Well, trying to maintain this theme has become difficult. Originally I envisioned it as a series of disasters which would turn to stalemates followed by a series of solid performances. In other words, l envisioned 2017 as a slightly better version of 2016 with gradual upturns over a long interval of time.
So, our connection is a character sketch. The initial thought is to connect to someone with great talents and a great flaw of a temper.
George S. Patton’s family had a long history of military service. Also, his family had a fair amount of personal wealth. He showed promise in many areas. Particularly in athletics. He competed in the “modern pentathlon” at the 1912 Summer Olympics in Stockholm. He graduated from West Point in time to be involved in the U. S. Military’s first operation utilizing motorized vehicles, a raid into Mexico to attempt to capture Pancho Villa. He served in one of the first tank units organized by the U. S. Military in World War I. In some ways, he was a star on the rise.
But, his temper was known to get him in trouble. When one loses his focus on what is important, then errors are made and they compound. And thus we come to our Polish Prince, Mike Fontynewicz. Likewise, he has much talent. But it seems as if he loses focus from his temper. When he does, that is not good. Like last night.
So, in the second inning, the Polish Prince gives up a single. Then a force at second. Then a single. Then a force that Dansby HAD to go to first for the out. Runners second and third, number 8 hitter, the extraordinarily scary offensive force known as Leonys Martin, up. Snit decides to put Martin on. I am skeptical of intentional walks that load the bases. That means the pitcher is very pressured to throw strikes. Now the dangerous hitter and spectacular pitcher Andrew Albers comes to the plate. Groundball up the middle and Prince takes a stab at it with his bare hand. Hard to say if it would have been turned into an out, but after the deflection, it wasn’t.
But in the next half inning, General Patton’s troops rallied. Sergeant Kurt Suzuki of the 442nd Regimental Combat team exploded a bomb (known as a home run). The Carribbean Allied Force Had Ozzie Albies and Ender Inciarte follow up and get another run.
Now on the inning 3 and the Mariners got one to tie it at 2. In the 4th, General Patton contributed a hit by pitch, a walk, and a throwing error on a pickoff (that probably Swanson should have kept in front of himself) that ended up bringing in 3 runs.
6th inning and the prince / general gives up another before being relieved to go give speeches on Corsica. But one positive about the 2017 Braves (which seems to reverse a trend of most of the last 4 to 5 years), when they are behind, they don’t “mail it in.” They still score some runs. So, they got 3 back in the bottom of 6 to make it 6 to 5, but there it would stay.
General Patton’s troops need to reconsider the strategy of the stolen base. Dat Dude Brandon Phillips got caught in 7 which probably cost a run and Ender GOT THROWN OUT WITH FREEMAN AT THE PLATE in the 9th.
Eisenhower needs to step in and straighten this situation out.
I stand with Ian Kinsler.
Watching Folty pitch is almost unbearable. Tons of talent, but acts like a 10 year old on the mound. Any time someone makes contact he just throws his hands up in disgust. Probably my least favorite Brave in quite some time.
BTW, Lane Adams was safe at the plate (would’ve been the tying run) but replay continues to be a joke and a waste of time.
Ive still got the fear that Albies is going to be used in a trade for a starter this offseason and I don’t like it.
Will the Patton story continue to the point where the manager becomes so troublesome to the FO that he is hit by a truck and suddenly dies mysteriously in the hospital just as he is healthy enough to be released?
@2
Clearly safe.
@2, I do. 😉
@2
Folty has definitely been frustrating when his struggles have compounded with the outbursts. It was all fine and dandy when it was just slightly interfering with him becoming a competent major league starter. But now that it seems to be preventing him from becoming a front line starter and the team needs one so badly, that’s when it gets frustrating. With that said, I think someone hit it right that maybe he’s hitting a bit of a wall. He only pitched 123 IP last year, which was his major league career high, but he did pitch a total of 150 IP between AAA and Atlanta. I wonder if he should be asked to get through 4-5 innings for the rest of the year and piggy back him with Fried, Wisler, Blair, etc.
His fits and his stuff just seem destined for late inning relief where mistakes and “fire” are more tolerable in 1-inning stints and can also be downright entertaining.
Yeah, I dunno. If you’ve determined that you can throw 150+ innings and you can throw 8 no-hit innings, there’s no way you stick that guy in the pen. Make him your 5th starter and see if he can turn into who he is.
He’s still our best starter, imho. Whether that’s a good thing or a bad thing is going to depend on how patient you are with this rebuild.
