POWER RANKING of POWER RANKINGs:
8 In keeping with Bleacher Report’s commitment to quality, the link didn’t work for two hours, and they put us in 14th…
7 These idiots dropped us to 13th, but at least they have the rankings ordered from worst to first, which is how it should be
6 Fallen to 12th over at ESPN
5 We’re 11th, according to the prose-poets at CBS Sports
4 Down to ninth in the Grueling Truth, which is also what I call my professional wrestling finishing maneuver
2 Your personal POWER RANKINGs
1 My personal POWER RANKINGs
POWER RANKING of first-half memories:
13 Midsummer sweep of the Cardinals, always enjoyable (see below)
12 coop learns about Tinder
11 Acuna’s first homer off Homer
10 blazon finds a new sentimental favorite in Anibal Sanchez, pitcher whisperer
9 “Amanda’s Husband” nickname gets all the way back to Amanda herself
8 Flaherty and Tucker the greatest folk hero duo since Simon and Garfunkel
7 The title of the article says it all.
6 Albies sets the Braves’ XBH record for the first month of the season
5 Dansby caps a wild six-run comeback against the Marlins
4 Folty’s 2 hit, 11 K complete game. Game score of 93, not too shabby
3 Markakis’ opening day walk-off — we actually have seven walk-off wins so far this year
2 63 days in first place
1 Rob admits he’s Matt Wisler. Kidding. Actual #1 is Rob takes the wheel at Braves Journal. Roger moves into Rob’s previous role as minor leaguers’ lead advocate. AAR presumably just golfs now. It’s the circle of life, and it moves us all.
POWER RANKING of prime schadenfreude opportunities:
7 “None of our pitching prospects are any good”
6 “The rebuild will take at least ten years”
4 “Ozzie Albies will never succeed as a major leaguer”…
4 …tied with “Albies drinks too much”
3 LOLMETS. You can never go wrong with the Mets because the Mets can never go right
2 The Cardinal way? GM publicly criticizing players, firing the manager, trashing him on the way out. I can’t take my eyes off this train wreck.
1 Nationals now displaying their propensity to choke over the course of an entire season. Delicious.
1a Imagine being Marc Schneider
POWER RANKING of Braves Journal POWER RANKINGs unpaid interns:
1 Well… I fired everyone except: Rachel, Emory, c/o ’21. In her spare time this week, Rachel wrote a grant proposal to a local community foundation seeking a small stipend for Braves Journal POWER RANKINGS’ unpaid interns. That’s all well and good, Rachel, but in order to keep the lights on here, we have certain core costs we need to cover before we think about non-core expenses. Still, I appreciate your initiative, and I pledge to put any resources that you fundraise to excellent use!!
Also, thank you to all the real all-stars, the recappers.
Nick, c’mon man.
sdp rightly notes he looks like Kim Jong Un.
This is what Nick wore to the All-Star red carpet event. This has got to be a joke. Right?
lmao
This post is firmly in my top 5.
I will update the post when I get back to my computer, but I do want to say immediately that this was the work of Adam R. Sorry Adam!!
Looks like Sacha Baron Cohen impersonating Nick Markakis.
Markakis supports giving kindergarteners grenades.
For all of the crap that Manfred gets about attacking the sacred cow of the slow game, they’ve done a great job on this All-Star week of celebrating the players.
Except with Markakis. No one can celebrate him.
@snowshine
Yes, weird for Bowman to just say it out of left field like that. Whatever, Peanut.
I would want Lane Adams over Danny Santana, but that’s about the nicest thing I can say about him.
Remember two months ago when people were rending garments because we were going to lose Lane Adams off of the 40-man?
The need to improve the bench has made Lane not as attractive. Lane against lefties in center could be interesting if no acquisition.
How about Folty!
Aw, you beat me to it. I was just about to commend Folty on his inning’s work. Nick drew a walk in typical Markakis fashion.
This is a great post and I am honored with a mention. Thanks to AAR or Rob…. And, yes, the recappers are the best! Having only recently found this blog (winter/spring), it has become a must read for me. Also, want to mention that I prefer this format to the prior one – a good change.
Oddly, most blogs are about the blog and comments are to be avoided. This is an extremely rare exception. While the recaps are great – the comments are where the fun is.
We’re glad you’re here, Roger. Adam R. wrote this. Really need to get him a login.
Naturally, Ozzie swings at the first pitch.
Hard to tell.
