We wake up on a Thursday and survey the landscape. Braves crapped out in Miami and Nats did in Queens, but alas, Braves still get the division crown AND the first round bye. Nah, nah, nuh, nah, nah.
With no possible difference to the Braves if they won or lost, the keys became:
1. resting people that needed rest. The only one that seemed to not get any rest was Olson. I wonder if he told Snit something like it took this long to get my hitting going, so I need to stay in and stay sharp. The “New Night Shift” all got to chill for a night. They will all now get 6 rest days before the next game on October 12 in Atlanta. Chill dudes. You have earned it.
2. Not getting anybody hurt. JamesD84 in the last thread hit a big one. Don’t play Acuna and give Mattingly one more chance to hit him. No reports of any injuries after the game, so maybe we passed this one.
3. Give the back part of the projected 26 man roster and possible other add ins on 40 man a chance to play and sharpen up. Grissom, Adrianza, Heredia. Also Bracho, Matzek (it is sad to type that), and Stephens. Jesse Chavez is in his own category below and Dylan Lee is developing into a horse for Hendricks racing’s second chariot team.
4. The man, the mystery, the force, Jesse Chavez. Chavez got a Chavez crap out over and gone. I was on the radio in the car when he came in. Don told a story about talking to Chavez near the end of the celebration and Don said something like “I am sorry the Braves traded you.” Chavez said “Me, too.” I am sorry things didn’t work out in Chicago and LA.” Chavez said “Me too.” Total of 4 “Me, too” responses. I walked in the house and opened up game cast and it had gone from 6 to 5 Braves to 8 to 6 Marlins. The Chavez blow up was that fast. But, there will be a time between now and then, when Jesse will do something amazing in a positive way.
On to the game, such as it was. For the past week or so, the offense has failed to get it done and the pitching carried the team. Well, the second string offense showed out pretty big last night. Adrianza and Arcia were the true “o-fers.” In 5 plate appearances neither got a hit nor a walk. The other folks chimed in with 15 hits, 6 of them doubles and 2 of them home runs, 3 BB’s and a HBP. So, 19 guys reached in 9 innings and 9 scored and 10 were left on.
But, not only Chavez, but also Matzek, Stephens, and Bracho, got lit up. When you score 9, you win about 95% of the time. When you give up 12, you win about 1% of the time. So, it is simple math. Do I think any of those performances are relevant to the post season? Maybe Matzek is confirmed not to be part of the “in group”, But Snit and Kranny were already showing that. Maybe Stephens is “break glass only in case of emergency,” or maybe he gets replaced by Muller or Elder or somebody else.
Oh, and Braves, this “always lose on Wednesdays” shit has to go. Game 2 of Division series is a Wednesday. You can’t just concede a day and keep going through the postseason. Bobby Cox used to concede Sunday in a 162 game season and that may have made sense. So, if that was what you were doing (saving energy for the post season) I am o.k. with it. But otherwise, October 13 is a win, get it?
Amen, cliff, and thank you for recapping the most meaningless game of the season.
I think you mean Joe, in your radio story about Chavez. Don, sadly, is no longer with us.
Cliff desperately deserves a Wednesday win. Help him out on Oct 12, Braves.
With the regular season over, I want to thank all the recappers. This was a Championship recapping season. Thanks to you, this continues to be the best place on the internet. You guys rock and you are making the Braves even more fun to follow.
What Timo said. Thanks to all.
I hope the Padres beat the Mets. But the Dodgers will throttle the Padres in the DS. I’m torn.
@ 1, absolutely right, and I am sorry. It was Joe Simpson.
I hate the Phillies, but I really want nothing to do with the Cardinals. The Devil Magic will be turned up to Level 10 with Wainwright, Molina, and Pujols riding off into the sunset.
It may have taken Olson a few months to adjust to the Senior Circuit. But I gotta say, his timing was pretty impeccable.
Love that Grissom made the most of his opportunity to get back in the lineup. It was his first appearance of any kind since September 25, and Arcia has clearly leapfrogged him. But I like him a ton and even if he’s not deemed ready to play meaningful postseason innings, I hope that his experience this year stands him in good stead to be a key role player on future squads. That said, I’d rather see him on the playoff roster than Guillermo Heredia, notwithstanding Heredia’s three hits and two ribbies yesterday. I could be wildly mistaken, but I have to figure that Arcia and Grissom ought to be able to play a passable backup outfield, and I know they can outhit Heredia. I’m pretty sure Max Fried could, too. (I mean I’m pretty sure Fried could outhit him, but he could probably also play a passable backup outfield, too — dude is one heck of an ath-a-lete.)
And I hope that Snit actually rotates d’Arnaud and Contreras. Travis played every game of the playoffs last year, and he started all three Mets games behind the dish. As great a hitter as he is, and as great a handler of pitchers as he is, we need to do everything we can to keep him fresh and minimize any injury risk. That could be a mixture of DH days and even off days. But he can’t be asked to crouch every single day.
What… are we supposed to do until Tuesday?
@ 8,
Take the wife out to dinner. Do something with the kids or grandkids. Catch up on work. Visit a sick person.
CAUSE NONE OF THAT IS HAPPENING FROM TUESDAY FOR THE DURATION.
https://twitter.com/fangraphs/status/1578082677739200513
eyes emoji
@10 Braves with the 2nd best odds, ahead of the Dodgers somehow? I’LL TAKE IT! On one hand, the Dodgers won 110 games in dominating fashion and get homefield advantage through the playoffs (including the WS). On the other hand, they may have to face off against Degrom-Scherzer in the NLDS whereas the Braves do not.
https://twitter.com/Trenciarte/status/1578128160025366528?s=20&t=Gyfu-kGN1QiKs_wZRH_-jQ
Oh, is that good?
@ 13 – The stats seem to indicate that ultimately swapping Will Smith for Iglesias was probably a good swap.
So now it’s time to publish my odds. Actually, two different sets of them.
https://bravesjournal.mystagingwebsite.com/2022/10/06/time-for-predictions-math-edition/