A rebuilding team with no ace has no choice but to put 5 guys in the rotation with 4+ WAR potential. I mean, we ain’t going anywhere. A rotation of Newcomb, Folty, Teheran, and Fried/Allard/Gohara makes a lot more sense than putting Wisler, Sims, Soroka, etc. or trading for someone like Gray that doesn’t have ace potential. Put 5 high octane guys in there and see if one sticks.
the Polish Prince
he doth evince
frustration in the masses
when all decree
it pains to see
him make excessive passes.
cliff…Polish Prince..bravo!
Noli timere. Tempus fugit.
Time Flies Like an Arrow.
Fruit Flies Like a Banana.
And now to side with the non-doomsayers, for once…
Folty has made great strides this year, and at the height of the season, looked like he might be developing into a top-end guy. I think hitting a wall is the most likely cause of his struggles over the last three outings, but I think the answer is, barring any physical fatigue or injury issues, to keep running him out there and get him accustomed to pitching a long season. Talk of moving him to the bullpen or (as I heard people talking about on the radio last night) sending him back to Triple-A are borderline asinine (not least of which because the Triple-A season is almost over).
He’s proven he can be at least a mid-range starting pitcher. He put a bunch of decent starts together in a row, including ones where he didn’t have his best stuff. Are we just forgetting that happened? If the farm system spits out five starting pitchers better than him, then we can talk about relief, but that seems so unlikely as to be farcical. The man was pitching like at least a No. 2 starter as recently as late July, for crying out loud! I think it’s pretty obvious this season has no competitive objective remaining. Not that I’ll find it enjoyable to watch, but if he accumulates a 5.00 ERA for the rest of the year, it matters little.
I was the one who said he is probably hitting a wall. The best thing to do is to let him work through it so that his endurance improves. If it is mechanical or mental, the same thing applies: let him work through it. We don’t have anyone better than him to replace him with anyway.
STOP GETTING THROWN OUT ON THE BASEPATHS!!!
Folty’s first half OPS-against was .763, while so far the second half is .917. People are squaring him up quite a bit. It could be fatigue. It could also be that the book is out on him and it’s time for him to adjust. Might even mean that he’s tipping pitches. It could also just be normal variance over a long season. Baseball is hard to figure out.
One thing I don’t care for is the narrative about his negative body language. Give me a break. If changing that was all it took to avoid bad performances, then nobody would ever struggle. I like the fact that he cares and that he’s hard on himself.
Nice job Snit…proving he can get a poorly timed caught stealing whenever he wants one
Braves should have had a caught stealing again just then, but Phillips miraculously avoided the tag on a throw that had him dead to rights.
All of this caught stealing lately prompts me to remind everyone of Earl Weaver’s genius. My son recently gave me the book “Weaver on Strategy.” Weaver was ahead of his time in many ways, but perhaps his greatest insight is that outs are precious, you only get 27 of them, so DONT GIVE THEM AWAY. Weaver almost never used the sacrifice bunt, and he didn’t even have a sign for the hit and run.
Lucas Sims, big league pitcher, at least tonight.
Kemp offends me. C’mon dude, your salary has seven zeroes on it. Get a gym membership.
Yeah, because it’s much better watching us go 1-for-11 or so with runners in scoring position…
OK, I’ll admit that was pretty stupid. At least we scored a run on the play, I guess.
STOP GETTING THROWN OUT ON THE BASEPATHS!!
(disclaimer: this comment involves Mets, albeit Historic Mets, not current ones) in honor of the Village Voice sadly announcing they will be ceasing print publication, here is a gem of an article from 1986: “Favorite Dinosaurs of the New York Mets.” (you have to scroll past the interview to see the whole thing.) The quote attributed to Mookie Wilson went viral(ish) recently as being just the right amount of absurd to be half-plausible. The whole thing is satire, but pretty great, for example:
DARRYL STRAWBERRY, RF
“For a long time, my mom used to make me go to bed early. And I would lie there, using shadows on the wall to reenact the legendary combat between my left hand, the Tyrannosaurus, and my right, our Irish Setter, Daisy. Daisy was brave but usually overmatched. I’d be screaming her encouragement, “Watch the teeth, the teeth! They’re long as bananas!” but inevitably the left hand would just sneak up behind her and: gobble. Once, both she and the Tyrannosaur collapsed in death agonies simultaneously. I was so excited. I yelled “A tie, Dais! A tie, girl!” I tried to pull the real Daisy out from under the bed. I was dancing about the room. But the next night, wouldn’t you know it, the Tyrannosaur cut her in half with one snap of his jaws. I shook my limp right hand under the bed and said, “Bad girl.” I’d say the point of this story is– that’s why I became a lefty.”