@14 … he swung at 1st pitch.. u kidding me ? .. haha
So Phillies gonna end up with Moustakus huh .. yep Braves are right there and not gonna make a move and let the other teams get better .. typical … maybe next year guys and gals ..
A very three-true-outcome All Star Game. 9 HRs (so far….LOL), 9 walks, and 23 Ks. Oh yeah, 7 solo shots.
Thank you, Adam.
Didn’t watch ASG, instead opting for Pride of the Yankees. Uncle Gary could flat out rake.
Glad to see Machado depleting Dodgers farm. That’s what matters, right, having the number one farm system?
What about Adam Jones as a platoon partner for Inciarte?
I will be happy if the Phillies trade for Moustakas.
Sounds good to me, Smitty. Would Santana be enough, or should me throw in Flaherty too?
@20 Jones is beloved in Baltimore; I can’t imagine they would trade him unless Jones wanted to go to a contender. He would also have 5-and-10 rights, I assume, to block any trade he didn’t like.
Beyond that, Adam Jones would be a terrible fit as a platoon partner for Inciarte due to reverse platoon splits – OPS vs. lefties is .677 this year, .739 in 2017, .580 in 2016.
I would be happy with a vs RHP platoon for Ender.
They could platoon vs both even. Probably.
@ 23, I got this year and previous 3 years combined and they have reverse splits. Over 1800 or more at bats, that has some meaning. So, no, Jones doesn’t help cover for Ender. Meaning, for me if Orioles give him away except for salary, I wouldn’t take him.
I think Adam R. missed it badly. AAR is not golfing. He is listening to new wave music and drinking craft beer.
I think it was more of a dig at John Hart.
I’m glad I contributed to code name AMANDA.
Fried will start rehabbing with AAA tonight.
LOL’d at the Marc Schneider shout-out.
We’re 58% through the season, and we’ve gotten a combined 1.1 fWAR from McCarthy, Teheran, Gohara, Fried, and Soroka. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth if we don’t make a big acquisition, but we’re going to simply have to get better performance from those 5 if we’re going to compete in the second half.
@30
If there’s one thing this site needs more of, it’s Marc Schneider stopping by more often to tell us we’re all being mean to the Nats.
On a separate note, the advent of their Atlanta bureau finally nudged me to purchase an Athletic subscription, so we’ll see how that goes.
@32. I’ve read a few of the free Athletic articles, and if I’m being honest, other than no ads, I really don’t see anything ‘different’ about the articles, the writing, or just in general.
The Athletic ‘folks’ are selling this as if its some radical new ‘thing’ and I don’t understand why they think that.
Let me know if you feel differently, etc.
I’ve had The Athletic for several months now, and I’m not seeing much different. I’m holding on for a few months of the new Atlanta stuff, but I’ll probably cut bait at the end of the year.
@20, @23, @25 Further, Jones is not much of a CF any more. Maybe a corner. And he doesn’t walk. Clutch hitter and some power but that’s about it.
@31 My money is on Fried; he’s the best choice for that if he is given a regular opportunity to perform and he can avoid the blisters. Gohara and Soroka will come up big after Sept 1st, if we’re still in it. Teheran will continue to be, well, Teheran – I would only count on that. And McCarthy is done – we got his best innings already. If he can get straight in middle relief than he may be able to give some good spot starts.
Why not add Kolby into that calculus? He has to be the best wild card we have.
I still think the rotation will come together (assuming Newk gets back to where he was, too). We need to add some very solid relief pitching (not named Abas).
I still think mining the Mets for Asdrubel and Familia has merit. I might give up a high prospect and 2-3 low-to-non prospects for those two even if they are rentals. How about Muller or Wentz, Clouse, Derian, and Lugbauer? You could send over Flaherty and Moylan to balance the 40-man.
I wouldn’t want to trade a relief prospect in AA or higher. Not because they’re this highly coveted lot, but because they aren’t, and I’d rather keep these guys to see if they become bullpen pieces. I doubt they have value, so might as well hold onto them.
Kolby and Touki could definitely be added, but I was using those guys to highlight how little we’ve gotten from them so far. I know Phillips hasn’t impressed, but I could add him as a guy who could contribute to the second half that did not to the first half. Luke Jackson provided a little value, but he could be helpful in the second half.
On the Athletic, I agree that in general the content isn’t groundbreaking in any way. What they do have is an impressive stable of writers that should make it worth the small investment. That and no ads.
Also of note, DOB says we will start voting on the HOF now since AJC prohibited it.
I’m beginning to think Rob Manfred is a doofus.
New thread.