The Braves stranglehold on 2nd place in the NL East remains at 1/2 game.
Stephen Strasburg went 7 2/3 strong innings to help the Nationals salvage a game from the 3 game series.  Strasburg gave up 5 hits and a walk, and struck out 11.  Dansby Swanson’s 2 run double in the 8th chased him; Koda Glover finished up from there.
Strasburg’s work overshadowed an excellent performance from Jaime Garcia, who unlike Strasburg, managed to finish his 8th inning. Garcia gave up 7 hits, walked none, and struck out 8. A Daniel Murphy home run in the 2nd, and 2 unearned runs in the 3rd doomed Garcia, those unearned runs centering around a dropped fly ball by Nick Markakis.
The Braves have still played 5 more games on the road than at home, and Pittsburgh comes to town Monday to start a 4 game set.
Natspos delenda est.
The funniest thing I ever heard about Washington (paraphrased from memory):  “The NBA Washington Bullets announced today that they are changing their name.  They no longer want a name associated with gun violence.  So from this day forward the team will be known as:  ‘The Bullets’.†– David Letterman
You do good work, Rusty. Thank you.
The pitching has been mostly alright these past couple of weeks.
Let’s quickly move Jaime.
The worst thing about the Freeman injury is that it is going to give the front office yet another excuse for mediocrity and/or suckage.
Mediocrity was already expected. It will help with our draft pick for next year.
@4 After last year’s surge down the stretch and resultant fade in the draft pick standings, I don’t trust this team’s ability to achieve precision mediocrity.
Nice to see that the FO made the observation that trading for a left-handed hitting power hitter instead of a non-power guy like Loney was the best player for this ballpark. I’m surprised Markakis hasn’t made some tweaks to his approach to hit more HRs at STP. Now that we’ll have more home games than we’ve had, I hope we start seeing players adjust to the park. If we’re this good on the road, we could be a good team with typical home performance.
Staff ace (according to SP ERA), Jaime Garcia!
Carlos Franco is nowhere to be found on the top 30 prospect list, but if he starts to hit at AAA, you have to give him a shot. 11 hrs and a .918 ops over 41 games is the best thing we have in the high minors.
Martin Prado was a C+ prospect, 18th in the system according to Sickels in 2005 before his callup. Modern day C+ prospects are Thomas Burrows, Ray Patrick Didder, Caleb Dirks, Luke Jackson, Akeel Morris, Bryse Wilson, Dustin Peterson, and Matt Withrow. Alex Jackson was a C+, but he certainly will get a bump mid-season. Franco wasn’t even considered a C prospect at the beginning of the year, but could Franco now get a bump that would lead you to believe he could be another Martin Prado? After all, Juan Yepez, who we just traded, was considered a C prospect, and wouldn’t you think Franco would have been more attractive, at this point, than Yepez? That’s a lot of speculation, but I think we have seen some guys come out of nowhere to really improve their stock in the first two months. Beachy, Medlen, Prado, and Venters all came on really late on the prospect sheets and hit immediately. And some guys like Charlie Morton, Jo-Jo Reyes, Cole Rohrbrough, Jeff Locke, Randall Delgado, etc. were all on prospect sheets for years and never really took. We just didn’t care because we traded them for good players (Morton, Locke, Delgado) or we were winning. That’s why some of the prospect salivating right now (of which I am a problem) needs to temper a tad.
Still, this really whets my appetite for a mid-season prospect list. Haha.
Excellent insight Rob. It would be amazing if Franco came on like Prado. He looks like he has a little more power than Martin. Definitely seems to have more potential than Garcia at 3rd.
What I like about Matt Adams is that the Braves are finally bringing in someone with upside. I don’t understand why they haven’t gambled more on some younger castoffs as bench guys, instead of the Bonifacio’s and Francouer’s and Loney, whose max upside at this point is “good enough to play for the Braves.”
@10 I also like the Matt Adams deal because not only is Adams better than the Loney-level placeholder I thought we’d end up with, it gives the Braves a chance to showcase Adams as a legitimate trade chip. Think about it… Adams went from a bench role in STL to starting nearly every day for a team whose home park greatly rewards LH flyball power. Plus, Freddie’s return in 7-9 weeks (get healthy Freddie!) gives the Braves PR cover to trade Adams in a few months if they wish.
I could certainly see Coppy wheeling and dealing Adams along with a bullpen arm for more prospects this summer.