Who is our base running coach? This is little league level
Um…what the hell was that all about???
@26
That’s offensive to Little League
STOP GETTING THROWN OUT ON THE BASEPATHS POOOOOR FAVOOOR!!
@28 Very true…
I would love to know what Ender was thinking as he took off for second there…yeesh, what a disaster! How did we score a run off of that crap?
If Paul Byrd’s scoring correctly, the 3rd baseman got an assist, an error, and a putout on the same play.
@32
I don’t know if he’s allowed to get an assist leading up to his own error. It wouldn’t make much sense, but then again, it is baseball scoring rules, so it wouldn’t surprise me.
Seattle has playoff hopes still? Yeesh. The quality of play in this series has been atrocious.
I’m sorry that I had to say the same thing three times to the point where WordPress accused me of being redundant (fair), but this team has left me no choice. Bobby Cox must be spinning in his grave with this insanity.
@32,33
Best I can tell, he does get to keep his assist (the language in the rule book is somewhat confusing, naturally). A fielding hat trick, it is!
Jeez, Ender. Catch the ball.
Ronald Acuna makes good baseball. If this were August 2016 and he played shortstop and had amazing hair, he’d be a big leaguer.
35 — Spinning in his grave? Maybe at home at his TV.
@25
The Village Voice
the rag of choice
a hundred messy pages
a fascination for the small town youth, his mind engages. RIP
I won’t be able to get a recap up until after lunch at the earliest. If anyone else wants to jump in and post one for last night’s game, feel free to.
@19
He’s the one i miss the most. With a lot of his contemporaries you got the feeling it was deja vu all over again, just throw the switch, put on the same show. Not with Earl. For me his face to face stuff was electric and funny at the same time…and the bases he threw. I loved the guy – in an era when you got to see maybe one/two games a week he was prime time.
@35
He can keep on spinning as far as I’m concerned, wife beater.
@39
I was just kidding. Just wanted to see what people would say.
In other news, Twitter seems to think AJ Minter is being called up. Shaboing.
Minter may be our closer next year
Did we all hear Joe Simpson last night refer, authoritatively, to one of our up and comers as Christian Pa-CHAY. Startling news that changes everything.Here’s mine off the top of my head, file yours before the next rooster crows.
Christian Pache
has earned his new found cachet
outfielder par excellence
he can hit occasionally too if given the chaunce.
Having actually talked to the young man (between my broken spanish and his broken english it was a wonder to behold!), I’m pretty certain he says PATCH aa, although there’s a gutteral at the end of patch in spanish that does not exist in english.
A
Hayden Deal
we would have preferred a trade ‘n steal
but Presbyterian College
said don’t you dare do that without our knowledge
@46
Straight from the horses mouth, thanks! We shall have to tell Joe.
Have to think that Coppy is disappointed that he couldn’t turn any of these FA relievers/starters into future value. Collmenter, Medlen, Hernandez, Burgos, and Brothers are turning into big nothings. Rivero hasn’t been healthy. I guess they’ll get something for Motte, though.
It’s hard to think that Minter will be anything less than a serviceable reliever from the outset, and I know the expectation from everyone is that he’ll progress to being an elite reliever (assuming health, of course) during the Braves’ competitive window. In a span of a few days, the relief corp has turned into a pretty solid unit. Viz, Ramirez, Minter, Freeman, Motte, Winkler, and Wisler (with Fried in this short-term spot) has more than enough talent to be a strong unit. Two multi-inning guys, two guys who can get lefties out, and three potential closer options. And if not, you’ve got Akeel Morris, MoCab, Biddle, Luke Jackson, and Hursh kinda floating out there too. The good thing is that only Motte doesn’t have options in the current pen. I say all of this speculating that they’ll DL JJ with Quad/Oblique/Hip Flexor/Suckitude. I really like the direction this is all heading.
Now it is time to FREE ACUNA!
There is a disparity between the excitement about Minter from Braves fans and the prospect rankings/ratings. It’s because he’s a reliever, but still.
Minter up, Max Fried sent back
Good for Minter, tough on Fried.
@49 I hear the limo is at the gas station.
AJ Minter
was born unfortunately as a squinter
as he peers in for his sign
he has been heard to ask, which one is mine?
If they weren’t going to do something about JJ, then I’m glad they demoted Fried. They said Fried will get a couple starts at Gwinnett and bring him back up when rosters expand. It’s starting to bubble up to the surface.
Recapped.