There was not much to celebrate in the Brad Hand and Yonny Chirinos era in Atlanta. AA often strikes gold, but these deals were mid at best. They were so mid, in fact, that the don’t warrant their own review so I’m reviewing them together.
Hand’s stay in Atlanta was really marked by two significant situations. The first solidified Brandon Gaudin’s place as the best play-by-play man in the sport with his call of the pitching change in the Cubs series. Gaudin noted how Brian Snitker was going from Pierce Johnson to Hand with Miles Mastrobuoni due up next. See the link and enjoy a belly-laugh today. You’re welcome!
The next situation the Hand era is famous for is his non-usage in the Divisional series against the Philthies. Bryce Elder was struggling, and Bryce Harper came to the plate. Harper hit one that hasn’t landed yet and the Braves were eventually bounced from the post-season.
This is not to say that Hand was terrible in Atlanta. He picked up a couple of wins and had a bunch of holds, but those were his most memorable situations.
Chirinos experiment
With Chirinos, AA hoped to catch lightning in a bottle. Or pull a rabbit out of a hat. Or something. Atlanta won four of the five games he appeared in, though not much credit belongs to Yonny. Check out these lines:
Milwaukee: 3.2 IP, 6 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 1 BB, 3 Ks;
LAA: 5 IP, 3 H, 3 ER, 1 BB, 5 Ks;
PIT: 5 IP, 7 H, 6 R, 6 ER, 2 BB, 5 Ks, 4 HRs;
NYM: 4.2 IP, 7 H, 6 R, 6 ER, 2 BB, 5 Ks;
and vs. SFG: 7 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 1 BB, 4 Ks, 1HR.
Hand was not offered a new contract, and Yonny was simply not very good. Because there was not much to celebrate, Chirinos was DFA’d during the stretch run and the Braves will likely not pick up either again. Unless the spirit of Jesse Chavez somehow made its way to Hand in his departure. Thankfully the bullpen has been bolstered and a lot of high-heat lefties will be paraded out of the ‘pen in 2024.
Not sure if its been mentioned, but 755 is Real podcast is back as 755 Forever. Just binged, i’m ready to report to camp!
This piece (and others that were put in a role they should’ve never been in) has me writing a new piece discussing AA’s offseason plan. Even in a year where they won 104, it’s so refreshing to see real depth and not just some names.
Yeah, glad DOB and EOF are back. I really, really like that podcast.
On a similar note, I’m really struggling with a lack of good general baseball content. It’s been a year since YouTube TV dropped MLB Network. I really enjoyed having MLB Network on in the background so I can keep up with the rest of the league. Obviously Sportscenter is no solution for baseball coverage. Do you guys know of any “shows” on YouTube that have good production quality?
Now that I’m typing this, I’m thinking I should probably set Baseball Tonight or whatever baseball show FS1 has to record so I can just watch that on my own time. Would love to just turn something on in an on-demand fashion. Not being able to keep up with the sport makes it harder to be a fan. MLB seems to be intent on making it as difficult as possible on me to be as big of a fan as I used to be.