Editor’s note: Let this serve as a game thread for the second game. Rusty S. gives us a player rundown on Adam Duvall.
Adam Duvall had his first full major league season at age 27, an age historically considered to represent a typical player’s offensive peak. He hit 33 home runs in that 2016 season, and followed it up with 31 homers in his age 28 season. Duvall has a career .232/.293/.460 slash line, and he was standing at .205/286/.399 when he came over from Cincinnati, including 15 home runs in 331 at-bats.
As far as Duvall’s apparent new role as a lefty smasher, he does not seem to fare significantly better , posting a career line of .239/.322/.466 against the former and .230/.283/.458 against the latter. It seems his main expectation against lefties is to be *not* Ender Inciarte.
Duvall’s numbers have not been as inflated by Great American Ball Park as I thought, as his home run totals home or away have been essentially the same throughout his career. However, his late debut, and his drop off thus far in his age 29 season concerns me regarding his long term ability to contribute outside of his peak years.
Duvall’s job in Cincinnati was to hit a home run a week; a rare and useful skill. In the short term, if he can do the same for Atlanta from here out, he’ll win us a ball game or two.
I move to rename Sobotka “Chewbotka”, which seems to have been originated by Seat Painter. That’s good one. If he can stick on the club, he will be recorded in the Braves Journal Glossary. Anyone say aye?
Sobotka sounds like a brand of lawn mower.
Woo, my first nomination to the BJ Glossary.
I’d like to thank the Academy, my agent, my lovely wife, Mrs. Painter who puts up with so much, George Lucas for the inspiration….
I own a Sobotoka lawn tractor. Chews through a lot with minimal effort.
@1, seconded!
Do y’all get the feeling that the WaPo writers secretly enjoy it when the gNats fall apart? There’s a certain glee to lines like:
“We left here with one win,” rookie Manager Dave Martinez said, staring out at nothing, his voice as hollow as his eyes. “We should have had three.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/nationals/in-devastating-turn-of-events-nationals-fall-to-cubs-4-3-on-walk-off-grand-slam/2018/08/12/2ec77f92-9e60-11e8-83d2-70203b8d7b44_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.bf7974153426
@1, thirded
Love laughers. Let’s have another, please.
Chewbotka works for me. I hope he sticks around long enough to make it a household name.
Rob/Rusty, thanks for the profile. I have been very excited about getting Duvall. He had been an offseason target. With what you’ve put together above, I’m afraid I’m starting to see a mini-Chris Davis forming. *shudder* I just hope there’s a way to prevent that from happening. At least he’s a better defender.
@6 I can’t speak for the rest of their Nats coverage, but that one article is melodramatic. Someone is trying too hard, and it’s obviously not the baseball team.
Gee whiz, how are you going to tell Touki Toussaint he can’t stay in the big leagues? It is a test of a really good team that you’re able to bring someone like this up to make such a big start.
Oh, and while it’s great to be able to pitch against the Marlins during the first game of a doubleheader, the Marlins are still a major league team.
@9 I like Duvall; I hope he does well. His numbers this year aren’t *too* far below the last 2 years, and I think if he were still playing full time, he might have gotten back to them. Bears watching though.
@6 Violins were playing in my head as I read that.
@1, @3 He did chew some innings.
When I hear Sobotka, I immediately go back to Season 2 of The Wire.
Philly gets Boston at home for a couple games, but then they get New York for 5 straight games at home, then @ Wash for 3 games. Who knows where the gNats will be then.
@15 same. IMO the best season. I vote chewabtka.
Touki’s got the stuff. 1/2 combo will definitely play at the big league level. I will say the fish helped him out several times swinging at balls outside the zone. Pretty much a best case scenario MLB debut.
Let’s play two.
Top 5 pleasant surprises with the 2018 Braves (note : there are several other good news stories and a few bad, but these are the biggest schockers for me.)
1. Markakis ( contender to win batting title and mvp. .897 ops)
2. Sanchez (2.83 era, 86 innings )
3. Albies ( 21 hrs)
4. Culberson (.823 ops)
5. Camargo (.796 ops)
Good list. I guess Acuna was not a surprise.
It may have been blind optimism, but I was expecting Acuna to make a run at ROY. After a late call up and a DL stint, 16 hrs surprise me, but not to the extent of the other 5.
HIS NAME IS STILL RONALD!!!
When will they learn?
And this is his team.
Dang, Ronald. Play ball.
Kid is locked. and. loaded. Goodness.
Has that ever happened before??? Leadoff HR in both ends of a DH??? W O W
I should know not to tune in even a little late. Young Ronald’s first AB of each game has become must see TV.
Johan’s an RBI machine.
@28 Best I can tell the last time it happened was Rickey Henderson in 1993 and before that it was 80 years earlier. He may have just done something thats only been done in MLB twice before! Someone see if they can check me on this.
Ronald Acuna is all out of bubblegum.
Correction, Brady Anderson did it in 1999. Still a rare feat.
@33 Was that the year Brady hit 50 while mostly hitting leadoff? Does that mean we might expect 50 at some point from young Ronald?
Heck, Acuna might get to 30 this year!
Chip just said 9 gallons to the mile in reference to his first car…….
Anyone think Folty doesn’t want to be shown up by a rookie phenom?
Fangraphs really doesn’t like Ronald’s defense. That’s surprising. Otherwise they would consider him to be even more valuable than his 1.5 fWAR in 274 PAs. I still like him just fine though.
By the way, Acuna had a wRC+ of 63 at AAA. That turned out to really matter…
@34 Nah he hit the 50 in ‘96 and interestingly barely broke 20 the rest of his career.
