Settle down, take a syllabus and pass it down the row. Welcome to Professor Seat Painters Braves Etymology 101 for the fall semester. With all the new freshmen and transfers to Braves Journal U., the department head has asked me to teach an introductory course dealing with some standard terms and phrases you will encounter here. So, let’s get started. I’ll identify a phrase, give you the origin and definition, and follow that with an example from last night’s game, which, conveniently enough, furnishes a number of examples of those phrases.
Pure Evil – coined by Braves Journal’s founder Mac Thomason. Definition – The Miami Marlins. Christened by Mac because the Marlins, during the Braves run of division championships, won two World Series titles to Atlanta’s one, despite winning 14 less division titles.
Example: Last night, Atlanta doubled up Pure Evil, winning 8 to 4.
Jome Julio – various. (Pronounced with the Spanish ‘J’ – as in Home Hulio). First spotted in either late 2013 or early 2014, when Julio Teheran looked unhittable at Turner Field, but very very hittable away from the ATL.
Example: Jome Julio was out in force last night, tossing 7 innings of five hit, one walk ball against Pure Evil, giving up only one run on a Starlin Castro solo homer in the bottom of the 6th.
Hibernation Mode – from the Glossary. When the Braves score early runs to take a lead, then completely stop hitting for several innings rather than stretch the lead, often pressuring the bullpen and/or allowing the other team to get back into it. It’s key that they score the early runs — it’s not Hibernation Mode if they’re just getting dominated.
Example: After a first inning Ozzie Albies solo shot, the Braves entered Hibernation Mode, squandering scoring chances in the second and third by hitting into double plays, and going meekly in the 4th.
Episode – from the Glossary. When Tim Hudson suddenly loses the ability to get anyone out, to the degree that it is surprising he has full control of his limbs and his bowels, he is having an Episode. Usually in the sixth or seventh inning.
Example: In the top of the 5th, the Braves woke up out of Hibernation Mode thanks to an Episode from Marlins’ pitcher Caleb Smith. After surrendering two singles to Tyler Flowers and Ender Inciarte to start the inning, a questionable balk call advanced the runners to second and third. Don Mattingly came out to argue the call, and was tossed. You could see Mattingly plotting his drive-by Yelp review of the balk call as he stormed off the field. That call seemed to get to Smith, as he then allowed Teheran to hit a sac fly to score Flowers, followed by a two run shot to Ronald Acuna Jr. Albies, Freddie Freeman, followed with singles, then Adam Duvall singled off the third base bag to score Albies, and Charlie Culberson scored Freeman with yet another hit off Smith.
1-Ronald-13 – new, proposed by yours truly. Ronald Acuna Jr. Refers to the radio call sign in the TV series Adam 12 (1-Adam-12), arrived at by combining Acuna’s first name and jersey number.
Example: 1-Ronald-13, see the fan, left field bleachers, who wants to report a souvenir ball deposited in her lap.
Grybo – from the Glossary. An inherited run. Named after former reliever Kevin Gryboski, who specialized in coming in, allowing one or two runners to score, then getting the needed outs to prevent one of his own men from scoring, thus preserving his ERA while at the same time making other pitchers look worse in comparison. See Triple Grybo
Example: Chris Martin came in to pitch the bottom of the eighth and had a Mini-Episode, with a one out walk followed by two straight singles. He was lifted for Shane Greene, who stuck the landing, allowing a Castro single to score the Grybo, but getting Lewis Brinson to strike out to end the inning.
Rietsma Room – from the Glossary. Adding runs to a lead to make it so large even Chris Reitsma can finish the game. See Atlanta Save.
Rally Killer – various. A home run.
Example: Acuna added much needed Rietsma Room in the top of the 9th, with a two run Rally Killer to expand the lead to 8-4.
Braves Save – various. Any reliever who successfully finishes a game, whatever the score, earns a Braves Save.
Example: Mark Melancon came on to pitch the bottom of the 9th, and earned a Braves Save.
I hope this gives all you new readers a handle on the various lingo us Old Timers toss about the blog. Join us next week as we explore the history and usage of ‘IWOTM’.
Even as a long-time reader, I still appreciate the “reminder” — great recap, Seat Painter!
