J.T. Realmuto‘s grand slam off Kevin Gausman in the bottom of the 5th broke open a 2 – 0 game, and led the Phillies in taking 1 of the 3 game set.
Bryce Harper homered in the 1st and Adam Haseley added another in the 3rd to set the stage for Realmuto. The homers accounted for all 6 of Gausman’s runs allowed; the rest of the line included 9 hits, a walk, and 8 strikeouts in 6 innings.
Aaron Nola shut down the Braves for 6, but they battled back in the 7th as Ender Inciarte and Johan Camargo hit back-to-back homers to cut the lead to 6 – 4. Before the inning ended, Atlanta had the tying run on base, but could do no more.
Rhys Hoskins re-broke it open in the bottom of the inning with a 2 run homer off Sean Newcomb. Newcomb ended up with 2 hits allowed, a walk, and 3 runs allowed in his 2/3 of an inning. Josh Tomlin finished up. You can see the play-by-play from here.
Ronald Acuna Jr. left in the 7th with neck stiffness, after colliding with Jean Segura while stealing his 24th base. Initial reports are optimistic.
Atlanta takes a 5.5 game lead into Washington Monday at 7:00; Dallas Keuchel and Patrick Corbin scheduled.
Re. Stroman, the Braves equivalent for that trade would be Allard and Ynoa. And I would do that deal in a heartbeat.
@148 from before and @1 for sure. There has to be more to it. Stroman has been making it clear that he wanted to play in NY, but I’m not sure this is the team he thought he’d be going to. Maybe the Mets will trade with the Yankees. I can’t believe Toronto will want to see the Mets getting more than they did.
Maybe this is the Mets angling to get Frazier?
Thank you, Rusty.
Bring on the Nationals, a TOR starter and a shut down closer.
Go Braves.
Braves, get in there.
Heard Ben Ingram (?) on MLB radio say Braves priorities were now pen, outfield bat, then starter. I figured he was just joshing.
We do not need an OF bat. We need to not give ours away.
@ #7
I agree, Roger, but what if that OF bat were someone like Charlie Blackmon?
After today’s Stroman trade, it only stoked my flame for Wade Davis and Jon Gray more.
1 – According to fangraphs-the comparable package from ATL would’ve been Wentz and Gohara, which I think any of us would’ve done.
8 – Zero interest in Blackmon-outside of Coors he’s Inciarte-ish
@8 @10 I agree with Dusty on Blackmon.
I like @1s deal for Stroman better, but we need one or two solid if not lockdown relievers. Only Romo has been traded so far. With Giants probably out of the biz entirely, Giles and Diaz seem like the best opportunities, although LeClerc might be good. Marco Gonzales might still be a good SP target. Mets must deal or extend Wheeler.
I can’t imagine a decent reason for Wheeler to accept an extension from the Mets as dysfunctional as they are.
I do wonder if the Jays were insistent on getting #4 and #6 from the Braves even if our prospects were better than the Mets. Van Wagenon still thinks he can buy a winner outright. The Mets farm is not going to have anyone left to rank soon and the Mets will still be losers.
“The history between Atlanta general manager Alex Anthopoulos and the Blue Jays led to some speculation that the Jays and Braves were resistant to trading with each other. The Athletic’s David O’Brien tweeted that “the word was that Toronto would deal with him [Anthopoulos], but would ask for more from [the] Braves” in talks involving Marcus Stroman than they would from other teams.”
Wonder if the Braves tried to trade for Stroman but the Blue Jays told Anthopoulos to go jump off a cliff.
The Mets aren’t too far out. They now have a terrific rotation. Can’t believe I say that but I think they’ll be around until the end of the season, they are only six games out of a wild card spot. For the next couple of months, the NL East is going to be as tough as originally anticipated.
We urgently need a TOR starter. We’re set in the bullpen and offense. Put Gausman in the pen, he’ll do great there. All we need is a TOR starter.
BVW obviously was aware of offers for all of Wheeler, Syndergaard, and Stroman, and so I wonder if he saw three different markets based on the amount of control they each had. It seems that people are simplying the trade market into “buyers and sellers”, and any time a team is doing both, fans are confused and accuse the GM of being an idiot. Not sure that’s the proper response to what’s going on in Metland.
My pre-season prediction for how starts would be disbursed:
Folty – 27
Gausman – 29
Newcomb – 28
Teheran – 28
Touki – 20
Wright – 20
Fried – 5
Gohara/Wilson – 5
Yeah, that didn’t happen.
