Jays 6, Braves 2

Baseball’s a simple game. You throw the ball. You hit the ball. You catch the ball…

You catch the ball…

YOU CATCH THE….!!!

Oh for chrissakes, people.

Editor’s Note: It appears the comment link may not be loading on some browsers, potentially due to the length of the post not triggering the “continue reading…” button. So I’m just adding in some additional lines to trigger that button.

Buster was out.

George Lazenby was underrated. Timothy Dalton even more so.

How can you have any pudding if you don’t eat your meat?

49 thoughts on “Jays 6, Braves 2”

  5. Hoo, man, I have a lot of thoughts, but not a lot of opinions. And since you can’t talk stadiums without money and since you can’t talk money without politics, I’m going to do my best to toe the line.

    -Baseball can and will work in Tampa Bay, and it’s just a matter of whether or not it will be in the form of a major league baseball team. Spring Training does well, as does minor league baseball. I think I’m going to see about 8-9 Spring Training and minor league games this vs. maybe 3-4 Rays games. And it looks like I’ll see 3-4 Braves games in Miami and Atlanta. And that’s the problem. I love baseball and hate the Trop, and I think that’s the consensus amongst baseball fans in Tampa Bay.
    -The site is tremendous. Based on geography, income, and the lack of ocean-ness, there are more paying customers within 30 minutes of the new site.
    -Obviously the new stadium looks incredible, but I think $892M is a BS number being used as a sticker shock move by Sternberg. STP was built for, supposedly, $672M (does not include The Battery), and Marlins Park was built for, supposedly, $515M. A reporter asked that if this site was the “Cadillac”, how much does the “Buick” cost? Sternberg said this is the “Buick”. I don’t buy that.
    -STP needed a roof, and DOB speculates it would have cost $150M. This proposal has the roof costing $220M. Clean it up. Marlins Park has a roof, and the overall number is much lower. I imagine they’ll all get realistic and build a perfectly cromulent stadium for a much lower price.
    -Who’s going to pay for it whatever the number becomes? This is obviously the golden question, and I just don’t know how I feel about public funding yet. It’s undeniable counties and cities benefit from stadiums and the existence of professional sports. Property taxes, bed taxes, tourism, and increasing the overall attractiveness of a city help the area. But for every $1 in benefit, how much, if any, can a team expect the area to share in when it’s time to build a stadium? There should be something, IMO. Is it $0.25? $0.50? The full dollar? ::Gasp:: More than a dollar? And if it’s more, do you justify it by saying that the people enjoy it, so why not? I have no idea, so therefore, I have no idea how to feel about a $900M stadium.
    -Sternberg did a good job of getting the residents excited about a state-of-the-art facility. I think that’s all he wanted.

  6. I think Florida is full of baseball fans… for other teams. I’m not saying that Florida’s home teams don’t have fans, because they do, but I just think that Florida is home to a lot of people who relocated there. It makes sense that spring training would do really well since it’s an opportunity to go see teams that fans would ordinarily have to make an expensive trip to go see.

    What does this have to do with Rob’s new stadium plan? I don’t know, but Florida baseball teams all suck.

  7. The Gators are pretty good.

    (Much as it pains me to say so.)

    More to the point, though, you could say the same thing about Phoenix — a spring training mecca that never had a major league team, and where it would be relatively easy to just cheer for whoever was training out there, or pick a California or Texas team and just go with them. But then they won a World Series and developed a decent enough local fanbase. Basically all you need to do to build a fanbase is win a bunch and avoid sticking as many middle fingers in your fans’ eyes as the Marlins do.

  8. I became a Braves fan because I grew up in northeast Florida, and of course, TBS and all that. And I love the Braves and probably always will. And right, I wasn’t going to become a Rays fan just because a team came in a couple hours south. I’ve since moved here and that has helped, but the Rays have not done enough to grab the fan a little more casual than I over from whatever allegiance that fan had before relocation.

    I don’t think you can lump the two Florida baseball teams together. The Marlins are just… blech. Bad owners, bad stadiums, bad location of a good stadium, and just a complete seesaw of an organization. If Jeter’s group stays in the game long enough, they can fix what’s broken there, and the bad location of their stadium will probably be overcame.

    The Rays have similar problems, but they have some excuses, and they’re on the right path. The Trop is just a terrible, terrible, terrible stadium in an even worse location. The AL East is brutal. But the Rays are a smart FO and coaching staff, and they’ve been that way for a while now.

    They need a stadium which commits them to the area, we need to stop hearing about Montreal, they need some more time with their name change, and they need a new generation of fans to grow up at the new stadium watching Blake Snell and Brent Honeywell and Willy Adames and Jesus Sanchez and Brendon McKay and… Matt Wisler… I think they’ll be just fine. When those guys get expensive, they should have a new stadium, more revenue, and they can retain those players the way they just simply couldn’t with Price, Shields, Upton (::snicker::), Crawford, etc.

