Domingo Santana cranked 2 home runs to lead the Brewers in salvaging the final game of the 3 game series, and denying the Braves the series sweep. Â Dansby Swanson Barved a routine ground ball with 2 outs in the 6th, allowing Santana to hit his second homer on the next pitch. Â The 3 unearned runs turned a 2-1 Braves lead into a 4-2 lead for the Brewers.
Mike Foltynewicz started strong for the Braves, and may someday earn a promotion from Folty to Foltzie, starting the game with a John Smoltz-like 4 hitless innings and 6 strikeouts. Â The final line was 6 IP, 4 H, 1 ER, 0 BB and 6 K’s. Â The ERA for the season is now down to 2.83, and Folty is currently the brightest spot of the rebuild.
Freddie Freeman hit his 9th home run, finishing April with a .381 batting average, and Ender Inciarte stole his 6th and 7th bases. Â Matt Garza went 6 2/3 innings for the Brewers, allowing 6 hits, 3 ER, and 0 walks, and recording 7 K’s.
The Braves concluded an initially dire road trip at 4 -4, and hopefully that sustains excitement and attendance (and revenue) at SunTrust Park, as the Braves kick off a 7 game home stand on Monday against the Mets.  The Braves now stand at 10-13, with 16 of those games played on the road, versus only 7 at home.
The funniest thing I ever heard about Milwaukee: Â “I signed with the Milwaukee Braves for $3,000. Â That bothered my dad at the time because he didn’t have that kind of dough. Â But he eventually scraped it up.” – Bob Uecker.
Haha. “Barved”. Also liked the Uecker quote. Great recap.
Ryan Howard looks finished.
My best move is to use as much of other people’s material as possible.
I actually like the first part of that Uecker quote, “The Braves took me and my old man to one of the best restaurants in Milwaukee, but my Dad ruined it, he rolled up the window too quick.”
Thanks for the great recap of an unsatisfying game. Folty looked great. Especially the first three innings he was absolutely unhittable. Dansby will be fine. Give him time. Better now than next season when the Braves are competitive… maybe.
Well done. Modesty only enhances your fine effort.
lol I like writing for Braves Journal, but my dad is still sore about the $3,000.
You only had on pay $3,000?
I’ve said too much.
lovely…all of it.
Dansby oh Dansby
where do your hands be?
we suffered, as you..
let’s just keep these incidents to a very few.
From last thread w/ JohnWDB:
I’m not debating his overall strategy for player development and sourcing. That’s all been good-to-great. But there comes a point where, while you are doing that, you need to put a roster together. For instance, while we wait for those injured players and prospects to come back, we needed to have a rotation in 2017. So, we spent 3 mid-level prospects and $34M on 3 SPs. The roster he assembled in the 1st half of 2016 was probably intended to be better.
To be fair, he had a lot of dead money still with Bourn/Swisher contracts, and this is the first year we haven’t had a significant amount of dead money. But my argument is that he intended to have a better roster, and he didn’t do that well. I’ve been pretty consistent on this, and I’m really not sure what the disagreement is. Surely he didn’t want to go 9-27, right?
Speaking of SPs, our rotation is looking good: ERAs of 2.83, 3.38, 3.80, 3.99, and 5.59. The worst (Bart) is 1st in the rotation in BB/9, 2nd in K/9, 3rd in FIP, but his H and HR/9 are both the worst. I think he’s probably been a little unlucky.
@12 “Surely he didn’t want to go 9-27, right?” …
I’m fairly certain he did. That’s kinda the whole point of the past two seasons. We’re “competing” without really competing. This year’s roster also shows that we’re still in a bit of a holding pattern. I’ll be curious to see what he does if we’re still in the mix in July.
What kind of cash does Coppy earn?
This year’s season ticket holder’s meeting will look a lot like this.
@12, I agree with krussell for once. I didn’t see any effort to genuinely compete in 2015 or 2016. The only non-garbage-FA signing was Nick Markakis, but I saw that as an effort to simply not field a totally embarrassing roster. Meh.
I see this roster as an effort to be respectable, meaning we intend to flirt with .500 for much of the year, as we are doing now. We have 3 veteran pitchers on 1-year deals, 2 of which are pushing 45. They are stop-gaps, holding spots for some of Newcomb, Weigel, Sims, Fried, Wisler, and Blair. Coppy didn’t want to have a disaster of a rotation for our first year in the new park.
I bought Chipper’s book. It’s actually pretty good
@17 agree, I found it very entertaining and honest.
So let me get this straight. Coppy intended on having a roster that was going to produce somewhere around a .250 winning percentage, which would have produced around 120 losses. That was his plan? Tell me more.
It was a disaster of historical proportions. Even if they kept the 1st half pace for an entire season (which includes some of the improvement from Snitker), they still would have lost 106 games. They were nosediving, sure, but they weren’t trying to lose 105-120 games. I think you’re confusing competitive (80-85 wins) or even respectable (65-75 wins) with “avoiding a historical dumpster fire (40 wins)”.
