Many people don’t believe in moral victories, but we didn’t give up 9 runs in 1 inning due to multiple botched fielding attempts. That’s a moral victory. In all seriousness, Jaime Garcia had another very good start, and has emerged as Jair Jurrjens-esque staff ace with poor peripherals. He went 7 IP, 5 H, 1 R, 0 ER, 3 BB, and 2 K. He still has a 3.9 BB/9 on the year with a 5.8 K/9, so one has to wonder if this will continue. When we acquired the three veteran SPs, you would have been reasonable to assume one would pitch really well, one would be mediocre at best, and one would be either injured or terrible. That is exactly what has happened.
The unearned run was the result of a throwing error by Rio Ruiz on a double play ball he made a pretty good play on which to get the lead runner. He had 5 chances that inning, all played well, but the errant throw scored a run, and one could make an argument that Jace Peterson, playing first in place of Matt Adams, should have knocked it down.
Nonetheless, we were tied 1-1 until Arodys Vizcaino gave up a home run to Eric Young Jr.. Yes, the same Eric Young Jr. who had not hit a home run since 2014. The Freeman-less Braves have all the luck and stand at 6-8 since his injury. Sweet.
Off-day today, then Bronson Arroyo and the somehow better Cincinnati Reds.
All things considered, 6-8 without Freddie is more than a Braves fan could ask for.
How long before Acuna is in Atlanta? I think if someone gets hurt, he could be here soon.
Cumberland’s ‘stache
has only appeared since he started to mash
reverse it for Cakes
like Samson Delilah’s not there when sadly he wakes.
I just don’t think it’s good for the heart to be waiting on Acuna this season. He’s 19, and even with a .415 BA and a near 1100 OPS, it just ain’t happening. It’s like that girl in the bar. Just don’t think about it. It ain’t happening.
Cumberland has been good for Rome, but what Bryse Wilson is doing as a 19 yo at A-ball is very impressive: 9K/9 and nearly 4:1 K:BB ratio, 1.90 ERA and .217 BAA.
I forget who it was the other day that mentioned how nobody around here thinks “rushing people” is a thing, but they hit the nail on the head. You’ve seen Swanson, Blair and Wisler all happen over the last couple of years, and there are people who still think it’s a good idea to call up Acuna right now? If you call people up before they’re capable of making adjustments at the major league level, it’s not gonna go well. We’ve seen it happen so many times that I can’t believe the number of people who are like, “Screw it, I want them here now! What’s the worst that could happen?” The worst that could happen is that we could destroy their career before it starts. I know that most people on here just assume that anybody who suffers that fate wasn’t particularly good, anyway, but I’m not sure why everybody’s so damn sure about that…
@4
Rob, I always went after those girls.
You could really make the argument that all three (Wisler, Blair, and Swanson) could have used more time. Blair made 15 starts in AAA before being called up, only 3 of which were in the Atlanta organization, and they weren’t that great, so he could have used more time. Wisler did poorly in 22 starts at AAA as a 21 year old (San Diego) then made his debut in Atlanta in 2015 after 5 starts in AAA. He had absolutely not demonstrated he was ready, and there’s certainly a marked difference with how young pitchers are being handled now.
Dansby hit .261/.342/.402 in 377 PAs as a 22 year old in AA. He had a total of 569 PAs in professional baseball. Had Aybar been remotely serviceable, I doubt we’d have called him up, and that definitely points to rushing.
More of the same with Whalen and Gant. Whalen made 18 starts at AA, 3 at AAA, and he was up in Atlanta. They then shut him down because he had pitched so many innings. Gant had 18 starts at AA, 4 in AAA, and then he was up. Gant got some more starts at AAA before the end of the season. Gant and Whalen both started the year in AAA with their respective organizations.
Alex made a good point a couple years ago about Pittsburgh’s rebuild being stalled because they had to rush the initial wave of talent, and you could make the case that the Braves have done the same with these 5.
