The Giants’ experience last night, in a small way over a much shorter time, was quite the same as the experience of the defenders of the Pas de Calais. The Giants put out a good defense (Johnny Cueto compared to the Atlantic Wall). They defended well for the most part (a radar station raided at Bruneval and some air raids compared to trailing 2 to 0, as in significant, but not conclusive). And then, after a long time (7 innings compared to a couple of years), in a short time (less than an inning compared to 6 weeks) they were overwhelmed and overrun.
R. A. Dickey brought the good knuckleball. In the first, 2 fairly well hit balls had it 1st and third with no outs. After that, Dickey shut them down. 8 strikeouts and no walks in 7 innings. Only question was should Snit have sent him back out for inning 8 (he was at 86 or so pitches).
Johan Camargo and Ender Inciarte got us 1 in the 3rd to make it 1 to nothing. Call that Bruneval. Then Matt Adams made like the 8th Air Force during “P – 51 week” and obliterated the building known as the Chop House from the air. Thus it stayed for quite a while.
After the Braves slugged through the hedgerow country for inning after inning, the breakout happened in inning 8. The rapid infusion of 7 runs was kind of like the British advance from the Seine to Brussels and Antwerp in 7 or so days. Just as that advance rendered irrelevant the defenders of the Pas de Calais, so were the Giants chances of victory eliminated.
I learn more from Cliff’s posts than I did from Mr. Freeman’s world history class. Of course, there was a lot less history back then.
R.A. took no prisoners. Can’t say about the Brits at Pas de Calais.
Thank you, Cliff.
I learn more from Cliff’s posts than I did from Mr. Freeman’s world history classy, too. Of course, I never took Mr. Freeman’s world history class.
I did take Mr. Lefavi’s world history and he was really adept at metaphors to make lessons on world history relatable to us kids. Only his metaphors were all disco-related (“The Habsburg House was like Studio 54…”) . I prefer Cliff’s. You don’t get this kind of material at the AJC.
cliff…as learned as ever, days of peril, thank you.
coop…we are just SO sensitive though. Pay more attention in class, please, when you go back to CC., as clearly you must. It’s never too late.
Chief…Salad Swanson is a great nick, i would like to use it at times if i may…but explain please the connect with salad and hair, am i out of touch? Salad Days, Gatsby?
D-D-Danny and his jet – see previous.
Salad works really great as a nickname for Dansby Samson. Hey, there’s another one with some appeal. It’s all in the hair at the top of the keystone at STP.
Braves 32-37
Cubs 35-34
=D
Jason Heyward, $28,166,667.00 salary:
.258/.315/.399, 6 HR, 29 RBI
Ender Inciarte, $4,700,000.00 salary:
.305/.355/.414, 6 HR, 30 RBI
ADVANTAGE: COPPY
Heyward’s total oWAR in 1.5 seasons for the Cubs: 0.0
#6-7…lot of money spent on defense.
@6,7,8
Buster Posey
at .352 he came in cozy
knuckled into submission
he likely would prefer death by attrition.
Every time Buster comes to town two thoughts automatically surface. One, line drive outs- if there’s a stat for this he must rule the roost.
And – two high school kids playing ball in Georgia fifteen years ago, two years apart in age. The odd couple, both headliners locally and inexorably on their way to the Show – they all argued who was the better.
One white, the other black with both parents Ivy Leaguers. They met in the early post season for the first time by the Bay and comparisons had to be being drawn by the thousand down South. At the plate one was relaxed, assured, productive. Those low line drives. He belonged, clearly. The other fidgety, awkward, the first signs of rolling over, 1/16 in the series. He did not.
A decade or so later one is still with the club who drafted him, 3 rings, MVP, .352, line drives etc etc. The other, with his third club, massively muscled, is praised for his defense rather than his bat (2016 530AB .230 av 7 HR), his new contract an embarrassment to many.
My burden is I can’t see one without thinking of the other. And i still love Jason!
I just knew that in Heyward, we had the next Ken Griffey, senior if not junior. That glove, the first AB homer, that smile. I still want to see the parallel universe where Jonathan Niese doesn’t shatter his face. Maybe it wasn’t the difference–I’m always looking for an excuse to hate Mets.
@1: coop: which Freeman did you take World History from — Freddie, Sam or Marvin?
@11: lol. Henry. No hit, no field; but he could bore with the best.
@10
I don’t think it would’ve made any difference in his fate as a Brave, but it very well might have made a difference in his overall development.
