40 Games In
After 40 games, the Braves are 26-14. Looking back on Braves history, and that’s all the way back to the 1914 Miracle Braves, there are only two teams with better records after 40 games: the 28-12 1993 Braves and the 27-13 1995 Braves. These were two very good teams. One of them, if I recall correctly, got nice rings at the end of the season. The other 26-14 teams were 1948, 1957, 1994, 1998, and 2001. You might notice something about all those teams; none of them hung it up at the end of the regular season.
Others have criticized the run differential, noting that it has taken outstanding starting pitching to get to this record. Well, the Braves differential coming into tonight of +48 is still over a run a game. That’s a hair low for these outstanding teams, but it still beats out 1995 and 1982.
The Game
The sub-.500 Padres arrived at Truist to face Max Fried. His seven inning hitless streak ended in the first inning, but the 8 inning shutout streak made it to 12 innings before the Tonsured Twigmen pushed three across in the fifth to take a 3-1 lead, the Braves having scored Ronald Acuña Jr. in a first inning pseudo-rally.
Once again, the Braves were baffled by a new guy, Matt Waldron, who doesn’t seem to baffle anyone else. It was no better against Yuki Matsui or Enyel de los Santos. We had a chance in the 8th when the Padres put in a good pitcher, Robert Suarez, but Michael Harris II struck out with the tying runs in scoring position. Jeremiah Estrada earned his first career save. The Braves struck out 18 times. Every single player the Braves sent to the plate struck out at least once. Hard to believe, but this is not a record for a nine inning game. Four teams have won games in which they struck out 19 times in nine innings, most recently the Angels on September 20th last year.
Master of His Domain
I’m as big of a fan of old jock anecdotes as the next guy, but the Glavine, Chipper, Frenchy, BMac effort on Wednesday left me a little cold. And it wasn’t just the fact that the game sucked. Too much was prepared in advance, and ho-ho-ho cutesy. (That said, DeRosa’s brief appearance was gold.)
But we got Brandon Gaudin back tonight. I wasn’t going to talk about it, but since Christian brought it up I have to say Brandon showed how to get it done solo, since Glavine didn’t help him out at all. It’s a shame his broadcasting career didn’t overlap with Dick Pole‘s. His 3 way tonight with Glavine and Frenchy was surprisingly tasteful. I know, I know… different strokes for different folks. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
Fun With Names
Having a guy named Short play 3rd makes you wonder who else could play out of position. Michael Harris II has never played second. Alfonso Rivas III is a first baseman. Kyle Wright never played any outfield position. Pete Center was a pitcher, as was Lefty Leifield. James Outman and Larry Walker aren’t pitchers, Prince Fielder had 1100 plate appearances as a DH. That leaves catcher and first base, for whom nothing comes to me. Suggestions welcome for the All Out-of-Position Team. (Side fact: all four guys after the 19th century named Armstrong were pitchers.)
In Other News
I don’t hide the simple facts that I’m old, pretty fat and not a Catholic. Nor have I kept secret my affiliation with The Westminster Schools. Nor, despite my presence in this newfangled Internet communication gizmo, have I kept secret my misgivings about the baleful effects of the modal use of social media. (I hasten to add that is the outlying, against-the-tide community of Braves Journal in the Internet ecosystem that I cherish.)
So from this member of the Westminster Class of 1974, when I ask you to read the recent remarks of a member of the Westminster Class of 2013 in their entirety not for their truth or for their concordance with your own view of the world, but as a prime example of how Internet culture really, really sucks.
As a non-Catholic and also non-Westminster graduate, I will echo the concern about the toxicity of social media and gratitude that this community has remained peaceable.
As a serene baseball fan, I will respond to the above post by pointing out that it is obviously, clearly time to fire Kevin Seitzer, Brian Snitker, and Alex Anthopoulos, and anyone who disagrees with that is crazy.
The Braves poor play the last several nights has triggered an avalanche of angst.
I agree AAR. Since we are not hitting, I think we should also trade all our position players except Darnaud and Ozuna for players who are hitting well. The genius of this is there are many players who are hitting well at this point in the season who haven’t had good years until this year. This is an absolute no brainer.
Yes. We should also move in the fences to increase power. I don’t think you can legally do it midseason but Ed Mangan is a genius… we can just sneak the infield out. No worse than trash can banging, right?
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5502403/2024/05/17/ohtani-mizuhara-david-fletcher-betting-bookmaker/
we might get out of his contract…
Alas, David, we barely knew ye. And this right after I got (wholly irrationally) excited at the thought we could convert him to a knuckleballer. https://x.com/PitchingNinja/status/1791117162016370838
I got JC’ed, so I will repost my comment from last night for discussion:
TDA left with concussion symptoms. Get ready for more of Chadwick Tromp and Sandy Leon for the next week or so until Murphy is ready to come back.
If Riley can’t play tomorrow then he may need to go to the IL too.
Some things I am worried about:
1. Arcia is hitting like he has most of his career so last year may be the outlier. He has only 5 walks all year. He is playing fine defense and for a shortstop his bat is okay, but we shouldn’t expect a league average bat from him.
2. The Kelenic experiment isn’t working out great so far. He’s striking out a horrendous 35% of the time.
3. Duvall is old and hitting like it (though he isn’t getting a ton of PA to be fair). I think he needs to be getting more playing time for Kelenic.
4. And why is Acuña doing his best Otis Nixon impression instead of hitting for any power at all? Is he hurt? His ISO is .095. Big ouch.
5. It’s looking like Michael Harris is a slow starter. He got off to a slow start last season too, even worse than this season.
For the good news, Olson is coming around.
Ian Mejia threw a no-hitter last night. He has come out of nowhere to become a prospect.
And another thing – the commercials on MLB.tv are incredibly repetitive. I deserve a more entertaining product.
I do what I can Alex, but my in-game tools are limited.
And tonight it’s Elder versus Darvish, so prepare for even more angst in the very near future
My man, JonathanF! I’m not Catholic either, I k ow me some Westminster Shorter Catechsim, and this post recap is GOLD.
I was blacked out by MLB for the four-man game, but the three-way with Frenchy-Gaudin-Glav almost made me spit out my coffee this morning. Well played, good sir!
I don’t think we should trade or give up on anyone, but I do believe they should be making more contact. What I saw last night was batters taking middle of the plate strikes and swinging at balls. That has got to stop. I have trouble believing they all lost their batter’s eye at the same time. Olson does not have a history of striking out like this and Acuna seems to be getting a comeuppance (I think that’s what the pickoffs are about). I thought Riley was supposed to be back last night – wish I knew what the deal was there. Short’s Nicky Lopez impersonation might be wearing off (I have to admit he plays a great 3B).