The Braves gave up the same number of runs on Tuesday as they did on Monday, but this time the offense was able to squeak out a few of their own and emerge on top. Newcomb limited the Rockies to three runs over six innings at Coors Field, an accomplishment a pitcher would take any day. Each run was scored on a solo home run, though, so it could have gotten ugly quickly had the Rockies managed to get anyone on base before one of those long balls. Fortunately for the Braves, they didn’t, and the bullpen held them scoreless and gave the offense the opportunity to snatch the victory at the end.
Dansby had himself a game, and it was fun to see. He picked up a two-run double in the 2nd to give the Braves their first lead of the game, and added another base hit later on. His defense was solid too, and he looked like he was having fun. Good for him. May he keep it up for a long time.
Markakis homered in the 6th to tie the game at 3-all, where it remained until the Braves had two outs in the 8th inning when Tyler Flowers hit a grounder to third to end the inning. Only the sure-handed Nolan Arenado delivered a low throw that short hopped his first baseman, and the ball bounced away far enough to allow Brandon Phillips to cross the plate with the winning run. It was a gift that turned into a win. A win’s a win no matter how deserved. We’ll take it. Vizzy came on and nailed the save, striking out two along the way. It is nice to have a closer again.
I don’t have anything against the Rockies and know they are in the race for the wild card. I wouldn’t mind seeing them make the playoffs. But the Braves have lost so stinking much over the past month that I hope the Rockies put aside their playoff hunt for two more games. They can go on a 20-3 tear if they want after the Braves leave town, but I can’t help but hope they pick up a couple more losses before then.
Nationals delenda est.
Well done, ‘Rissa. Thank you.
Good game for Newk, Swanson, Viz and the Braves. Hope Freddie’s eyes are okay.
We dumped Albers for cash?
Yep. He might have been useful, but who are you gonna cut to make room for him? In the end he was a victim of a roster crunch, and it’s good that he’s got a shot now in Seattle.
2 – probably a small amount of cash.
I would have dropped Krol or Motte and stuck him as the long man in the bullpen. You could easily give him a few of Dickey’s starts for the last few months if needed.
Acuna hit another homer.
It’s funny, I thought Acuna’s HR last night looked like Andruw’s swing too. Glad Grant McAuley agrees and made this video. Pause the video right at the point of contact.
Starting to get really excited about Acuna. I think he definitely breaks camp as a starting outfielder. And one person asked what you could get for Inciarte, which would mean that Acuna would play center. Obviously there would be a huge drop off in center field defense, but I think Acuna out-WARs Inciarte next year based on his hitting, and of course, Acuna is much cheaper. And what you could do with Inciarte could help you fill the holes in the roster. For instance:
Inciarte and Gohara for Verlander and Fullmer (or something like that).
Markakis and $4M for a bag of baseballs or someone standing upright.
Ruiz, Sims, and Morris for actual $12M/yr competent 2 WAR RF controlled for a few seasons.
Matt Adams for setup man
Payroll money spent on 3B, bench, and bullpen
Re-sign Suzuki
Albies
Swanson
Freeman
Kemp
2 WAR Competent RF
3B
Flowers
Acuna
Verlander
Folty
Fulmer
Teheran
Newcomb
Vizzy
Ramirez
LH FA Reliever
Minter
Fried
Wisler
Blair
Journeyman
Suzuki
Lane Adams
Camargo (teach him corner outfield and play him 3-4 times a week around the diamond)
Luis Valenzuela
Payroll: $125M
Still top 3-4 farm in baseball. When Allard, Soroka, Fried, Toussaint, etc. are ready, trade Teheran or Verlander (if you can).
Nolan Arenado
in an unlikely display of swollen bravado
made a casual throw to first
having hit only one homer- which was worst?
Newk popping him up irritated him nearly as much, poet.
Even if Albers would’ve been just left off the 40-man roster and taken in the Rule 5 draft at the end of the season, straight up selling players for cash is a very bad look, especially for this team right now. When it’s a player who could’ve been useful in the bullpen this season, it makes it look even worse.
I simply could not care less about the minimal cost incurred from keeping him for the rest of the year and then watching him get taken over the offseason, and I can’t for the life of me understand why people are nodding in approval over stuff like selling Albers and having the Twins pay for all of Anthony Recker’s $500,000 contract. We’re talking about hundreds of thousands of dollars. I know that sounds like a lot of money, but it’s not. At all. It’s penny pinching on a mind-boggling scale. At best, it’s sending the wrong message.
At worst, it’s sending exactly the right message, and that is that this organization is not willing to spend the money necessary to ever make this team good again. That they’re hanging all their hopes on the next contending team almost entirely emerging out of the farm system. And it’s just not going to happen. It didn’t happen in the early 1990s, and it’s not going to happen now.