Like Rob, I am no Nostradamus; if you care to bet, bet that we do not get any of the following players that I’d get if I were the AA for a day:
Felipe Vazquez for Kyle Wright plus plus (maybe) plus.
Jon Gray for whatever Ryan C thinks appropriate.
Mike Minor for Rangers pick of three prospects lower than Wright.
Ain’t none of the above happening, but an old boy can wish. It costs nothing.
Said timo the Mets
are one of my bets
rotate them and see
they are deeper than we.
but then there’s van Wagenon
who insists he must tag along
so all bets are off
their talking heads sink back in the trough.
@15 And for some reason you didn’t expect Mike Soroka to make even one start for the big club this year. How did that play out in your head?
@12 I think there’s another perspective to give consideration regarding the Blue Jays: apparently no other contenders were willing or able to get Stroman at that price. So, is it that the Blue Jays are pissed at Anthopolous, or do teams just not like working with the Toronto front office these days?
If I recall correctly Rob just simply forgot about Soroka when he put together that list. I think in the thread where he originally posted it he later posted a mea culpa.
FWIW: Bryse Wilson threw a mighty fine game at AAA.
Yep, and then I just copied and pasted it again. Whoops.
I still am surprised we’ve gotten so much mileage out of Soroka. Probably the other surprising thing is how much mileage we’ve gotten out of Fried. I would have thought Fried would have also been out longer for blisters, if none other than to keep his inning totals down.
I’m disappointed about Gausman. I said yesterday that he should probably go to the pen, but that’s largely based on the trade deadline coming up and the need to solidify what’s going on. But I still find value in trying to win the division riding Soroka, Fried, Keuchel, and Teheran, then using the 5th spot to continue to let guys fight it out. When you have guys as talented as we’ve got that don’t have a spot, there’s something to be said for that. Plus, if you send Gausman to the pen, you’re pretty much looking at non-tendering him in the offseason. He’s making $9.35M. Are you going to tender him that and potentially more?
Yeah, Wilson now has two starts of 7 IP, 0 ER since he was optioned to AAA. Patience and pitching are part and parcel.
Blazon, I made an alliteration! It’s a miracle!
It’s hard for me to understand how Stroman would have costed Atlanta more. Are the Blue Jays really that pissy? So for instance, let’s just say the Mets offer was $100. Atlanta was willing to offer $110. Were the Blue Jays going to insist on $120 from Atlanta, and therefore take the $100 offer instead of $110?
@22, Maybe try to make Gausman your closer? Obviously he shouldn’t be kept only to justify the money owed to him. He obviously has zero trade value right now.
Still can’t figure out how he was so decent last year?
It’s not often that a guy will have so much past performance that he commands a $9.35M in arbitration, and then turn around and be so bad the next year you don’t want to even keep that number, but alas, here we are.
I would think the only two options are to keep starting him or make him a closer. Otherwise, how else do you justify the salary next year?
For real, has anyone ever taken a paycut in arbitration?
I bet we only make one small move like Joe Biagini.
Smitty, need some intel from your barber ASAP.
#25
He was new to the league?
@22 But I still find value in trying to win the division riding Soroka, Fried, Keuchel, and Teheran, then using the 5th spot to continue to let guys fight it out.
But in a playoff series, who do you have confidence in to start and last at least 5 innings without handing out 4+ ER? Keuchel and Soroka are the obvious choices, but who is taking the rubber in game 3? Do you find value in starting Julio Teheran or Max Fried in the playoffs?
I know I’m a broken record on this but there’s literally only one answer:
Bullpen game.
Max Fried has a 3.90 ERA in 168 career IP. I don’t know if I’m ready to say that I wouldn’t trust him to start a playoff game. Depends on what he does the last 2 months of the season.
Same with Folty.
I would also like to have Noah Syndergaard.
This is starting to feel like the offseason post-Donaldson signing, where you keep expecting the Braves front office to do something, and they keep on not.
Don’t worry, Dan. Only 51 more hours of this.
Two theories swirling:
1) We didn’t get Stroman because the Mets offered $100, we offered $110, but they asked for $120 because they don’t like AA.
2) We didn’t get Stroman because the Jays know we can pay $200, so they sold him for $100 instead of our $110 offer?
