At the time, I thought promoting Spencer Schwellenbach felt like a hasty call-up. but yesterday’s outing showed a poised young pitcher that hit his spots and controlled the strike zone. Then, the bullpen combination of Pierce Johnson, Joe Jimenez, and Raisel Iglesias combined for 3 innings, 2 hits, 0 BB, and 2 hit baseball to seal the deal. Ozzie Albies was the offense, hitting a 1st inning homer and scoring on a 6th inning single by Marcell Ozuna.
Wednesday Game Thread
The Braves have their work cut out for them as they face off against LHP Tarik Skubal who might just be the best pitcher in the majors at this time. Luckily, Reynaldo Lopez, who’s been our best pitcher so far this year, it facing off against him. I don’t expect a lot of offense, so there will likely be a lot of offense.
Braves Lineup
Adam Duvall is my pick to click.
Saw Skubal earlier this year at Yankee Stadium & he was pretty dominant — 12 Ks in 6 IP.
He gave up a solo HR to Judge early & not much else. He definitely got my attention.
Thanks to Ryan for taking care of the recap. I’m on the IL this week but I expect to be cleared for action next week. Could turn out be a Wally Pipp situation for me though.
Belated kudos to Cliff for the excellent recap yesterday. Isn’t it interesting that you wrote about greatest athletes Ive ever seen on the day the Say Hey kid passed away.
Certainly didn’t expect us to get 5 runs in 4 innings off of Skubal. All of my Tiger buddies were yapping at me because we scored 2 runs off Olson and 2 runs off Mize and we won’t get anything off of Skubal…oops.
Now it’s Murphy’s turn to have a big day. Hey, maybe this team really is heating up.
Would be nice to secure a sweep heading into The Bronx.
I told you guys that Sean Murphy
Nice oppo lefty power from a 23 yo catcher:
https://www.milb.com/video/drake-baldwin-s-two-run-home-run-x7530?t=playerid-686948
And Reynaldo Lopez remains amazing.
Lopez is likely going to make his first All-Star team this year, which is pretty amazing.
You had to figure this team was somewhere in there. But today certainly reconfirms something we already figured out: when this team hits homers, it does great. When they don’t, they struggle like crazy.
I do think the team could stand to steal more bases. We are currently 28th in baseball in stolen bases, and our two leading basestealers, Acuña and Harris, are both on the IL. The rules explicitly encourage more stolen bases, but we’re not taking advantage.
I’d love to see Kelenic run more, for example. He stole 13 bases last year, but he’s only attempted three steals this year, getting caught once. It could be that his instincts aren’t great yet, and he’s got enough to focus on, but a few extra free bases would take some pressure off the longball, and we are just about the worst in the majors at taking advantage of the opportunity. It’s especially aggravating given how successful Ronald was at exploiting the stolen base rules last year.
I would assume that the Braves are trying to not put too much on Kelenic at once. He’s got a different swing every couple of weeks, so they’re probably not worried about stolen bases yet. I could see Kelenic having an incredible second half. If Harris remains out for a while, he could be a good glove, good bat centerfielder who steals bags (a 4 WAR player).
Honestly, the only holes we need to worry about are on OF and an OF against righties. If we can get Duvall back to a platoon and pick up a decent third OF, we’ll be fine. Can Laureano or Anderson be a good 3rd OF? If Schwellenbach picks up the 5th SP slot, then I think we can stand pat. If Harris comes back before the trade deadline, maybe we only need a good platoon partner. If Kelenic can play CF then maybe platooning Harris and Duvall might be good for a while and we can get one solid OF (Arozarena? Rooker? Robert? Springer? Adell? Ward? de la Cruz? Benintendi might be a good platoon partner).
AA will never stand pat
Getting a LHB to play corner outfield and hit RHP won’t be too hard.
I gotta think Martinez, Wall, and, maybe, Liberato, are or will be tested for that role which Harris/Kelenic could fill later. We could use one solid OF. One big bat.
I’m warming to the idea of platooning Duvall and Harris instead of Kelenic, especially if Kelenic excels at leadoff and can handle CF.
Why would you ever have Kelenic face a lefty if you didn’t have to (due to injury, say)?
Also, Harris hits LHP better & he’s a dramatically better defensive CF.
Easy. AA and the Braves believe Kelenic will be a complete player. He’s already proving to be a better leadoff hitter than Harris and many here have preferred him in that role. If you haven’t watched Harris against lefties then you don’t realize how bad he is. I understand that he may be a generational defensive player but he is a great #8/#9 hitter and not any better. Maybe he will get better but he isn’t now.
If you don’t platoon either Kelenic or Harris then you may not need any OF at the deadline if that’s when Harris comes back. About the best thing we could do is find a replacement for Duvall.
If you look back, my statement is predicated on Kelenic being able to continue handling CF. He has already made some great defensive plays in LF. Maybe Duvall can spell either of Kelenic or Harris when necessary.
Harris isn’t going to be platooned.
Recapped: