I really feel sorry for this Braves team. It sure would have been easy to make the 9.7 mile trip from Citi Field to Yankee Stadium. Instead, they had to take a plane ALL THE WAY back to Atlanta and sleep in their own beds! It’s enough to make even the toughest athlete fall apart. The Braves and Yankees will play 3 at Truist with the Braves getting Thursday off, then another 6 at home. After that, it’s off to the West Coast for a brutal stretch of baseball that will feature 10 straight games on the road with the main course being the Dodgers on September 1-3.
Braves and Yankees Pitching Matchups
Game 1: Max Fried vs. Clarke Schmidt
Game 2: Bryce Elder vs Luis Severino
Game 3: Charlie Morton vs. Randy Vasquez
Matt Olson vs. Freddie Freeman
With Matt Olson’s recent stretch of insanity, I checked out his numbers in comparison to the Braves old 1B and was floored!
- Matt Olson: 1.003 OPS
- Freddie Freeman: 1.005 OPS
That’s truly an extraordinary turn of events. Freddie’s fWAR is 6.0 while Matt’s is 4.5. The 2 things that Freddie has done much better than Matt in 2023 is baserunning and defense. Freddie has stolen 16 bases this year, while only being caught once. Matt has stolen 1. It’s also no secret that Olson has had a down year defensively and while I might argue against Freddie being worth $12MM more than Matt, I can at least understand that he’s added value in 2 areas that Matt has detracted value.
Braves Lineup
It’s quite surprising that Yonny Chirinos was not DFA’d today. Nicky Lopez gets a start for Ozzie Albies, who was cramping up yesterday. Hopefully it’s just a day for Ozzie and nothing more serious.
Since joining the Dodgers, Freddie has really solidified his Hall of Fame case. I’d say that he’s gone from borderline/unlikely to firmly likely.
The better comparison is with Freddie and Ronald. Ronald’s numbers are otherworldly, but he’s got to keep it up if Freddie keeps playing like he has the last month.
What ARE the Braves waiting for in making a move? Is Lee not ready? Are they playing some sort of waiting game for September? I think there may be no more than three starts left in August for a 5th starter…..
Who the hell is this Lopez guy? My goodness!
This offense is DEVASTATING. The Yankees have gotten kind of dinked and doinked, and Nicky Lopez got a squibber and Ronald Acuña got a duck fart, and all of a sudden it’s 8-2 and the Atlanta native on the mound with all his friends and family in the stadium just got knocked out in the third. There’s just nowhere to hide.
Recapped: https://bravesjournal.com/2023/08/14/braves-11-yankees-3-with-two-quotes-from-tertullian/