Why can’t it just be that, ya know, we offered $90? The only other theory is one that I can’t reduce to monetary terms: AA has some reputation of being a swindler (like that Coppy to before him), and he knows he’s trading the bad prospects, so they have to ask for more or perceived better prospects because they don’t trust AA to not deal the lemons? Don’t buy that one either. Don’t they have a scouting department?
@34 Another possibility is that AA isn’t and hasn’t been focused on starting pitching and wasn’t willing to part with pieces for Stroman he feels he could use to get the need he thinks is more urgent, which is the bullpen.
34 – Here is my theory, which is purely conjecture.
Toronto knows AA is a sharp guy, so they are going to be cautious in any deal with him, knowing if he’s willing to do the deal, maybe they shouldn’t be. Toronto also knows the Mets and BVW are a dumpster fire and if they have a chance to trade with the Mets, how can they pass that up?
Seems to me like there were other contending teams that could have benefited from acquiring Marcus Stroman, but the Blue Jays ended up dealing him to the Mets. Any “AA theories” to explain that?
Maybe teams don’t really want to help a contender even if they can help themselves. I am convinced teams are asking more of the Padres and Braves because they think they can pay more.
If you had a software package to sell and Bill Gates offered you $150 for it and Joe Blow offered you $100, but you knew Bill Gates would later use it to drive you out of business, who would you sell to?
Maybe Toronto doesn’t see the Mets getting any better regardless….
Teams traded with the Astros for years and watched them become a powerhouse. Haven’t seen them do much trading recently (since the Gerrit Cole deal anyway). Seems to me that’s why an overpay is so important – to keep the rich from getting richer.
“No, not the Mets! Please have mercy!”
@23
It appears to be a very sophisticated version…four split into two twos, all identical. Masterful.
@39 Oh my gosh, that’s so great.
@31 I vote no on bullpen games. I much prefer having a real starter.
@34
My theory is we offered $7 and Ozzie Albies bobble head doll.
The Bill Gates analogy is excellent. And the leeriness with AA is also a great point too. That’s why the monetary analogy has its limitations.
But haven’t we been hearing for years now that teams don’t want to trade with our GMs because they’re “soooo savvy”? I just don’t know if I buy that.
What’s the over-under on Tyler Flowers passed balls tonight? Dallas stays pretty much around the plate, so I’d put it at no higher than 2.5.
Also, Bob Nightingale says Braves have called several clubs inquiring about outfield help.
Powerful outfield tonight…Acuna, Duvall and Riley.
Dan’s comment on that Stroman tweet reminds me of this scene from Kentucky Fried Movie: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ynY2begPzoM (Language NSFW.)
This is a really great piece on Ozzie Guillen’s son Ozney, who’s managing in the Astros system.
https://theathletic.com/1093092/2019/07/29/his-father-won-a-world-series-but-could-ozney-guillen-be-the-prototype-for-the-modern-mlb-manager/
It is certainly fine with me if Scherzer needs to rest his back on the IL again. 10 games might sink the Nats’ ship.
Vargas to Phils. Hard to argue that Mets won’t deal inside division.
Mets fans hate Vargas – to them that’s gonna make the Phils worse.
I doubt they feel same about Thor.
Scherzer is the pitcher I want most. That said, I’m ecstatic over the timing of his IL visit.
The reliable Flowers passed ball.
That’s one. Glad I took the over.
Thanks, Tyler.
Man, Flowers is a bum.
I don’t know what is going on with Flowers’ defense right now. This is becoming ridiculous.
Flowers is completely unplayable. How many more runs is this clown going to cost us before we make a move?
I’m glad the booth is giving Tyler some guff for his inability to perform the most basic function of his job.
And he just dropped another pitch that should have been strike 3.
The game is on ESPN also.
They have hit the ball hard. Run would have scored without the passed ball, but the additional stress didn’t help. Chip, on schedule, blames the extra movement of Dallas’ pitches for Flowers’ fielding problems.
Could have been much worse.
It seems we left our bats in Philly.
Can no one throw strikes? Jeez.
Welp.
Keuchel doesn’t look like he has his best stuff.
Nice, Ronald.
We only have the fourth-highest OPS allowed to pitchers in the NL. I’m astonished there are three teams worse than us.
Thanks for the free run, Rendon
Duvall should have gone to 2nd. And he may have scored on Camargo’s hit.
