I thought this would happen…back at the end of June.
Then I thought it would happen again…back at the end of July.
When the Braves got heavy with the lefties, I kind of thought the time had passed and, in September, I pivoted to the RH candidates:
Now that it’s finally happened, I can say with full authority that I am very happy for Dylan Lee who genuinely seems like a good dude. He’s been stellar at Gwinnett this year with a 1.58 ERA, but that’s not even the best part. He’s always around the strike zone, yet contact of any magnitude is hard to come by. Also, when it comes to scouting MILB pitchers, I’ve been looking less and less at ERA and more at K/BB ratio. Dylan Lee is putting up 2019 Chris Martin numbers with a K-rate at 10.2, a walk rate at 1.2 and a K/BB ratio of 8.67 strikeouts for every walk.
To me, the stuff plays. He’s got a mid-90s fastball, a mid-80s changeup, and a curveball that plays in the upper 70s. All of his pitches are quality, but the command is where he makes his outs. Here’s my friends that run Outfield Fly Rule, Andy and Matt’s assessment:
And Dylan Lee, with the commish’s permission, is playoff eligible.
The Transactions
For those not in the know, Touki Toussaint‘s father passed away. Orlando Arcia‘s time up is probably short-lived and I’m also not sure we see Touki again this season. I can’t imagine he’ll be on the playoff roster. Kyle Wright, on the other hand, has earned another look at the MLB roster so that’s something to keep an eye on.
Thanks so much, Ryan! I am officially excited for the Dylan Lee era, and not only because he sounds like an Australian singer-songwriter.
Thanks, Ryan. Don’t know how you have time to keep us so up to date. Do you ever sleep?
Rays just clinched post season berth, 7th time since 2008, they ‘expected it’. Beat Jays 7-1.
My condolences to Touki and his family.
Thanks, Ryan. I’m glad Lee’s getting the chance. A good K/BB ratio is a good sign, but I remember thinking that Buddy Carlyle would almost certainly be a good major leaguer after he had 56:9 in 48 AAA innings in 2007. He outdid that with 24:1 in 17 AAA innings in 2009. Sadly, his MLB numbers weren’t that great, though I still liked him. Hope Lee does better.
Just read about the Blue Jays hitting the Rays’ Kiermaier today for stealing a scouting card that the Jays’ catcher dropped after a play at the plate on Monday & refusing to return it. I’m usually not too big on unwritten rules, but that seems pretty worthy of retaliation.
Someone in the last thread commented that it would be easy for Glavine to segue a discussion of Riley’s MVP into a discussion of his rivals’, and I think that would be true…for a more gifted broadcaster than Glavine. I think that kind of transition is exactly the kind of thing that gets most directly at Glavine’s weaknesses.
It’s been kind of under the radar, but Kyle Wright has been very solid in the last couple of months at Gwinnett. He may yet be a quality major league pitcher. OTOH, I doubt that the Braves will rely on him in a pennant race or the playoffs this year.
Wright did pitch six shutout innings in the NLDS clinching game just last year. His appearance in the NLCS, however, is best left unmentioned.
I have been a derelict fan, and I can’t remember what’s going on with Tucker Davidson. Can anyone remind me?
Went out with forearm tightness his first start after the sticky ban. Was a known sticky user and Peter Moylan guessed he strained forearm because he was forced to grip harder.
In the O’s game tonight things were tight in the 7th, tied 2-2. Then the O’s went to their pen for a guy called GREENE.
He gave up the third and fourth runs in a matter of minutes.
Could it be? Was it?
GREENE
hurting the cause, still?
Sam Holbrook was trying to figure out how to call that an infield fly, I’m sure.
Shane Greene is with the Dodgers.
So nobody knows what just happened. Did Duvall not run the bases?
What the hell happened?
The umpires didn’t have a unified ruling on it. Ultimately, the snafu was caused by their inconsistency, with one ruling it was a home run. And of course, Sam Holbrook is on the field at the center of this. This is their foul-up and the Braves should play this game under protest, because Duvall was only following the ruling of the 2B umpire, which Riley couldn’t see.
Nice for Duvall. The umpires are a miserable joke.
That’s insane.
Apparently, Duvall passed Riley when Riley thought the ball was caught. So it’s a 2-run single and not a HR and Duvall was out.
Duvall passed Riley because Riley had no idea what was going on and was trying to get back to first because no umpire made a freaking call.
And by the way, the ball would not have been over the fence had the Arizona CF not accidentally batted it over trying to catch it.
O’s came back, 4-3
then…..
Harper threw out the tying run at the plate.
When Riley thought it was caught he was scrambling back to first. As he was doing that, Duvall passed him between first and second. So even though it was a home run, Duvall is out. Riley is allowed to score.
@20 that is the standard call but that is not the call on the field or the mlb app.
To me that was all on the umpires. They refused to let Austin and Adam know the call.
That run is going to matter.
Fire every umpire and start over with robots.
Just make a call. Even if they’d dumbly called him out, that can be overturned via replay. Standing there with your thumb up your ass results in even worse outcomes…like that.
Did the fielder at second ever touch the bag?
Snitker should have thrown a tantrum.
I wouldn’t trust Anderson in the postseason at all. Looks like he hasn’t fully recovered from that shoulder ailment he had. Terrible bunt attempt as well.
