Last night’s game reminded me of the children’s story “Fortunately, Unfortunately”, so with that in
mind this morning….
Fortunately, the Braves are coming off a series opening win! Unfortunately, they’re still the worst
team in the league.
Fortunately, they get to play the Marlins, who they’ve beaten like a drum this year! Unfortunately,
the Marlins are actually battling for a Wild Card this year and are much improved from earlier in the
season.
Fortunately, the Braves have Julio Teheran on the mound! Unfortunately, Teheran has his gopherball
going on, sandwiching a Christian Yelich double between a Derek Dietrich lead off homer and a
Marcell Ozuna no doubter.
Fortunately, Julio limits the damage. Unfortunately, he has to rely on this offense to score for him.
Fortunately, Nick Markakis, Jeff Francoeur, Tyler Flowers and Eric Aybar hit consecutive singles in the
bottom of the second to make it 3-1. Unfortunately, Julio grounds into a double play to kill any
momentum, although it’s now 3-2.
Fortunately, in the bottom of the 5th, Chase d’Arnaud homered, driving in Ender Inciarte for a 4-3
lead. Unfortunately, Inciarte strained a groin and had to be removed.
Fortunately, Julio pitched into the seventh, giving the pen a breather. Unfortunately, Yelich doubled
home Martin Prado to tie it, and Chris Withrow came in to give up the single Grybo for a 5-4 Miami
lead.
Fortunately, the pen held them there. Unfortunately, the Marlins pen was just as good through the
8th.
Fortunately, in the bottom of the 9th, Tyler Flowers hit a game tying home run, and Aybar singled to
put the winning run on. Unfortunately, Snitker ordered a bunt and Jace Peterson and d’Arnaud couldn’t
bring him around.
Fortunately, in the 10th, Freddie Freeman lead off with a two base pop fly error that the marlins
misplayed. Unfortunately, Adonis Garcia couldn’t move him over, and AJ Pierzynski’s deep fly to
center was wasted.
Fortunately, Casey Kelly held Miami scoreless in the 11th. Unfortunately, Nick Wittgren did the same
to the Braves.
Fortunately, with two on and two out Miami was forced to use a pitcher to pinch hit for Wittgren,
having run out of position players. Unfortunately, Jose Fernandez, who can hit, stepped up and
doubled home two for the win.
Fernandez gets to turn around and keep swinging the lumber this afternoon, starting against the
always popular To Be Determined.
Lucas Harrell! Feel the excitement!
We Got You Babe
They say you’re young and it don’t show
We won’t find out until you grow
Well we don’t know if all that’s true
‘Cos you got us and Kevin we got you
Babe
We got you Babe
They say your swing won’t pay the rent
and you’re afraid our money’s all been spent
that might be so, there’s not a lot
but those receipts were pretty hot
Babe
We got you Babe.
We got Flowers in the Spring
he’ll be wearing his ring
when things go bad we tend to frown
but you’ll survive each crass knockdown
don’t let them say your swings too long
with you a switch we simply can’t go wrong
ignore you may ’bout any sign
there ain’t a pitch you can’t hit on a line
Babe
We’ll get you Babe
WE GOT YOU BABE!
Kevin Maitan is a Brave.
@ 3: so is Aybar, but hopefully that will change soon.
Who is our #1 prospect now?
Does the Furcal rule apply to international amateur free agents? I’ve yet to recover from the Josh Anthony roller coaster ride.
More big picture, I’m trying to temper my excitement, but I’m really excited by today. We probably added 3 or 4 more players to our top 30 players, which is the silver lining from not investing that money into 2016 ML player payroll. The more we fill the pipeline, the more the Braves will be apt to trade players from the higher levels of the minors. I would also assume that monies spent in the international pool will be mostly allocated to 2017 ML player payroll, though I could be assuming too much. They won’t even be allowed to dip into the international market next year, so it would seem logical that it would shift that way.
It would seem like this would mark the downward slope of trading players for slot money and international pool money, and instead of trading future players for money, we can then trade them for major leaguers.
Now I think I’m much more interested in seeing a GCL game pitched by Ian Anderson and with shortstop manned by Kevin Maitan.
@6 I don’t know if we will ever recover from that roller coaster.
Maitan, I would think, becomes our top prospect.
He’s got the highest ceiling, but there’s no way he’s ahead of Swanson at this juncture.
Commodores hang together.
No, I’d say the same about any 22-year-old who was taken first overall last year, was already doing well in AA, and had the prospect status Dans has. There’s just no way any 16-year-old is ahead of someone like that. I sure hope Maitan gets there, though.