Shocked that Riley whiffed on 3 sliders there.
I don’t know that Riley needs to go to the farm, but he may want to talk to a sports psychologist. His approach has fallen apart. He’s not going up there with a strategy, he’s just swinging at breaking balls out of the zone and spitting on fastballs in the zone. He’s gotta be pressing, and he’s got to find a way to adjust to the way pitchers have adjusted to him.
Did you guys hear those kind words about Freddie from Max Scherzer. I would have thought it was flattery and hyperbole, but if you look at who Scherzer faces regularly, who is a tougher out?
2019 stats vs the Braves:
Bryce Harper
9R 5HR 9RBI 1.060 OPS
JT Realmuto
9R 3HR 12RBI .953 OPS
Manny Machado
7R 4HR 5RBI .990 OPS
Patrick Corbin
9IP 3R 10K
The often forgotten benefit of paying for top free agents or trade targets is that it keeps them away from your opponents.
@71 I’m surprised teams don’t have multiple psychologists on staff at this point.
Dallas is giving me indigestion. Just. Throw. Strikes.
That worked. Not sure 20 pitches an inning bodes well for going deep in the game though.
71 — He needs to get regular PAs if he’s not going to get them with the big league club, IMO.
I think he goes down when Dansby returns or if there is an outfield acquisition.
We need to get into their bullpen to have a shot. Work some counts.
Austin Riley WOOF
Since June 29, Riley has a .553 OPS.
I recall that Riley was an extremely streaky hitter when following his stats in the minor leagues. He had some atrocious first halves and hot second halves. He just reversed it this year (and teams have been throwing him lots more sliders).
Howie Kendrick looks like Mr. T.
Maybe we get five out of Keuchel. Sweat is pouring off Dallas.
We need to work a trade with the Reds. We are back to needing exactly what they got from the Dodgers. Puig, Wood, Iglesias. How much do you think we’d have to pay?
OMG Rose Lavelle is there with Mal Pugh, which I am taking as confirmation that she and Fried are an item.
Which catcher of this decade is the most likely to become a coach/manager? BMac, AJP, Flowers, Suzuki, etc.?
Damn, I thought that was out.
Alright, this Adam Duvall thing is working out so far. The guy is barreling.
The real Adam Duvall is back!
Good one, Adam. I am so happy for Duvall.
AJP but he may rather be a broadcaster. Otherwise I’d guess McCann but he’s made enough money that he may not want to.
Make him pay, Johan!
Same here, coop.
@83 They both play for the DC pro soccer team. They did a radio interview on Nats radio and both threw out the first pitch before the game (note: apparently they each threw to the wrong catcher….).
I was hoping they would ask Mallory about Dansby but no such luck.
Good AB by Riley, shows a lot of progress that he made good contact.
Man, Duvall’s sac fly was thisclose to being a 3 run homer.
That was a moral victory for Austin.
Until we can get either Camargo or Riley on track, this lineup is going to struggle. It was good to see Camargo walk; when he is taking a lot of walks, he gets more pitches to hit.
We need to win this game. I don’t think the Braves can lose the division this week but there is the potential to win it this week.
I didn’t expect to see Keuchel pitching this inning.
Three walks for Gomes, who OPS’s almost .700. Maybe Dallas should have been good with five.
Be good, bullpen.
I prefer using Sobotka with nobody on base.
I agree coop.
@82 Of course, I’d take Gray over Wood.
Inciarte was double switched into the game for Riley by the way
Brass tacks time.
THROW! STRIKES!
Chaaaaaad
This is why I don’t like bringing in Sobotka with men on base.
Just like last night. Damn.
So freaking predictable.
I think sometimes Snit manages the way he does to try and force AA’s hand… I don’t think it works that way though
I’d have rather he walked in a run.
Snit does a lot right, but that’s on him. Highest-leverage situation of the game. Sobotka can’t be the choice there.
109 — That thought has crossed my mind as well
So at this point, we have to think the General is hurt, right? There have been several high leverage situations that Snit has refused to use him in lately.
On the bright side, …
I don’t see the bright side, but maybe AA just picked up the phone.
113 — The flow chart says he can only pitch the 8th.
Climb that mountain, Braves. You can do this.
Who’s the General? I’m so lame.
Admittedly, I haven’t done the research on who’s available, but I was questioning Sobotka there too. I don’t trust him one bit with runners on.
