A whole lot went right yesterday and Ronald Acuña Jr. continues to be the talk of the town. However, it might be time to turn our attention to Sean Newcomb, who I see “ace reliever” in his future wiki description. Sure, it’s early, but he’s striking out everyone. I’m being hyperbolic…he’s only struck out 9 of 10. That’s a 24.3 K/9 folks. Word on the streets is Newk went to Driveline this offseason and worked on eliminating the unnecessaries in his delivery for a cleaner path that results in better command and added velo. It’s a small sample, but doggone it, the dude looks like a dude.
Ynoa it was Going to Happen
After his electric 2021 debut, we all thought Ynoa deserved the 5th starter role. Well, it looks like it’s his for now…
Braves Top the Charts
The Braves have been hitting the ball hard. If you’ve been watching, that’s been clear. Kris Willis drops this note from Snit:
This isn’t too surprising, but I wonder how much of this is merely Acuña busting out 100+ exit velos on the regular.
Tonight’s Lineup
0-4 to 4-4. Let’s get #5 tonight.
And…if you want to cry…
You called it Ryan. Ozhaino needed to see a lefty.
First lefty starter Braves have faced; Ozzie homers on first pitch. He’s as good as anyone from the right side.
I would be increasingly tempted to have him hit right-handed all the time. Or if that’s just completely beyond the pale, hit him low in the order when he hits lefty and at No. 2 only when he hits righty.
And RAJ beating out that routine grounder to short makes me very happy.
D’Arnaud runs pretty well for a catcher. Most catchers would have been thrown out on either the double off the bat or the run-scoring single.
Ozzie and FF not giving Acuña a chance to get a SB, what bad teammates.
Smyly took more pitches than the next 3 batters total :/
Sigh, Riley, they are pitching around you to get to Pache, why chase a 3-0 fastball outside the zone?
It’s weird. It seemed like A-Rod was just talking about Kevin Millar as if Matt Vasgersian didn’t know who he is, even though Millar and Vasgersian work at MLB Network. Weird.
Ugh, 2 out no one on, and they end up with a 3 run homer…
Smylys fastball is not fooling anyone. They are fouling them and sitting on his curveball.
I was afraid with Smyly’s inability to finish off hitters with two strikes the last couple of innings he was going to hang a few. Now our offense needs to stop swinging at the first pitch
Is Smyly worth 11 million yet?
1:30 into this game and they aren’t even through the 4th. Yeesh.
@12 A lot of pitches thrown.
So, with Freddie being from Orange County and Pujols coming off the books, I would think the Angels are going to throw a ton of money at him.
I wasn’t crazy about bringing in a right hander to face Harper.
A-Rod said a staggering amount of useless BS directly before asking why we just let a RH reliever face Harper, almost burying the lede to the extent where I missed it…but it’s a very good question.
Tomlin in a 1-run game? Yeah they need a couple more arms.
Bowman on that Acuna infield single.
Damn.
https://www.mlb.com/braves/news/ronald-acuna-jr-has-amazing-infield-single-vs-phillies
@17 mlb.tv is blacked out and I don’t have cable, so that is the first time I saw the play. That was actively a standard ground ball. Gregorius double-pumps, but I would have said that should literally never matter on that play. Holy crap.
Unrelated: Acuna is a beast. Beasttttt.
@17,18
Yeah, Gregorius “messed up” (if you’re being exceedingly uncharitable) his footwork and so had to take an extra step or two to get his base under him. But the ball was hit at like 100 mph. Just insane to beat that out!
Dang, this has been a fun game to watch. On another note, I thought the homerun may get Albies rolling, but it seems to have done just the opposite. He’s looked terrible at the plate since that first at bat.
@19, the most insane thing is that Ronald is starting in the right-handed batter’s box. Unreal.
Very odd decision to pull Smyly right before Harper was due up, considering Smyly wasn’t fooling anyone…. but Harper, but maybe he was gassed.
In addition to Smyly and Moore having career similarities, they had almost the same line tonight, except Moore had two more strikeouts.
Is it wrong for your 3rd or 4th best reliever to be the closer?
He is so out. This better get overturned.
I bet it still gets upheld, just because. But he was very out.
What a gutless bull shit call
He’s out!
Also that’s embarrassing that they would run on Ozuna from there.
Bad call, but wow, when will the NL get the DH? What a weak throw!
MLB umpires, and replay, have now butchered two late game plays in just the first week. Complete incompetence.
Also, can we just stop signing LH pitchers?
That’s just an insane call. There is a zero percent chance that he touched the plate before getting tagged. Zero.