I made a hypothesis that position players should get 600-700 PAs, regardless of age, at AA-AAA, and pitchers should get 35-40 starts at AA-AAA. I checked the top 10 or so prospects (Moncada, Torres, Albies, Rosario, Crawford, Bellinger, Meadows, Giolito, Kopech, etc.) and for the most part, they all seem to be getting about those numbers. Albies is almost the outlier with the most high minors PAs (along with Crawford), but his performance doesn’t dictate a call up (along with Crawford), though Albies has had an injury. Dansby, sadly, looks like the outlier with the least amount of high minors experience. Acuna has 115 high minors PAs, and you’d really be doing him (and the Braves) a disservice if you called him up even this year.
So, yeah, we oughtta be careful with all of this treasure.
@7
Girls in Tennessee are a lot uglier. 🙂
Sorry, I forgot two pitchers: Folty and Jenkins. Jenkins had made about 40 starts before he got called up, so I think it’s safe to say that while he’s still young (he made his debut at 23), he probably fits into the “didn’t have the talent regardless of seasoning” argument. Folty made 44 starts before coming up, so I think he was given enough time. Folty’s fastball has given him way more leash than other pitchers have gotten. But all of these pitchers we’ve mentioned have been in at least 2 (if not 3 now) organizations, so you have to wonder what effect that has. But on the flip side, even a guy like Lucas Sims, who has now had 47 high minors starts in the same organization, is just now figuring it out. People are people, I guess, but you can draw some lines.
@6, That was me, Nick. And the one saying “Screw it, I want them here now!” is krussell.
Adding to the mythos around Dansby’s call-up is that Rob keeps suggesting that management’s hands were tied because “Aybar wasn’t serviceable”. This is also nonsense that is beginning to crystallize into the collective consciousness here. Aybar had about the worst month in major league history to start the season, but he was perfectly serviceable for a last place team thereafter. From May 2nd until the day he was traded, he hit .269/.330/.353. He started off with something like -2.0 WAR for a month or so, but he earned all that back over the next 3 months, so that he was exactly replacement level, both offensively and defensively by the time he was traded. In other words, he was actually +2 WAR or so over that 3 months, which made him an above average major league shortstop.
Rob keeps suggesting that management’s hands were tied because “Aybar wasn’t serviceable”.
I’m not saying management’s hands were tied, just that that was the logical explanation. As I articulated, it certainly wasn’t that Dansby had demonstrated he was clearly ready. To your point, perhaps they finally were able to extract some value out of him, and chose to do so, but for whatever reason, they felt Dansby was ready to replace him. Plus, it was getting to the end of the waiver wire trade deadline, so perhaps they put the cart before the horse and felt like getting something for Aybar was more important than confirming Dansby was ready. Whatever the ultimate reason, it had seemed like replacing Aybar was the strategy.
Well, there were additional problems with the handling of Swanson, as not only did they call him up too early, they immediately started in on promoting him on a level similar to Freddie Freeman. Regardless of whether or not they “had to” call him up (they didn’t, but he’s not the first person to be called up too early), they certainly didn’t have to go full-bore on promoting him, which only served to put more pressure on him.
@13, Right, and again, we are reassured by the admin, “Oh, he’s got a
Great makeup, he’s an old soul, nothing can deter his focus”, which is a bunch of wishful
thinking BS. They might be right but they might be wrong. Nobody knows. With talent like this I’d defer to letting him grow into the role. You know, in the history of throwing kids into the deep end of the pool a few of them drown. Nobody talks about those.
I think those are related. Management was desperate to gin up excitement for the new park so they rushed Dansby and marketed the hell out of him. Even if they had wanted to make sure they got a couple of C prospects for Aybar, there were other options besides calling up Dansby.
P.S.: the return for Aybar was actually quite good, considering–Kade Scivicque has a good shot to be a pro.
New thread.