DOOOOOOMED. Yeah, it kinda seems that way. Maybe Charlie Morton shouldn’t have gone back out to throw that extra inning last fall. You know, a broken toe probably killed Dizzy Dean’s pitching career. Who had Fried 1, Wright 2, Elder 3, and who the hell knows for 4 and 5, 3 weeks into the season. I bet that action at Caesar’s would have gotten you 100 to 1.
Well Jesse Chavez kept us alive after Morton had first inning (bad), 2nd inning (worse) and 3rd inning (worst). Travis Demeritte helped out Chavez by getting a runner at 3rd. Maybe Travis will be a fairly decent Major Leaguer for a while. This Braves team needs some decent ones.
An Olson walk, Riley single, and D’Arnaud single got one back and left it 3 to 1 Cubs.
Then, the arm firm of McHugh, Minter, Woods, and Jansen kept the juveniles at bay. So, just like Lloyd Christmas, “you mean, we’ve got a chance?”
The Braves continued in Hibernation Mode (aren’t the Cubs supposed to learn how to do that?) and started off the 8th in fine form with strikeouts from Ozuna and D’Arnaud. Well, then you know the run expectancy is competing with Lloyd for a shot at Lauren Holly. However, Dickerson and DuVall single (what!!!). Then Demeritte walks (there is that guy again). Then Dansby Swanson singles (WHAT!!!!) [Like is that the unlikeliest rally you could dream up for April 2022?] and 2 runs score to tie it.
But then, just as there are things in this game that surprise to the positive, so they can surprise to the negative. It is just one game. And if the run is over, if anybody on this site won’t pick up a drink tab for Tyler Matzek for the rest of his life for what he has ALREADY done, then you, sir, are a certified jerk. However, the unlikely thing of Matzek being hittable happened. Giving up 3 in the top of 10 rarely leads to a win for the home team.
Barves or Braves? Your play today might go a long way toward establishing that. Ronald, Ronald, where for art thou Ronald? It is the East and the Mets are hot as the sun.
While I was typing I was officially unaware of the impending Acuna move. However, the dfa of Dickerson does bring you to question the original decision of carrying him, doesn’t it? he isn’t good enough to keep, but he was good enough to play a lot for 3 weeks?
@1 he certainly didn’t show us why he should have been playing.
I think the braintrust realized that we were approaching the tipping point where adding 1 more bad defender would cause the whole thing to crumble. I remember Bill James in one of his books discussing the late 80’s mets and how moving Howard Johnson to short caused a bad defensive team to be historically bad and undermined the otherwise effective pitching staff. As for our team, I don’t believe that all of our pitching struggles are the fault of the pitching staff!
As it is, Demerritte is pretty decent out there while we couldn’t trust Dickerson in the field at all.
@3
Yeah. If Ozuna is playing the field over you, you may not own a glove.
The lack of a LH bat will cause issues later and I’d expect AA to address that at some point in time, whether it be a big trade, a Michael Harris promotion (IMO, highly unlikely until Septemberish), or just a waiver wire pickup after rosters shrink. If Dickerson clears waivers (which I can’t imagine he would), the Braves will owe him his full salary and he can decline going to Gwinnett if he so chooses.
I’ll say it again…Brett Gardner is still available and Braves could do worse.
Dickerson had to go. I get it. He wasn’t hitting. I get that he was hitting the ball hard and the exit velo was good. But they’ve messed up the baseball, so he’s not hitting the ball over the wall. He doesn’t play defense. His skillset is just irrelevant to us right now.
I don’t want to go off the deep end, because we’ve all seen the Chuckie Thomas’ and the Brooks Conrad’s and Jeff Francoeur’s who have had a nice little run and crashed, but I’m liking Travis Demeritte a lot. He is a freaking athlete. He hit 3 balls hard yesterday. If MLB hadn’t dicked around the ball, two would have gone out. He’s fast. He plays really good defense, though he does have a noodle arm. He’s got a tremendous positive energy. People like him. I want that guy in the lineup until he’s had a .600 OPS for a month.
@5 I agree that Brett Gardner makes A LOT of sense for Atlanta. We need average defense and a left-handed bat.
The truth is that we need Ozuna / Duvall / Swanson / left-handed-Albies to be good offensively. Or at least not-terrible. It’s a long season. Can’t fire half the team. I miss Joc Pederson though.
@8 .. Joc is looking more and more like a mistake in not keeping but when you had a choice Rosario and Joc and what Rosario did in WS ..then hard not to go with Rosario … hopefully eye surgery recovers and restores him back and helps later this year and next … but this year may be a Olson against the world of righties .. cause we know Albies is a waste from the left side . Ive never figured out why he doesnt bat right handed all the time .. i think he should try .. we are so top heavy in RH hitters .. we dont even have a bench option … how does that happen to a World Series team ??? Lack of ???
@8 .. anyway SF lets go of JOC ???? kinda doubt it …
Maybe Duvall , Albies , Ozuna and Swanson need to see the same eye DR Rosario did … some of the pitches Albies and Ozuna swing at .. lol ..now Duval and Swanson are just swinging thru good pitches .. they just cant make contact .
Warm up
@8 You right.
One thing we may need to come to grips with is that this team is not built for the new dead-ball era. We have quite a few three-true outcome players and if you take one of those outcomes away (the HR), you’re left with not much that’s good. Olson is the only one who’s defying that sentiment so far.
