Long before there was punk there was cool. Real cool, not what was to follow much later. For me Charlie Parker and Coltrane were cool. The Braves are cool. 1963, I was in my early teens, Coltrane cut a new album, all in the same day, 7 tracks, all new. Nobody knew, it got lost. They just found it, here’s one track.
Why are there three images? Because i can’t work out how to delete the other two! click on him and after a while the track will play alongside the NYT article. Never a dull moment!
BASEBALL BASEBALL BASEBALL BASEBALL!!
Saturday night blends into Sunday morning and all is well with the world of your correspondent, delighted to find himself enjoying a real game of baseball again when stern opposition was rendered to the home team, an early homer conceded but then supplanted as we put the screws down, took charge of the contest, were never behind again and finished them off in the ninth. Capacity crowd jostling to get away by then, loverley as Julie A would trill.
Let’s break it down by groups. Starting with the pitching we got the most important thing of all, a good start. Annibal had it going, he looked like this was his game and it was. 5.1 IP 3H. 2W. 5K. Please let’s have no more ageism directed at this guy, he is a fixture in our rotation and here’s why. A year or more ago he admitted to himself, and his manager, he’d lost his old pace and was no longer going to throw hard but adjust to his new reality qnd pitch accordingly. Which is precisely what McCarthy has failed to do. 3 hits against this lineup, wow.
The bullpen had a quite eventful evening for all our superiority. Moylan got Kemp and was gone. Minter threw an inning plus with good velocity and no walks but shot himself and us in the foot giving back a hard earned third run of our late lead with an awful wild pitch. Never mind now, he was better. Winkler got all he could handle in the eighth despite only one hit, no walks and 2 strike outs. Why? 24 pitches, 15 strikes! Does he have a curve – everything looked hard? Viz has his first pitch smoked up the middle by the irrepressible Puig who continues to have our number. But then a double play and they were done.
Defense. Dansby and Ozzie were terrific all night, Dansby in particular, glove and arm both. Easy to write but they made a vital contribution.
Offense, We had 14 hits on the night, LA just 6. Dansby again, 2 for 5 with 3 runs scored. Freddie 3 for 5, Nick 2 for 5 with an RBI. Flowers, 2 for 4 with 3 RBI played the leading role in building up our lead in the middle innings. The amazing Charlie C, 3 more hits and an RBI, Bourjos a late triple off the wall.
That’ll all do very nicely thank you.                   Â
I was at the game. The defense was indeed very good. I didn’t really agree at the time to bring in Moylan to face Kemp, but it worked out.
I was surprised Bourjos didn’t try for ITPHR. The ball got away and that run would have made things less stressful.
Addendum
Notable omission from the department of defense. Nick with another exceptional catch going hard to his left, early, when it was tight.
Joe made a very good point i thought regarding Ozzie’s plate woes. From his initial exaggerated stance he has to close up somewhat and move towards the ball. Early on this season he had all that coordinated fine but lately his anxiety to produce has him starting forward too early before he can know what kind of pitch is coming. The pitchers are taking full advantage of that. While he readjusts move him to the 6 spot for half a dozen games, Ender to lead off after another miserable night in the middle. He may feel lost there, his role uncertain.
I’d been hopeful that the team would make an addition to the lineup by upgrading 3B, but now the OF appears to be the greater need. A guy like Inciarte can turn it around and be a spark plug. Guys like Preston Tucker as fill ins just aren’t all that appealing unless they’re on a good tear. Seems like the Braves should be in the market for a good platoon OF’er.
The saxophone is an audial abomination on par with the bagpipes.
If Alex Wood were still a Brave Chief would want to trade him for a Cuban 3b.
I’ll put fie dollah down that Ender has a better 2nd half than Nick Markakis.
Jon Jay was acquired for literally a rookie ball live arm and the equivalent of one of our college relievers in AA like Watts, Graham, Pfeifer, etc. That would definitely be a deal I think we’d make closer to the deadline. Like many teams, we have a glut of middling relief prospects that rebuilding teams would like to collect, as we did with Burrows, McCreery, and what we projected some of our SPs to turn into to.
I really feel like the simplest answer — if you’re going to acquire a position player to improve the offense — is to get a real 3B and play Camargo all over the diamond, including the OF. Flaherty is hitting .205/.262/.308 since May 1st, which is consistent with his career .647 OPS. I’m not even sure he doesn’t pass through waivers. If they could stomach losing Lane Adams, you have to be willing to do the same with Flaherty. And since Ozzie is hitting .224/.267/.373 since May 1st, you could spell Camargo there too.
If you can believe it, though, we have scored more runs per game on average in June than May, but that was heavily influenced by our 14-run outburst against the Pappies.
@5 Ender’s peak for an entire half is probably a .800 OPS. Nick could easily come back to his .750 OPS for an entire half. And with defense, Ender could easily be more valuable than Kakes.
