Let’s get right to the Braves Roster News of the Day!
Sometimes things come when Jhoulys expect it…but not this DFA. Jhoulys Chacin was really bad last night and as we’ve seen with Folty, AA ain’t wasting any time with nonsense. Enter Chris Rusin, who will be the 4th left-handed reliever on the team….or will? I’ve got a thought on that.
Braves Roster News: Tyler Matzek, Opener Groomed to Start? Make it HAPPEN!
I’ve pounded Matzek’s name into your brain for about 10 months and I think he’s caught some attention in his past few outings. However, let’s not forget that he was once a promising young starter for the Rockies before performance anxiety grabbed ahold of him. I could see AA looking at the empty spots in the rotation and going….hmmm? I’m interested in seeing what the next round in the rotation looks like, but it wouldn’t surprise me to see the Braves go with an opener and I think there could be a chance that Matzek is the guy that gets that call with potential to get stretched out to enter the rotation.
Lineup!
Austin Riley sits, Johan Camargo gets the nod, Ozzie Albies is back, and Touki tries to prove that his last outing was a fluky! Let’s get that W, boys!
If you missed yesterday’s game recap, here it is by Alan Cole!
Touki definitely has a starters repertoire — double plus curve, plus fastball, decent change — but has always lacked a consistent delivery so he often struggles to find the zone and always hangs too many cookies as his command is poor. Long, lean types like Touki often take longer to find consistency than more solidly built types like Bryse Wilson or Mike Soroka. Think about the Big Unit’s early struggles Vs what he was to become. I’m hoping for 4 innings, 2 runs, 2 walks, 5 k’s.
Anderson really needs repetitions as much as Touki. I don’t see him helping the team this season. Free Tucker Davidson!
Lookie, lookie, lookie,
Here comes Touki
Touki’s pest control
Imagine it being December 2019 and someone telling you the Braves are going to have a 5-3 record on August 1.
if you added, “against left-handers with significant Lithuanian ancestry” I might have bought it.
Taking the night off from Chip and watching Gary, Ron and Keith (alltime leader in GWRBI, doncha know.) They are not coming into this game upbeat… Y’all let me know if Chip be Chippin’.
Strikes, Touki.
Great work, Touki! A few more like that would be delightful.
Good job, Touki. A dozen or so runs would help.
Oh wow, Frenchy still sounds pretty clogged up.
THE GOD MARCELL!
Ozuna seems like a good fit.
Ozuna has been an absolute monster. Where would we be without him?
Touki’s got good stuff tonight. Keep it going, kid, and throw strikes.
More runs, please.
WOOOO wow our catchers are really kicking butt.
Flower power!
Ronald!
THERE YOU GO RONALD!!!
Bleed one, Ozzie!
Yuh oh, losing the zone a bit.
THROW STRIKES.
Well done, young man.
Beautiful work by Touki to coax that DP from Alonso! Man, I love watching him pitch when he’s got his command going.
I did not expect much from the Ozuna signing, but I am so happy to have been wrong. Seems like a wonderful presence and his play on the field has been spectacular.
Well done, young man.
Marcel is a keeper.
That was cool.
Hits can be forgiven, walks not so much.
Yikes.
Beautiful work! Love the defense by Camargo as well.
Woo! That’s big league pitching right there.
Junky Touki is the best Touki. Throw the offspeed 70% of the time and blow them out with the 96.
Seems like the “bury it in” approach to Acuña is a thing now. Adjust, young man.
It’s sad to see Albies struggle this much at the plate. I hope he’s not hurt badly.
Good hook. Touki will get another turn.
Walks. Be cool, Luke.
Pretty good prediction on the first post, snowshine.
As someone who isnt watching the game, did he look good, or meh?
@28: Ron Darling said Touki should be less junky. Gary Cohen said it would never happen once analytics demonstrated that well-thrown junk fares better than heat. (Important qualifier, that “well-thrown.” And you still need the occasional heat as well.)
I can’t with Luke.
@33, in the first inning his fastball command was pretty bad. The other guy besides Chip (I don’t recognize his voice, maybe Francoeur?) talked a fair bit about how he was missing down, but I think that was wrong. In the first inning in particular, he missed a lot of fastballs obviously off the plate, which is still better than missing down the middle.