    The Braves had history when they came to Atlanta. They brought Hank Aaron, Eddie Matthews, Rico Carty, Felipe Alou, and Joe Torre with them. They had a stable, established franchise. I tend to point out things like this when the Florida teams get a bad rap.

  9. Basically all you need to do to build a fanbase is win a bunch and avoid sticking as many middle fingers in your fans’ eyes as the Marlins do.

    That’s very, very true and well stated. Plus, Bank One wasn’t a bad place to watch some ball when it first opened, and they’re already getting rid of it anyway. The Trop was used for monster truck rallies and pro hockey before the Rays were even dreamt of. It was just a joke of a situation.

  11. Winning a bunch and sticking as many middle fingers in his fans’ eyes worked for Stone Cold Steve Austin, though. That’s all the Marlins organization has been trying to replicate. Right?

  12. You can act as unfriendly toward your fans as you want, as long as you shake hands at the end of the game. The one thing you can’t do is lose AND act like total jerks, unless you’ve built up literally decades of local goodwill.

    (Like the Washington football team.)

  13. Today is a sad day in the lives of Atlanta Braves fans. The organization will suit up with one less man in their midst.

    Mauricio Cabrera has been released. Wow, what a swift and painful fall from triple digits and nasty out of the pen to can’t find the strike zone for 2 years.

  14. Hey folks. I haven’t commented much in the last 3 or 4 seasons, but I still check the site regularly. It was a combination of life, work, and the Braves being pretty bad.

    I still appreciate AAR giving me the opportunity to write recaps a few seasons back. Anyway, I wanted to commend everyone for keeping the site alive and well.

    I might start posting regularly again, because I feel the need to be Mad Online about the team.

  15. Wouldn’t have guessed that Camargo is the 4th-most tenured player in the system.

  20. If I’m not mistaken, Arodys Vizcaino is the 3rd longest tenured Atlanta Brave. Folty is 4th.

    Edit: Markakis is tied with Viz for 3rd.

  21. The tweet I linked to referred to entire length of time in the organization, hence why Carlos Franco, a career minor leaguer, is so high on the list. Without looking it up, I would think Camargo was signed when he was 17-18, and he’s 24 now, so that’s kinda where he was headed with it. Sims and Parsons have to be getting up there too.

  22. I’m surprised that teams will be offering on Eovaldi as if he’s a proven starter. He’s 8 starts in from Tommy John, and he could make another 3 before the deadline, which could help solidify himself, but I don’t know how much I’d really be willing to give up for someone with so little track record post-surgery.

    As a similar example from our foibles, Jhoulys Chacin was 5 starts into his resurrection with a better FIP than Eovaldi’s, and all we got back was a low minors live arm for him. Maybe Coppy jumped the shark, but I’m just not under the impression that a, say, FV 40+ (Muller), Wisler, and Peterson and then filler would be the price for something like that.

    In other news, Milwaukee has “discussed” offering one of their top pitching prospects, Keon Broxton, and a top SS prospect for Machado, but that’s coming from Jim Bowden, who sucks:

    So who knows what the market is. Or could it be like the FA offseason where the top players still got their huge deals and the non-transcendent veterans got substantially underwhelming deals. Definitely hoping for that one!

  26. With the slump Flowers is in he should be batting behind Camargo and Acuña as well.

  28. The Braves are taking out their frustration on this poor pitcher. 6 run 2nd inning and the Blue Jays go to the pen.

  30. If the standards of Braves-challenged replay calls were used, Santana would be safe and the run would stand.

  33. This is Toronto’s lineup, and why Teheran and Folty have dominated. Only 3 guys (and the pitcher) have an OBP above .306.

  38. Guys, I’d like to take this negative time to share with you some positive news. My brother, a stand-up comedian, will be performing a set on Conan tonight. He’s 34, he’s been a comedian since he was 18, and a lot like minor leaguers making the big leagues, you have to work and toil for a really long time to reach the big show. My brother and I really did not come from much, so I know what he went through to get here, and I’m really proud of him. I’ve never been more happy for someone in my life. Hope you guys can tune in.

  42. @40:

    Swanson:
    0.247/0.300/0.403, 7 HR, 34 RBI, 18 2B, 21 BB, 78 SO, 116 TB

    Heyward:
    0.279/.340/0.419, 5 HR, 38 RBI, 15 2B, 24 BB, 32 SO, 108 TB

    At least we’re not paying Swanson $28,166,667.

  45. @38 best of luck to Chris Cope tonight…past my non baseball bed time but I am going to dvr it to check him out

  48. Ozzie is the first Brave to homer from both sides in a game since…wait…what…Nick Swisher?!

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