Now, I am worried about Julio Teheran. The start of this season has seemed to reflect the loss of his greatness. Julio was one of the most heralded international free agent pitching signings. Most commentators thought the Braves did a great job of swooping in early and finding a prospect in a lesser scouted country (Colombia). Much like Douglas MacArthur and his perfect 4.3 GPA at West Point signaled potential for greatness (some off the wall step kin legacy of George Washington had lucked up and done that before, somehow), Julio’s early career suggested greatness.
But, after continual progress toward greatness, sometimes there is a fall. Are we experiencing Julio’s fall? I do GREATLY hope not.
In December 1941, the U. S. Military had been in “get ready” mode for over 2 years. The highest echelons of government had received reports from British intelligence suggesting a Japanese surprise attack. After the Pearl Harbor attack, Admiral Husband Kimmel was demoted and retired out for “dereliction of duty.” But then about 12 hours later, MacArthur’s Air Corps sat on the runways at Clark Field under a renewed Japanese surprise attack. MacArthur got a chance to rehabilitate his reputation by commanding troops in New Guinea and up its coast. Will Julio “MacArthur” or “Kimmel?” the best answer I have for that is “we will see.”
A lead off home run for the Mets by Michael Conforto, followed by a lead off home run for the Braves by Ender Inciarte. 1 to 1 after 1. But, in the 4th, the 1 for the Mets got changed. A “5 spot” made it 6 to 1. But, one good thing so far with this version of the Braves, they have offense most of the time. Also, they don’t seem to stop plugging. So we got one back in the bottom half with Freddie Freeman doubling, Matt Kemp doubling (Freeman didn’t score then because there was a chance it would be caught), and Nick Markakis grounding out to the second baseman’s left. Then Adonis singled to make it 6 to 3.
Neck grounded another one in in the 6th, and Adonis sac flied another, so it was now 6 to 5. That was the last number the Braves put up. Jose Reyes homered in the top of the 8th which ended the scoring.
There is still a chance for another game. I am pulling for Lae myself.
If you like a song with your breakfast go see the last post on the previous thread.
https://www.yahoo.com/tv/retired-cubs-catcher-catches-fart-face-dancing-stars-071144462.html
Im at a loss for words.
I just checked in to see if there were any good WWII arguments going yet.
csg at 2,
It’s like the old country boy in the story said. “Ma’am, I don’t know if I can take 67 more of those.”
There are interesting distractions on Braves Journal, but I only read it for the stories.
It’s still early in the season, so it still might tick up a bit, but Teheran’s average fastball velocity is down to 90.0 from 90.9 per Fangraphs. With an elevated walk rate and a lower strikeout rate, there’s reason to be concerned.
Now would be a good time to trade Colon back to the Mets. Or Dicky.
According to Grant McAuley, the Braves like Wisler as a 1-3 inning reliever. Not sure if that is temporary or permanent.
Anyone able to pick up this game’s recap? I’m not sure if I’ll be able to do it.
Babe Freeman.
Stay hot Freddie
Dickey seems kind of terrible to me.
@8 I like Wisler as a long man as well. We have enough SP prospects in the pipeline
Let’s see if Dickey can hold this lead
First pinch hit of the year by Bonifacio, Chip says. It’s May 2. For the first bat off the bench, that’s insane.
The minimum QS for Dickey: 6 IP, 3 ER. That wiley old rascal.
I can get used to this offense
Poor Wisler. Really like that guy.
A fine human being I’m sure he is…. But–
Also: an eye-poppingly great play by Adonis there on the swinging bunt, even though he just missed getting the runner.
Lucky we kept on scoring. Past offenses would’ve gone into hibernation mode after the 4th and we would’ve lost this game.
I too think Wisler can be successful. But his leash must be getting shorter. Would’t be surprised if he gets sent down when Cabrera comes back.
Yeah, the Freeman-Kemp core, hitched to any kind of decent supporting cast does tend to churn up some runs.
I think Wisler is the only one with options, so unless we’re going to that new 3-man bench, 9-man pen that’s sweeping baseball by storm, he might have to be sent down.
Lane Adams has twice as many pinch-hits as Bonifacio. Few less opportunities.
We traded Heyward, Upton, Gattis, and Kimbrel. Three years later, the only major league starter we have directly from those trades was obtained in the Gattis trade.
@24 – Sad!
True. But we turned Miller from Heyward trade into Inciarte and Swanson. Don’t know if any secondary trades from Upton, Gattis and Kimbrel trades have turned into anything else yet, but I suspect some will. So maybe it isn’t quite so bad
Here’s my hacky chart on the Justin Upton trade:
Every big trade we made should have a SP we expect at this point to have some degree of success in MLB:
Heyward-Miller
Kimbrel-Wisler
Andrelton-Newcomb
Gattis-Folty
Upton-Fried (and then Gohara)
Miller-Blair
Obviously higher expectations for some and not others, but all of those pitchers are in AA or higher (except for Gohara, who was farther down the trade line). And two more key points:
-The Upton trade was only 2 1/2 years ago, and these 6 months will prove to be legitimate in our perception of these trades.
