Aaron Blair continues to hold down first place on the ‘Most Likely To Be Sent To The Suburbs When
Mike Foltynewicz Is Ready To Return’ List – giving up 8 runs to the Mets in 4 1/3 innings. It has
become obvious that Blair just hasn’t figured it out (whatever ‘it’ is) yet, and cannot consistently get
MLB hitters out. His ERA now stands at 7.99 for the season. And even in a ‘Let’s see what we got
here’ year, that’s not gonna cut it.
However, after spotting the visitors an 8 run lead, the Mets’ Steven Matz had A Full Blown Episode
of his own in the 5th. Giving up a 6 spot to the Braves, aided a bit by Yoenis Cespedes’ loss of a
Nick Markakis flyball in the gloamin’, an Adonis Garcia two run double, and a Brandon Snyder pinch
hit three run dinger.
After that, both bullpens shut out the opponents and the game ended at 8-6, albeit, not without
some ninth inning drama. After Tyler Flowers lead off the 9th by ripping a Juerys Familia fastball into
left for a single, and the suddenly sprt corpse of Erik Aybar took one off the arm for the team,
Chase d’Arnaud came up to bunt the runs into scoring position. After the entirely predictable Pop Up
the 97 MPH Fastball Which The Mets Flubbed But Turned Into The Cheapest Double Play EVAR, Jace
Peterson struck out to end the game. But the ball escaped Travis d’Arnaud, and his throw to first
was headed into right field except that James Loney somehow dove for the throw, made the snag
and dragged his foot across the bag.
Kudos to the pen, which has now strung together a 21 2/3 inning scoreless streak. They’re actually
starting to look like a MLB caliber group. And give credit to the offense, which down 8-0, didn’t roll
over and play dead. Unfortunately the hole was too deep to climb out of.
I think Blair will be a good pitcher, but you’re right, an ERA near 8 ain’t gonna cut it. Unless they think Jenkins is a reliever long-term, why not let him make a few starts and let Blair go down to AAA for a month? I don’t see why Jenkins is on the roster if he’s not going to pitch. He’s been on the roster for 9 days and has pitched exactly one inning.
I guess Folty gets 2-3 starts in AAA and is back up? I haven’t seen anything on the Bills.
I am happy that, at this point, there are options to this team. It doesn’t have to be “we suck, we know we suck, and there’s nothing that we can do to not suck”.
This is part of the pain. Glavine got rocked his first year and more. I’ve not for throwing fat on the fire every game , but you need to see if these guys project to be big leaguers or not.
I agree bledsoe, and Glavine and Smoltz did go through growing pains in the late 80s, but Blair hasn’t shown the ability (yet) to even get through the 5th inning. He’s started 11 games, and gone 6 innings in just 2 of them. The 4/29 start vs. the Cubs – admittedly his best game yet – 6 innings, 2 hits, 3 walks, and only 1 run, and the 6/18 start in New York, 6 innings, 5 hits, a walk, and three runs.
Then there are the stinkers: 5/17 against Pittsburgh, 1.1 innings, 9 runs; 6/2 vs. SF – 4 innings, 6 runs; 6/13 against Cincy – 5 innings, 6 runs, and last night – 4.2 innings, 8 runs.
The other 5 starts are suspect because, although he didn’t give up obscene run totals, he was tapdancing on a land mine, and couldn’t go deep into the game.
11 starts, 50.2 innings – less than 5 innings a start. You can’t afford to have your pen stressed every fifth game like that. Plus his BB/K ratio sits at a nice round 1/1 (29 of each). There’s potential there, and I hope he can harness it, but so far he hasn’t. The question becomes, do you let him continue to get shelled in the majors, or send him back to Gwinnett to let him figure it out there?
The idiotic poseur Tirico attempting to be all things to all men in all sports, with the Eiffel Tower in full bloom behind him, refers to match commentator John Champion as Jon Stewart.
That bunt call still makes me mad. The smartest guys in the room vibe that the front office gives off certainly doesn’t translate into on-field strategy.
I was curious about a question that I feel could be answered by some of the folks here: What is the worst statistical complete game of all time? Most walks/hits/earned runs/etc. allowed… eight or nine inning CGs. Anyone?
I think it was probably the Ty Cobb game where Detroit players went on strike and they fielded a college team cobbled together.
Seat, old bean, don’t disagree with a word you say. The fact that Glavine got rocked doesn’t mean that if you get rocked, you’re Glavine.
I guess I am for a carousel approach. Bring a guy up, give him 5-6 starts, either keep him or drop him depending on performance. I do think it would be unfair to give a guy 1 or 2 games to figure it out.
5 — Sabermetrically, runners on 1st and 2nd and 0 outs is the one time where bunting actually improves the average amount of runs scored in an inning.
Literally the first time I’ve ever heard of Brandon Snyder.
5 — Sabermetrically, runners on 1st and 2nd and 0 outs is the one time where bunting actually improves the average amount of runs scored in an inning.
Don’t confuse their received wisdom with numbers. BUNTING BAD! Didn’t you get the memo?
@3: To back up your point, I looked up Glavine’s 1988 game stats, specifically innings pitched.