@11, I heard about Sam Freeman’s history class. Everyone got 100s.
And you people accuse me of socipathic misanthropy. Jesus. Such a song; any song by Jack Johnson and Dave Matthews, in fact; retroactively validates Stalin’s purges.
Did you know that Tyler Flowers is as good as Evan Gattis?
No 6 man rotation for now. Bartolo has been scratched for tomorrow
@17 great news
6 — And 1 year of a 3 WAR season from Shelby Miller, and Dansby Swanson, and Luke Jackson.
Snitker says that the Braves are considering moving Adams to the OF when Freddie returns.
@20
Upping the trade urgency
@20, It can’t merely be that Coppy reads Braves Journal. The level of sheer mind-meld when it comes to valuing defense is too great. So, which one of you is he?
I’ve been suspecting for months that Coppy is secretly Chief Nocahona. It makes so much sense now.
Uhhhh, the newest Peanut article says Freeman could play 3B. Como? I don’t buy that for a second.
Yes, let’s move Freeman to third. We can platoon Tyler Flowers in center with Inciarte as well.
3 of the top 4 batters in the Sally League AS game tonight are Braves:
1-Ventura, 2-Pache, 4-Cumberland
Triple post: Camargo is a beast. He really does remind me of Infante, who never walked but could barrel it up.
Freeman played third in high school. This is obviously posturing to up Adam’s value
Camargo does a great job of staying inside the ball.
Patrick Weigel lost a lot of velocity two nights ago, and he is going to see Dr. James Andrews for an elbow injury. Crap.
Freeman to 3rd base .. lol .. I believe it when I see it ..
I remember Bob Horner at the hot corner. He had pretty good hands and a good arm (as does Freddie). I also recall that a grounder more then 2-3 feet to either side of Horner was a base hit.
Notwithstanding Freddie’s lack of range at 3B, I’d consider moving him there if somehow the Braves acquired Goldschmidt or Rizzo. As much as I love what Matt Adams is doing so far, he’s not at that level. I’m very skeptical that he will keep up a .930 OPS for the next few years.
There is not a chance Freeman will play 3B. To @33’s point, you don’t move your franchise player across the diamond to a position he has never played professionally for Matt Adams. I love me some Matt Adams, but this is getting a little ridadgumdiculous.
I feared something was up with Weigel when I saw his numbers from the other night.
Freddie may have gone to management and volunteered a la Chipper.
But I believe this is just an attempt to raise Adams’ value.
Can Freddie play shortstop?
Ouch.
That was a foregone conclusion, right? Let Julio hit for himself with two on, and he’ll give up a 3 run home.
This is reminding me of that defensive disaster against the Angels.
Wow what bad luck for Julio .. Swanson. Makes another error .. 1 ball out of the infield and were down 1 ..
absolutely disgusting
The top of the 8th is great evidence regarding recent debates here. Both sides are right: defense is critical and home runs are very good things for an offense.
@34
I agree wholeheartedly with Rob. How in the hell did this get to the point where we’re talking about moving or even trading Freeman? Outright silliness!
Every third Tuesday, you can count on the Braves’ defense to completely implode. And as ever, I am far more concerned about Dansby’s glove than his bat — he now has more errors than all but one infielder in Major League Baseball.
I don’t recall so costly a regular season error, in terms of how clearly and immediately it led to runs that took us from winning to losing within one pitch. Good job, Dans. Dream on that one. Please learn from it.
@40, there is no universe where it makes sense to trade the potential runs at second for the opportunity to let Julio try for a shutout in a close game with a rested bullpen. But Snitker is no better at decision making than imbecile Fredi–he’s just better for chemistry.
Julio with the predictable gopher ball.
@47
If I’m not mistaken, Dansby had another gut-wrenching error earlier this year that immediately led to game-changing runs. Actually, I’m almost positive that’s exactly how it went down.
Well, this is a classic Dansby Swanson-inspired defensive bowel loosening.
Sometimes you have to pitch above mistakes and Julio never does that. He normally compounds the error with a home run ball
DansbE6
This is exactly like that inning against the Angels.
LOL…
And the two conversations cross over.
Extra fielding practice for this whole lot. This is a joke.
It’s like everyone on the infield turned into Brooks Conrad.
Try to save your bullpen you are 100% guaranteed to cause yourself to empty it out.
What a ludicrous joke
Anyway, to finish my thought on the “trade or move Freeman” idiocy, did we forget the part where he was one of the three best players in all of freaking baseball before he was hurt? Do you recall Matt Adams ever coming within a mile of that conversation? No? Me neither.