-No one has washed out yet, and you could make the case that the ones that will (Whalen, Jenkins, Ellis) have already been jettisoned.
Not a big fan of Coppy’s MLB GM’ing, but as a steward of the minor leagues, he’s done well.
My comment was more that it is interesting that the worst trade chip of the four players was the only one to turn directly into a core starter so far. The Heyward trade has indirectly netted us two starters (Dansby, Ender), which is clearly a better return. Both of those trades were excellent for us. Also, it’s really 2.5 years later, not 3…
An update on the Whalen/Povse Seattle trade
Alex Jackson has 7 HR and a .887 OPS so far for the High-A Fire Frogs.
Tyler Pike, the PTBNL, has pitched 27.1 innings in 5 starts with 29 K, 10 BB, a .206 BA against, and a 2.63 ERA for Fire Frogs.
So here’s my count of players on the roster acquired since 2014 by trades:
Inciarte (Heyward – Miller)
Kemp (Wood – Olivera)
Swanson (Heyward – Miller)
Phillips (McKirahan) (I had to look that up, had no idea who we traded for him)
Jace (Upton)
Folty (Gattis)
Garcia (Simmons – Ellis + others)
Wisler (Kimbrel)
Krol (BJ – Maybin)
With many more players from these trades in the minors, I think we’ve done pretty well. Obviously it will help if 2 of the pitching prospects we acquired can be top of the rotation (Julio or better) type starters asap. But that’s not too bad a return after 2+ yrs of rebuilding.
Colon might be toast.
LOLMets.
Glad we only have Colon 1 year .. maybe he gets hot around trade time and we can dump him .. our luck this is year he hits father time ..
Bonifacio did something good!
Sam Holbrook gonna Sam Holbrook.
Garcia too stupid to play this game .. Freddie on deck ..deGrom is wild and Garcia swings at 1st pitch .. wow .. stupid ..
Wow, go buy a Powerball ticket. Bonifartsio got an XBH.
Way da go Snitker just let him get beat to death .. you ain’t got any pitchers available .. game over .. good night .. going over to watch some NBA ..
Braves organist playing “cry me a river” when TJ Rivera walked up – lol. He’s the best.
Edit: and now “the Flintstones” for Wilmer Florez. Hilarious.
Leave him in. It’s good for Kemp.
Every pitcher in tonight’s game could be let go and we might be better off. Let that sink in for a moment. For as much pitching depth as we have there’s no reason to keep giving these guys innings. Plus we let Paco walk and gave away Hernandez
This is what you call an ass whipping.
We may need some help in the bullpen.
While it may double this season alone, the Braves have had only 2 30 HR seasons this decade. Impressive.
@42
Yeah, it’s crazy to think you may be right about 6 of our 13 pitchers. If anything, it seems a foregone conclusion that MoCab would replace Wisler. Collmenter was pretty good (2 ER in 9 IP) to this point. But Colon, Krol, EOF, and Motte could all be replaced. I wonder if Newcomb, Akeem Morris, Sam Freeman, and Luke Jackson could do better. There’s certainly more upside there.
We are paying Colon to eat innings in a lost season. We could have used any number of low ceiling rookies and gotten the same outcome, for league minimum.
Bartolo had a 3.43 ERA in almost 200 IP last year, so even this rapid of a decline has to be surprising. He’s bad, but I don’t think it was expected that he would struggle this much that you ought to signed someone below Bud Norris status. That’s a little excessive. Even Jhoulys Chacin is making $1.75M.
Literally nobody should be surprised that Colon is ineffective at age 57 or whatever he is.
We have a dozen guys that could pitch for league minimum…
Colon is eating something for sure, but innings it is not. And after getting thrashed 16-5 and the Nats beating the Mets 23-5, does that mean the Nats are going to win by 29 next time?
Wisler has been optioned to Gwinnett. That was quick
We may never see Wisler again.
EOF has some nasty pictures.
When exactly did mlb.com hire the headline writing staff from the NY Post? I want detailed timeline.
You can change Wisler from suspect to convicted of a felony count of not (now or ever in the future) being a major league baseball pitcher.
@51 good.
@44 might?
I like Wisler. Doesn’t make him a pitcher, however. Still, hope endures.
I don’t think hope is lost on Wisler being a good reliever somewhere, but he probably needs a change of scenery.
Wisler is a half-hearted Clemson fan.
Resharted.
Freddie Freeman has been outstanding. I have underestimated his ability to carry a line-up in the past; I don’t think I can do so any longer. What a player. I have always, of course, been happy for him to be playing for the Braves, but I was skeptical of the length of the extension we offered him. I am now very glad we have him locked up long-term.
Wisler was pushed on us by Braves FO as a legit 2-3 starter when everyone that was scouting him outside the Braves system saw him as a back-end starter with inning-eating ability. Like some others, he was destined to fail even if he had succeeded.