Not to defend the FO too much here, but if they weren’t going to call him up then selling him to Seattle was about the best thing they could do for Albers’ career. Maybe that gesture helps down the road – we’re a place that treats people fairly, you should want to come play here…that kind of thing.
I dunno. None of this small stuff really matters. We have big issues to fix. We’re not going to turn into a contender by making a bunch of savvy moves with utility infielders and AAAA pitchers. We get there by overhauling our OF and rotation. Once those moves have been made, then I’ll worry about refining the bench or the 9th and 10th pitchers on the staff.
I agree with krussell. The Braves want to see their young kids pitch instead of a 31 year old soft tosser, but Albers had pitched well and earned a shot so they let him go to another team so he can have a chance.
The pitcher starting last night who should be in a Braves uniform was Alex Wood. Fret over him.
@12
You might not agree, but I see less in that admittedly stupid trade that speaks to an inherent road block going forward. It was a dumb trade and dumb trades happen occasionally. Easier to move on from that than from an overall aversion to spending money.
I think the case trying to be made, though, is that’s not solely about not wanting to spend money. It’s seeing a forthcoming roster crisis, knowing which personnel make the cut for “future plans” and which don’t, having a broader understanding of the trade market as it stands right now, and…yes…finding opportunity to cut costs where possible.
@13, I could see a fluke-y scenario where we can succeed on a budget, sort of like the Rays, because we strike gold on enough young arms, Acuna/Swanson/Albies pan out, etc. But if we can’t evaluate the talent we have, I don’t see much hope for this rebuild.
The Simmons trade bothers me for the same reason. Newcomb may be a fine starter eventually, or maybe he’s too wild and goes to the ‘pen. He needs to be an excellent starter for us to break even on that deal. We don’t know how to value our players.
I can’t make a logical case for sending Alex Wood packing. We got back a guy that, best-case, would be too old to help with the end of the rebuild. So we sent him packing on the premise that we’d rather lose 95 games than 105. That’s pure crazy-town.
None of the moves, as a whole, show a consistent identifiable strategy. Sell the whole team but keep Freeman and Teheran??? WHY?!!! I don’t understand the long-game here. If you are gonna tank, then by all means, let’s tank. If you don’t want to tank, then SPEND SOME MONEY! We’re on the road to winning 75 games a year, every year, until they replace the entire FO.
What’s scary and forgotten about the assessment that brought us Olivera is that they also thought he could play 3rd base. And Jose Peraza’s only 23, it will be interesting to revisit him at 26, 27.
You’re right, I do look forward to seeing which Triple-A team Jose Peraza is playing for in 2020.
Maybe that’s a bit harsh, but I just never bought Peraza as anything other than a major league utility guy. And there’s certainly no reason for me to come off that opinion at this point.
UPDATE: Not even the silly “call on the field is always right” thing is gonna save us here. He was very, very safe.
Wow .. this team sucks .. just going thru the motions .. tired of foltys attitude.. sick it up puss
Nothing 12 runs won’t cure.
Nothing 14 runs won’t cure.
Nothing 15 runs won’t cure.
Nothing 4 beers won’t cure.
Nothing a Top 5 draft pick won’t cure.
The top 5 draft pick won”t curei it.
The greatest comeback of all time has just begun. 2 runs down 13 more to go. You heard it here first.
Acuna 3 for 6 with another bomb. OPS now 984 in Gwinnett
@27, Actually, Gwinnett had a double-header today. Acuna’s totals on the day: 5 for 10 with a double and two homers.
EDIT: Wrong (I think). MiLB.com’s listing two Gwinnett boxscores on today’s line scores but I think one of them was from yesterday. Still, nice two day total.
Games like this you poke around the minors:
GWINNETT: Matt Wisler pitched 2.1 in relief. 1 hit, 0 BB, 3 Ks. That’ll play in AAAA.
MS: Alex Jackson and Austin Riley had themselves a night. Both went 2 for 4. Riley had a double, Jackson a homer. Riley’s been doing okay in MS. Has his BA up to .276. Kolby Allard had a solid start: 6 IP, 6 H, 0 BB, 9 K, 2 ER.
ROME: Christian Pache 2 for 4 with a double. Carlos Martinez 3 for 5. Drew Lugbauer only went 1 for 3 with a double. (Disappointing night for him!) Joey Wentz seemed to want to one-up Allard. He went 6 IP, 1 H, 1 BB, 5 K, 0 R. I’ll take it.
Max Fried
we have willed him be called and likely succeed
appear he then did but with that as a given
we now total his pitches salaciously driven.
Last evening’s “game” has been summarized.
Eric Longenhagen at Fangraphs has his midseason top 100 prospects up.
Braves:
5. Acuna
12. Albies
21. Wright
42. Gohara
65. Allard
69. Anderson
72. Soroka
74. Wentz
100 Pache
I am glad I have not promised to write up Wednesday games. What a waste of time to describe that debacle.