But good for Kakes. His work is pretty much done. He’s earned himself a job in MLB at age 35 with just what he’s done so far. He could go into hibernation mode for the rest of the season and still get at least a two year deal this offseason at a decent AAV. He could just work his way around the rebuilding teams providing stable production and Veteran Presents for the next few years and probably pull a few extra million above his market value for his troubles — probably exactly what he did with us.
Having Camargo available to fill in in the OF would be ideal. Getting Acuna back would make a big difference in being able to spell Ender.
I still like the thought of adding Moustakas at 3B, but I’m sure someone else around here will say add Machado at 3B and give him the SS job in the offseason so he’ll resign.
@1 I thought about that at the time but it always comes down to whether it was worth it to get thrown out at home or wait for someone to drive you in (or a wild pitch). With two outs and a cold Ozzie up next, I think you might go for it.
@2 I think you’re right about the lineup switch, although I was just thinking reverse. Camargo at top and Swanson second. Camargo is not “hitting” but still has one of the best OBPs on the team. The first lineup slot, first batter of the game is where a walk is even better than a hit, especially with Ozzie swinging at every first pitch. The first inning or two is where pushing the pitch count up can really help work a pitcher for later. And Swanson is much better with someone already on base. Although he did a great job of setting the table last night. As long as Acuna is out, we need to be adjusting the lineup based upon current performance.
@3 @6 We do not need any more platoon OFs. We have plenty of guys that can perform that task and Acuna is coming back soon. Our best current RH platoon OF is Charlie Culberson, go figure. As long as he stays hot, roll with it. I don’t think Tucker has been all that bad, but has had very limited PAs since Acuna was recalled and is the only LH OF on the bench. Bourjos has been hot too since being recalled. Camargo and Flaherty can play LF, too, if needed. Once Acuna comes back, there will be no place for an extra OF.
No, 3B is still the place to shore up. And the starting pitching staff definitely needs a shot of adrenalin. Hopefully, Soroka will be fine on Wednesday (note that he’ll be on a pitch count). Even then we need another SP. I was hoping Fried could be it but the blisters need to go away. Gohara needs to find his mojo again. The only hope right now is Allard or a trade. With Teheran on the shelf, maybe Sanchez could be fifth and McCarthy could be the long man with a rotation of Newk, Folty, Soroka, and Allard. I’d like to see how that runs for a while. If we keep relying on McCarthy and Teheran (and Sanchez), we can be no more than a .500 team.
Matt Wisler, professional tease, with another good AAA outing.
The depth at AAA is tremendous. Currently Fried, Allard, Wisler, and Sims with Touki on the way. At some point, Gohara will need to get starts in at AAA. Wright could make his way to Gwinnett at some point.
By the way, Soroka’s pitch count will be 90, so that’s not that bad.
So a trade for a spark plug 3B or a possible ace starting pitcher that we can likely retain… that’s what this team needs. I kinda hate to see the season run sideways if we can’t get either by the deadline.
Great rundown on the draft:
https://www.talkingchop.com/2018/6/8/17437408/atlanta-braves-full-2018-mlb-draft-recap-picks-scouting-reports
Matt Powers follows this really well.
Is a ‘spark plug’ 3b something even reasonably definable? I mean, I get the “trade for Mike Moustakas” thing, but he’s not anything we’d call a “spark plug.” This team has a “spark plug” player. He plays second base and bats leadoff.
@11 As of today, the depth is not that great. Fried has blisters, Gohara no mojo, Wright is definitely not ready, and Wisler/Sims have no upside for a contender. Need to see how Touki does at AAA.
Honestly, it’s either Allard or outside. Maybe Parsons is close. Phillips for the bullpen. But Allard is the only one sparkling and with energy.
Sam, you can’t fire on all cylinders with only one spark plug.
You can’t win a game when the opposing pitcher is throwing less than 9 pitches per inning.
Is a ‘spark plug’ 3b something even reasonably definable?
AHEM.
Gutty job of pitching by Newk to get out of that inning. The walks were bad but it sure could have been worse.
Ozzie with a counterpunch. Time for a breakout.
Freddie!
@18 He’s only 39.
If we were an AL team, would we let the pitcher hit and DH for Inciarte?
@23
You’re not allowed to do that, for the record.
Well, I guess Gohara can get some work in today.
Nothing yet to change my outlook that the NL East is hot garbage. The good thing is that we get to play in the division a lot.
Chip seems to think the Dodgers are the modern-day iteration of the ’27 Yankees. I just think our pitchers should stop lobbing meatballs into the middle of the strike zone.
What IS it with the Dodgers and solo HRs??? This is ridiculous. I don’t think they’ve done this to anyone else and no one else has done this to us. Damndest thing I’ve ever seen.
By the way, Muncy has 4 walks and 2 HRs in his last 7 ABs, I think.
Well, we’re still tied for first place. A 2-4 West Coast road trip isn’t the end of the world, by any means, so we’ve just gotta come home and get back on track with 12 of our next 14 at SunTrust Park, all of them against not-great opposition, and the only road trip a 2-game trip to Toronto sandwiched between off days.
Recapped.