My favorite recap of the year!
Standing applause!
New term for glossary: Atlanta clean inning
Def: any inning pitched by reliever where the opponent does not score.
Bonus points for leaving bases loaded.
Bless you, Seat Painter. The only thing better than a Braves win is reading the BravesJournal recap of said win.
Usual fine job, SP. Thanks.
Haha this was great. I remember JorgeSosa4CyYoung. That’s great that you never changed your handle. Never change it!
Darn good bar we have here.
I love how quick they jerked Greene out of the closer’s role. He’s got no equity with Snit, nor should he. I don’t care if we go back to Jackson as our closer and everybody is doing fine. Just get the job done.
I continue to think that relievers are weirdos, and they can get easily disrupted, and we just disrupted everything in the lives of our relievers. Only Blevins has been unaffected.
By the way, feel free to be as liberal as you like with the Glossary. It’s really fun to look back from 5, 10, 15 years ago to see some of the things the blog has come up with. If you’re a recapper/contributor/admin/whatever on WordPress, you can change the Glossary as it’s just a normal old post.
Remy’s the man when it comes to recommending things to the Glossary and noticing when something has is long overdue for adding. Remy, I’ll email you to see if you want me to set you up on a WordPress login to contribute to the Glossary.
As absolute garbage as our pen has been since the deadline, we are “only” 22nd in baseball in bullpen ERA in August. We have a 5.86 ERA, and just about every non-contender has an ERA over 6, with the Nationals still being one of the only contenders who can’t avoid blowing games in the late innings. They sit with a 7.52 ERA (!!) in August. Other notable dumpster fire pens that have somehow been worse than ours are the Reds, Angels, Brewers, Tigers, Rockies, Mariners, and Orioles (of course).
Does changing leagues have anything to do with the new relievers success or lack thereof? Melancon has spent the bulk of his career in the NL and both Greene and Martin the AL.
@7
I’ve actually wondered that, too. Our new bullpen is undeniably better than our old one, but it’s almost like blowing everything up has (hopefully) temporarily ruined everyone’s feng shui or something. The only guy who seems to be not suffering a mental breakdown after all the changes is Melancon, a grizzled veteran with lots of pennant-race experience with multiple teams under his belt.
Our bullpen is colder than the stare from my wife when I tell her we can’t go out on a Wednesday because I’ve got a recap to do.
I still maintain they should’ve signed Kimbrel. In January. I know his ERA is like 5.00, and he hasn’t looked great so far. I believe that’s a byproduct of rushing to get ready though, which also lead to the knee inflammation.
As it stands, watching anyone other than Melancon and (can’t believe I’m typing this) Blevins come out of the pen is like riding the Gravitron after eating two cheese-steaks and a funnel cake- it’s no fun, and just makes you nauseated.
Interesting (or concerning) bit of info on Greene: his velocity has dipped every year since 2017. Everyone buckle up.
Did anyone hear Chip’s diatribe about Blevins’ movie reviewing for SI? The focus was that he thought Blevins was unfair in his ridicule of Field of Dreams (both Chip and Frenchy piled on). I was all set to like Blevins less (even though Field of Dreams is not my favorite baseball movie) but the more I think about, the more I think Blevins was right on with his choices.
Shirt sales have taken a nose dive past few days. Still have sizes medium to XXL. Drop me an email at cothrjr at hotmail dot com if interested (or PM me on Twitter).
First orders will go out middle of next week!
Looking at Braves’ stats, they are really starting to pile up in interesting ways. Things like our top 3 are 1, 2 (tie), 4 in total hits in the NL. That’s unbelievable. Our top 4 are in the top 30 in most of the relevant counting stats.
I looked a FG defense stats and the Braves, as a team, are now 10th in all of baseball in defense. That has to be the effect of Inciarte, Duvall, Culby, Camargo in the OF and SS (and, especially, taking Nick out and putting Ronald and his cannon in RF).
Our starting pitchers are up to 15th in MLB in WAR. Of course, our bullpen is still 29th. The Dodgers, Nationals, and Mets are 1, 2, 3 in starters’ WAR. All better than the Astros (7th). The Mets’ defense is worst in the majors. Apparently, if you can avoid being struck out by their starters, you can beat them with BABIP.
