It’s another Tequila Tuesday
Bangin’ head slowly on the keyboard
Said goodnight
Fried was just pedestrian
Workin’ on the Nats he planned to fry
The innings go by
Ev’ry inning as the bats go down
Just another Strasburg boy in town
And he’s out runnin’ ‘us down
Swarzak was just another piker
And he couldn’t keep from walkin’ ’em in
The pen’s so wrong
Oh and it’s a hollow feelin’
When it comes down to losin’ games
It’s a huge damn shame
Get another shot by Riley
Wonder why it was just not good enough
You just get numb
It’s another Tequila Tuesday
Every Tuesday still looks the same
Another loss
What more is there to say than that. Fried was in and out of trouble all night but had done an admirable job of wiggling out until the 6th. He needed 2 pickoffs to do it, too. He left baserunners all over the place before the 6th. At that point the early season Braves showed up. A HBP and three straight walks turned into 3 runs as both Fried and Swarzak gave the game away. I watched and still couldn’t figure out what really happened. I’m wondering why Swarzak was the first bullet in the gun when we were only one run down. Our three relievers tonight are exactly the ones that would be best replaced. Blevins and his two walks barely scraped by and Tomlin is up and down even if tonight was a good one for him.
Strasburg was dominant. Eleven strikeouts. The Braves managed one decent rally for 2 runs in the 4th. Austin came through again (along with Kakes) and Fried had the big chance to make a big statement and couldn’t quite get it done. He hit the ball hard, though. Nevertheless, the Braves had a lead until the fateful 6th.
As long as the lead was only one or two runs, I thought we had a decent chance if we got into the Nats pen. Unfortunately, Swarzak got himself Kendrick’d. And, naturally, our first look at the Nats pen produced another Riley 2-run shot. Too bad we were three runs down by then. That kid really wants to win all the games by himself – three of our four RBIs tonight alone.
I don’t know if anyone’s noticed what Dansby’s been doing recently but he is on fire, too. He is almost deserving of being a #2 hitter. In the 9th, Dansby tried to start a rally by singling off Doolittle, but Freddie took a wild swing at a pitch way high (aka ball 3) and struck out. The Braves struck out 16 times which is very out of character. Even Kakes had 3 Ks as did Dansby.
Maybe we should never have a day off. Maybe we shouldn’t strikeout 16 times. Maybe we shouldn’t give up 6 walks. Maybe we should get us a better reliever or two. Maybe we should never play on Tuesday.
Fine post my friend, thank you. The passion and the anger shine through.
Freddie Freeman
said, post match, it must be my demon
high and tight
I have a tendency to say good night.
Then stop it. The pitcher couldn’t believe it worked again.
twenty year extensions
are not the sort of thing one usually hears mentions
the fact one has been offered already
we must applaud but, hey, those nerves, hold steady.
I agree Roger… no more days off, no more nights of 16 K’s or 6 BB’s and certainly a better reliever or 2. We do those things and Tuesdays will be fine
Thanks, Roger.
I left them down 5 to 2. One thing about being good is to never take a pitch off. Keep at it. Sometimes you don’t break through. But sometimes you will.
JJ Cooper
says this kid Kyle Muller’s prospects are super
he’ll walk a few
between twenty and thirty a month, that’ll do.
With a day off tomorrow and a day off Thursday, there’s just no reason why you can’t throw your best relievers. But I suppose there are some defenses for Snit’s bullpen management last night:
1) Even still, you don’t want to wear out your best relievers.
2) Accordingly, you need to give the bottom of the pen some opportunities in high leverage.
3) There are more relief candidates coming soon as well, so you have to decide which of the bottom of the pen to keep.
4) You’re not scared of Washington enough that you need to throw your best arms two days in a row.
For the first time in a few years, my mind is in “win every game regardless of tomorrow” mode, and that even could be a little premature. We don’t win 100 games to win the division and get the best possible matchup. 92 wins probably still wins the division, so this loss, just like every loss before it, is not worth not trying to figure out what you have.
When people are saying trade for MadBum, I don’t think it’s necessarily that they’re dying to have him specifically. It’s that they’re wanting someone with postseason experience, who has a history of being dominant, etc. Someone who has “been there before”. I think there will be a tremendous disappointment if the Braves bounce out in the first round because Soroka and Fried got bombed, and we say, “Well, they’ve just never been there before.”