In contrast, his two or three other pitches looked legit today, including command. His fastball command improved after the first inning, but it was still bad; Touki pitched backward almost all night, off of his offspeed, some of which looked elite to me.
I am interested in what other people thought.
Thanks, Josh.
I agree, Nathan. In the first, Touki could not place his fastball. He did better later but never threw it as well as the junk.
I hate 3-0 swings.
Everything was off-balance armside in the first inning with 4/5 fastballs wide right. The split change was as good as I have seen it and he only left it high one time. The curve was filthy when it was in the zone and he showed off a slider I haven’t seen much before. He got the fastball dialed in after that and should have thrown more of them.
There you go, Ender!
Ender!
I thought he showed three other pitches! If he can improve his fastball command, I would be happy for Touki to be in the rotation all, uh, year.
Ugh. that 3-0 to Flowers was middle-middle, 93. I want Flowers to take advantage of that.
@37 Especially from Matt Adams.
Thanks for the impressions guys!
Touki really has to grab the bull by the horns and hopefully permanently earn a rotation spot.
Tomlin looked /great/ in that inning, unambiguously.
OH! YES!!!
Laser beam.
That looked like a late-career Chipper home run: on a line and leaves the park in a hurry.
on a fastball, too, which he’s been missing. commentators say exit velocity of 114 mph, which is verrrry high.
21 degree launch angle
Tomlin is a blessing.
For context, average exit velocity of a home run was 103.5 mph in 2019, and I believe I read somewhere that Stanton traditionally leads the league in single-swing exit velocity at roughly 118.
Also, Tomlin has made this game feel much more comfortable.
Has anyone seen a fan who likes the runner-on-second extra inning rule? I feel like I’ve only seen journalists/broadcasters defending/supporting it, which of course Chip is doing now.
I don’t mind it, but I’m also not sure it needs to exist outside of this season.
@52
I don’t know if I like it, per se. I’d be willing to live it with outside of the playoffs. And as I mentioned after our extra-inning win, it should force teams to actually try to drive in the runner instead of everybody trying to hit a game-winning home run on every pitch.
Having said that, I say SHOULD because I watched extra innings of the Dodgers-Astros game the other night, wherein every hitter on both teams completely ignored the runner at second for four innings and continued to swing for the fences like a bunch of imbeciles. That included the Astros, who were the home team and therefore only needed a single to WIN THE GAME.
Anyway, keep it or ditch it after this year, I’m OK either way. Not OK with it in the playoffs at all.
Have the mets relievers been reduced to writing “kill me” on the backs of their shirts?
I think Touki will get another start. I think Snitker just has to have a really quick hook on the 3-5 rotation spots.
In another chapter of Fun with Relief Wins, Josh Tomlin gets the win for this game.
Hey hey – love it.
Is it too early to discuss acquiring a starter via trade?
For my eye – – seems like if we had one additional, solid inning-eater in the rotation – – this team (yeah with all of 8 games of viewership) seems pretty good.
Would be 5x as good if Newk would throw strikes.
We don’t need to trade for anyone — Touki and Wright have the ability to become beasts.
Nice rubout tonight, and how ’bout Touki & Tomlin?
#5
I’m with you. I watched the SNY/Mets broadcast tonight.
I don’t go crazy about announcers that much, but I happen to think the Mets have the league’s best combo of TV & radio announcers. I pretty much like all of them for a variety of reasons.
Also, I usually listen/watch the Mets radio or TV when we play the Mets. Of course, I’m curious about their takes on the Braves, but also they have an entertaining broadcast (esp. on radio) that isn’t overstuffed with ads (like their crosstown rivals). And when we have “one of those games” (like Friday night), their reactions can be priceless.
Hey, let’s get greedy, Bravos… Kick ’em while they’re down & stack up the wins. It’s a short season.
Recapped. Since we have a day game, this will also serve as a game thread.
https://bravesjournal.mystagingwebsite.com/2020/08/02/braves-game-9-recap-braves-chase-wacha-early-win-7-1/