It’s time for a new edition of “Bravda.”
“Bravda,” from the Russian word “pravda,” meaning “truth.”
The west coast road trip brings back cruel memories of MLB’s scandalous history, when the Braves were forced against the laws of nature into the National League West division. The unfair burden of those 27 games per year in the Pacific Time Zone obscured the true greatness of those glorious Braves teams of the ’70’s and ’80’s. Only being freed to join the National League East allowed their natural superiority to shine; the conspiracy undoubtedly costing the franchise a record 35 consecutive division titles.
Now to the present, and if the Dodgers franchise lasts 1,000 years, when Dodger fans hear the name “Newcomb,” they will almost certainly think of the name Sean Newcomb, who left the game having allowed runs in only 2 of the 6 innings in which he pitched. At least, no other pitcher will come to mind, probably.
Ozzie Albies and Freddie Freeman homered for the Braves. Several other Braves had hits; in fact, Albies had two.
The Braves conclude the road trip with no National League East team ahead of them. The Mets come to town on Tuesday.
With any luck, the Shmets will be a good antidote. They are in horrible shape and just starting swapping pieces in their roster (including releasing A-Gon). If Asdrubel is out with injury, their best hitter is likely Joey Bats.
What’s interesting about the Adrian Gonzalez story is that as recently as the last time we played them a couple of weeks ago, the not-normally-homerish announcer Gary Cohen was describing both A-Gon and Joey B as Mets coups at the expense of the Braves (not noting that the Braves immediately releasing AGon was a condition of agreeing to the trade.)
Anyone in NY have any idea what’s wrong with Conforto? Is he not healthy?
https://www.ajc.com/sports/baseball/teheran-expects-start-friday-hopes-rest-will-help-restore-velocity/VYejPvbzgGaiK7eWbkr4xI/
Teheran feels like he can start Friday.
Conforto was on my fantasy team, and IIRC, he’s not missed any time for injury after he began the season on the DL. He seems to just be really struggling. I cut him this morning. Someone can buy low.
Most likely the Mets have some inside information that’s not immediately obvious. Alternately, they may be dumbasses who don’t understand sample size or aging curves. After all, this is a team that had a 27 year old Todd Frazier on their bench, and then went out and signed the washed up one.
It’s not particularly analytical, but the Mets are just uniquely dysfunctional. They have a unique ability to constantly find themselves in the most difficult routes to player development. They seem to screw up players on the regular.
Thanks, Rusty. Always enjoy the latest edition of Bravda. When will MLB recognize those 20 stolen division titles?
The Mets also consistently screw up their players’ health. If there’s one gigantic takeaway from the Matt Harvey saga, it’s their extraordinary talent for making their players’ health worse.
The “uniqueness” in the Mets dysfunction begins with WIL and ends with PON. Those guys make Liberty look like the heyday of Ted throwing money at Greg Maddux.
Let’s not forget what really should be a national holiday, coming up on July 1 — the run-up to Independence Day in the only meaningful sense.
It is my most precious dream that a Bobby Bonilla Gentleman’s Annuity awaits us all. One day, when the robots are doing all the work for us and we’re living our best lives, we’ll look back and say, “Bobby Bo got there first, and God bless him for it.”
Lol at the Bobby Bo gentlemans annuity.
In other minors news, former highish round pick Drew Harrington was released, I wonder what happened.
Happy to have the braves back on the best coast, old man sleeping habits have gotten the best of me lately and I’ having braves TV withdrawal.
These next two weeks are big for the Bravos
@13 True story…with the Mets, Padres, Jays, Orioles and Reds coming up, we can hopefully make a move…maybe go 11-3 or 10-4 over the next 14
10-4 has to be at least the goal. Simultaneously, Washington plays 2 @Yanks, 3 @Jays, then a home DH vs. Yanks, 3 vs. Orioles, 3 vs. Phils, 2 @ Rays. So they have a pretty manageable schedule. It’s not time to scoreboard watch, but we could create some separation or lose ground depending on how we do.
Jackson will go down, and Soroka will be activated on Wednesday, so if JT can return on Friday, I would guess that pushes Sanchez to the long role. These things have a tendency to sort themselves out by someone else getting injured, but that would mean Gohara would go down to AAA.