And don’t forget Stl is paying $900,000 of Adams’ salary, or basically what it will cost for him to fill in while Freddie is out. I think this is potentially a win-win for Adams/ATL as Braves get a motivated fill-in to showcase and Adams gets regular playing time that he wasn’t going to get in Stl.
Prado played in the majors at 22. Whoever this guy is that we’re wishcasting on today is a 25 year-old who started the season in AA. You’re not figuring out something that scouts have somehow missed. They know what OPS is too.
@13
This is the first year he’s had real success and it’s not that fluky. Braves like something they see in this guy or he wouldn’t have spent 9 years in the minors with the same team. However, he’s struggled at AAA in a small sample. I really don’t know what Braves have in him and it’s likely nothing, but there’s a small glint of hope. Just a fool’s hope.
Matt Diaz was 28 and Jake Arrietta was 27. What’s your point? The debate is not over the specific player, and we probably shouldn’t compare every Latin American infielder without a plus tool to Martin Prado, but the principle is that in a deep farm system, there will not only be someone found in the weeds, but also someone whose career blossoms late. You can get behind that, yes?
James Loney asked for his release and it was granted. I guess he saw the writing on the wall with the Adams trade.
Well, bye
The James Loney Era was a memorable one.
@1 – Thanks coop.
@16 – Does this mean there won’t be a James Loney bobblehead give away at Suntrust? That is disappointing if so.
You guys.
Epic back-to-back ABs from Ender and Phillips. 21 pitches total.
Speaking of Phillips’ at bat, there is nothing Joe Simpson loves more than a batter making an out that advances a runner. Much better than actually scoring runs and not making outs.
Speaking of Phillips’ at bat, there is nothing Joe Simpson loves more than making an out while advancing a runner. It’s much better than not making an out and actually scoring runs.
Wasn’t that in-a-gadda-da vida as walkup for Frazier? What’s the connection?
I did get Here Comes the Sun for Harrison.
I’ve heard it said that in-a-gadda-da-vida was supposed to be In the Garden of Eden, except that someone was terribly drunk.
#24
Iron Butterfly — Frazier–Joe Frazier–Boxing?
That was one hell of a home run swing from Brandon.
Adam Frazier > Adam = “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida” > “In the Garden of Eden”
Yep–that’s it. Thanks, @26 and @28. Our organist really is creative
“Unforgettable” for Gerrit Cole.
Ouch. Some HBPs are more painful than others. Walk it off, Rio.
There was an episode of The Simpsons where Bart replaced the church music with “In The Garden of Eden” by I. Ron Butterfly. The organist fell over dead after her 8 minute organ solo at the end.
And yes,
According to the press page on Iron Butterfly’s official web site,[5] the song “was supposed to have been named ‘In The Garden of Eden’, but the singer was slurring his words when he told Ron Bushy, the drummer, the title, and the garbled name stuck. That’s rock for you!”
Check back in September, but I am very pleasantly surprised with Tyler Flowers at the moment.
Matt Adams hit that into the Gadda-Da-Vida.
Matt Adams just hit one to Gwinnett.
Big City!
I’ve decided I agree with those of you who like the Matt Adams acquisition.
GIFT NGOEPE
Chip- Africa
Joe- Africa
Chip- South Africa
Chip- South America
Joe- (tactfully)South Africa?
Chip- South Africa
Joe- (tactfully again)you said South America
Chip- South Africa
Chip- South America
Freddie Freeman gets hurt and THEN the top 2 hitters combine for 7 hits.
Gift Ngoepe…Clerihew
anyone?? i’m struggling big time
We’re a couple better starting pitching performances away from being a .500 ball club.
Our 1st 6 hitters are now batting between 279 and 360. With Swanson on the rise and Ruiz at least holding his own, our lineup is formidable even without Freeman. If Garcia and Colon keep pitching well we will be a 500+ team and may not be sellers at the all star break. I’m not expecting this,but it looks a lot more likely than a few weeks ago.
Rio Bravo’s still a kid. Honestly, he’s not looked overwhelmed. SSS aside, he may be a ballplayer, not Chipper, but competent. Maybe.
Good game. Who’da thunk it?
@42
coop, I like that name for him…and the movie…John Wayne//Dino/Walter Brennan/Ricky Nelson
come to think of it he looks just like Ricky Nelson.
Gift Ngoepe
Watching his team get a-swept-ee
by resurgent Bravos, saying
we’ll try it again tomorrows
recap up