news/article/179274666/padres-delay-christian-bethancourts-of-debut
Of course he has been hitting some HRs for the Padres. Fire Seitzer!
@6
The bigger surprise in that piece is Fredi’s evident ongoing need to resist the wearing of pink shoes.
Bethancourt 2 run hr
Melvin 2 run walk off vs Jensen.
Our coaching staff (Fredi?) seems good with pitchers but other than Freeman, horrible with hitters.
@8: What’s not as surprising is that Hoss would associate the color pink with being anything other than a manly man.
http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/15633876/mlb-competition-committee-agrees-changes-strike-zone-intentional-walks
Yes, raise the bottom of the strike zone. No, don’t eliminate the intentional walk pitches. Done.
If they want to speed up games, cut commercial time
@6, Chipper has gone from the “Not interested” of the last two years to the “No comment” of the last two days. (Though it would seem “no comment” means sharing with his interviewers that he has discussed it with his wife.) Fredi’s comments about being Chipper’s bullpen coach “when he comes up” makes it sound like this possibility is not a new concept within the Braves universe.
Fun Fact: Freddie Freeman and Chase d’Arnaud are the Braves’ two best players by fWAR this season with a combined 1.1 which is also Melvin’s fWAR total this year.
Good for him. I’ve never seen anyone have less fun on a baseball field than Melvin did when he was struggling through his tenure with the Braves.
Why not? It’s the managerial equivalent of signing Frenchy.
@15, You just compared Chipper to Francoeur? Let’s not get too wild with our snark.
Bethancourt finds his swing in San Diego. Why am I not Surprised?
Today’s lineup is what I’d do if I wanted to end a winning streak.
Why doesn’t Inciarte get platooned too? They said that that was the plan before the season because of his weakness vs LHP.
@19
I think with the success of Mallex, they really want to trade Inciarte, and they probably don’t want to trade him as a platoon partner. I think their goals for Inciarte and Mallex are different.
Mudge really did seem to find his swing in SD. Bethacourt simply didn’t get enough playing time with us. He raked at AAA last year and he has always shown real power potential even to the off field. He will end up being a pretty good player that we traded for a bag of balls. And we were under no pressure whatsoever to trade him.
96 MPH from Perez, just low.
Bills looking good so far.
@11
I’m not convinced raising the strike zone is gonna result in more balls in play. If it does, I’m all for it, but wouldn’t it just result in more walks? I guess the theory is that pitchers would eventually stop trying to put the ball there, but it’s almost certain to result in more walks initially, I would think.
As far as the intentional walk, I have no problem making it automatic. Going through the motions is really pointless, and I don’t care that once every two years some imbecile throws one to the backstop or gets one close enough to the plate where the batter’s able to flare it for an opposite-field hit or whatever. Not nearly often enough to make it worth the 45 seconds, in my opinion.
There would probably be a few more walks. But if you look back through the last 50 years, BB/9 always hovers around 3-3.5, despite several changes in the general conditions of the game. Walk rate seems to self-correct. But K/9 in the same time frame has increased by around 40% (more or less, depending on your starting point). Since K rate seems to be inherently more volatile, it will probably be affected more by a change in conditions. And it sounds like it will help the umps as well.
The IBB thing is an aesthetic choice. It happens less than once every two games, so the time savings is as insignificant as the chance of an error. I would side with those who say if the ball is in play then it should be put into play.
@ 16, hiring Chipper as the manager would be done for the same cynical reasons as hiring Francoeur to play for this team. I don’t think there’s much question about that.
Great recap, Seat Painter. Thank you.
I really dislike Aybar.
Things Aybar cannot do:
√ Hit
√ Field
√ Run
But other than that, Mrs. Lincoln…
Great effort, not sure what it would take to get a rain delay.
hey .. a double switch by Snitker …. Freddie never knew you could do that ..LOL
I don’t think I ever would have believed that Williams could pitch a game that good. We need to keep them and get rid of the other two.
Cameron Maybin is now 11 for 16 since joining the Tigers this week, with 4 SBs. Good for him.
Wow Maybin is on fire. Also feels like a sweep of the Phils is in the offing. They are not good.
Snitker has the highest winning percentage of any manager in Atlanta Braves history.
Snitker actually seems to know when to take a pitcher out.
Christian Bethancourt will not continue to slug 591.
Just when I get on the Williams Perez bandwagon – – he pulls a Pittsburgh.
And now he throws a gem – – with heat (96 mph???!!!) – – vs the Phills.
Don’t tease with me – – either be bad or good.
Williams Perez is a passable major league pitcher. There are way worse guys kicking around the majors.
I’m never not going to miss this sort of thing: http://m.mlb.com/news/article/179464706/jason-heyward-to-miss-3-5-days-with-injury
What a catch.
@40, let’s trade them nick markakis now that heyward is injured. Replace one gold glove right fielder with another.
Heck of a catch Jason. He’ll always have a place in my heart for the Braves team that never was.
Alex Wood is on fire today. 11 SO through 5.
Wonder if they would trade Alex wood straight up for Olivera. Lol, right–nobody would make that trade
Has anybody here seen Kelly?
1910 recording.
Good William showed up yesterday. Bad Billy pitched last time out.
@46
Found the perfect theme song to reflect the duality of Messrs. Perez. Many versions to choose from, but in memory of Merle, I’ll go with this one:
How on earth is this Phillies team above .500? Baseball is so weird sometimes.
So sorry for the late recap! Recap is up.