When you whoop on San Francisco
Be sure to watch for needles everywhere
The Braves went to San Francisco
Soroka pitched 8 and gave up 1
RAJ can make a hardball go
And Austin Riley overcame the cold air there.
Its not so much to whoop San Francisco
Oldish people with injuries everywhere
All across the nation it’s a Braves sensation
Defense in motion
We saw that Sean Newcombe make Gints a one inning bomb
Phillies were winning, surely that’s sinning
These Braves came to San Francisco
They beat the Giants everywhere
Since the Braves came to San Francisco
This road trip ends with two more wins there
When Ronald makes that old hardball go
Fun times in cold weather while you are there
Your sing along link.
Haha nice.
From last thread:
Carter, you’re doing it wrong.
The kid should have signed for a reduced bonus. He lost his grievance, the Braves did things by the book. I can’t imagine turning down several million dollars as a kid out of high school. He got terrible advice.
Or there is indeed something in his medicals, and maybe he didn’t believe it back then.
Thanks, cliff, for the recap and the memories. I went to SF a lot back in the early and mid-60s. Ah, wasted youth.
@3: “…the Braves did things by the book” isn’t written often in the past few years. Good on us.
Eastern Florida State University? That sounds made up.
On Carter Stewart,
I can’t help but think he is directly linked to the Brian Bridges purge. This is pure speculation. But what if Bridges had a discussion with Stewart’s agent before draft and said something like, “Aw, that wrist thing isn’t anything. We are still interested.” Then, Stewart and agent try to use that as evidence of waiver (which I don’t think is valid) or, more probably, “bad faith.” As in, “You knew there was a problem when you did this draft and were trying to use that to manipulate your draft pool.”
Braves kept Bridges on to keep him testifying the way they wanted, but then when they were past Stewart, hasta la vista, baby.
@5 But that book is titled “Built to Win” 😉
#6
It’s not. It’s a state college not far from Titusville. Many former junior colleges now call themselves “state colleges.”
Great job as always, Cliff. I was just in San Francisco last week, and ever since that song has been bouncing around in my head. I had just managed to banish it and then this recap. Oh well, another several days of “gentle people with flowers in their hair” haunting me.
I think Carter Stewart is listening to the wrong people.
Getting Hunter Bishop and Brennan Malone, plus not having to deal with Carter Stewart and his handlers probably worked out better for us.
Re Carter Stewart: Never trust anyone shifty enough to have ambiguously ordered first and last names.
@13 – See Smitty’s post at 12. With Hunter Bishop, the Braves obviously haven’t learned their lesson.
Are we at the point yet where we think Soroka is an ace but we’re praying to whoever we pray to that his shoulder stays intact?
All TINSTAAPP aside, I’m now pretty convinced that Soroka is a *hit*.
What’s interesting to me is that he generates as much velocity as he does with at least to me, very quirky mechanics. He doesn’t seem to use his lower body very much. It’s a unique almost dart throwing motion.
He’s if healthy, legit.
@15 That’s a bit too reactive, don’t you think? Soroka had a great start and has been pitching really well this season. He’s having a nice stretch of luck, too.
I’d just forget about worrying about his shoulder. He’s shown me no reason to be concerned about it.
You can make a case for Soroka starting the all-star game if this keeps up (not that I want any of our players in that game in the first place).
“If healthy” — that seems to be the qualifier for a lot of our guys.
@2 Geez, I read “RIP” instead of RHP Carter Stewart.
Happy birthday, Mr. Cox. Get well soon.
@18 – with the continued focus on higher velocity, “if healthy” seems to be the qualifier for just about every pitcher in baseball.
Carter Stewart’s choice here leads me to believe there really is an issue with his wrist, and he’s come to terms with the fact that he won’t get the signing bonus he wants from an MLB club. If that’s the case, his decision makes sense. Granted I’ve got no idea if he got the 7 million he was asking for from Fukuoka; but if he got anywhere close, he took the financial security up front, along with the higher early career earnings. I know the Braves bonus would’ve been pretty nice too, but he just looks to be trying to squeeze every last penny.
Sororka’s would be 100% deserving of a starting ASG nod.
I’m not, however, quite ready to label him as an ace yet. Personally, I like to see two dominant seasons from a guy back-to-back, and that’s when I sorta go “yeah, he’s an ace.”
Sororka is very, very, very talented, though.
If the money in the Japanese league is better than Carter can possibly make in his first 6 years in MLB, then why not? MLB monopoly isn’t global, and if some foreign leagues want to make things more attractive to young players, they can easily poach some prospects just by out-doing the paltry sums made in the minors and the first few years of team control in the majors.
If he performs well he can make more money in Japan than he would’ve here, and still play here later when his contract is up if there’s better offers here in free-agency. I’m surprised this doesn’t happen more often.
What’s the equivalence of talent he’ll be facing in Japan every day? He should be in a Rookie league but he’s facing, what, AAA talent?
Do we know if Soroka & Fried are on innings limits?
If they are the foundation of the rotation now, what happens in August & September (and, dare I hope, October?) when they have piled up innings?
