Another great performance by All Star Ozzie Albies. Otherwise, a night to forget in the City made famous by a certain lousy beer. Indeed, just as that beer did to the Killer, Milwaukee made a loser out of the Braves by a score of 7-2.
Max Fried had a poor start, gave up 4 runs in the first three innings, and then left with a blister after three innings. The Braves’ offense only managed three hits, two by Ozzie. In the first, Ender was hit by a pitch, scored on an Albies triple, who then alertly scored on a comebacker to the pitcher when the pitcher wasn‘t sufficiently alert to Albies. Those two runs would be the Braves high point of the evening, thanks to that aforementioned Brewers pitcher, Jhoulys Chacin. Our old friend Jhoulys went seven, gave up three hits, struck out seven, and only yielded those two first inning runs.
Other than Albies’ double and triple, the only other bright spot for the Braves were the three perfect innings of relief tossed by Shane Carle. Thanks to Carle, you had the feeling the Braves were still in it, sort of, until Winkler gave up three in the eighth.
Alarmists will point out that the Braves have had three poor games in a row, thanks to three miserable starting pitcher performances. And the lead in the NL East over the Phils is down to one game!
Those with more perspective will point out that the Braves are still in first place! And seven games into this grueling road trip, the Braves are 4-3 for the trip.
Our old nemesis the Natspos overcame a nine run deficit to beat the Fish. Maybe that will be a catalyst that will turn their season around. On the other hand, it is just one game, and the Braves still lead them by six.
The best news is, in the immortal words of Earl Weaver, “this ain’t football—we play every day.†Win a couple of games in Milwaukee and everyone will forget the past three. Our ace Foltzie takes the hill on Friday.
Thank you, tfloyd.
We will not lose every game we play from now on.
Great quote, tfloyd. Momentum is the next day’s starting pitcher. Need a good one from Folty.
Stu, what do you think will happen with Carter Stewart? Doesn’t seem to look good.
Fried has had blisters problems since the beginning of last year. That was the reason for his struggles in AA. If he hasn’t been able to fix the issue by now, then that’s concerning.
I wonder why he has begun to have these blister problems starting in AA. Could it be he’s throwing harder than he used to?
Normally, callouses would reduce the issue.
If Fried can’t go in his next start, do they call up Touki?
I would imagine Wisler would get the start.
I’m not sure Fried has the arsenal and durability to last as a starter. He could be a really good left handed reliever though.
Wisler got hammered at Gwinnett Wednesday and his ERA ballooned to 4.85. I’m not so sure he’s the next guy.
Parsons is scheduled to start for Gwinnett tonight. If they DL Fried today, Parsons would get the call most likely to be the reliever. Phillips would also be an option since he has had a couple of days rest.
Gohara could be an option.
To clarify, I was talking about Parsons and Phillips as relief options to call up for a few days if Fried goes on the DL today.
I don’t know who would start in Fried’s place.
Fried to the DL and Phillips recalled.
Gohara does seem like the logical choice to start in Fried’s place if he is stretched out enough.
This Carter Stewart situation sucks
Yes, yes it does.
Yes, Gohara would make sense. There are so many arms they can throw at the problem. Too think we don’t even miss Soroka right now is pretty incredible.
Actually, looking at the schedule, the Braves have 2 off days next week and then the All-Star break. They can go without a 5th starter for awhile. Presumably McCarthy or Fried will be ready by then.
When was the last time McCarthy was “ready” though?
What is wrong with Stewarts’s wrist? Is it something that won’t get better?
Jon Heyman is repotting Stewart did not sign.
So did they miss the deadline on Stewart?
Stewart had a potential 80 pitch, IMO. His curveball is Barry Zito level. Maybe better.
If I understand correctly, if we offered him at least 2 million then we get the 9th pick again in next season’s draft in addition to our first round pick for next season.
Nothing to see there Chief, he hasn’t proved it in the majors.
On a “seeing the silver lining” note, the draft looks to have a lot of college hitting talent next year so an extra 1st round pick and its bonus pool will be nice. Sucks for the kid. I can’t see 18-year-old me not taking 2+million dollars.
By the by, the signings of 2 other draftees — Hess and Vodnick — were in limbo awaiting Stewart’s bonus. Vodnick signed.
Interesting take. Did they do this to free up 2018 dollars? We’ve speculated whether they regret the Kemp trade’s moving around of money. Did this undo a portion of it?
Next year’s draft is supposed to be hitter friendly. Our system is kind of low on position player prospects after the graduation of Acuña, Albies, and Dansby.
@24: which of these things is not like the others?
This whole thing has made me wonder if the monies for major league player payroll, minor league player payroll, international draft, and domestic draft aren’t as compartmentalized as they seem. We make a lot about the slot money on the amateur side and pool money on the international side and the rules for each, but at the end of the day, there is $4.9M in physical dollars that seemingly was earmarked for Stewart and Hess that have now gone unspent. Where does that money go? The, frankly, lazy answer is, “Why, Rob, that money goes back into the pockets of those porn fat cats!”