@117 General Swarzak
@117 Swarzak
Walker in for the 7th. Anyone other than me rather see Walker before Sobotka last inning?
In time, but it’s only Jeremy’s third appearance in the bigs.
Two walks in a row! Walker is living up to his name tonight.
Need Webb back.
So, the Nats have a solid lineup, a better rotation than us, and our bullpen has regressed to the not-good it was probably always meant to be. Fun.
For a kid whose reputation touts good control, Jeremy is underperforming tonight.
We got lucky. Now we need bunches of runs.
Ok, on the Statcast commercial on MLB.tv, does the guy not say “cackalate” instead of “calculate”? Listen next time he says it. You’ll have about a dozen more options before the end of the game.
It’s crazy. Blevins is looking better than any of the other relievers….
Apparently Swanson and Webb are healing well. But the 25-man roster still needs a little more help beyond that, and AA had better make it happen.
I saw a comment that someone made indicating that the Braves are almost certainly more gunshy about trading their prospects because of the Latin American sanctions, which make it harder for them to build up their prospect pipeline than it is for other teams.
That makes complete sense to me and is perfectly reasonable. But we can’t just hope for enough to get to the first round. We need a team that can actually make a deep run. And this team, as currently constituted, isn’t there yet. There is a serious opportunity cost to holding on to prospects too long – you can’t assume that your team will fire on all cylinders every year. Guys slump, guys get hurt, and pretty soon you’re the 2019 Phillies. When you have a chance to make it, it’s worth overpaying a bit to make a good team better.
Charlie Culberson is a different beast.
Charlie Culberson is a true folk hero.
@127,
Yes, yes he does. Having heard that commercial dozens, nay, hundreds of times now, I’ve spent far too much time being frustrated that this was, I assume, the best recorded take. Or that he was the best choice for voice-over actor. Glad I’m not the only one.
CHARLIE IS GOOD.
Well, this is a rotten stretch. Trying not to freak out, but I’m not sure we hold onto the division as constructed, much less make a deep run. And that’s a shame, considering the years so many of the players are having.
Phooey. Tomorrow is another day.
@132 Wow, that just made my night. It is really annoying.
I renew my motion to sign Charlie Culberson to a lifetime contract.
Gotta hand it to AA for getting him in the Kemp trade. He’s been as good as you could possibly ask for as a utility player. Bringing in players from his former organizations has worked out pretty nicely for AA. 3/4 ain’t bad anyway.
Duvall has gotten off to a nice start. I’m beginning to think Snitker doesn’t want to see play Joyce at all in the field. Can’t say I blame him for that, but I think starting him vs some tough RHP might help the offense.
Go get some relief help, AA.
@129
Braves have signed 10-12 guys this year, even with the harshest penalty of having no pool and only being able to sign guys for 10K. In all likelihood, those guys won’t become everyday names, but neither are most guys signed internationally.
Next year will be the last year of the penalties and their pool will be reduced by 50%. That puts a damper on things, but they’ll still have some flexibility to grab 2-3 top players.
I think those statements are now overblown, especially considering how the Braves ran their 2019 MLB draft by spreading the wealth to create the most depth.
A 40-man roster crunch is coming soon and…at the least, 4-5 good players need to be traded or they’ll be lost for nothing.
Tyler Flowers has become a full blown problem behind the dish. He’s still got great framing numbers but the passed ball yips are costing runs and mounting frustration.
Apparently yesterday he was sporting new glasses and was asked about them by a reporter. Before he could answer fully, Seitzer chimed in and said, “They’re the RIGHT prescriptions”. I truly hope this helps, but he’s 0 for 1 in sample sizes thus far.
Meanwhile, Alex Jackson is known to be a good receiver, is throwing out 50% of would be base stealers, has 23 HRs, and carries an .881 OPS at AAA. At the least, he’s going to be up in September but could have a chance to make the postseason roster with a good showing.
Of note on AJax: I’ve watched him quite a bit at AAA and the biggest thing I’ve noticed is his body transformation. Dude is chiseled and all that baby fat is gone. He also hits the ball as hard as anyone in the system and has had poor luck thus far with a below average BABIP. I’d like to see the Braves re-sign BMac in the offseason and give AJax a chance as his battery mate.
I think we all believe some moves are coming, I think something big may happen, but I really like how we really know nothing about what the Braves are doing. No real rumors, no leads, zippo.
I like AA.
recapped.