The good news is that the Braves proved they can create an offensive outbreak without being carried by Ronald Acuna Jr. The bad news is that they may have to.
Freddie Freeman, Travis d’Arnaud, Ehire Adrianza, and Guillermo Heredia all homered off Kyle Hendricks in the top of a 6 run 1st inning, and Heredia added a second homer, a grand slam in a 6 run 6th. However, Acuna left the game after walking and scoring in the 4th, with “pain in his lower abdominal muscles.” At post time, this was described as “precautionary.”
Heredia ended up with 3 hits and 6 RBIs, and Freeman and d’Arnaud added doubles to lead several players with 2 hits. d’Arnaud added 3 RBIs. Anthony Rizzo hit a couple of homers for the Cubs.
Bryse Wilson went 5 innings and allowed 7 hits and 3 runs (2 earned) while walking and striking out 1 batter each. He threw 50 strikes and 19 balls, which is nice.
The Braves take the series 2 – 1, and have won 3 of the last 4. 16 games into the season, and the Braves stand at 7 – 9 . In the NL East, only the Phillies have won as many as 8.
Off Monday, at Yankee Stadium on Tuesday at 6:35. Charlie Morton vs. Jameson Taillon scheduled.
Mark Bowman among others reporting “Acuña has an abdominal strain. They won’t know if he needs to go on the IL until tomorrow.”
Thanks Rusty.
What a strange season so far.
From the web: “A mild strain may heal within a few weeks. A more severe strain may take 6 weeks or longer.”
It’s About time the Braves came out of Their. FUNK or Fog ..Now They must get Siroka Back on track fast Marcel Ozuna , Freddy Freman Swenson need to become more Consistent at the plate . Stop swing On the 1St Pitch so they can. See what the opposing Pitcher has in his his Pitch variety. Just like you are Trained in the little leagues. players mentioned in this comment. Section stated this Today
Sunday April 18, 2021 hit 5 Home runs combined . Wow It’s Magic just being patient at the Plate brings Diffently results Does Every one Agree (Yes) or (No)
Bill.Edwards Editor of The Palm Coast Tribune in Fort Lauderdale And Boyton Beach FLORIDA. ⛱🤠.
Good job getting it out on the evening in question, Rusty, thanks. Acuna updates too. And Timo, aren’t one of life’s most precious artefacts, the kidneys, thereabouts? Hopefully well padded. With hindsight did you think the tag was a little over the top – don’t you dare come here and hit your home runs, eh. We didn’t need to, did we? And whatte a coinncidence the hyther2 unherralded Mr. Edawards chose to honner is with his pressence. May we check yur presse creddenshals, pleez.?
Macho tag
you beat me back to the bag
but now I’m a little uneasy
worried even, queasy.
wouldn’t you be?
Do you guys think that Freddie was seriously discussing an extension? What’s been the latest on that?
John Grisham talks sports, loves basketball, hasn’t watched an NBA game in 50 years.
Well,
We pitched you once
then we pitched you twice
Yeah Yeah
but you never listened to our advice
Yeah Yeah
so this was sure the last time
just the very last time
till…..
BRYSE!!
Ryan,
What do you do with 3B? As it sits, Riley has had 56 PAs and he has a .534 OPS. For his career, he’s hit LHP better than RHP, though he hasn’t in short sample this year. Do you let Adrianza face RHP? Sandoval? Stick with Riley? I would start by giving Sandoval or Adrianza some starts, and if Riley is still struggling a month from now, make a more permanent change.
And now Ryan, I’m going to give you a list of questions that are unrelated to baseball that you can answer on the podcast (or anyone here):
-What is the weirdest smell you’ve ever smelled?
-Is cereal soup? Why or why not?
-What conspiracy do you find the most plausible?
-What are the unwritten rules of where you work?
-What movie would be greatly improved if it was made into a musical?
Bon appetit.
Alright, baseball is great.
https://theathletic.com/2528097/2021/04/18/id-do-it-all-over-again-just-for-a-day-like-saturday-braves-sean-kazmar-jr-reflects-on-his-epic-mlb-return-after-over-12-years-away/
Alright crew, a Braves Journal exclusive contest: Guess the Braves OF and DH!
Winner will receive their choice of a Hammers tee or hat. Rules are simple:
Guess the 4 players and their positions.
Ozuna LF
Sandoval DH
Herredia CF
Adrianza RF
LF Ozuma
RF Adrianza
CF Heredia
DH Pablo
Lots of vowels
@7 I am inclined to believe that Freddie has approached the front office about an extension multiple times, but it wouldn’t surprise me if talks haven’t gotten very far. I’m such a huge Freeman fan that I would find it upsetting if Freeman left. However, if you look at the list of similar batters to Freddie, you will find that not one of them had a comparably good career after the age of 31 as they did in the 6-8 years leading to age 31.
How I look at it is like this: Freddie is a special and unique case who, by all rights, is deserving of a big contract. Eddie Murray was also a special and unique case, a hall of famer, whose post-age-30 career was no where as good as his pre-age-30 career. He was still very good, but nothing like his younger years.
