So, with Atlanta matching up with Jose Urena for the first time since last August, I thought I would try to tie in the last night’s match-up with Avengers:Endgame. But, you know, Thanos is such a well-written villain (in my opinion anyway – which since I’m doing this recap, is the only one that matters. If you don’t like it – well, tough.) that it does the character a disservice to compare him to a punk like Urena. Then, trying to figure out who were the Avengers would’ve been tough. Cap? Freddie Freeman or Brian McCann?. Iron Man? Josh Donaldson? Thor? Probably Ronald Acuna. Ant-Man would definitely be Ozzie Albies. The only thing I am definitely sure of is that Ebony Maw showed up unexpectedly in the broadcast booth. I give you Mr. Joe Simpson.
Anyway, to the aforementioned game. Atlanta jumped out early, with Fab Five Freddie blasting a solo homer in the top of the first. Kevin Gausman shut down the Fish but Atlanta couldn’t do anything in the second. After getting the first out in the bottom of the 2nd, Gausman laid the groundwork for plunking Urena by allowing an infield single to Martin Prado, then walking Jorge Alfaro and hitting Jon Berti with a pitch. Miami tied it up when Rosell Herrera grounded out to Albies on a ball that the only play was to toss to first. Foundations of an Episode laid to claim he wasn’t really throwing at Urena – Gosh, really, no, I’m just wild.
First pitch to Urena was a 97 mph heater right behind the knees, and home plate umpire Jeff Nelson immediately ejected Gausman. Touki Toussaint was summoned from the pen, and he couldn’t get Urena, who walked, but did manage to strike out Curtis Granderson on a nasty hook to limit the damage.
Atlanta regained the lead in the third. Ender Inciarte singled to lead off the inning, and was sacrificed to second by Touki. After an Albies flyout, Donaldson brought the rain with a sky high pop that fell in the no man’s land between the first baseman, second baseman, and right fielder. 2-1 Atlanta.
Touki settled down in the bottom of the frame sandwiching a walk to Brian Anderson in between a strikeout and a Starlin Castro double play. Atlanta tacked on third run in the 4th when Acuna singled, Nick Markakis drew a walk, and Acuna advanced to third on Dansby Swanson‘s flyball, and BMac brought him in with a sac fly to left.
Nobody threatened in the 5th, and in the 6th, Neck drew a one out walk, and then with two down, BMac pulled a ball into the bullpen in right to make it 5-1. Touki seemed to run out of gas in the bottom of the frame, loading the bases with one out on a Prado walk, a Alfaro single and a Berti infield single. Herrera popped up to left not deep enough to score Prado, and when the Marlins brought in Neil Walker to pinch hit, Snit went to Jerry Blevins in the pen, who to no one’s surprise walked in the second Marlins run. But, Granderson flew out to right to end the Miami scoring.
The Bringer of Rain finished up the scoring in the 7th, with a two run double that was absolutely roped into the left field corner scoring Matt Joyce and Ozzie. That’s at least the third time in the last 10 games I can think of that Donaldson doubled home Ozzie from first base on a ringing double to left. If those two want to do that every couple of games or so, I can live with that.
Dan Winkler pitched a clean 7th, and Jacob Webb went two innings with just one harmless one out single in the 9th to finish out the game. Mike Soroka toes the rubber tonight against Trevor Richards. I hate facing Richards, as he seems to have the Braves number. But, what are you gonna do? Maybe he’ll accidently hit Donaldson and Jeff Nelson will toss him.
Prado, Marteen
for as long as its been
affection holds dear
Touki? says he, a moment ago it was up here.
Ronald Acuna is T’Challa, still in his callow youth phase. But soon he will be king.
Ozzie: Definitely Ant-Man.
Johan Camargo: War Machine. You can plug him in, he can play anywhere.
Dansby: Ignoring gender for the moment, he’s Captain Marvel. Still discovering the full extent of his power. Plus, hair is a significant detail for both of them.
Freddie Freeman: Thor. That mighty swing of his resembles the Mighty Thor swinging his hammer.
Ender Inciarte: If you squint, he kinda looks like Doctor Strange. Though he’s slighter of build, he’s capable of magic on defense.
I could see Brian McCann as Captain America, though perhaps the on-his-last-legs old man Cap. Has his code of ethics and natural-born leadership skills. Has command of the pitching staff.
Whichever pitcher has had his left arm reattached the most times would have to be Bucky.
I think Markakis makes a better Iron Man than Donaldson… old guy on the team (just like Stark) and “iron man” in the sense of number of games played (Kakes beats Donaldson on that for sure, right?).
@3 Sounds like Venters then.
Great recap, Seat Painter. It indeed seems like Richards has our number.
Jacob Webb will play. He’s got good/great stuff and good enough command.
I don’t get the Avengers and I don’t get this “baseball honor” thing. Is Acuna officially avenged (in the baseball honor sense) without actually plunking Urena? How would we know? Does Frenchy have to short-sheet his bed? Can’t we just make him listen to Chip for an inning or two?
I’d second Neck as Tony Stark, and pitch Donaldson as Drax. Not really from here, but playing on the team. Has one primary skill set.
Mike Soroka is Scarlett Witch. No one is really sure what he does or how he does it, but when it’s on, it’s super effective.
I feel about Blevins pretty much the same as what Seat Painter said but, if you limit his exposure, he can be effective. With Webb, Dayton, and Winkler up and Sobotka and Carle down, the bullpen is looking much better. Heck, even Chief likes Webb – that’s saying something. And the Braves should still sign Kimbrel on June 6th.