I have always liked Demeritte, but especially as a three-true outcomes type of player who is a good fielder. I really didn’t think they would let go of Dickerson but it was the best choice. Not only does it clear an active roster slot but it also clears a 40-man slot so someone like Harris could theoretically be brought up. Demeritte came within inches of winning that game all by himself. The question is, as with many of our other players, will the ball really start going out or not.
I thought about Gardner but I believe he said a year or two ago that he’d either play for the Yankees or retire. Elsewise he would have been a better choice than Dickerson to begin with as he can play CF.
One thing we may need to come to grips with is that this team is not built for the new dead-ball era. We have quite a few three-true outcome players and if you take one of those outcomes away (the HR), you’re left with not much that’s good. Olson is the only one who’s defying that sentiment so far.
Well, some of these guys became three outcome hitters based on the incentive to do so. Dansby was never supposed to be the 27-home run guy he was last year. These guys will simply have to make adjustments, and I think Seitzer is probably the right guy if this is indeed a new era we are in.
It’s still April and, I’m told, the weather in Atlanta has been known to get a degree or two warmer as the calendar wears on.
I’m not as concerned that our boyos will hit. I’m more concerned that all the other boyos will hit better, too. If the rising tide lifts all boats, we’ll still be treading water.
One Vote Here: I have seen quite enough of Brett Gardner.
I saw his entire career up-close, and the last 2 years on the field, he was done. He mostly played b/c of injuries to starting OFs or fear of injuries to starting OFs (namely the DL-friendly Stanton, who almost exclusively DH’d in ’20-’21). Last year, he was the “veteran presence” who couldn’t play anymore – and he couldn’t hit RHP at all.
Yeah, he can catch the ball & throw – that certainly has some value, as we know all too well – but I’d rather take a short-term chance with a younger player. I’m not convinced that Gardner, at his age, can catch lightning as any short-term solution.
#3
The Mets have an odd history in that respect… good offensive players who can’t play a position well, so they move ’em around as needed – HoJo, Gregg Jefferies, Daniel Murphy & (to a lesser degree) Jeff McNeil now. (When they got Piazza, they even tried Todd Hundley in LF, where he made Marcel Ozuna look like Barry Bonds).
I remember Mets fans back then would refer to Howard Johnson as their “30/30/30 guy.” (In ’91, he had 38 HRs, 30 SBs & 31 errors… at 3 different positions.)
I heard a guy interviewed on radio that seemed to know what was going on with the baseballs. He claims they are using older baseballs and they will finish these up around mid-season. Maybe we’ll see an uptick in homeruns after the all star break. The mud that is rubbed on the balls also seems like a problem.
Oh well, if teams are struggling with controlling where baseballs go, at least it is disproportionately effecting the Mets.
https://www.djournal.com/bad-baseballs-new-york-mets-angry-after-rash-of-hbps/article_3ac4cd20-ea4b-58e9-bfd6-24d337a67978.html
The Mets historically treated second base as a place to put a guy who you couldn’t figure out how else to slot into the lineup.
Thank you, Cliff. Let’s start a winning streak today. Please.
Why was Dickerson on this team?
Oh, and boring history police alert:
I can’t remember who originally made this argument, but whoever that is and Occam’s razor would suggest that it’s possible it wasn’t a broken toe that ended Ol’ Diz’s career, but old fashioned overuse. From 1932-1936, ages 22 to 26, Dizzy Dean threw 1531 innings — 306 a year. He started 170 games, and completed 67 more, while facing a total of 6361 batters. He tossed
The next year, he got hurt. He always claimed that coming back too fast from injury was what ruined his arm. But it could be that he just didn’t have many bullets left.
What does one do after getting DFA’d? Go home and lay on the couch?
@24 Yep, go home and find out where you’re headed next. What a life.
Dansby showing signs of life this homestand. I like it.
I am beginning to lose my automatic respect for Olson, for now.
Particularly egregious tonight was his sloppy short throw on the bases that blew an easy 2 outs.
Thinking back a bit it is not illogical to figure someone who always stood out in a never competitive team now finds himself under a different level of pressure from those around him and the club’s aspirations.
Did we really have the Cubs score their only run on the first/third double steal trick play?
Dansby showing real progress!
Too many wasted opportunities—makes me nervous
Another game of 3 or less runs…it is a combination of bad sequencing and choking with RISP.
D’Arnaud has looked great at the plate lately. If D’Arnaud is the player that hit cleanup for us a couple years ago, this lineup is gonna be absurd.
Jackpot.
Recapped
From my perspective, this start for Wright may have been the most confidence inspiring. Not because every pitch was working perfectly, but because he had some adversity and persevered. He now has a 1.13 ERA and a .83 WHIP and 34 strikeouts over 24 innings. I’m totally impressed.
Well, that’s more like it. How about that Kyle Wright!
All of a sudden, everyone in the lineup is at .200 or above. Dropping Dickerson and having Duvall and Dansby get some hits makes a lot of difference. And how about the OF defense. Tonight was impressive for the OF. I bet the Cubs have at least a couple more runs with the prior OF arrangement.
I do have the same feeling that Olson started hot and has been in a prolonged slump now. He doesn’t look good at the plate and is not stinging the ball. And Ozuna looks terrible until he actually hits something – he’s not really impressing me again. I hope he settles in as a full time DH.