Also interesting to note that Drew Harrington was released. He was a third-rounder in 2016 who, according to those watching A- games, seemed to have lost his stuff this year. But he was definitely in a logjam and had lost a lot of ground, so he’s probably better off getting on somewhere else.
https://www.mlb.com/news/nl-all-star-voting-update/c-280750618
Freddie has a significant lead over Anthony Rizzo.
Ozzie is narrowly winning over Javy Baez. As Ozzie struggles, I think that one is definitely in play.
Dansby has 225K votes, almost 250K votes behind Brandon Crawford. He would have to get really hot to have a shot at getting to Crawford.
Kakes has almost 500K votes, almost 200K ahead of the 4th-place OF, Charlie Blackmon. Kemp is sandwiched between the two, and then Acuna and Inciarte are behind Blackmon. I would imagine Kakes could cannibalize votes from Acuna and Inciarte if things got tight.
Suzuki is only around 55K votes — 280K to 225K — behind Buster Posey.
Newcomb, Folty, and Winkler would have a shot from the pitching side. Without knowing anything else, Dansby could lose out as a back-up so that a bad team’s lone rep could make it. But the other two SS — Turner and Russell — come from All-Star heavy teams as well, so if you had to take a reserve SS, why not Dansby? Suzuki and Contreras could be on the bubble as catcher reserves.
All told, we could have 5-7 All-Stars this year. It’s always good to have your hot half at the beginning of the year instead of the end!
Ross Stripling, after making 8 starts and 11 relief appearances, would be leading our team in fWAR, ahead of Folty and Newcomb, who have both pitched more innings. Fangraphs WAR loves Josh Hader and Stripling.
Winkler is 4th among NL relievers in fWAR. And he’s a rookie.
Has anyone here seen Pylon Reenactment Society? They’re basically a Pylon tribute band with the original Pylon lead singer. (Sort of like how Project/Object performed songs with Zappa frontmen like Napoleon Murphy Brock and Ike Willis.)
@8 Thanks T. I’m afraid those are 20 flags that won’t fly forever.
@18, I keep meaning to check them out when they roll through–exist in?–town.
But you know it’s less trouble to mix myself a B&B and just put on Gyrate.
What move do Braves make to stay in contention ????
The number 1 take away I have from All Star voting so far is that the Braves “Get out the vote” campaign has been extremely effective. The dead giveaway is that Camargo is the 3rd biggest vote getter among 3rd basemen. Freeman looks like he’s in good shape and has a great chance (deservedly so) of winning the fan vote. When other teams start their vote drives, I think Markakis will fall, but he’s still got a chance. Ozzie better enjoy being the lead vote getter at 2nd, because it won’t last long.
Yep.
@18, I saw ’em here in Macon last year and they were fantastic. She’s still got the pipes and the band plays those amazing songs so tight. Made me dance and I never dance. Getting Joe Rowe from The Glands, etc to play drums was a smart choice.
@24, RIP Ross Shapiro. Saw the Glands at a city festival in 2014 or 2015. Just wonderful. About time somebody puts Double Thriller back into print.
Acuna and Inciarte at 5 and 6 in the outfield are also good indications that there are a lot of Braves fans voting early and often. It will change.
There was some pretty good baseball played in the college ranks if I could say so myself.
@25 Ross was the epitome of cool. Listened to the self-titled record just yesterday, oddly enough. Still a masterpiece.
25: if you’re just straight jonesing for Ruddy’s Waltz, you can buy it from CD Universe (https://www.cduniverse.com/productinfo.asp?pid=7874411). But yes, I agree, someone really needs to repress that beautiful Kenny Death vinyl version.
@various…
Sobering it is to be exposed
to those whose ears are open, mine are closed
entirely generational
and hardly confrontational
it’s up to me, the challenge posed.
the guy who’s never danced before
may well go down in Journal lore
surely a modern miracle
but lacking a beat empirical
engage ‘fore callow youth doth close the door.
Kenny Death
i will have to fight this with my last breath
whoever he may be
unlikely he will take a shine to me.
The Glands
are we allowed to clap our hands?
nomenclature so medical
suggests a tune is merely hypothetical.
Nah. They had no problem making the tune medical, too:
ummm… “remove preview”?