IP in his first 5 starts in ’88: 5.0, 7.1, 7.0, 5.0, 7.0
Then he had an absolutely brutal May: 1.0, 1.2, 3.2, 3.1
But then he bounced back in June–his next 5 starts: 6.1, 8.0, 7.0, 6.0, 5.1
So yes, he took his lumps, but even at this early stage Glavine had shown that he could string together multiple quality starts in a row. The narrative is less “he was awful at first, then got better” and more “he was inconsistent at first but developed consistency.” Blair hasn’t even been inconsistently good.
@9, that’s not true. Average run expectancy drops by like 10% between 1st and 2nd no outs and 2nd and 3rd one out.
If you’re going to bunt, put Teheran up there rather than some scrub that never practices it.
Bah, why do I care….we’re trying to lose.
Just noticed the mispelling of ‘Yrok’ in the title.
I like it. Think I’ll leave it.
Snyder has more home runs than Inciarte, Aybar, Jace, AJP, d’Arnaud and other assorted misfits.
And I have been one of the biggest proponents of giving these pitchers time, especially in this lost season. But Blair is by far an exception to that rule. It might also be good to let these guys pitch/hit at the big league level, and if they struggle, let them decompress a little at AAA. It’s not a punishment or indictment of their ability so much as an opportunity for them to grow.
And if Jenkins is rotting at the back of the bullpen, then that’s another clear reason. Plus, c’mon, I don’t want my team to be the ’03 Tigers.
On 6/2/1998 Dennis Martinez shut out the brew crew on 12 hits. Bobby gave the guys a lot of rope back then
Blair hasn’t struggled at AAA. I’d lean towards being too patient with these guys. They need to go ahead and deal Norris so we can audition others.
DOB: #Braves optioned RH starter Aaron Blair to Triple-A, recalled LH reliever Matt Marksberry.
2:35 PM – 25 Jun 2016
Bowman is saying Casey Kelly and another 31-year old journeyman could take Blair’s spot. For real, why not Jenkins? Not stretched out?
#17
Exactly 24 years before that, on 6/2/74, Buzz Capra shut out the Expos at Parc Jarry on 10 hits. He had 2 walks & a pickoff, but the Braves didn’t turn any double plays.
Talk about dancing between raindrops…
I swear if this gets overturned…
13 — http://www.athleticsnation.com/2013/8/7/4590940/a-statistical-defense-sort-of-of-the-sac-bunt
I don’t like bunting but in that situation it was not a bad call.
That wasn’t exactly an endorsement of bunting, lol. Btw, I think the average runs from 1st and 2nd with no outs would be higher if we could stop dumbassed NL managers from reflex sacrifice bunting.
We were robbed of the chance for an epic Chase dArnaud game winning homer, something we could have talked about for ages. Or hours.
The chances of scoring exactly 2 runs in that situation actually went up about 6%. You are probably right that they should have used Teheran to bunt instead of D’Arnaud.
You pay for that 6% by reducing the chances for 3+ by quite a bit. I don’t think it’s ever worth it. Odds are that we weren’t going to win anyways, but giving away a precious last inning out is doing the other team a favor.
Good teams don’t sacrifice bunt with position players. Since we’re far from a good team, I guess we get a free pass.
The expectancy of scoring 0 runs also increases. Yeah, in the early innings one shouldn’t do it. But in the 9th inning when you have to score 2 runs to stay alive, and you are at the bottom of the order, it’s the right call. If you have Freddie Freeman up, of course you let him hit. But if your best option to pinch hit is Chase D’Arnaud, then the bunt is the best option.
Julio owns the Mets.
Both young men pitched well tonight. Julio looks so good. Wonder where he’ll pitch next week.
The Mets will not be hard to climb over during our rise back to the top.
Jim Johnson, Cagey Veteran.
Wow, smart, smart play by JJ. Really got us out of that inning. C’mon, we deserve this win.
Jim Johnson is another guy we can trade then bring back in the offseason again.
Kelly Johnson, Cagey Veteran.
Oh, hey: Foltynewicz at Gwinnett tonight: 5 IP, 1 H, 0 BB, 5 K.
Well that’s about right
I want to be clear about something, ok?
If someone says “even glavine and smoltz got rocked”, this could be interpreted one of two ways:
1) even some of the best pitchers struggle initially, so don’t write off someone for initial struggles
2) if some hall of fame pitchers struggle initially, then all pitchers who struggle initially will be hall of farmers
NO INTELLIGENT PERSON.has ever made the argument represented as #2 here. If you assume some poster is making that argument, you are not being charitable, not assuming the best of him, not giving in the benefit of the doubt, and potentially being fairly unimaginative yourself. If you choose to reply to him and chide him for such a ridiculous claim you are making a dumb straw man argument to make yourself feel smart. Stop it, please.
Markakis sucks.
Buntlanta strikes again.
Didn’t like the bunt that time with just 1 runner on. Inciarte isn’t likely to hit into a double play with his speed. Then they pitched around our one good hitter.
Hard to say it right now, but Kelly Johnson’s one of my favorites. Really like that guy. Good for him. It has nothing to do with him that we couldn’t hit a single XBH.
Snitker can be gone and it won’t bother me. Down 1 and we have another sacrifice bunt which then takes the bat out of Freeman’s hands. Really stupid game management
And ya know what, the Mets suck. Man, they really give it their darnedest to hand us those ballgames.
Good for Folty. Come back quickly.
Inciarte and Freeman are probably the guys you want up there most, and Snit took the bat out their hands. Tragic.
@38
Really? 2 hits off De Grom and a great run saving catch at the wall in the first innings.
Recapped.