I was born by a river in this little old tent
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yyhL0ioST_U
Oh just like this river I’ve been running ever since
It’s been a long long, long time coming
But I know, but I know a change is gotta come
Oh yes it is
Three division titles in a row. Hard to be mad about that. Bad teams are the tax you pay for rooting for good teams. Everybody’s gotta lose, and you gotta be grateful if your guys got in a whole lot of winning first.
Next year, they’ll probably be good. The killer A’s — Anderson, Albies, Acuña — are all you need as reason to believe. Not every year is 1995. But when you put together a core of young players, every once in a while you get both lucky and good, and you win the last game of the season.
The warmth of your love’s like the warmth of the sun
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xSzU9Geg6jA
And this will be our year, took a long time to come
Don’t let go of my hand, now darkness has gone
This will be our year, took a long time to come
It’s easy to overstate how bad the Braves are, or have ever been during any of our lifetimes. However bad these clowns may look, it’s not a patch on the Beaneaters of 1935.
The Braves went 38-115 that year, the worst in franchise history by a healthy margin. They finished 61.5 games out of first place and, not unrelatedly, averaged 1,521 fans per game. (Incredibly, the Phillies were even worse, averaging 1,317 fans per game, even though they were a much more modest 35.5 games out of first.)
Every time I look around this place
I see them scream, but I hear no sound
And the terrible things happen down the road
To somebody else that I don’t even knowNothing bad ever happens to me
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=doTitxvv_CM
Nothing bad ever happens to me
(Nothing bad ever happens to me)
Nothing bad ever happens to me
(Nothing bad ever happens to me)
Nothing bad ever happens to me
Nothing bad ever happens to me
Why should I care?
Why should I care?
Why should I care?
Some years it’s 1995. Some years it’s 1935. And some years it’s the exact geometric mean of those two.
The Mets really aren’t a very good team. But they’re better than the Braves, who genuinely are not a good enough team to deserve to win most nights.
If it weren’t for this bar, I don’t know how I’d keep watching. The next round is on me, guys.
I’m glad I watched the Hawks game. The Hawks aren’t boned, it turns out, but the Braves might be.
Alex, thanks for putting a little Otis back into my life.
/fork
Sell. 9.5 games out of the WC and closer to last than first in your own division.
Delenda est Liberty Media.
Braves aren’t selling anytime soon. If it gets to a week before the deadline and they’re well behind the NL East, they might think about it. Maybe. It’s too talented of a team to call it a lost season…yet.
Braves, another depressing loss.
Hawks, another inspirational win.
Who’da ever thunk that?
@3 – In all seriousness, what kind of selloff are you suggesting? One that leads to a much better team next year or one that leads to another two to three year rebuild?
I understand that AA apparently has budget contraints that have tied his hands. Like I said in the game thread yesterday, why not take a shot with Arcia or Demeritte or whomever? They wouldn’t add any payroll and it is hard to beleive they couldn’t at least replace the production (or lack there of) of Ender, Almonte and Adrianza with the chance they could exceed it. Waiting for these guys to suddenly produce after years of sucktitude is maddening.
@5 – ububba, how ’bout them Hawks! Hope they can study Game 4 and apply a few lessons learned (with or without Ice Trae) for Game 5. Hate to see anyone get hurt, especially the immense talent that Giannis is. But if he doesn’t suit up, that changes the game dramatically. Bucks still dangerous without him though.
Man – these Braves. Watched the every pitch last night with the family from the beach (had the Hawks gamecast on). Was waiting for some late game offensive heroics (maybe it was the adult beverages driving my unreasonable optimism??).
Life is good. These Braves are not. But while I breath, I hope (shamelessly stolen from the SC state motto)…
Dum spiro spero!
@5 I would call it a soul-crushing loss. I think it’s all a matter of expectations. In 2015-2017, we expected to have games like these. Now we don’t and they make watching exceptionally depressing.
I am at the point where I don’t think the Braves will either buy or sell. But it sure would be nice if AA could do what the gNats did a couple of years ago (or what the Rays do regularly). Both sell and buy and turn the team around – both for this year and next.
@10
Yeah, I’m cool with that, and I think that could very well happen. In fact, it should if we’re not gonna be straight buyers. As I said yesterday, though, dumping parts for prospects would be a moronic decision at this point in the team’s window.
I think Chief and others’ definition of “sell” is to trade off all one-year guys. Morton, Smyly, Greene, Martin, etc.
I know this is sacrilege, but I’d trade Freddie like the Yankees did with Aroldis Chapman. Freddie’s a big boy, he knows it’s a business. If he’s going to sign for the most money a team will offer him anyway, then who cares? What’s the advantage to keeping him? If there’s no hometown discount to be gained, then go get yourself a couple of really nice pieces for him.
But we’re not selling.
To explore the point further, there are some advantages to selling. You can plug Kyle Wright and Bryse Wilson into two spots in the rotation in August and September, and finally give them what they probably need: at least 8-9 consecutive starts at the big league club. If they turn the corner, then great. If they don’t, you now have more data from which to make a decision.
Let Pache play every day. Let Arcia play third and Riley play LF in a less risky environment. Start learning really what you got. Who knows, you might “sell” and end up with a better squad than you had before, and you brought back 4-5 good prospects.
Based on his last two starts, the Braves, sitting ~10 games out of the WC, would be absolute fools not to trade Morton if someone wanted to offer something with a more long term view. He’s 38 years old. He’s a FA after this season.
When I have said to trade anyone, I’m slightly exaggerating. Acuna, Fried, Anderson and probably Albies are untouchable. But that leaves 22 others plus ‘prospects’.