You’re being so obtuse. Coppy didn’t “intend” any particular winning percentage, and the results from an arbitrary small sample of games to start the season (a .250 winning percentage over 36 games) are not useful for drawing any conclusions about what the GM “intended”.
It was not a disaster of historical proportions because it did not continue over 162 games, as really bad starts don’t tend to. The one thing that was a disaster, unequivocally, was the Hector Olivera trade, of which you were the most vocal proponent.
And I’m not confusing anything. You’re stuffing words in my mouth (e.g. “competitive”) that I never would’ve dreamed of using to describe last season’s team.
Here’s what I actually did say about last season’s roster construction: “an effort to simply not field a totally embarrassing roster”
Does it just feel good to whip a strawman?
Rob, what point are you even trying to make? We all knew 2015 and 2016 were going to be terrible. Why wouldn’t Coppy know that and plan accordingly?
Here’s what I actually did say about last season’s roster construction: “an effort to simply not field a totally embarrassing roster”
And I’m arguing they failed. It was, indeed, a totally embarrassing roster, which was simply my original point. That’s what started this discussion: me saying the roster was terrible; I even put some jazz into it. They had to take on, what, $10M in additional negative value (Kemp) and not trade tradeable vets (JJ) to even get to 68 wins.
What’s the controversial point I’m making here?
I think we’re saying we’re ok with the fact that Coppy intentionally tanked for draft picks, since even if we were really “trying” we’d still have been lousy.
How else do you explain trading every semi-useful piece we had before the deadline two years ago (when we were playing .500 and still “in the mix”)? That was as an intentional a tank job as you’ll ever see. The next season was more of the same up until the last month, and frankly I have no idea why we didn’t try to finish last, it was a lost season, might as well maximize it.
I don’t think we’ll do anything fancy if we’re in 2nd place mid-July. The plan has always been for 2018 and beyond (imo way beyond, but…yeah). But I do hope we get to find out how they handle a winning ahead of schedule scenario!
Holding him to the “we’ll be competitive next year” stuff is a an overly literal way of looking at things. If you really think they’ve been trying to win then everyone in the FO looks massively incompetent. That very well could be…but I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt at this juncture and assume that 2015 and 2016 were by design.
To be fair, Grilli went down with an Achilles in ’15, but yes, we did trade Wood, JJ, Avilan, KJ, and Uribe at the ’15 deadline. But KJ, Uribe, and JJ were rentals, players we acquired at the beginning of that year. Seemingly, we could have done the same thing again, except the players we acquired for 2016, JJ and KJ again, but also Stubbs, Frenchy, EOF, Aybar, and Olivera were all pretty bad. I think that falls at the feel of Coppy. How did he not know that JJ and Grilli were bascially injured, EOF, AJP, Frenchy, and KJ were done, and Olivera was terrible? That largely influenced the fact that we were buyers at the ’16 deadline; we had nothing to sell. He didn’t get anything to sell. I think he’s done a great job, but if you’re going to give him credit for the good moves, then you have to hit him on the bad ones too.
Thanks, everybody, for keeping the lights on in this bar. I just got back to America after a wonderful two-week trip to Scotland, where I watched a bit of fitba but hardly any baseball. It’s good to be back Stateside!
And there’s your answer, blazon.
I think Ender likes hitting at STP.
Ender Inciarte: 30/30 Man.
Conforto…
Some of us wanted Coppy to go all out for this guy last year when he and Collins, who sent him down and whom he loathes, were at each other’s throats.
Ironically they would love some of our young pitching right now – 3 or 4 for 1 maybe- but in the last few weeks his cost will have doubled.
“What’s the controversial point I’m making here?”
You are accusing me of “confusing” the terms “competitive” (a word I haven’t even applied to this year’s squad) and “respectable” (a word I applied to this year’s team ONLY) and simply not being historically bad. That’s controversial with me since it’s just patently false and argumentative for the sake of it.
And then when I call you out on railing against a straw man, you act like you were “just saying” that the team was totally embarrassing and not a tick above that. That would be uncontroversial if that’s what you had been saying. It’s a matter of opinion, and when you shoot for a shade above embarrassing and you end up plain embarrassing, I don’t see how that’s some sort of indictment.
It’s a matter of opinion, and when you shoot for a shade above embarrassing and you end up plain embarrassing, I don’t see how that’s some sort of indictment.
I guess? I appreciate your perspective, and forgive me if I made it personal, but I don’t really think you can fall below a certain line, and he kinda destroyed that line. Unless you want to get into the ’03 Tigers territory, you ought to stay around 100-105 losses, and before drastic changes were made, the roster he built was on pace to lose a little over 120 games. That’s… bad. Like, really bad. Perhaps even embarrassingly bad?
