The Atlanta Braves Falter in the series finale with the Bucs, 4-1 4-2. It seems so easy to write that I couldn’t resist.
Bailey Falter seems to have the Braves’ number, as he and the Pirates ‘pen did what they needed to do to shut down an anemic Atlanta that has to resort to Zack Short making pinch-hit appearances.
The Braves managed six hits and Spencer Schwellenbach suffered another loss. The kid was really good through four innings, but plunking light-hitting Jack Suwinski (.168, .542 OPS) eventually led to a two-run missile (117.3 mph) off the bat of Oneil Cruz, and another two-run bomb by Rowdy Tellez. Schwellenbach was not bad, as tfloyd pointed out in the game thread, but Putter was also right – four runs isn’t nearly as tough to swallow as one run from this offense.
GIDP all we can muster
Atlanta’s first run came on an Austin Riley GIDP in the bottom of the fourth; the second came on a sacrifice fly in the ninth which could have been a two-run single if not for a diving catch. The Braves matched the Pirates’ six hits, but didn’t match their long-ball success and fell to 46-36 on the season.
Following an off-day Monday, San Francisco and Philadelphia come calling for a pair of three-game sets. Fortunately, watching the Braves Falter won’t happen on Monday since Bailey has probably already left town with the Bucs.
Absence
I’ve missed pitching in here at Braves Journal. My family and I live in Northwest Iowa and our region was decimated by record flooding a little more than a week ago now. The worst flood on record was 2014. The one that happened overnight a week ago Friday night/Saturday morning was five-feet above flood stage worse. Our little business was flooded and we hope will recover, but 1200 people are displaced from their homes and the road to recovery seems pretty bleak. If you are the praying type, our community will take them!
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Christian- God bless you, your family and the entire area our thoughts and prayers will be with you. As someone that puts waaaay too much focus on Braves baseball, what you are going through really puts things into perspective.
Thanks man! Trust me, I take my Braves baseball as serious as the next guy. I had the best time watching this team last summer – this season feels like a slog, though.
Good luck, Christian! I think it was 4-2, though. I’m going to fix it in the CMS.
That’s terrible, Christian. I hope you and your family are safe.
After a spurt of wins, the Braves seem to have resettled back into lethargy and impotency. Half the lineup is under forming and the other half non performing. AA needs to summon some help from from somewhere. The current performers seem unable to summon it themselves.
Thoughts and prayers for you and your neighbors Christian.
On a brighter note, the Mets paid Bobby Bonilla today.
So Rosario got dfa’d by the Gnats. Do we take a flyer to platoon with Duvall?
I mean, I don’t hate the idea. He has struggled this year but he has to be better than Wall or Williams, right?
I looked through the bad teams to see what outfielders could be available. The ones who we would want are guys who have lots of team control left and would cost an arm and a leg. Not much else otherwise…I guess bad teams are bad teams for a reason.
So yeah, wouldn’t surprise me if the Braves took a flier. I wouldn’t expect much from him though.
The guy I’ve had my eye on for a long time is the other Rosario – I thought Amed would be a good target before we decided to go with Arcia. He’d be a mega-upgrade over the weakest link of our current Arcia/Short/Luke Williams depth chart, though the Rays won’t want to let him go for free.
I’d be down for that. He would start at short for us.
Reunions and nostalgia are fun, but AA is not a nostalgic type of guy. I know he brought back Duvall and Chavez several times, but in those cases he saw a ray of hope and peripherals were encouraging. Unfortunately I don’t see much that suggests Eddie will be much of an upgrade over what we have. Yeah, Rosario typically does a little better in the 2nd half, but so does Duvall. I’m pretty sure we can and will do better.
The Gnats have been slumping of late. If they decide to sell Jesse Winker would be a perfect fit.
Arcia is out today with a tooth abscess. Laureano is dealing with an oblique problem and may be headed for the IL, but they haven’t made a move yet.
So the Braves are playing with a 2 man bench of TDA and Williams today.
Tim Anderson was just DFA’ed, and I’ve already predicted the Braves might take a look at him, a bit like they looked at Gordon Beckham when his career was nearly over. Again, I am not saying I think that’s a good thing – he seems totally and utterly cooked – but it’s possible that, like Brandon Phillips, he might have a slight upswing in him, which might be fuelled by the combination of coming home to a playoff team and the chance to silence a whole lot of doubters. And he’d pretty much be free.
(So would Eddie Rosario, who has just about zero upside, as far as I can tell, but both of them could still outhit Luke Williams.)
A more interesting target – albeit likely totally unrealistic – would be Jordan Walker. His career has stalled over the past couple of years. It’s unlikely that the Cardinals would move him unless he has another couple of iffy up-and-down Quad-A type years – like Jarred Kelenic – but Alex Anthopoulous loves post-hype sleepers. (And so do I!)
Obviously, Anderson and Walker are both southerners; Anderson’s from Tuscaloosa and Walker’s from Decatur. Maybe the most realistic post-hype player would be Jazz Chisholm, who’s definitely available, and who has massively underachieved in South Florida but is still only 26. He’s from the Bahamas, which is south of the South, but he’s probably the best example of high-risk upside on the market.
(The Cardinals also have one more true post-hype sleeper, Dylan Carlson, but he kind of seems like he might just be a bad prospect bust.)