Well, it didn’t take Brian Snitker long before he contradicted this thought…
I’m not sure how much of it is contradicting, or how much of it is that Travis Demeritte has fallen off a cliff, but William Conteras will be getting the nod in LF tonight while Marcel Ozuna takes his, hopefully permanent, place as the DH. And while Contreras has logged 17 innings in the OF for the Stripers, this will be Contreras’s outfield debut in the bigs. Can he be worse than Ozuna? Maybe, but he’s definitely got a leg up in the armgument (I’m king of terrible puns).
Speaking of Demeritte, it’s been a crazy quick decline for a player I like a lot. On May 14th, he was carrying a .914 OPS in 68 PAs. Over the course of the next 7 games, he would go 0 for 28 with 12 strikeouts and 0 walks, bringing that shiny OPS all the way down to .616.
Dylan’s been Dealin’
We knew the Braves would have to make a move of this sort coming soon, but I didn’t think it would come this early. In a week, the roster of 26 will be mandated to 13 pitchers and 13 position players. Today, while it wasn’t a position player, the Braves made a move in prep for the change.
Tyler Thornburg, who’s been pretty meh for his career since 2017, was unfortunately out of options. Dylan Lee is not. When the Braves have to make the inevitable decision to replace a pitcher with a hitter, the obvious guess is that Lee will go down. Who will come up? I’m glad you asked! If today’s lineup is predictive of things to come, my guess is that Manny Piña will be transferred to the 60-day IL and Chadwick Tromp will once again be added to the 40-man and placed on the MLB roster to free up Contreras’s bat.
Braves Lineup
There was need of change…and this is definitely change. I like it and Snit gets both of my thumbs up.
RP was JC’d at @14:
“Why was Olson batting 2nd anyway? Guys like him should be batting lower in the line up”
I’m good with shaking the lineup up, and though I don’t exactly think playing Contreras in left field is gonna work from a defensive perspective, I also don’t think it’s gonna do any overall harm. He doesn’t have to do much to match Ozuna defensively, and booting Demeritte out of the lineup sees like something of an imperative at this point. He’s gonna let something drop that he shouldn’t at some point, and there will be wailing when it happens, but as long as we’re prepared for that…
Your suggestion that they’re gonna call up a third catcher to “free up Contreras’s bat” did make me twitch, though, Ryan. Having a third catcher on the major league roster was always stupid IMO, but it’s especially unconscionably stupid now with the DH.
I hope that Contreras isn’t like when the Mets tried to play Todd Hundley in left.
This is an interesting lineup. Considering it’s against Wheeler, I’m not sure if it’s permanent or a Hail Mary.
@2 When looking at outfield defense, they could package CF together with the corner outfield change. Would you rather have Demeritte/Duvall or Contreras/Heredia? Duvall has a 54 OPS+ and plays good-but-not-great defense. You offset Contreras’ glove with Heredia in CF, and you’re not losing much offensively right now going from Duvall to Heredia.
@Nick
Andy Harris is a good friend of mine and is co-owner of Outfield Fly Rule. He’s a fantastic Braves MILB source and he’s long thought that Contreras’s true MLB calling was as super utility Covering third base, first base, left field, right field, catcher. So think of him as a super utility player and not a catcher and you could justify my thought process.
5 — I’m not sure that Heredia is a better CF than Duvall.
@6
Never heard of this mix before but it sounds great for him in particular. What’s the catch??
@8
Don’t tell me!!
Jack of all trades, Master of None.
@9
I mean, if you’ve primarily been a catcher and are asked to play multiple positions, I think you’ve nailed it.
The Contreras situation sort of reminds me of when we trotted Evan Gattis out in left field back in 2013 to keep his bat in the lineup. I’m sure his range was a liability, but I recall his arm playing pretty well out there.
And of course a tough sinking liner immediately finds him.
Contreras needs to stop watching the ball when he runs
Sending him there wasn’t a super great idea.
Can’t hide Olson anywhere I guess
The lead off walks after being ahead 1-2 are eventually going to cost us.
Watching Davidson nibble is like watching paint dry.
He isn’t the answer to the rotation questions. He can’t/doesn’t command the strike zone at all.
Throw a GD strike
This is really painful!
This is a pretty good illustration of what happens when you can’t get anybody to swing and miss at strikes.
Can we now try Strider at fifth starter, please?
@19 mediocre stuff out of a couple of our starters. If hitters don’t chase they can’t get anybody to miss a strike. Wheeler throws it by us in the zone. Max, Wright and Morton(now) can get hitters out in the zone but Davidson and Anderson struggle with that
@20
Ian’s changeup is good enough to get a lot of swings outside of the zone, offsetting the problem most of the time. Davidson doesn’t have a pitch of that caliber right now. I’d have said the same about Wright last year and he seems to have figured it out, so all is not lost. But right now, it’s not really happening.
Is it time for Austin Riley to sit down for a few days, or do you think he can work out of this? I’m missing the guy who had learned how to hit for average in ‘21.
He has a long way to go. Either he gets too much of the plate or not enough. A disciplined team feasted
I’ll admit that I’m not watching so I don’t know what his stuff looks like, but I don’t think shuttling Davidson back to Gwinnett after 1 bad start is the answer.
Well, I would send him back and then leave him there, so I don’t know if that counts as shuttling.
No Braves Content.
Jonathan…strange things..we had something on on Sunday so i saw nothing of the final PGA round…which meant my son was back in the big time and caddied for the winner! I had no idea he was even there let alone with a great new partner, such are the exigencies of divorce.
What really pleased me is to see Mickelson nowhere around. Jim looked so happy! So is Dad.
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2022/may/23/justin-thomas-credits-caddie-bones-mackay-for-us-pga-comeback-win
I think Chavez lost his mojo from last year
Has Contreras had any misplays?
It’s crazy how bad this team can be.
Davidson doesn’t have big league stuff or pin point control .. he will be minor league journeyman .. no power stuff .. this team looks really bad .. defense .. attitudes .. no leaders in club house .. just a bunch of guys goofing off ..
@28
I turned it off in the fourth, but while I was watching, he had one real mishap that was his fault and another that looked weird but I don’t think he’d have caught it anyway. The mishap involved him not calling off Riley and catching a ball that should’ve been his, and it turned out that Riley couldn’t quite get there. There was also a ball in the first that he didn’t exactly attack, but probably would’ve required a diving play in the best case…possibly Demeritte would’ve caught it but I don’t think Ozuna would have.
@26 – That’s really cool.
Juan Yepez, traded by Atlanta for Big City, now has a .911 OPS with 4 home runs in 68 ABs for St. Louis. He’s now 24 and climbed their system quite steadily. He might end up being one of the best players we traded during our run behind Langeliers.
@26: Wow. Bones is your son? Happy early Father’s Day.
Thanks you guys. Let’s get’em to morrow. Now some sleep.
Recapped, barely.
https://bravesjournal.mystagingwebsite.com/2022/05/24/phillies-7-braves-3-2/