Ender Inciarte could put in a 5 fWAR season this year. That contract’s looking mighty fine.
Looks like another losing streak
Looks like it’s Bad Braves week.
Walkup songs: “Proud Mary” (Rollin’ on the river…) for T.J. Rivera and “Greensleeves” for Reyes.
Julio continuing with his stellar play this evening by taking the bat out of our best hitters hands
So much for Teheran’s mastery of the Mets. He is walking a lot of guys this year.
Really wish we could see Wisler for 3 innings tonight. Wisler deserves to spend some time in the pen with some sharp guys like Collmenter and JJ.
Aaaaand Freeman doubles. Could have used those two runners on still.
Not often you see back to back doubles and no score.
Ronald Acuna has 11 stolen bases already…
Poor Dansby couldn’t hit water if he fell out of a boat.
Maybe AZ was willing to part with Dansby for a reason. But then why did the draft him so high?
Or maybe he’s just a young player going through the usual growing pains while adjusting to big league pitchers.
Rob, there’s a difference between playing .250 ball over 36 games and doing so over 162. You don’t get to say “well they were ON PACE TO….before drastic changes”, unless you think the drastic change that made us nearly a .500 team was simply firing Fredi. Really, Fredi was like -30 WAR for a manager? And this is the same guy you defended as being “a pretty good manager” elsewhere, and haven’t you also argued that managers don’t matter more than a couple wins one way or the other?
From where I’m sitting the crappy start looks like the worst stretch of the season for a 68-win team. They’re good for a 9-27 at some point. The previous year’s team fluked its way to .500 for a stretch of half a season. They wouldn’t have been nearly so bad overall except for injuries and trades, but 162 games have a way of sorting things out.
Krol giving up dingers to the wife beater Jose Reyes.
What are we debating? Are we debating whether or not the roster was bad or really, really bad? What did I say that you are finding the most dissatisfaction with?
My running opinion with Fredi was that he was a player’s manager who, if he could ever use that to his fullest advantages, he’d be a pretty good manager. I was clearly wrong. But he wasn’t the reason why the 2016 team was terrible (I’ve already listed those reasons). He was part of the problem, and yes, his replacement clearly created some sort of spark. But it wasn’t until a clearly done AJP was replaced with Flowers, Kemp was traded for, and he slowly turned over the roster did we see anything better than a horribly constructed roster.
What are we arguing? This was the opening day roster:
Infielders (6) – Erick Aybar, Gordon Beckham, Freddie Freeman, Adonis Garcia, Kelly Johnson and Jace Peterson
Outfielders (5) – Jeff Francoeur, Ender Inciarte, Nick Markakis, Hector Olivera and Drew Stubbs
Pitchers (12) – RHP John Gant, RHP Jason Grilli, RHP, Jim Johnson, RHP Bud Norris, LHP Eric O’Flaherty. RHP Alexi Ogando, RHP Williams Perez, RHP Jose Ramirez, RHP Julio Teheran, RHP Arodys Vizcaino, RHP Dan Winkler and RHP Matt Wisler
And Coppy knew that AJP, EOF, Frenchy, KJ, Aybar and Grilli were cooked, JJ was injured, Wisler and Perez were not major league SPs, and Olivera was a complete bust. That team, before it was improved, was going to lose 110+, and that’s accounting for a correction from the uniquely bad 9-27 start. I don’t think that was Coppy’s intention. I think he made some bad decisions. Wow, why is that some sort of crazy viewpoint?
What we are debating is whether Coppy somehow failed to construct the roster he intended. You are claiming he did. I’m claiming he never intended the roster to compete, only, perhaps to not be embarrassing–I.e., not historically bad. In fact, we weren’t historically bad, objectively speaking. Your argument that we were is based on a 36-game sample that somehow represents the true badness of our 2016 team more than the other 126 games.
Again, we’ve been through this, and I think your personal view of this is based on feeling lied to by management. That’s valid–I just don’t particularly care that they put lipstick on the pig.
And scene.
This park is gonna give up crazy amounts of runs.
It’s still one or the other, friend.
Let’s have a song- the search for young power.
SLUGGER TOWN
we’ve got some troubles but they won’t last
that one and six affair is long gone, past
and pretty soon we’re getting what we asked
but there’s so few few few, few few few
few-few few-few, few in slugger town.
we’ve never had a stud who hits us some
old ones yes but not AT twenty one
the minors simply must produce a plum
but there’s so few few few, few few few
few-few few-few,few in slugger town.
yesterday one slammed in Tennessee
we then found out that he was thirty three
how much more difficult could this all be
and just so few few few, few few few
few-few few-few, few of you in slugger town.
when we had a million dollars or four
we stopped at Kevin’s house, he asked for more
but pretty soon he’s knocking on our door
so now it’s you you you, you you you
you-you, you-you, you, you’re slugger town.
recap up.