Know thy enemy…to set the mood.
Their swords, our knuckles.
Tonight’s game will be played in beautiful, balmy weather. Yesterday’s, not- suffering under conditions we Brits call Brass Monkey Weather. Guess? Cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey – a typical souvenir brought home from the days of the Raj. As we are about to witness a game consisting entirely of balls and strikes, surely apropos.
POST MORTEM…another game that was tight – we started up 2 and then it somehow got away…the DP’s and errors loomed large in that but the worst part of losing was to waste the outstanding debut of RA Dickey who went beyond 100 pitches with only 3 earned runs in an exemplary performance. Not that far behind him till he tired late was his catcher, Suzuki. There’s some promise there.
PLUSES
Dickey… great debut plus endurance.
Jace…ok game, triple off the wall, good base running. Looked like he belongs for now.
Krol…OK, Ramirez too.
Dansby…coming around, another hard hit double.
Phillips…big double but bad error and GIDP’s. But he can drive the ball still.
Neck/Ender…you can see them coming around too.
MINUSES
Freddie Freeman…quite awful by his standards….one good dive stop to save another error but…he is starting to look like April/May last year at the end of which he had climbed to .240…i can’t take another 30 odd games like this…swinging through average fastballs down the middle and chasing them up and away – just to speed things up a bit? Why? …runners stranded all over…Jeez, how do you reconcile this with his second half last year and even his very hot effort in NY earlier in this week…SSS? yes but…he did the same last year and it went on till June.
Snit…there’s no excuse for D’Arnaud in the ninth with the tying runs on and Recker on the bench….it’s absurd.
Our Offense…of the 4 runs we scored tonight two came from a bloop hit from our pitcher…the other 2 could be put down to the Marte/Polanko combo in the outfield doing their best Claude/Gaston routine no less than three times in the last 24 hours while one of the still best CF’s in baseball languishes in right. Crazy stuff, how long will that last?
GIDP’s…infuriating tonight, is it all just bad luck? Is it naive to ask the hitter to think elevate if and when the pitcher allows…they always seem to hit low screamers…it killed us.
Errors/Infield defense…Lay off my man Adonis, the line drive machine…remember how he turned this defense around last year when he cane back up…plus i wouldn’t doubt he was still cold from Friday! Acuna will keep, then Maitan,,,Dansby one wide throw but Freddie too played a part. Phillips couldn’t handle a hot shot with the infield in. We will improve here, rapidly I believe.
Question   Which NL hitters hit into the most line drive outs? By eye please.
Answer      Adonis and Buster Posey. Kemp threatens. Come back soon, like tomorrow.
I thought Phillips’ error was the turning point. He also missed a liner with the infield in.
Good one, blazon. Keep writing them, and I’ll keep reading. I promise.
How about a win for Julio today?
It’s hard for me to criticize Snitker too much for not batting Recker. It’s not like the choice was between Babe Ruth and Rafael Belliard.
In other news, Mallex Smith was 2-2 with a double, 3 BB, and 2 SB yesterday.
Need to call up Ruiz and make Adonis a bench bat.
Ruiz has been underwhelming in AAA’s even shorter season, but I’d imagine he’s in their plans at some point this year. Adonis would be that right-handed hitting bench bat who can play multiple positions that actually would be helpful. His career 95 OPS+ and bad defense is proving that he’s not a major league regular.
In the very short season, it’s clear that the offense and defense simply needs to play better, and the pitching is adequate. The team is hitting .236/.301/.360 and lead baseball in errors per game. Pitching is average, and should be much better by the end of the month if Dickey and Suzuki get in sync and the pen order gets properly set. Ramirez looks really good actually, dialing it up to 97 last night with a nasty slider.
Whatever.
http://m.mlb.com/cutfour/2017/04/09/223193672/watch-andrelton-simmons-make-a-superhuman-behind-the-back-tag-at-third-base
An oldie but goodie
Dansby!
Glad Bill Hahn is not umpiring anymore. Baiter.
@ #7. Thanks for that! I miss Bobby and a whole lot of other guys!
You know, Cole had that big season a few years ago, but I won’t believe anyone who tells me that between him and Teheran, Teheran won’t have the better career.
Julio is the man.
Infield defense continues to be putrid.
But what’s wrong with Freddie?
Freddie with some redemption.
Joe is proud to be ignorant.
Freddie Freeman don’t need no stinking triple!
Freddie again!
FREDDIE
Yeah, like I said, Freeman needs to get going.
HBP and an error leads to a run. Admittedly the first action I’ve turned on all season but it seems to be a recurring theme. DP (maybe) gets them out of it for now
Think we caught a break on that call.
Wow, I thought he beat the throw. Phew.
This is an excruciating team to watch
Way to cough up the lead, guys.