Also….YAY!!! We can make an easy defensive play!!!
This is why you remove a pitcher after 7 good innings with a lead. Especially frustrating since Snitker, faced with the same situation last night, did remove Dickey.
Also being able to play defense would help. Frustrating…
I couldn’t disagree more. If a starter has a 2-0 lead and 80 pitches going into the eighth inning, removing him is patent lunacy unless there’s some mitigating circumstance.
Simple game: catch it, throw it, hit it. I hate clown baseball. Poor Julio.
He should have gone back out for the 8th.
@59 – Who said anything about trading Freeman besides you @45?
@61 – The mitigating circumstance was hitting for himself with 2 men in scoring position after already completing those 7 shutout innings.
@63
I don’t think anybody on here did. Several people in the general Atlanta sports mediasphere have thrown it out there over the last week, though. It’s an idea you can find out there if you go looking.
@61, runners at 2nd and 3rd with 2 out and pitcher at the plate is exactly that mitigating circumstance. I wouldn’t have pulled him otherwise.
@66
Poorly phrased before, but yes that is what I was thinking about. Why let Julio hit for himself when you’ve got a 2-0 lead, runners at 2nd and 3rd and two out? Surely a pinch-hitter then a fresh bullpen (Ramirez then Johnson) is better in that situation than Julio, regardless of his pitch-count. It’s what he did last night, why change a winning formulae?
@65 Blazon did tentatively suggest looking into trading Freddie and installing Adams at 1B in the last game thread.
Anyway, I think fate decreed that the Braves were going to shit the bed this game because things had been going too well, and us Braves fans need to be reminded that the 2017 Braves are not a particularly good baseball team.
@68 – then that is a definitively stupid thing to suggest.
It’s situations like this (the Adams situation) that, in my darker moments, almost make me want to say, “Screw it…just get it over with and put the DH in the NL, too.”
And a designated fielder while we’re at it.
Fwiw the radio team talked about Freeman playing 3rd for the whole first half of the game.
The problem with trading Adams is that you aren’t going to find a contender with a bad 1B or DH. We need to be patient and maybe someone will get hurt and force a move.
I don’t think having Adams on our bench the last two months of the season and then figuring it out in the offseason is the worst idea ever, by the way. If Freeman has any setbacks, that’s pretty much what we’ll have to do anyway (or get Adams through on a waiver trade in August).
Amusingly, Dansby dropped the ball while juggling it just now as he jogged toward the dugout after the inning was over.
@68
Yep, that 8th inning is definitely a corrective to the notion that we’re a good baseball team. I don’t envy the person doing Tuesday night recaps. Tfloyd?
The Yankees and Indians are both in first place, running out first basemen with .683 and .726 OPSes.
That said, waiting to trade him in December wouldn’t be the worst idea, as you could get more teams interested.
Tonight’s 8th inning shows that this team struggles enough with infield defense without a laughable move like Freeman playing third.
@68
I emphatically did not. Show me. Silly.
@68, 77: It was Sam who tentatively suggested it, but I wouldn’t say he actually suggested it–just presented it as a hypothetical to all who really think Adams is approaching Freddie’s value.
“3. If you don’t want to trade him, or use him as a PH (and then lose him to free agency), then you should ask yourself if you REALLY believe he’s become a reasonable facscimile of Freeman. If so, then see what you can get for Freddie. There’s only one guy allowed to play and bat as the 1B per game.”
I think I’d rather have Olivera back than watch Freeman make errors at 3rd. You know it’s spin when all the Braves official mouthpieces posit the same thing at once.
Hiding Adams in LF is probably worth a try though, even if we don’t keep him. If he’s passable then his value goes up.
Ugh, Weigl to Dr, Andrews.
Recap up.
@77 Blazon, it certainly looked to me like you were entertaining the trade Freeman / keep Adams idea last thread, through the following exchange @25,26:
Sam Hutcheson: “If you don’t want to trade [Adams], or use him as a PH (and then lose him to free agency), then you should ask yourself if you REALLY believe he’s become a reasonable facscimile [sic] of Freeman. If so, then see what you can get for Freddie. There’s only one guy allowed to play and bat as the 1B per game.”
Blazon: “Yes i could believe there’s a real chance of that. But it would be a false equivalence to treat them both just as hitters which Freddie is. Adams offers more flexibility in two positions and ,salary wise, might likely agree to an Ender type extension.We want both of them, of course.”