Man, poor guy. This has to be the end
Jonny Venters, who was making a comeback from a third Tommy John surgery, has torn his UCL again. Hasn’t pitched since 2012.
Would it be a stretch to say that our top 3 prospects are now position players? I’d imagine Albies has passed Newcomb, so could you say:
Dansby
Maitan
Ozzie
Newcomb
Allard
@13, A real shame. What a joy to watch pitch. Always felt guilty, though, while watching him get overused. It would be nice if Liberty Media can give him a cushy job as a real estate agent or something in his retirement years…
So with the signing of Maitan, we are saved, correct?
@11.
Growing up, I lived on the same AL State Hwy as Lionel Richie and some of the Commodores. They lived in a massive split level ranch house near Tuskegee. When I was about 4-5, I remember we were driving by on the way to Montgomery to ‘eat out’ and my dad goes, “Hey look, there’s Lionel Richie. On a riding lawnmower.”
It sure as s*** was, too.
Did he live in a brick house?
@14 In my mind, I’d have Allard ahead of Newcomb. Allard has #1, Ace type potential, to me Newcomb has a very strong odor of #3 SP to him. A 13-11 guy with a 4.12 ERA, etc.
@18
Alex winz teh Interwebz for 7-2-2016.
Those pitchers we drafted this year are ahead of Maitan. Allard might be. Newcomb might be. Swanson definitely is. You won’t even see Maitan in any capacity until next summer in rookie ball. I know I sound like a broken record, but he’s freaking 16 years old. Guarded optimism.
I had Newcomb at #4 because of the potential and actual performance. Allard probably has more potential, but he’s so far down the system. Same thing with Touki, who could have more potential than even Allard. Ellis is probably the best bet of all of them right now of being a #3+ starter. I guess Blair is not a “prospect” anymore, and is currently in time out anyway.
Really hate that we have two journeyman in the rotation with all of this talent, but this will all sort itself out in a couple weeks.
I grew up in Columbus, Ga., a one-hour, straight shot on Rt. 80 to Tuskegee, and I remember The Commodores playing proms for the local high schools.
Fave Commodores Tune: “Machine Gun”
Lucas Harrell perfect through two. Trade him now! His value will never be higher.
Fun with closed captioning: “That’s the turd strikeout for Fernandez.”
This question probably marks me as a terribly naive sort, but: doesn’t Kevin Maitan need to finish school? And I don’t mean baseball school.
The law in Venezuela is probably different.
Swanson, Newcomb, Albies, Maitan.
Albies has progressed nicely so you can jump him over Newcomb, but Newcomb has done nothing to imply his ceiling has dropped. He’s a northern kid with fewer reps than most of his age cohort, so he’ll continue to improve.
I saw this on Twitter the other day comparing the AA performance of Newcomb to the top prospect in all of baseball, Lucas Giolio at the same level:
Sean Newcomb 72.2IP 74K 37BB 3.96ERA 3.19FIP 1.36WHIP
Lucas Giolito 71 IP 72K 34BB 3.17ERA 3.23FIP 1.42WHIP
His ceiling is just as high as ever.
But anyway. All three of those guys are a good one-month stretch from being MLB regulars with all-star ceilings. Maitan is 4 to 5 seasons away, with an MVP ceiling. You gotta place the first three higher.
Oh happy day. I am glad we got Maitan. I am a little perplexed about how these signings work, though. For example, we signed #18, C, Gutierrez for 3.5 mil but #11, C, Garcia signed for 800K with Texas. The highest dollar signing was by far #6, SS, Rodriguez to the Reds at $7 mil. Numbers seem pretty much random. I realize these guys probably get limited information and have poor leverage, but it seems like the braves would’ve wanted to throw some money at the highest ranked catcher closer to what they offered Gutierrez
@27, there’s law in Venezuela?
@29
Right. And why did Yoan Moncada get $31M and Maitan got $4M and change?
His name is Jace.
Wow, Jace. Wow. Where did this come from?
I really do like this version of Jace. How does a player struggle so bad against AAA pitching and then turn it around like this after a call up?
I don’t think anyone would have disagreed with conviction that Jace was not a big leaguer after his stretch at AAA. Good for him, and good for us, both short-term and long-term.
You never know. You just never know.
Maybe all the other teams were so convinced Jace was washed up they threw out their scouting reports.
30 — Precisely.
Jace doesn’t seem like the kind of guy who would dog it because he got sent down to AAA.
It feels really good to hang 9 runs on Fernandez. Like, really good.
Congrats to Lucas Harrell. That was a solid major league start.
Also congrats to Aybad, whose batting average has finally reached the .220 threshold.
This team is definitely playing better/harder for Snitker
recapped.