That’s Freddie, and that’s how the team will want to pay Freddie. His best is very likely behind him, but he has several very good years left in him with the possibility of another MVP push. His peak run is mostly in the rearview mirror now, sadly.
They will agree to a contract extension with Freddie because they have to. There really isn’t any choice. If they don’t, they re-enter rebuilding mode for at least a couple years and the fanbase turns on them. And the rest of the players on the roster turn on them. Will they pay him more than they want to? Yes. Is letting him walk any kind of choice at all? No.
LF Ozuna
CF Heredia
RF Camargo
DH Pablo
@19 I don’t think the rate of pay for any one season beyond the next couple is a point of contention, but I do think that length of extension and base salary in latter years is what they’re looking at. I can see Freddie getting a 4-year extension with diminishing base salary and performance incentives going into age 35.
@21 I said that completely the opposite of what I intended to say. I don’t think the point of contention is the rate of pay for the next couple of years, but everything beyond that is probably more complicated than it would have been 20 years ago…
@19, this is pretty much where I am, mainly because this is pretty much exactly the answer David O’Brien gave in a recent mailbag:
https://theathletic.com/2520617/2021/04/14/braves-mailbag-freddie-free-agency-albies-stop-switch-waters-or-harris-soon/
Basically, I think it’s fair to say that DOB would not go out on a limb like that if the Braves had a shred of a doubt of re-signing him. He’s not strictly a mouthpiece for the team, but he’s so close to the team’s executives that it’s fair to assume there’s not much daylight between the way they feel about it and the way he’s expressing it.
https://www.fangraphs.com/leaders.aspx?pos=all&stats=pit&lg=all&qual=0&type=7&season=2021&month=0&season1=2021&ind=0&team=0,ts&rost=0&age=0&filter=&players=0&startdate=2021-01-01&enddate=2021-12-31&sort=2,d
The Braves pitching staff does not have one pitch that is rated positively for the entire staff and is the only team in MLB to not have at least one.
Regarding Freeman, it kind of stinks that they’re going to have to probably overpay for a 1B, the one position you ought to be able to find an affordable guy that can rake. Historically, I’ve underrated him because he is a medium to high 20s to low 30s HR line drive/opposite field hitter and not a true POWER hitting 1B in a traditional sense, maybe.
He is a great MLB player but I’d hate to know I was going to have to shell out 150-200M plus to a 31+ 1B who is a bad baserunner and below average fielder per metrics.
https://www.fangraphs.com/players/freddie-freeman/5361/stats?position=1B
For the contest, I’m going slightly out of the box.
LF – Ozuna
CF – Heredia
RF – Riley
DH – Sandoval
LF – Ozuna
CF – Heredia
RF – Adrianza
DH – Riley
LF – Ozuna
CF- Heredia
RF – Waters
DH – Sandoval
@25 Over his entire career, yeah, he’s been a 20-something homer threat. During his peak, going back to 2016, he has been slugging as a mid-30’s home run hitter. 2018 was an outlier where more of his home runs hit the fence for doubles, but that’s MLB and its ever-changing baseball too. His SLG has averaged .560+.
Freeman represents more than a power threat, though, as he’s probably the most polished hitter in the lineup. I kinda hate saying it, but Freddie is lot like Chipper as far as what he represents to the team at the plate and to the fans. He has been a true spiritual successor.
If you could find a guy for 4M-8M AAV (instead of the 15-20 AAV FF is going to command at the floor) that could hit .275 BA .335 OBP and .475 slugging and finish with a p162 stat line of .275 23HR and 82 RBI, would you take the hit on the PR that would come from not resigning FF? FF in 2019 had an OPS of .938 and the example above is roughly Jose Abreu or Corey Seager or Rhys Hoskins stat lines of 2019. I realize that none of the three players listed above make 4-8M AAV, FWIW.
I’m not a fan of spending that much money on a non-premium position. I get all of the Braves Country reasons for paying him but from a purely analytical position, I’m not sure it’s the right move long term. He has old players skills and those tend to fall off a cliff.
I’d go 6/120M but that would be about it. He was at 8/135M prior. Hard to see how the Braves could go lower than the previous contract, politically
@30 No, I think they will go lower than the previous because he’s going to be 32 next season. No one is going to pay him more for his age 32 through age 38 seasons. There are mountains of baseball evidence he is not going to perform to his peak, and I think he will accept an offer taking that into consideration but with performance bonuses that reward him handsomely if he does achieve a new peak.
@30 I think you’re close with 6/120 for Freddie. The Braves just cannot afford to overpay and Freddie knows this and, like Chipper, wants the Braves to be able to field a competitive team. I would bet that his motivation is for the Braves to contend rather than get “that” much more money.
The budget is a fiction, produced in the same spirit as the fake Stan Musial contracts that Gussie Busch would “accidentally” leave on his desk when negotiating with other players, and the player would be foolish to lower his expectations based on that fiction. Get as much as you can, Freddie.
Offday thread.
https://bravesjournal.mystagingwebsite.com/2021/04/19/braves-offensive-statcast-data/