It’s supposed to be clear and convincing evidence to overturn, which is generally seen as 75 percent sure. They’ve taken it to beyond a shadow of a doubt, which means they have to be 100 percent sure to overturn. And now, they’ve upheld a call where there was a 100 percent chance they got the call wrong.
Good gosh, such BS. He clearly never got to the plate.
This is why I never supported replay for MLB. Three-minute delays of boring standing around just to still get the wrong call. Was more entertaining simply having the managers screaming in the umpires’ faces.
I’ve never thrown a piece of trash on a field and I probably never will, but I love that we have become known for having fans who throw trash on the field. 😂😂 I’m also loving how loud they are.
I wouldn’t ever trust MLB to make the accurate call on a close play with the Braves involved this year in lieu of what they pulled with the all star game. They have an ax to grind
The Phillies pen may be better than Atlanta’s. How did we get to this in such short time?
That may be the worst call I’ve ever seen.
Bad call. Terrible call. But gotta pitch better.
What were the replay guys looking at on that call?!?! That’s pathetic. It was 100% obvious where his foot was and was not on the plate
Well, that was a wasted opportunity…. offense has to get it going. Seems weird to say that after scoring 6, but there is something rotten with the whole lineup (except Ronald).
Lack of BB’s, bad approaches, lack of launch angle, among other things. I doubt that this is Chipper’s influence.
Ozuna is basically Pache right now.
@39
You’re right, Carl…it does seem weird to say after scoring 6…
@40
Heh, yeah I realized as I typed.
But seriously:
Ozzie isn’t fixed after hitting a HR in the 1st.
FF has basically had 3 hits (HR’s) in 9 games. FF is not Adam Dunn.
Ozunas hard contact is aimed at the ground.
TDA is doing okay.
Dansby is not there yet.
Riley is also hitting everything too low or missing it.
Pache, well, nuff said.
Regardless of the braves having the best exit velocity, there is still something off here.
Oh and Will Smith kinda sucks.
Chief…You are ignoring Riley’s substantial growth towards becoming an above average everyday third baseman. See that rocket he grabbed that got the crowd gasping, late? And the arm.
Pace OTOH, exhibits a strange defect for a defensive prodigy – he bobbles too many balls having harvested them close to him in the first place- that are already on the ground, or off the wall. Just a small one from which he rapidly recovers. Still, one day, one play. Go Latics!
The noise level tonight, not just on the appeal call, was tremendous throughout and not much dependent on the chop. What an advertisement for our club, proud of them all.
A thought on Pache’s nerves. He is gold dust compromised only by them and so much to learn.
There is a solution which can and should be implemented now, see below. (isolated for effect!)
He should be appointed the everyday starter for the whole season.
And more importantly, WE MUST TELL HIM THAT NOW. IT’S HIS. Minimal risk, gettova’it.
I would just like to point out again that the umpires are not even using the standard of evidence that MLB wants them to be using (at least according to the rules), and MLB just seems to be letting them get away with it…them and MLB’s national broadcast partners, because no announcer on Planet Earth apparently has any idea of the difference between “beyond a shadow of a doubt” and “clear and convincing evidence.”
“Clear and convincing evidence” is supposed to be an easier burden of proof to attain than “beyond a reasonable doubt” (let alone beyond all doubt). To overturn by that standard DOES NOT mean that the replay umpire has to be 100 percent sure that there is zero chance the call on the field could be right. It just means that the call on the field has to be substantially more likely to be wrong than right. If it’s only slightly more likely to be wrong than right or if it’s a tossup or (obviously) if it’s at all more likely to be right than wrong, it stays. Otherwise, the call should be overturned! There will be disagreements at the margins, for sure, but any replay system that talks itself into not overturning that call tonight 100 percent of the time isn’t worth a rat’s hind quarters. There should be no replay umpire that ever sees that play and decides to uphold the ruling on the field. Ever.
“Clear and convincing evidence” is the wording in the actual freaking replay rules! Why then does MLB let the umpires use a substantially greater standard of evidence than is prescribed in the freaking rules?!?!?
I know that the replay booth is not a court of law, but there’s no reason why “clear and convincing evidence” should mean something totally different in this context. Not least of which because the replay system as currently implemented is borderline psychotic.
Recapped.
Talking Chop has some links to tweets calling out the call/umps/replay system from players like Trout & Justin Turner. Buster Olney too.
I don’t think it’s anything more than a coincidence that the umpires blew calls that gave the Mets a win on Thursday and the Braves a loss today in a year in which we can be reasonably sure that Manfred doesn’t want to have to come to Atlanta in the postseason, but it would be entertaining to hear someone with an audience raise the possibility.
Greetings from Atlantic City…
Not sure what they were looking at, but… terrible call.
Screwed up my 2-team parlay to boot.