We’re probably not going to beat these teams consistently. Or… inconsistently. The Nationals, who must delenda, added onto their already stacked roster by taking a big chunk out of their farm, and they’re in supreme “win now” mode with Bryce Harper heading to New York soon. They should be beat us.
Julio Teheran couldn’t find the zone, and when he did, the ball was hit very hard by Bryce Harper. Whatever. He’s a good pitcher, and Bryce Harper is a great hitter. Nothing to be ashamed of there.
Tip your cap. They’re a good squad, and they should be.
I see a couple of moves in the near future.
Kemp will replace Camargo
Lane Adams will replace Bonifacio
Anyone for Krol and EOF
The problem is Atlanta will not rush these decisions. They will be given 30-40 games somehow.
Has anyone in the FO checked to see what the Padres are doing next week? Are they free for a doubleheader or something?
That’s the makings of a fine haiku, csg.
Sean Kemp Camargo
Lane Adams Bonifacio
Krol O’Flarity
Somewhere Van Lingel Mungo is smiling
If Freddie goes cold, we’ll go into one of those last year losing streaks given the bullpen, and pitching for that matter, and the bench as currently constituted.
Tiger had another back surgery today. He’s done
Ruiz went 2 -4 today at Gwinnett ..time to bring him up while he is getting warm … play 3b against RH pitchers at least …
pizza
Lane Adams sounds like he should have a plus sized line of men’s swimwear.
Bobby would say that you need to beat the teams you should beat and break even against the good teams (or something like that), so I guess a non-contending team ought to still beat up on the lesser teams, but probably do less than break even against the good ones. Such is the current state of affairs.
There are a couple of decent options for relief in AAA, but even with last night’s debacle, I’m not that worried about the pen. Unless a young, cost-controlled prospect emerges out of the pen, then we’re best sticking with who we have. Krol is fine, just had a bad night, and if EOF can just pitch against LHB, against whom he’s still very good, then I’d say just work with these guys to make them trade bait. I like Ramirez getting innings in higher leverage situations, and we’re still better off seeing if Vizcaino will become who he can be. Collmenter’s fine, Johnson’s fine, so really, what’s the big problem? I guess my only problem is EOF as a full inning guy.
Helluva an atbat for Suzuki
Braves now have 8 in MLB Top 100 prospects after Fried gets in because another prospect graduated. Gohara could be a 9th soon.
Bonafacio is such a waste of a roster spot. Might as well be a random fan from the stands pinch hitting
Errr… what is Adonis doing hitting second today?
Chip is so annoying.
If the Braves played the Nats this season 162 times what would their record be? 40-122?
The Nats will probably win 100 games, so yeah, I’d say 40-122. It’d probably be similar to our record against the Padres considering the disparities between the two sets of teams.
What would you trade the Padres for Wil Myers, hypothetically?
The Nats will enjoy a first-round departure in the NLDS, though. 🙂
To play right? Maitan, Allard, Markakis, Riley, and Blair.
I think that’s a Maitan too steep.
That contract, though.
@19
If you think Wil Myers is a .320 type hitter perennially, a 4.5+ WAR player for the next 10 years (he’s 26) you’d have to consider it. Maitan may be Miggy, but he might be nothing.
Of course since the Braves are in build mode, not challenge for the playoffs-one more guy mode, I’d doubt that THEY would make that trade but I would be somewhat tempted.
Casey Kotchman and Stephen Marek.
We may be 40-122 if we played 162 games against the Nationals, but my preference would be to play the Padres 162 games. We should at least salvage 100 wins from them.
I don’t know what their record is, and there certainly have been much worse pitching staffs, but the Padres lineup is horrifically bad.
I’d like to have Yangervis Solarte on the Braves, though.
Eric Thames.
Watching this guy during Braves commercials last night, sort of a Gattis plus..if only. The Brewers were brave enough and smart enough to commit to a 3yr/15M deal, sight unseen, after his couple of years in Korea. At 30 he took it. They had let Carter and his 41 homers go, what a replacement. Don’t know about his defense but he can sure run – 40/40 in Korea.