We need to turn our attention to trading out Teheran for the best available near-TOR we can find, That would seem to be MadBum right now. If I were AA, I’d put together whatever reasonable package the Giants would take even if there were a hint of an overpay. If the Giants want ML-ready OFs, we have Duvall, Ortega, Demeritte all hitting the crap out of the ball at Gwinnett. I honestly think they’d pass on Inciarte – they already have light-hitting defenders. We could send Teheran himself to balance salaries. He’d be a great innings eater for the Giants and would likely pitch better at PacBell. Then include a pitching or other prospect that could be of future use to the Giants (not a top 100 but in the lower end of the Braves’ top 30 – maybe as high as Weigel or Tarnok or Izzy Wilson). MadBum for Teheran, Duvall, Ortega, Tarnok should be plenty to get the job done even this early in the season. And that would create another space on the 40-man roster for Kimbrel or a promotion. And it would actually lower the payroll by Duvall’s $2-3M, paving the way for the Kimbrel signing.
Getting MadBum and Kimbrel by June 6th would, in my mind, put AA back into the plus column.
I like MadBum, but Trevor Bauer would also do nicely.
@11 I believe MadBum’s going to go for more than you maybe believe he will, because of supply and demand. The Giants are desperate for OF’s, so it’s hard not to see them asking for Pache, if they’re eating Tehran’s money on the chance he pitches better there. If you’re trying to move Duvall instead, I think you’re packaging him with Bryse Wilson and maybe Tarnok or something. I know MadBum’s not the pitcher he once was, but an old Chevelle is still an old Chevelle. People see it, and someone will up the bid because they want it, no matter the shape.
I do agree though, if they got MadBum and Kimbrel by June 6th, AA gets an A+ for the year from me. And while I wouldn’t trade Pache at this point, if it took one top flight young pitcher to get MadBum, not named Anderson or Wright, done deal.
There is no way we can get MadBum for Teheran, Duvall, Ortega, and Tarnok. No way, no how. If you’re a contending team, how are you not going to beat that? Teheran has literally no surplus value right now, and best case is minimal. Same with Duvall. Ortega and Tarnok, therefore, is not enough positive value, and any GM in baseball would easily beat that. There’s just no way.
A top 100 prospect is going to San Francisco in any deal for Bumgarner. And then another 100-200 prospect.
For me, the best value Duvall could possibly have in a trade is to lift off a flash-in-the-pan reliever with no track record whatsoever who’s had, at this point, about 12-15 good IP for a non-contending team. That’s the only trade I think the Braves can and could make with Duvall. Someone like the Shane Carle of 2018. Someone who’s going to give you about a 1 bWAR season but is a non-tender candidate at any moment.
Teheran is a long reliever by July. Something happens on literally a daily basis right now to push Teheran to the pen. Touki pitches well in long relief at the major league level or has a good start in AAA. Kyle Wright has a good start in AAA. Newcomb has a couple good starts in AAA. Bryse Wilson pitches well. Starting now, Teheran would have to rattle off a 6-7 start stretch of good performance to gain some value to another team. And when he doesn’t, he’s going to the pen.
And by the way, if the Atlanta Braves throw Teheran and his 5+ ERA and FIP in July of a pennant race because they’re trying to recoup the $1-2M in negative value JT has, then… well… that would be BS.
Newk up, Touki down as expected.
@17. Dumb Just dumb.
@18 What are you talking about? They’re bringing Newk up to pitch in the pen, it would seem. And to also have a fresh arm.
Reds release Matt Kemp. Seems like Reds fans also think Kemp didn’t want to play for them. How can fans of San Diego, Atlanta, and Cincy all be wrong that he didn’t want to play for them? Dude, you don’t get to pick who you play for. That’s the trade-off of being paid tens and tens of millions in an entertainment industry. He’s a jerk.
If Rob only told us what he thought.
Pretty amazing that Pache is slugging .560 so far. Unfortunately his obp seems to be a little lower than I was expecting. If he can start taking more walks and keeps slugging so high, we have something extremely special.
Ozzie slam!
He really wants to play major league baseball.
Mike Soroka #loveshitting
Why was Acuna pulled? was it just the 9-2 lead?
He tweaked something on his last at-bat. Actually, he may have done it beating out the throw at 1B during the one before. He got to 3B okay on Soroka’s single, so taking him out, given the lead, is probably just a precautionary measure.
Thanks Remy
@19 Newk up to start against the Dodgers. Apparently, like throwing three righties at the Phils, the Dodgers don’t hit lefties as well. My guess is that both Newk and Fried get starts against the Dodgers.
@25, Is that so?
Soroka great, Albies great, Acuna great, but……….
IWOTM
It’s great seeing Minter getting swings and misses with his changeup.
@20 Rob clearly won’t be heading any Matt Kemp fan clubs up anytime soon.
So if we’re bad when we lose to the good teams, are we good if we beat the bad teams?
Alright, let’s take inventory. How many above average starting pitchers do we have? I define that as having, say, a sustainable 110 ERA+ for the season, can make 27+ starts, and has the velo, control, and stuff to where you can project it going forward.
@25, I’m pretty sure he could see a therapist for that.
Running Max Fried/Mike Soroka Composite WAR total and pace:
2.0 bWAR in 11 GS.
30 start pace: 5.4 bWAR
Recapped