Reynaldo Lopez didn’t have his best stuff, but in a world where the Braves are still the best hitting team in the majors, he would’ve likely earned his 3rd win of the season. Unfortunately, that was not the case as the team scraped together 9 hits (the first 8 in the batting order had 1 each and Chadwick Tromp with the egg on the day). Marcell Ozuna‘s OPS still remains above 1.000, the next highest is Travis d’Arnaud at .839, and the rest of the team is at .712 or below. Ray Short has turned back into Zack Short and is carrying a .140 AVG and a .475 OPS. Aaron Bummber, Pierce Johnson, and newly acquired sidewinder Jimmy Herget gave the team a chance, but the naysayers won out and the Braves lost 4-1.
At this point, I’m not really sure what’s going on, but it feels like the dam will break when Ronald Acuna Jr. starts hitting the damn ball.
Braves and Pirates Game Thread
Chris Sale, who feels like the pitching pickup of the offseason not only for the Braves, but for the entire league, will match up against Martín Pérez in the series finale. Again, the Braves are trying to avoid a sweep and I cannot believe I’m actually typing that.
Braves Lineup
Rumor has it that the Braves could activate both Austin Riley and Sean Murphy on Monday. Gosh, I hope it kicks this team into action.
Does not look good for Ronald. This is a strange season so far.
Is this thing cursed?
It would certainly make sense if Acuna was nursing an injury that just got a whole lot worse.
https://x.com/baldheaded1der/status/1794790422503731252?s=42&t=WSNPrB2JyUoeKSn2PZsXZg
If true, then you really have to wonder if Acuna will stop playing damn winter ball. But he might be looking at it the way we all do: he’s under paid and he’ll do whatever the heck he wants.
Sale is pretty incredible.
An injury would explain Ronald’s season better than any other explanation I can think of.
That said, if he’s been playing hurt this whole time, it’s a major indictment of the team.
I suppose there’s a fine line between allowing a player to play through an injury he wants to play through and shutting him down. I know it’s contractual that they can’t tell him to not play winter ball, so is it contractual that they can’t force Il a guy if he doesn’t want to? This conversation is usually in the context of a guy avoiding DFA/option by taking an IL stint, but not when a star player wants to play through an injury.
I have thought for a long time that Ronald was playing like 2022 not 2023, I’ll bet he’s been sore most of the season. Wasn’t there a game very early in the season where he had an awkward moment? I think he’s been very tentative since that game.
Looks like Olson has finally found his swing.
He was absolutely ready for Chapman’s 95MPH. Kellenic looked good too. Hopefully we can at least get half the lineup going. And Duvall with Wall as defensive replacement in RF won’t be a huge step down from 2024 Acuna
I’ve gotten blasted online for sharing some info I found out in ST. The Braves medical staff diagnosed Acuna with a meniscus tear. When he went to L.A., they called it irritation. Now, from what I’ve seen, it could’ve been a slight meniscus tear and they just call it irritation as it’s an injury you can play through. However, that was on the right knee, not the left. His right knee, where is swing lode starts, has been weak all year. If the left becomes a problem, we might see a long IL stint for Acuña.
The kid plays so damn hard. Shut him down and let all this crap go away definitively. I forgot about Martinez in my last post; I wonder if they give him some opportunities.
There it is. Out for the season with a torn left ACL
The team’s decision to clear him to play, following his ST injury, now looks dreadful in retrospect. There will be some brutal Monday morning quarterbacking, and knowing only as much as we know now, it sure seems like someone probably should be fired.
Probably multiple someones. That decision doesn’t happen without several people involved. Fire them all.
I find myself second-guessing the team a lot nowadays: why does Strider have to go max velo, why does Acuna play winter ball (and seem to be playing injured), why don’t guys get days off? It’s alll seemingly related to the same issues: why are we not saving the players from themselves? I still think Snit ran Murphy into the ground. Is this a systemic issue top to bottom?
It’ll be an interesting season considering we lost our best pitcher and best position player for the season. How can ANY team recover from that?????? Even so, I think the current team is better than the 2021 team. It’s gonna take good (improved) performances from Riley, Albies, Olson, Harris, Murphy, and Kelenic to prove it. Looking back at 2021, Heredia in CF and Ozuna in LF neither of which had decent seasons and TdA as the primary catcher with the backups all being pretty pitiful. Smyly was the #4 SP and Will Smith was the closer (and the back of the bullpen was terrible). Seems like things could be worse……
Man, what horrible luck. And I do think its more luck than anything else, that was a freak twisting motion that buckled his knee. It could’ve happened at anytime. It doesn’t mean that he hasn’t been playing through an injury this season, as that is the most likely explanation for his poor power numbers so far. But I doubt it had anything to do with this new injury. Just my opinion.
At least we already have Duvall. Now its time for Olson, Riley and Murphy to pick the team up.
Last year, Acuna either was tied for or led the league in games played, PAs, ABs, H, SBs, CSs, and TB. That’s a lot of wear on a body. Then he played winter ball. So… he’s gonna have to take a look in the mirror and ask if all of that is worth it. Some prizes just aren’t worth winning.
More second guessing:
Why did we make six different transactions to end up with a LF who is league average with no power? Why didn’t we just sign Joc or someone with a higher floor?
Speaking of Joc, why did we sign Eddie over Joc after the title?
Why did we trade Contreras and our remaining prospect depth for Murphy?
Why didn’t we just give Freeman the extra year?
We exhausted our farm system with marginal or no upgrade in production at 1B and C. Now finding a replacement for Acuna will be difficult because we need the pitching prospects to replace Fried and Morton next year.