The Mets, Phillies, Nationals are 13, 14, 15 respectively in hitters’ WAR. I’m not sure when the Mets learned to hit and how they’re better than the Nats but there it is. I think the combination of top SP and decent hitting makes those three teams the most dangerous we face (after the Dodgers, of course).
Ronald Acuna is now 9th in MLB in WAR according to FG. That is darn close to MVP territory. Only four NL’ers ahead of him – Rendon, Marte, Bellinger, Yelich. If he keeps bashing, he will continue to move up that list. And, again, our top 4 are all in the top 30 in WAR.
@12–I’m sure that’s cold, but try to imagine my wife’s stare when I tell her the same thing on a Saturday.
@19: Ouch. That cold and the bullpen would cough up *every* lead.
Seat Painter – wonderful recap. I am amazed how you managed to give us all those definitions while winding each one of them into the actual recap. Kudos. Great reading.
Thank you mr. painter. I laughed and laughed.
This bar is on fire. Seat Painter, what a beauty. Thank you.
@18, welcome to the club 🙂
http://bravesjournal.us/2019/04/21/cleveland-two-no-problem/#comment-2284146
How should I go about destroying my Jose Urena bobblehead?
@26 Toss it to Ronald to send flying out of the yard.
Melancon becomes more interesting if you pronounce his name with a Latino flair.
Melancón (mel-ahn-cone)
Ozzie missed that tag. Should’ve just left it on the base rather than swiping.
OK, Charlie Clutch solves all problems. What a catch!!!
Well, bad news is they were mashing on Mike in the 1st. Good news is the defense was spectacular.
“It’s a results oriented business.” Unlike, say, play-by-play calling, apparently.
I’ll be at the game in Atlanta on the 21st, if anyone else is attending. I don’t get to travel home often, and even less during the season, and I wanted to treat my dad to some really good seats near home plate.
@26 Do you own a wood chipper, Rob? Watching pieces of that plastic melon soar across the yard would probably earn a few thousand YT likes.
Strapping a firecracker to it perhaps?
Sledgehammer?
Boil it in water?
You should start a poll!
Wow, Charlie is showing off tonight.
We aren’t even squaring up 2-0 pitches
Second time in 3 games this series that their starter has completely baffled our offense.
I understand IWOTMarlins, but Mike Soroka is a big league pitcher.
Joyce, an XBH would be delightful, thanks.
EDIT: Joyce is basically an automatic out over the last month.
Glad we have 9 relief pitchers and essentially 2 bench players since we can’t play flowers as the back up catcher unless we need him
OZZIE!!!!!!!! OMG!
Freddie Freeman is the hero the Braves deserve.
@41 – Preach it!
Swarzak’s deranged. Entering the games from the pen, he throws his water bottle down, and screams into his glove as he’s walking through the pen and through the doors onto the field.
Love it.
The General doesn’t seem to have it tonight
Our bullpen is colder than a superconducting current.
Speaking of deranged, putting Luke Jackson in here qualifies.
Luke has a full count but he’s thrown nothing but balls.
The Braves bullpen is so bad.
Luke Jackson, Get ‘em tomorrow, guys.
Jeez. Is there a pitcher in the bullpen?
Jackson continues to have a magic horseshoe up his ass. Castro should’ve hit that hanger back to the old park.
You gotta BELIEVE!
Jackson is no longer the closer…he’s now the guy Snitker always goes to in our highest leverage non-ninth inning situation.
I think I’d rather he be the closer if those are my only two choices.
Luke needs to shave.
Duvall looks like Riley at the plate. Waving at sliders down and away off the plate.
JOHAN YOU RASCAL!!!!
Gosh, so happy for him, he needed that, we needed that.
There goes Melancon’s save.
Johan does not suck tonight. So there.
We’ve got a visual!
Five run scoring hits tonight, all on sliders.
Does Kleenex sponsor the Marlins or something? They’re always crying or throwing temper tantrums.
Okay, Braves. Enough is enough. Get two outs and end this farce.
Well I guess if Melancon can’t cover the rubber he’s mortal.