Chief, I get the idea of untouchables but I don’t think it makes much sense to trade prospects for prospects unless we have a huge hole somewhere and a glut of prospects at other positions. I’m not trying to challenge, I just want to understand your plan. I get trading the veterans, but what about the others not named Acuna, Anderson, Fried, and Albies? What value is there in trading unproven prospect for unproven prospect?
I could not be less interested in giving Wright and Wilson two months to “figure it out.” They’ve already had more than enough chance to figure it out, they’re not going to because neither are very good. We should’ve traded both long ago, and now we can’t get anything for them because everyone knows they suck. And you might say that’s a reason to stick it out and throw them out there to see what happens, but I’m just not at all interested. They’re essentially Matt Wisler and Aaron Blair at this point, as far as I’m concerned.
@16 – Wilson has started 3 times for Atlanta in the past 6 weeks. Two of those three starts were excellent. The last start was bad, but as much as he’s been jacked around from MLB to AAA I’m not ready to give up on him. He’s still just 23 and has shown some promise, including a great start in the playoffs last year. I wouldn’t be afraid to trade him for the right deal, but he still has value and potential imo.
Otoh, Kyle Wright is 25 and has pitched 70 innings in the majors since 2018 with a terrible ERA and even worse WHIP and other peripherals. I know people love his stuff, but I’m not even enthralled by his minor league resume. Like you I’m ready to move on.
Why am I failing to see the talent? Okay you are playing on Major League team so you must have some talent. But who has enough talent to help a team win 90 games?
Acuna, Freeman, Albies, Swanson (?)
Riley (maybe) Anderson, Fried(?),Smith, and a few other relievers depending on any given day.
Bench non existent.
Morton and Smyly are 4th and fifth starters on a pennant winning team.
Two positions are terrible. The remaining one decent.
Where are the three 300 hitters? Were is one? Forget this year, but don’t make asinine moves just to make them. Last year three players had years they will never approach. There was depth. They hit with every team. LAST YEAR will never be duplicated with the present ownership.
Every team in the East except Miami will out spend Atlanta along with other N L teams. That doesn’t rule out being good.
But great, I believe not. This is not Tampa Bay. No one is.
The freaking Hawks were amazing.
So was Mississippi State
Summer of Soul go see.
The Revolution Will Not Be Televised
2 of 3 would make us happy.
Long Lost Lord Huron
#8
With this Hawks bunch coming completely out of the blue, I’m still a bit staggered.
And considering how the past 24 hours have played out, it’s almost beyond comprehension to see them standing where they are right now.
Alex, I may have mentioned before that I love your mastery of the written word. Thank you.
Respectfully,
A Hayseed
Coop, the feeling is mutual. (Though I hope you’re not just calling yourself a hayseed on my account!)
The main reason that I’d like to see some deck chair rearranging is that we’ve seen plenty of the upper level prospects to for the most part know what or who they are. While its doubtful that Wright or Wilson have much value, if you go by the all it takes is one theory, if there is some team that would have interest in them in return for a productive MLB player (meaning better than Almonte, Ehire, Camargo, KevAn Smith, or any of the other dreck that have appeared in an Atlanta uniform this season), I’m at least interested in seeing something (I have the MLB package…) else that may be dreck, but at least hasn’t been so in Atlanta.
Two good moves:
@21: that aside cracked me up and still brings a smile to my lips.
Watching the Ray’s, Nationals game. The National’s got 6 straight hits, all singles.
You numbers freaks, please tell me a last time the Braves got six straight hits of any variety.
Thank you.
Catchers on one knee is a bad move defensively. Passed balls and wild pitches galore. The umpires are supposed to call balls and strikes based on where the ball crosses the plate. No , no I understand that is not what they do. They mostly suck.
I don’t think Ed thinks that we’re any good.
We need Varsity, not JV
I’m not sure what getting 6 straight singles proves about a team if that’s Ed’s point. The Nationals have been hitting better lately but they are pretty much equal with us in OPS. If we get a decent replacement for Almonte I think we will be a better offensive team than they are. The Mets lineup tonight is putrid even with the 2 to 0 lead. Their pitching, especially DeGrom, is good. There is no question about it.
@17
I agree with td regarding wright and wilson.
I don’t think 1 bat will be enough for this lineup to reach its potential.
If Ozuna were here and hitting like last year, maybe it would be a different story.
An outfielder, a bench bat and a couple bullpen arms. That’s all it takes and the Braves will be back in the race.
The World Series-or-bust sell sell sell types need to cool off. The sky isn’t falling.
So, uh…this is going well.
Yeah, we haven’t gotten 6 hits in a row (stupid walks have spoiled it), but I’ll take it.
Nice, ump. Real nice.
I take everything bad I had to say about Almonte and Kevan Smith back. With both of them getting two hits tonight they have proven to be excellent major leaguers. Scouts from other teams monitoring this blog should listen to me and trade top prospects for them immediately. If you want to play hard ball we may even throw in Adrianza.
@34 Nah, they still suck.
Great game. But save some runs.
Think how embarrassed the Mets pitchers are, giving up two hits to Smith and Almonte.
Congratulations to Mississippi State.
9-0 one hitter. Proves two great pitchers are not enough. Well the Braves proved that for 12 years.
Mississippi State outscored Vanderbilt 22-2 in two games.
If I’m not mistaken, I believe that’s the first team national championship that Mississippi State has ever won…in any sport. That’s pretty cool. Hats off to them!
Well this was a surprise!
Recapped, with some degree of hope