I think maybe Acuna got sick of hearing about Soto…
@35 – Well, it was the 70’s.
If he’s gonna hit like this then I would let him play out there without a glove.
Freddie is popping up again, happened in both games today. Hope it’s not the Lasik.
I just can’t get over Touki. He’s the most entertaining pitching prospect we have. I never caught any of his starts at Florida, but I’ve seen him in the dugout a lot and how he conducts himself, and I’m just really impressed with how far he’s come development-wise but has kept that infectious personality. I think he has the probability to be a fan favorite for the next half decade+. He’s special, and his pitching has matched him as a person.
C’mon, Folty.
@37 He hasn’t always looked that great in left, to be fair. I get the sense he’s a very good center fielder, but I think people underestimate the adjustment from center to the corners. The angles are a lot different and it takes some getting used to, so I expect those numbers will improve.
Only the Marlins., but Braves starters are doing just fine.
I should badmouth Freddie more often 🙂
Well done, Folty.
Foltzie is a horse.
espn announcers at the mets yankees game saying that “Acuna is no Juan Soto”
Juan Soto has been terrific, but Acuna is starting to play like he’s capable of. This time next month the conversation might be reversed, but Soto deserves the recognition he’s receiving.
According to krussell, IWOTMarlins, but we’re beating a team we’re supposed to beat, and that’ll get you to the playoffs. We’ll be 1 full game up in nearly mid-August, and to quote Jack Nicholson, that ain’t bad.
Agreed that Soto has been great, but its not like there is no comparison. acuna leads in HR, SB and fielding.
Heck if Acuna stopped getting crap calls on 3-2 pitches, he might lead in OBP as well.
Hey look, Flaherty didn’t ground out!
edit: and another borderline 3-2 goes against acuna
I’d give real money to see the Cards beat the gnats in the bottom of the ninth…I’m now actively pulling for the gnats to not only lose, but lose in spectacular fashion.
@50 Yes, of course, Acuna is much better.
Winkler just looks gassed.
A win is a win, no complaints there. All we can do is play the schedule. But this Marlins team has been gutted and they didn’t start with much to begin with. These games against them are almost must-win.
@56 He has been since around the all star break. I think Snit is seeing that and Winkler has not been used in high leverage situation much in the second half.
To be fair, his inning total is pretty high now considering where he was one or two years ago. Snit has been protecting him quite well.
Nats just gave up a 3-run homer to Matt Carpenter in the 8th, and they went from a one-run lead to a 2-run deficit.
Or, you know, I’ll take a Cards comeback in the 8th too. I bet Harper is already dreaming of NY or LA…
Dusty Baker has his share of weaknesses but it’s a terrible idea to bring in a rookie manager to manage a veteran team. I love how the Natspos are being mis-managed. It’s like having Ed Wade and Amaro back then with the Phillies. Somehow some way they will mess up.
If you win series at home, split on the road, and win 55-75% vs. teams you should beat wherever you play, you’ll make the playoffs.
Freaking Cardinals bullpen. Ole Bud.
Damn, Cards are blowing it.
And the Natspos just tied it up. Credit where it’s due; they haven’t decided to roll over and die just yet.
To be frank, I hate them both.
Oh, agreed, though I despise the Cards less now that they are no longer accompanied by Tony La Russa’s Hateable Face™.
Hahahaha the Nationals announcers are completely silent. Love it. Walk off Cards.
lol…gnats
Holy crap. They really are cursed.
This is so great. I hate the Nationals and their dumb existence.
@67 True. It’s probably just a gut feeling…it seems like the Cards are not as well run as they used to be. Their farm is not as strong as before and their major league core talents are on the wrong side of the 30. Seems like the organization is trending downward.
Aaaaaand there it is! Spectacular loss!
I can tell you that Minter would not get walked off on two nights in a row.
We’re goin’ to the ‘ship.
The Natspos are definitely trending downward I think from an organization point of view. They have peaked.
So, the Nats are what? Seven games back? Eight?
I would just like to point out my prescient post at 54…I also told my son as we watched the second game that Acuna was about to go deep again…shoulda played the lotto tonight.
This has been one of my favorite stretches of the season. The Nats just give so much free entertainment.
As Skip would say, boy, this is fun.
Acuna Matata is unreal.
Outside of the fact that we need more power bats in our farm and we are tied to the terrible tv deal, I have no complain about the Braves as an organization.
The hiring of AA is huge. Gotta give credits to the Braves for finally getting out of their comfort zone to hire a competent “outsider” to be the GM.
And the next one is waiting in the wings:
Kyle Wright 7IP 1H 0R 1BB 8K
also Ynoa with a good game: 6IP 1H 0R 2BB 7K
Soto has one thing Acuna does not have and does not want, a sulky temper. On bad/close calls it’s always there, visible.
One of the extraordinary things about our guy is his maturity in this area. All those questionable called strike three inside pitches – there is the briefest of pauses and then off he goes, head high.
Advantage Atlanta. Big advantage. For us, watching, too.
Touki…
joie de vivre…lovely to see
his one moment came an hour in when he inexplicably threw five back to back pitches in the dirt, miles short of the target. The first guy walked, the next grounded out! Inning over. Never reoccurred. He was not fazed. No problem apparently. Folty would have been swinging on a chandelier above home plate.
Does anyone notice the low attendance in the past couple games? What’s going on?
PEOPLE ARE SAYING that Mike Rizzo’s gonna lose his job.
@ #84
I think school’s back in session.
Yes, Atlanta schools started August 1. Crazy.
UGA resumed yesterday.
recapped.
85—I took your cue last night: https://twitter.com/NotFinnishStu/status/1029210407536394240