Paging Darren Holmes? Chris Hammond?
That’s some Braves-like defense for the Bucs. Yay us!
I was worried for a minute that Julio just didn’t know how to win, but now I think he’s got it figured out.
Tim Tebow popped his second homer.
Ugh.
Or not. Good gravy this team is already exasperating.
So much for having a good bullpen.
lol
65-97.
If not this game, then WHAT GAME DO YOU LEAVE YOUR STARTER IN? Your #1 starter, who pitched in the WBC (very ready for the season), was at 87 pitches, YOU NEED A WIN, and you pull him. WHY?! If this is not a game where you get 8 from your starter, then please tell me what game WILL you get 8 innings?
This team…
Thought we had that one. Even a pessimist has to be disappointed with that.
@34, See Rob you were telling us just the other day that Julio *couldn’t* go deep enough into games to be an ace.
Anyway, like I said, Julio’s the man. 2 pick-offs today to go with. Freddie’s the man, but he needs to get his act together in the fields.
Too bad for those guys.
It’s early yet, but Jason Heyward seems to have regained his ability to put bat to ball with authority. Which anybody who watched him last year, including me, would have concluded he may have lost forever. Two hard hits and two hard outs today.
Eh, it’s early and it’s April, so it might not be real. But I think everyone here knows I’m rooting for him.
Snitkered.
Teheran averaged 99 pitches per start last year. He struggles to go deep into games because he’s inefficient. But when he’s thrown 87 pitches in 7 innings, and even got to that count because of errors, then he’s showing efficiency. Who cares about this game (even more so now)? Leave him in. Let’s say he gets to 8 IP and 100 pitches, then make the hard call. The easy call was to pull your #1 starter at 87 pitches, and that’s on Snitker. One of the things I appreciated about Snitker last year was after the 9-27 start, he’d make the bold moves to get wins. He brought in Wisler to close a game once, for instance. You need this win. We’re 1-5 now. We have a day off tomorrow. And I think you owe it to your #1 starter entering his prime.
At least Teheran will be fresh for the playoffs.
How good would the rest of your team have to be to make the playoffs with Garcia, Phillips, and Flowers starting?
Snitker said he felt there wasn’t a need to push Jules this early in the season. Wanted Vizzy to start a clean frame. I guess that’s sorta reasonable but not really well-thought out.
One of the oft-cited attributes of Bobby Cox was playing the long-game during the regular season, sometimes making suboptimal in-game decisions to preserve guys for the long haul. This decision by Snitker was very Coxian in that light.
@43: Coxian in theory, but in 1993 Steve Avery pitched 8 or more innings 9 times; Glavine had 12 such outings; Smoltz 11; Maddux 18. In 1995 Glavine pitched 8 or more innings 8 times, Smoltz 10 times, and Maddux 16 times. In 1996 their numbers were 6, 18, and 13 respectively. In 1997 14, 16, 11–plus another 8 from Denny Neagle. In 1998: 9, 5, 14, and 5 for Millwood (this was before Millwood’s breakout year). 1999: 6, 6, 9, and another 8 for Millwood.
Julio has pitched 8+ innings 0 times this year (although he left both games without having allowed an earned run), 3 times last year, and once in 2015. He isn’t Glavine or Smoltz or Maddux, but in 2014 he pitched 8 or more innings on seven different occasions, so he’s got it in him.
If Snitker really wants to follow Bobby’s lead, he should trust his best starter to carry a few more outs when said starter is rolling.
Maddux would’ve told Snitker to turn the eff around and go back to the dugout.
Otis Nixon has been missing since 10AM yesterday according to Woodstock PD. So, ya know, if you see him…
Braves signed Jason Motte and assigned him to Gwinnett.
@44 A cursory glance at boxscores from 1995 and 1996 (specifically at Maddux) shows that early in the year, Maddog did indeed get lifted at 80 pitches (sometimes less). I think I saw in ’95 that he left after 5 innings of 1 hit ball. Why? I don’t see any reason for it. But then again, in ’96 in his second outing, he went 9 IP and left before extra innings.
I don’t fault Snitker for pulling his starter early. We need to know what we’ve got in the pen and now is the perfect time to figure it out. 1-5. 0-6. It’s too early to worry.
Play in the field has been bad. If Freddy executes his end of the pickoff, the Braves win the game. Peterson’s botch of the base hit, Philips can’t turn the DP. They contributed to all the Pirate runs in regulation. Very difficult to win with this kind of sloppy play.
I’m beginning to think the Atlanta Braves won’t be appearing in this year’s World Series.
@48, I’m not sure about this, but I don’t think there was any real Spring Training in ’95. If so, that would probably explain the caution.
@47, I bet he’s in an Atlanta uniform by the time we open up Suntrust. And Howard too.