The only other route I see is intentionally creating a playoff atmosphere and pressure in September by having to win down the stretch. That at least gives the young players some virtual reality “win or go home” environments.
The problem with having 13 pitchers is that sooner or later, you will use them.
And then you use one of your 4 bench players to pinch run for McCann and burn Culby. That really should have been a starting pitcher pinch running with the short bench. You really used 2 of your 4 bench guys as Flowers had to come in to catch.
@9
profound…Machiavellian
I was about to say the same thing, Dusty. We’ve lost some opportunities to just simply PR somebody without burning a key bench piece.
I’d be interested to see if the 8-man pen is even necessary anymore. We started doing it in 2016, I believe, when our rotation was trash. Is that really necessary anymore? The ChopCast highlighted that May was the first month since August of 2017 where we had the same rotation the entire month. This month, our starters have pitched 5.5 IP per start vs. 5.24 IP in March/April. So there’s improvement there.
Oddly enough, though, as good as our rotation has been, we had a slightly higher innings per start all of last year than we did this month. (5.54 IP per start in 2018 vs. 5.51 IP per start in May 2019). I was quite surprised to see that. This year’s May rotation performance, though, has last year’s starting pitchers beat by over a half run (2.94 ERA vs. 3.50).
Swarzak was brought in for this situation.
Not upgrading the bullpen is the difference in being up two games.
@12
I agree. I don’t see the reason for it. Especially since most of the pen can go multiple innings.
I think we should call up Duval
Good job, Roger. You’ve put a song in my head that I’m happy to have bouncing around all day.
And for now I’m willing to keep from blaming you for the Tuesday record—but it would behoove you to get a Tuesday win or two, or folks will begin to talk.
#14
If Duval’s back is still sore, then call up Demeritte. Nick could use a rest.
Demeritte’s raking. I just wish he could play CF, but he hasn’t done so in the minors so I don’t think he can.
We have devolved to the point where this blog willfully associates with the Eagles?!
Lucas Sims took a shutout into the 8th before giving up 4 runs. So his overall line looks poor, but he pitched really well. Which brings me to wonder really how many prospects have been flame outs that were considered prospects at one time. This is what I’ve got:
Sims
Wisler
Blair
McCreery
Peraza
Olivera
Maitan
Ruiz
I’m not going to put Jace Peterson since he’s become about what he was projected to. Mallex was not a bust. I say Maitan’s a bust because he was for us. Peraza’s trade value never increased to where they thought it would be, thus a bust. Everyone else is self-explanatory.
Also, Sims had a higher spin rate and velocity on every single one of his 4 pitches yesterday. Man, good for that guy.
Ruiz is on about a 1 WAR pace for an almost-MLB team. Fun Fact: his agent is Scott Boras.
That’s a 1 fWAR pace based on 600 PAs. That’s probably borderline bust considering his ceiling was a Bill Mueller type. I guess that’s a 0.5 fWAR corner infield bench player (do those still exist?).
That’s a great new player metric: WAO. Wins above Orioles. You just take the WAR difference between the player in question and the equivalent player on the current Orioles, who by definition are all 0 WAO players. This solves the problem that replacement-level players have some value by creating a new 0 level.
Thanks, everyone.
@18 Sam, it was not intentional but it just hit me that that game would lead to a lot of tequila drinking. And it’s a downbeat song (vs. upbeat).
As our rotation has improved so much, I am not as interested in a MadBum type as I was a couple of weeks ago. With regards to the “playoff experience” question, I also don’t that’s such a big deal. If a guy’s got what it takes to be a playoff winner then he’ll have it even on the first time out. Did Smoltz ever have a bad playoff? I don’t think so. In 1991, both Smoltz and Avery came out smokin’ hot while Glavine was 1-3. I think Soroka will be just fine from the outset. I have no problem with Folty (Folty 2.0), Soroka, and Fried going into Chavez Ravine. Our bigger problem last year was the bats went to sleep (except for Acuna’s slam).
Now, if you can get me Kimbrel and Will Smith (and send Swarzak and Blevins packing) to close backed up by Jackson and Minter 2.0 for the 8th. Now you’re talking about a primo bullpen. Anybody have any problems with a bullpen of:
Kimbrel
W. Smith
Jackson
Minter 2.0
Winkler
Webb
Newk
Touki
I mean…. really.