But is that true? Gondee seems to be speculating that those unspent amateur draft dollars could go towards major league player payroll, which is the first time I can remember where there’s speculation that the monies aren’t in some sort of fixed compartmentalization, that if they don’t spend their budget in one area it can be allocated to another.
So if that’s the case, then there’s $4.9M. And at the beginning of the year, Bowman or O’Brien or whomever said they only had about $5M left to spend and they would save that for a deadline acquisition. Could those be the same monies? Possible, but that would imply the Braves knew they weren’t going to spend their draft allotment, and seemingly the only way of doing that would be to draft a first rounder and not sign them. I can’t imagine they planned to do this as early as the beginning of the year. But if they drafted Stewart, got under the engine, found a bigger wrist problem than they’d liked, and Hess was playing hardball, they may have just decided they’d rather take the 9th pick next year (and the slot money), and redirect those dollars into the ML team this year.
I find this really interesting, and if true, they would seem to be prioritizing the 2018 team at the expense of the 2019 team in a very creative way.
I’m certainly no expert. And I realize I’m about to refer you to an MLBTR comments section…
https://www.mlbtraderumors.com/2018/07/braves-fail-to-reach-agreement-with-first-round-pick-carter-stewart.html
The explanation you can find there — backed up by a few commenters’ assertions that this is how AA rolls — seems like the simplest explanation. I would not be shocked if I were wrong, though.
Wow.
Things fall apart. The center cannot hold. Those home runs were hit a long, long ways.
The arms are out of gas and the offense looks like it’s in Hibernation Mode for the second straight night. This team needs a break in the worst way.
This is fun.
Epitome of an episode…
This team will finish closer to 4th than 1st.
Blah.
Too many outs given away tonight.
The Phillies are winning and would move into a tie for first.
Jose Bautista hit a walk-off grand slam. This has been a good week.
@36 and will be active af at the trading deadline while we trade for insert random LOOGY here.
You never answered my requests to define “going for it”, Chief.
This team will finish closer to 4th than 1st.
Another way of expressing this is: “this team will finish in 3rd and not 2nd,” right?
Which isn’t terribly surprising.
Not scoring a run with runners on second and third with no outs could hurt us. But .174-hitting Santana and your lead-off hitters who can’t hit lefties aren’t exactly your two best hitters to deploy.
I’m almost certain Chief won’t actually articulate his hair-brain points because for some reason, in his mind, it’s more fun to throw out mindless negativity vs conceptualize all options.
Must be nice.
way da go .. Santana … Inciarte .. cant get ball out of infield ….
That inning right there says ‘no longer in first.’
what happened to Acuna
He left due to left groin tightness.
Great inning by Biddle. He looks better and better as the season goes along.
@46 .. well good .. not knee but hopefully not a serious strain
Wow .. Freeman really looking lost
No clutch hits tonight …… question why would anybody throw Albies, Freeman or Inciarte a strike on 1st pitch .. they swing at more 1st pitch balls than any 3 hitters i have seen .. just think how good they couild be when hitting with count in their favor ???
@39 Whatever the opposite of what we’re going to actually do would be going for it.
I’m sorry but a week ago you wrote an article about how this bullpen was good so you can spare us the lecture on conceptualization.
Here’s a concept. This team stinks and is living on borrowed time.
Bullpen allowed exactly what tonight? I must be watching a different game.
He’s safe. But replay will not overturn it.
Womp, womp.
Replay is pointless
Give them check tomorrow, boys.
Safe ….. it dont matter we lost game in 7th with Santana swinging at ball 4 and Inciarte .. Mr . 150 against LH pitchers a combacker to the mound .. period …
Whatever the opposite of what we’re going to actually do would be going for it.
And so, negative partisanship finds its way to baseball.
Chief, you want the team to fix the bullpen. The bullpen is what the front office says it’s prioritizing.
Now, I feel torn between not wanting to overreact to a losing streak and saying something about how the bigger area of concern/risk with this team was always the starters.
Fixing the bullpen probably isn’t going to be enough for a playoff run, but at least that’s the exact thing you’ve been harping on every time the team is behind in the late innings, no?
@50
No one is begging for your insight around here. But if you won’t defend your vague platitudes, then you’ll continue to look like a confused Neanderthal.
I find it telling you refuse to answer my question. I continue to think you’ll find more like-minded people on the AJC message board.
What the team really needs is to learn to play fundamental baseball. Move runners over. Hit sac flies. Bunt. Work counts. We have to play better small ball until we get another power hitter or two.
The problems seem to be ones that new personnel might not fix.
@60 – Huh??? Not saying it will happen, but getting Mike Trout would fix several problems. If you are saying that it’s all about management, that’s blatantly wrong. Many of our problems will be fixed when Freeman breaks out of his slump.
Recapped.
@61 Td – that’s not what I’m saying. What I’m saying is that the talent level is already good enough to be winners but that these same players need to apply their talents to the highest level. Bringing in “more talent” may not be as important as getting everything we can out of the talent we have.