Is the Atlanta Braves uniform just a curse to all relief pitchers?
Give AA credit. He made 3 deadline trades to bring in quality relievers and 4 to improve the pen in season when you count Swarzak. And yet this pen still sucks. It’s on the players to perform like they’re proven capable of. The front office did its job.
@65 Yes, It’s not AA’s fault that the pieces he had and the pieces he added have simultaneously imploded. I find it hard to get all that upset about because it’s just flabbergasting.
There was reason for concern with each of the 3 recent pickups, but I wouldn’t have guessed they would all start sucking right away.
The season for pumpkin spice has started early.
3 two strike hits. Melancon just doesn’t have the stuff to close anymore. I have more confidence in Luke than I do in Greene, Meloncon or Martin
So the former closer now comes into the game to try and close the game for the new closer, because like the old closer, the new closer can’t close a game?
Fun times.
The Braves bullpen gives me anxiety.
Or see comment 70.
Yet another 2 strike hit… ridiculous
Shane Greene needs to go away. I don’t care if we gave up a 2 liter and a bag of chips… we got fleeced by Detroit
Can someone logically explain how any of this is possible.
Guys and gals,
This team probably wins the division, but the NLDS is going to be miserable with this bullpen.
Should I be thankful?
This is insane. If that throw wasn’t perfect the Braves would’ve just lost this game.
Why arent we putting Anderson on?
Melancon was overused IMHO. Everything is Terrible.
When they made the deadline trades for these relievers, not an insignificant amount of digital ink pointed out that none were up to par with today’s high-strikeout bullpens. Some of the spin was Atlanta brass liked pithing to contact in front of this infield.
I’m thinking dribblers don’t get offered up to the BABIP gods if you don’t let them put wood on pitches.
Soroka got hosed.
6 earned runs in 1 2/3 innings. Absolutely pitiful.
Some days you get the bear.
Un…effing… believable. I’ve been following the Braves since the 60’s. We’ve had plenty of crappy relievers. But at least since the 90s began I can’t remember any pen of supposedly competent relief pitchers all crap the bed at once for an extended period of time like this
#78
I’m with you.
Maybe give Newk a shot to close?
“Pitching to contact” can also result in 6 straight hits in the 9th.
Cooper walks. Calling it now.
Stadium is loooooouuuuud. Bunch of University of Miami folks here for an appreciation night. Only thing they’ll be able to cheer for this year.
It feels like Greene doesn’t want to throw a pitch
Per radio, he’s allowed 13 of the 21 batters he’s faced to reach.
Well at least we’re nearly out of New Relievers to toss out there in this game.
@91 feels like so many more
Are you still wearing Braves gear, Rob?
Can Charlie pitch the 10th?
This bullpen is colder than Pluto.
I hate this bullpen. This is the worst offense in MLB and the Braves’ relievers can’t even handle them, after showing in Minnesota that an 11-0 lead wasn’t enough to not have the other team induce anxiety.
Is it conceivable that Greene gets DFA’d?
The pitchers in the Marlins pen have way better stuff than our own pen does.
@98 DFA the whole bunch of them. Very few (if any) have the electric type stuff to shut good teams down. 93/94 with cement mixer sliders isn’t going to get it done.
@98 Yes. Snit is clearly not a fan and he’s completely unreliable.
@99 Doesn’t seem like we have much stuff throughout all of our pitching system.
We’re gonna have to institute a reverse pitch count – all starting pitchers must throw at least 100 pitches. Or maybe 120. Or maybe just mandatory CG’s.
Edit: I mean, it’s a disease. I honestly think Culberson would’ve done a better job.
lolBraves
The Mets are going to score 500 runs against this clown bullpen.
So. Maybe not Newk closing
End this damn game.
@97- the shame of it is that we have pretty decent starting pitching. And if Folty is really back to good Folty again we can match up well with anyone as had been pointed out. And our offense is top 2 in the league but we are going nowhere in the playoffs with this pen performance.
@81-Soroka did get hosed. All too frequent this year. He should have 15 wins now and although we don’t like to consider pitcher wins they still have an impact on the minds of voters. He would be considered just behind Ryu in the minds of cy young voters with a few more wins on his ledger.