Typical no reaction from snitker on that debacle. Disappointing, but expected.
They just showed the first clear replay of the Duvall thing. All three umpires just stood around staring at each other and nobody made a call…nobody did anything. Just absurd. Also, I’m not normally one to say that Snit should get tossed because of a bad replay call or whatever. That’s more on the umpire in the replay center than anybody on the field. But this? Snit should’ve thrown an absolute nutty.
Arguing with Sam Holbrook is like arguing with a box of rocks.
Mountcastle flies out in the 9th with two on, Phils win.
Harper’s throw to home plate in the 8th secured the winning run. What a series, all 1 run wins I believe.
BUT THEY DROPPED THE FIRST GAME !!!!!
Riley sabotaging Duvall so he can catch him in homers.
The Braves should play the game under protest, frankly. Refusal to make a call is not only unprofessional, it’s literally unacceptable.
Let’s just win the game to make it irrelevant.
@32
I was thinking that, but a protest requires a misapplication of the rules and I have a tough time seeing how this is that. There absolutely should’ve been more of a ruckus raised about it rather than just seeming to say, “Oh well, onto the next one,” before anybody knew what was going on, though.
By the way, either on Twitter or Talking Chop, I saw somebody ask, “Well, would you rather the umpire just guess there if he’s not sure?” as if the prospect of them doing that were absurd. But the answer is unequivocally yes. You have to make a call and it doesn’t really matter what the call is, especially with replay around to fix it.
Yeah, Snit has a bit more equanimity than I’d want on the field when the team’s getting screwed by the boys in blue.
Has anyone ever hit 20 homers for two different teams in the same season? Duvall has a shot, and he would have a better shot if the umpires had made a clear call.
Far be it from me to bag on Chip when umpires are actively screwing us, but did he an inning ago tease an interesting reason for tomorrow’s game being played in the afternoon after the next pitch and then forget about it five seconds later and never tell us what he was talking about? Might wanna invest in one of those snake-oil memory supplements that get hocked on daytime TV.
Considering the centerfielder was just sitting on the warning track with all kinds of runners to potentially double off, it wouldn’t have been too hard to guess that he did not have the ball.
Additionally (I just watched it again), all of the fans in the stands just behind the wall were diving under the seats for the ball. The umpires saw this and continued to all stand there like imbeciles.
UPDATE: Hey, Chip finally paid it off 40 minutes later! Apparently, it’s because San Diego is closing their airport at midnight tomorrow night to resurface the runway (their airport only has one runway?) and the Braves had to request the change because they wouldn’t have been able to land there late tomorrow night.
Ozzie! Mercy.
Apparently, he’s the first Braves 2B with 30 homers and 100 RBI. Ever.
Davey Johnson in 1973 had 43 homers and only 99 RBIs. Only 9 players have had 43 HR or more and fewer than 100 RBIs, and if Ohtani gets to 100 RBIs there will be only 8.
Bonds in 2003 had 45 HR and only 90 RBIs, mostly because he was walked intentionally 61 times…
@39, I think Chip said it was San Diego’s in-town airport (i.e., implying it’s not the larger main one) that had the resurfacing issue and that they are scheduled to fly into.
@36 Yep! Mark McGwire did it in 1997, and our old pal David Justice did it in 2000.
“If it weren’t for Riley, Freeman would be in the MVP conversation.” Words fail me.
Chip: Of the 10,000 guys, only about 600 played 2nd base. But whatevs.
If it weren’t for toasters, lawn chairs would be in the diet soda discussion.
Duvall is a good CF. I’m surprised that nobody has put him in center before now.
@45
LOL…again, performance art. This campaign is swiftly crossing the barrier from absurdly annoying to absurdly hilarious IMO.
Great start from Anderson. Boy he needed that.
I sorta missed what they said. I have 21 times a second baseman had 30 homers and 100 RBIs before tonight. And Albies is the youngest, beating Jonathan Schoop (2017,also from Curacao) and Joe Gordon (1940) by 1 year.
Duvall is snake-bit tonight… that has to be the longest two singles ever hit
You know look at Atlanta’s record after acquiring Duvall. He also loads the league in RBIs and plays a solid center field. Why isn’t Duvall in the MVP conversation? I guess it is because he has to get in line behind Riley and Freeman.
@51
And he was out on both plays.
@52: If Riley keeps stealing HRs from him he has no chance at all.
Gonna Charlie F***around their way into a loss, aren’t they
@54 – Very true. Btw, wouldn’t a 6 to 2 lead against the last place team in the 9th be the perfect spot for Dylan Lee to make his debut? If you don’t trust him then why call him up? From what I see I think putting him in in the 8th would have been a good choice.
@56 Snit has two squads: relievers he uses with a lead and relievers he uses when the team is losing. Lee must be in the latter group.
Agreed on Snitker. I’m afraid getting Lee added to the post season roster is a pipe dream if he doesn’t get a chance.
Recapped
https://deadspin.com/cardinals-do-what-they-do-unfortunately-1847714518?utm_source=deadspin_newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=2021-09-21
Needed to be said, put on the record. Scavengers, dangerous. Hot as hell. Horrid memories for us.
When are we likely to meet by best estimates?
@60
We can’t play them until the NLCS, which would be after they clean out both the Dodgers and Giants, so…I’m very likely going to regret typing this, but I’d be OK with that.