@25 I, for one, wouldn’t have any problem whatsoever with a bullpen that looked like that, just so long as Minter can keep it together in the Bigs. There’d be some great depth there. They do that, and I won’t complain about the roster for the rest of the season.
@18 And unironically. Yeesh.
Gausman, ugh.
Gausman makes Julio look good. The dude has reverted to Baltimore performance. He should be worrying about his spot in the rotation
Gausman leads the “to be replaced by Madbum” derby.
Yeah I’m not sure that the “we don’t need Madbum” crowd is watching the same team as me.
We need pitching of all shapes and forms.
Anyone that think this team’s starters collectively are good enough need their heads examined.
@33 certainly haven’t watched Gausman, that’s for sure
So, maybe tonight is the night you pitch the bottom 3 out of the pen, rather than in a high-leverage tie game after a day off with another day off coming. Ugh I hate Snitker. Irrational hate.
@35 agreed.
Do you think the Nats would take Gausman for Sanchez? Nah, probably not
FWIW Patrick Corbin is a top-20 pitcher with a 2.85 ERA right now. All he cost was money.
My enthusiasm for Gausman is waning fast.
But haven’t you heard about all the financial flexibility the All Star game will bring in 2021?
I wonder if it’s time for some kind of injury and IL stint for Gausman.
After further reflection, maybe the bottom 3 in our pen isn’t as easy a call as I thought. We have tremendous depth, at the bottom…
Winkler is not the answer yet again
Now can we agree that Winkler is dreadful?
Touki was OK, but it’s a bad night all around. Nothing is gonna solve our problems tonight.
Not sure what’s going on with Gausman, Seems like every pitch I saw was a mid-80s cutter. I never saw him throw a 4-seamer which should hit mid-90s. Maybe he has an IL stint in his future.
Notice how many comments we saw from Chief when we were winning profusely, on the road, no less.
At the game tonight, just chiming in to say, yes, I’m sure glad we are burning through Touki and Newky in the 14-0 game and not the 1-run game last night. Ugh.
Hello from Boulder. What is happening over there, Dusty? Do something. Seriously. Do something.
I really didn’t want to do this, but I said previously that I would be here to say ” I told you so” about Winkler, and he graced us with a 2/3 of an inning 5ER turd. And that’s consecutive disastrous appareances. Guy just doesn’t know where he is throwing the ball for the past 2 weeks or so.
And right now I would take Soto over Acuna over the long term.
/runs away
Riley still doing his thing
19 — Manny Banuelos is another name to add. Jace Peterson is not in the majors so I think you can add him. Dustin Peterson is struggling in Triple A after being DFA’ed and clearing waivers. Christian Bethancourt was given the everyday C job to start 2015.
Twin Bills was something of a prospect. Tyrell Jenkins (who was at least salvaged as he was traded for Luke)
Banuelos and Peterson are great adds. Thanks braves14.
If I understand FIP correctly, Gausman getting absolutely pounded but still recording a strike out and “only” giving up 2 BBs in 1 IP means that his FIP may not increase as much as you might think. So what the heck? Is this guy going to underperform his FIP by 2+ runs?
Negative fans are just going to be negative fans, but when Teheran overperforms his FIP, he still sucks because he doesn’t blow it by hitters and he doesn’t look dominant doing it. “He can’t possibly keep it up,” they will say. But when Gausman underperforms his FIP, well, he just sucks. The same logic is not applied to both pitchers fairly.
I don’t get it with Gausman. His H/9, HR/9 are largely unchanged from last year. His walks have gone up a little (2.7 to 3.5). His K rate has had a HUGE jump (6.6 to 9.3). But some nights he just comes out and gets completely pounded. This is the low point of his Atlanta tenure, but he still has a 4.19 ERA since coming over, has a and I’ll continue to be patient. But dadgum, dude, make an adjustment.
Jenkins would be a bust. He didn’t get anywhere close to his ceiling. What they traded him for, and who that pitcher has become, is pretty irrelevant in my book. At the time, Jackson was a nobody. Shoot, two months ago Jackson was a nobody.
I would say Rob Whalen, John Gant, and Chris Ellis were not busts. I think you got about what you were expecting out of them. When Gant was acquired, there was no way you were convincing anyone that he’d ditch his hitch and then throw 98 MPH cheddar.
Recapped. Read and weep.