@25
The Mexican League is classified by MLB as a Triple-A league, and I’m guessing that the Japanese leagues are a step up from that. I would speculate that they’re somewhere in between, AAAA if you will.
26 – I may be mistaken, but I believe AA is on record as saying he doesn’t believe in innings limits, or doesn’t believe that increasing a minimal amount of innings over the prior year has any value in reducing injuries.
I admit I have no clue but the couple of Japanese games I’ve watched in Tokyo were way, way below MLB level. Never watched AAA baseball though to compare. But, to me, it didn’t seem close to MLB in general.
I think the pile of comments today about just overall pitcher health concerns is probably something that is putting a wet blanket on a season otherwise trending very quickly in the right direction. I think the concern is that at some point, whether by injury or innings limit or ineffectiveness, the rotation we like will not be the rotation we have when the games really count. And the thought is that if we had a Ace(TM), a tried-and-true 5 WAR pitcher who’s been doing it for 5-6 years, that would mitigate the risk quite a bit. So when someone like Folty has 5 bad starts, you think, “See, here we go.”
Same thing on the bullpen side. If Minter has an awful stretch of 10 IP, that’s significantly more concerning than Kimbrel having the same stretch.
What King said @23. Folty had a good year. Back it up this year and he will get my attention; BUT Soroka’s consistently pitching six and beyond. Folty? Not so much.
I don’t see much difference in our opinions, Rob. I just want Folty (or Minter) to actually do the job before shoveling on superlatives,
The Japanese leagues and MLB have a formal agreement not to poach each others’ prospects. That’s why teams will need to formally give permission for one of their minor leaguers to go over there.
The rule essentially boils down to not signing players who haven’t been through the draft process. Carter Stewart has been through the draft and went unsigned and is thus eligible for poaching.
You can kind of game the “go unsigned” condition by asking for too much and…not signing.
I’m not saying that’s what Stewart’s plan was all along. In this case it was our side that walked away because I think they lied about a wrist injury.
But I can see an agent making a convincing argument that you’ll make more money in your first 6 years in some foreign league if you sit out the draft here. It’s not like baseball is some bastion of morality where nobody ever cheats. If a Japanese team wanted to take a top US prospect, for whatever crazy reason, I’m sure they could figure out a way.
@31 Soroka’s command is really something else. He is consistent on both corners of the plate and lives around the zone so frequently that the outs pile up. Of course he is going deeper into games–he pitched 8 innings on 94 pitches. The only so-called fly in the ointment is his BABIP is right around .200, so eventually some of these soft dribblers will find holes.
I doubt the front office is concerned with innings as much as they are likely keeping track of pitches thrown. If Soroka pitches 200 IP this year, I personally won’t bat an eye. His pitch counts are just plain good.
Stewart is all about the benjamins. He doesn’t care about playing baseball. The Braves didn’t sign him because he wanted more money. Fukuoka gave him $4M. That was about what he wanted as a signing bonus with the Braves. That is all.
We weren’t going to sign him period once the medicals were known. Screwed up our draft pretty good last year. Only time will tell who made the correct call here. Getting $4M at this juncture is a win. I think we offered half that, and not sure if that offer was even always on the table.
Why do we have to do a 4-game set on the left coast? We should be having a day game tomorrow, and instead I’m suffering through another night game tomorrow!
“Teheran is 2-3 in 6 career starts against the Giants.”
That gives me no useful information Chip.
Teheran is looking suspiciously like Bad Julio so far. Hope he can keep it together for a few innings.
The Giants might have sucked slightly less if they kept Matt Joyce.
Riley looks vulnerable to the slider.
@41 – Too early to tell so far, I’d say; at times he has looked bad against high pitches, only to make mid game adjustments.
Those particular swings against those sliders looked more like he was waiting for the guys 97mph fastball, which he almost hit out of the park.
His swings and misses have come mostly against change ups (if memory serves me correctly).
Anyway, another good Julio start, no hits after the first inning, even in SF weather, which he traditionally does badly in.
Walking a tightrope all night, seemed like he was getting into 3-2 counts on just about every batter. But somehow he came out of the game before suffering too much damage.
Man, our offense has left a lot of guys on.
This one hurts.
Lol, that was terrible.I don’t know how to feel about Luke Jackson anymore.
Can the Braves’ catchers not throw anyone out? Why’d they keep letting the Giants steal second that inning? It was so predictable too.
Luke’s a nice enough reliever, but a closer, he is not. This one’s on AA/ownership.
I stayed up for this. Ugh.
Poop.
Another one slips away. That’s frustrating.
They’re getting what they paid for.
I don’t see how Snit could just leave Jackson in the game, especially after he allowed the first run.
@51 Luke never did anything that was worth being taken out. He got two strikes on every batter. He got two outs in the first three batters. One of the hits was an infield nubber. But no matter how good his stats are, he is not a Real Closer(TM).
And Nick’s throw was one of the most weak-ass throws I’ve seen in a while.
We had a lot of games like this in 2017 – 10 singles, three runs, and a loss.
recapped