So for just now he’s all everything. Leads the Majors in Home Runs, WAR and wRC+. Five a year,no trade required, wow.
One that got away.
He has evolved a contrarian view of what’s best for a hitter pre game. Believes over here there’s far too much batting practice, wears you down, takes away your freshness. He sits in the locker room staring at a blank wall and visualizes pitches coming at him and his reaction to them.
So how long do you cynics think he will last?! Sure is fun to watch. But it hurts.
I think the team needs to send Freddie down after last night’s 0 for 4. He’s now only OPS-ing 1.357 for the year.
Alex Jackson hit his fifth homer in 56 ABs last night, so that’s something.
Is there any credible scouting on how he’s doing behind the plate? It seems like they have him rotating between DH/C/OF.
In other news, Gohara’s pitching for A+ tonight in Clearwater, and this guy’s gonna go see the next CC Sabathia pitch. Yaheard.
24 – Eric Thames might be my favorite player right now. Definitely favorite story of the young season.
(Since moving to Wisconsin years ago, I’ve adopted the Brewers as another team of interest. Somewhat fitting for a Braves fan, I guess.)
27—I keep reading “raw” as the most charitable description.
I saw a 4-minute video on Alex Jackson behind the plate. “Raw” would be a compliment. He’s got a long way to go.
Where is Maitan playing at ?? Havent seen any stats on him …
Great Fangraphs article on Freddie.
http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/freddie-freeman-is-now-an-elite-slugger/
Serving time in Extended Spring Training is what I heard, until short season leagues begin play–then probably Gulf Coast League or Appalachian League. App League would be an aggressive track, as I understand it, so probably GCL for starters. Just semi-educated guessing here.
I’d rather have a raw catcher with a stick as our top catching prospect than an all-glove catcher who can’t actually catch whose future is in relief pitching.
@36 Amen. Our other catching prospects couldn’t hit 5 HR combined.
Or Christian Bethancourt! Remember that guy?!
Wait a second…
If I were the Giants I’d be so peeved at Bumgardner right now. I can’t stand them, though, so all I can really do is shake my head at the whole thing.
Well, he’s got 5 total runs of support in his 4 starts, and 2 of those runs came off of his own home runs, so it probably doesn’t matter who stands on the mound during his starts (See: Teheran, Julio).
I wonder how many votes they got for “Fartolo Colon”
Freddie is entering Chipper territory.
If you have surplus income, after retirement account matching, etc, should you pay down your sub-4% mortgage faster or look to invest it at a higher rate?
Yields come and go, but once you own your own bit of dirt no one can take it from you.
To be honest, if Bartolo pitches this way the rest of the season, it will be fine. Maybe a slight overpay, but not too much. His WHIP is fine, he’s serviceable and was the bridge they wanted him to be.
Bartolo was a steal. We paid commensurate to a 2 WAR pitcher, but even if he’s worse than that, his innings eating has ripple effects on a young staff. He isn’t what’s wrong with the team. The problem is that he’s our #2 starter instead of #4, which he would be for most contenders.
FWIW, I think that some of our pitching suspects may actually be prospects.
Even being a Realtor, I’d argue the last wealth-building move is to make additional principal payments on a sub-4% fixed rate mortgage, even at 30 years. I appreciate spike’s perspective on piece of mind, but then as you’re in the process of paying it off, the cost of making it liquid is very expensive. If you have another vehicle that you can access for little penalty, you can still have the piece of mind.
When do we play the Padres again?
Appreciate the perspective, Rob–what do you think of rental properties vs investing in the market?
Market Vs rental properties depends on the timeframe available and your tax situation. Over a long period of time (say, 15+ years)the market always gives the greater return, although the path may have some serious valleys. Rentals,however, allow more leverage (through mortgages) of your investment so often benefit you more in a shorter timeframe. Taxes come into the story in that rental losses are only deductable if your income is below 75k/150k depending on filing status. A related factor is that rentals also often produce a non-taxable cashflow if some extra spending money is required. In short, it all depends with separate factors like local RE and rental markets, short term Dow outlook, and risk aversion also playing a role. Talk to someone who knows your local market as well as a financial advisor type before making any decisions.