Well, this has to be at the top of the list of worst losses of the season.
Well that was disheartening and disgusting. We’ve been joking about the Mets just beating up on sub .500 teams, but we’re not even able to do that right now.
They literally threw their best arms. 7 scoreless from their ace. Then Swarzak, Jackson, Melancon, Greene, and Newcomb. Who else could they have thrown in this game to win the baseball game?
That was… Expected.
::sigh::
I’m listening to the Marlins broadcast. I hate the Marlins. Pure effing Evil.
Martín Prado is such a class act, giving the Braves major props.
Honestly, to correct myself from my last comment, yes, maybe Culberson would have been a better option. Seriously.
There isn’t a reliable pitcher in the bullpen…Soroka should get the opportunity to punch everyone of them in the face. Go with a bunch of the prospects and take your chances with better stuff and less experience.
I don’t know what Snit and AA are supposed to do when everyone is falling to pieces at the same time. Go with the hot hand? There are no hot hands.
One game of 162. Not the end of the world, though it really did suck. Win tomorrow.
The Mets and Dodgers are going to eat this bullpen alive. It’s been mentioned, but I’ll echo it again- the fascination with all of these pitch to contact types is not how you win October baseball. It’s not even working in August.
Among other things that was a heck of a baseball game, first pitch to last.
And the Nats lost with almost equal melodrama,
Mets are only six back in the loss column now.
Tick tock.
@114 I agree, it’s got to be tough on Snit. He’s got nowhere to turn, and no good choice to be had.
I do lay some blame on Anthopolous because he is the one who assembled this team.
The bulk of the blame has to go on the players, though. These guys are given chances, and they continually blow them. They’re getting paid to do a job and they’re failing.
Melancón’s mound antics were pissing Joe Simpson off over on radio. He’s got this weird thing where he likes to completey cover the pitching rubber in dirt.
@114
Snit’s problems are greatly enhanced by his formal statement yesterday that Malencon with his career record of 51 saves was definitely going to be our closer.
Of all the detritus we put out there he was the bottom of the barrel. Looks about 50, plays those childish games with the rubber and was lucky not to be thrown out.
MORAL Leave Luke in! He’s obviously back to being our best bet.
@120 He wasn’t allowed to do it tonight. I imagine it has something to do with his stability when pushing off, and because he wasn’t able to do it it might have affected him either mentally or physically.
@120 I don’t understand why that’s an issue though? It just reeks of sour grapes on the Marlins part because of the balk, and now it’s all blown up. I think it got in Melancon’s head tonight though, so I expect a lot more teams to pitch a fit.
I hate the Marlins.
@ 109 Weigel. Why not give the kid a chance?
Actually, we could bring Webb and Sobotka back up. Sobotka was nowhere near this bad. Martin and Greene both have an option (Greene is close to 5 years, though). Use it. We have 39 on the 40-man. Promote Ben Rowan or Corbin Clouse. Even Minter would be better than this. Why not let Wright or Bryse or Ynoa take a shot. We might be better served to let Folty close. He’s extremely reliable for an inning. There are lots of ways to try and solve this.
Luke was not near this bad until all the new guys came in. They’ve been a bad influence. Newk, too. If Newk had come in to close in the 9th, no one would have cared about the single and error and sac fly. Newk still has some juice.
I’d rather see Martin and Greene get straightened out in Gwinnett. Webb and Sobotka would be a start. Also giving Weigel a shot. And getting Walker back up.
Snit should have had a quicker hook with Melancon. Tomlin has been better – he’s been the one to stop the bleeding most games.
Snit sounds like he’s about to cry in the postgame.
@121 I wouldn’t call it a childish antic if it’s been part of his routine. Baseball players are creatures of habit, as we all know. The umpires we’re being overly dramatic about the whole deal, to me. Prado too with the way he was in the dugout about it.
-274 Centigrade. And yes. I know that’s not possible. Neither is this.
@124 It’s incredibly sad to think that if Tomlin threw the 9th we probably would have been alright.
@125 If he does there will be no judgement from this corner of the bar. None.
recapped
Maybe we should have Greene put on a DET uniform under his Braves uni.