Florida and Tennessee played football last Saturday. I can’t remember a time where I’d been so angry but then so excited in such a short period of time. In the final drive, Florida inexplicably let 27 seconds drain off the clock down to 9 seconds during a tie game. They had 2 time outs, were about 30 yards away from our All-SEC kicker’s range, and our defense was getting gassed, meaning that if it went to overtime, we were toasted. I was so mad, yelling at my TV. My wife asked me why I was so mad (I’m not usually mad about Braves baseball). I told her that college football games are really important (she already knew that, but I was re-iterating that individual plays can mean everything). Then, quarterback Franks to receiver Cleveland for 63-yards in the air as time expired for the win, and we were both jumping up and down and excited about the final play, even though I was still really angry about the poor clock management on the previous play. We got lucky.
So, last night. It felt like it was going to be a win, but then the 8th inning happened. Jose Ramirez had gotten a strike out, looked good, and then gave up a little nubber to Wilmer Difo that if Ramirez’s mechanics didn’t push him to the first base side, he’d have easily gloved and threw him out. Runner on, no big deal. But then Trea Turner doubles down the line (of course), and then he walks Werth on four straight. Arodys Vizcaino comes in, and another walk on four straight. Then another walk. Then another walk. And since Winkler pitched last night, and Minter and Freeman had already pitched, Brian Snitker went to… Rex Brothers. And it went about how you’d think: single, single, and the game is out of hand. But the whole time I didn’t get mad. That’s what the Braves have done to me, and probably many others. I’m just numb to it.
Perhaps the lack of anger was caused by some silver lining: the pitching otherwise was quite good. We seem to be controlling innings by only having our young starters pitch about 5 innings, even if their pitch count is low. So last night, Lucas Sims pitched well for 5 innings, throwing 74 pitches. Walked two, allowed three hits, and struck out 6. AJ Minter had his 11th straight appearance without allowing a walk, and he now has a 17/0 K/BB ratio in 11 IP. He could either be Shea Simmons or Craig Kimbrel, and if someone can predict that, they should be in a front office somewhere. Sam Freeman, who has also been very impressive, gave another scoreless inning. So it’s hard to get too worked up considering our bullpen is about 6-7 quality pitchers deep, but if you keep having your starting pitching go 5 innings, then you’re going to have games where the 3rd or 4th reliever of the game has a meltdown. Play the odds, friend.
Otherwise, what else is there to get worked up about? You’ve got Nick Markakis as your cleanup hitter, Adonis Garcia playing left field, and Matt Kemp and Matt Adams are on the bench. We need an offseason. Go back to your corner, regroup, and start again.
Matt Adams, Touki Toussaint, and Rio Ruiz to Toronto for Josh Donaldson. Donaldson has one year of arb remaining and is a FA at the end of next year. I think this is a deal the Braves and Jays would both do.
Or Matt Adams and Wes Parsons for Brian Dozier. I could get behind that. Both players provide a shorter long-term commitment and huge right-handed power at 3B. Both don’t take much to give up, and if you’ve resigned to simply moving Matt Adams’ power numbers for a player who gives the same production just from the right side and at 3B, then you don’t give up much else you’d miss in the future.
@1
Donaldson’s going to take more than that to grab him, even for only 1 year.
I dunno man, he’s going to make $22M in arb-3. I don’t know how big of a market there is for his skill set in this new homer-happy world. He’s not a Chris Sale with 6 WAR+ production with several years of surplus value and control. I think we’ll do a deal like we did for Uggla (Infante and Dunn) or Hudson (Meyer, Thomas, and Cruz) or JUpton (Prado, Delgado, Ahmed, and Spruill). I don’t think we’ll have to do a 4-elite-for-1 like Sale, Quintana, Eaton, etc. And if we do, then that’s the cost of doing business when you actually want to win baseball games instead of looking sexy on Baseball America.
I just think that, with where we are, if we did those Uggla, Hudson, or JUpton deals, and we see the modern day players changing hands, we’re going to say, “Huh. That’s it?”
ryan c..
hello again…you made your point, and thanks for it…collegiality above all.
a watcher of the Eastern Skies
has lately come to realize
there’s not much there to beat
with Folty coming on a treat
and Scarlett in his slimmer size.
@Rob
I really cannot pretend to know what the market’s going to do anymore as it’s been wildly varied in the past few year. However, one thing that is for certain is proven difference makers are still bringing back a whole heck of a lot in return. If Braves wanted to trade for Donaldson, which I would fully support, I’d expect that it’d net one of Allard, Soroka, Ian A., etc., then another MLB guy…maybe Folty?
But here’s my thing…what reason would the Jays have of making that deal? They still have a shot at being contenders in ’18, and if they don’t contend and Donaldson is performing up to his 5 WAR standard, I think he’d bring back more at the deadline than the package above.
But again…who frickin’ knows? You could be right. I could be right. We both could be wildly wrong. I just cannot make sense of it anymore.
@blazon
Thanks dude. I like the conversations here too much to stay away, especially the ones that can stay in the realm of normal Internet civility.
if lately you threw your first pitch
assuming the son of a bitch
had sleepily watched it
you certainly botched it
delenda he ain’t, what a glitch.
But again…who frickin’ knows?
You say you care about civility, but oh, such vulgarity!
RIP
Jake La Motta
it’s hard to believe but you gotta’
how did he ever manage to get to ninety five
a regular at every known New Jersey dive?
By no means am I projecting Josh Donaldson to be a Chipper, but check this out (Age 26-31 seasons):
Donaldson- 36.5 fWAR
Chipper- 38.6 fWAR
IMO, Donaldson is the most underrated player in baseball.
I understand that you guys are sort of Stockholm syndromed into this thing by now, but jeez. There was an insanely entertaining (first half) of a United game on the tube last night.
#8 may be Blazon’s best yet.
@12 – do what now?
Which United Sam?
Atlanta United, obviously.
I would prefer a strategy where we won more games. I hope our offseason plan is “get better players”.
Vizzy had a very different outing.
@16
not obviously, coulda been Manchester.
@17/18
‘get better players’ are we back in the dreaded FA market? Would help me if you would identify three – players/positions – that you would prioritize and fill. Would this imply that we would be trading the first batch of our ‘secondary’ unproven arms? thanks..
Vizzy, yes…explain please…sober?
Snit outhought them all last night, lovely.
Ozzie back on his steaks.
RA furious with himself for using a fastball to allow the second run.
coop…
trust you are back in the friendly confines, cheers!
Fat pig purchased. Home again. Jiggedy jig.
Go Braves.
“Back on our steaks” would be a great bravesjournal tagline for a while.
Recapped