As I’ve mentioned many times before, I’ve been a hardcore Braves fan since they first announced the move to Atlanta in 1965. I’ve followed them religiously throughout each season ever since. Two things characterize my fandom: I’m loyal no matter how the team is doing; and I tend to focus on the positive, always looking for signs of hope. And in several seasons, the team has brought me great joy. (My list may be idiosyncratic, but my favorite seasons have been 1966, 1969, 1982, 1991, 1993, 1995, 2005, 2010, 2018, the playoffs in 2020, the last third of 2021, 2022, and 2023)
Yesterday evening, the Braves were rained out once again. I spent the time I would have been watching the game viewing a movie with our grandchildren. It was The Parent Trap, the 1998 version starring Lindsay Lohan, not the original 1961 version with Hayley Mills. I enjoyed the movie more than I’ve enjoyed most Braves games this season. And it’s a particularly dumb film!
I started to see the admittedly silly plot of the movie as a metaphor for the Braves season. These stalwarts of the Braves lineup look and sound identical to the crew that set all those offensive records in 2023, but they couldn’t be the same people, right? Someone has pulled a switch on us.
OK, I won’t pursue that metaphor any further. It is true that for whatever reason, I find very little joy in watching the 2024 Braves. I did find a good deal of joy in watching the movie with the grandkids. Perhaps the rain helped me focus on priorities.
Although family is more important than baseball, the Braves will, for better or worse, remain close to the center of my life. I assume that AA is working the phones around the clock, and that some time in the next week we will learn of some new additions to the roster, for sure an outfielder who can hit, and possibly a back end starter who can eat innings. Whatever Alex does, I’ll remain loyal, following the team closely the rest of the way. And I’ll continue to look for hope where I can find it. If nothing else, the hitting has been so bad, they are bound to revert somewhat the rest of the way, right? Right?
I’m not a blind optimist. The late 80’s Braves under Chuck Tanner were really awful. In one of his annual Abstracts, Bill James cruelly but aptly eviscerated Tanner’s optimistic attitude–and he was right on target. (Hitting Omar the Outmaker Moreno in the leadoff spot for a whole season isn’t optimism, it’s stupidity.) But this team has a lot more going for it than those late 80’s outfits. Truth is, I still like our chances if we make it to the October crapshoot. And I believe we will make the playoffs. With Sale and Fried at the top of the rotation and the terrific and deep bullpen, this team could make a strong run.
The year before Hayley Mills starred in The Parent Trap, she was the title character in the film Pollyanna. I’ll confess to a bit of Pollyanna in my own attitude. But it helps me deal with the current frustrations much better than focusing on the negative.
Due to the rainout, yet another day/night doubleheader today. Chris Sale starts the 12:20 game, and Allan Winans has been called up to pitch the nightcap at 6:10 (before the Braves take a late flight to New York to face the Mets for four).
Well said. There’s also the Patty Duke Show: last year we were Patty (wild and irrepressible) and this year we’re Cathy (reserved and boring). I remain optimistic, even as the team becomes increasingly unwatchable. I’ve seen teams which have given up, and this team has not. I’ll give up when they do.
I’m working on a statistical piece which will go up on an off day. Bringing home runners from third with less than two out and bringing home Manfred men.
Can’t wait to see this analysis!
Oh, that’s fabulous. I’ve been wondering about that!
Tfloyd, truly appreciate your piece, as you capture the way I’m feeling (and probably a whole lot of us) – I don’t like feeling super negative and doom and gloom, but it’s undeniable that these guys are just less fun to watch than they were a year ago, even though it’s a lot of the same guys. In the meantime, it’s nice to be able to enjoy other things in life for which I’m grateful: my new marriage, my parents’ health, this apple I’m eating.
Go get ’em, Winans.
This team can’t get out of its own way. The retread pitching staff is getting old but what do you do with the injuries? Sign Paxton?
Two runs in the first might be enough…one thing is for sure…at some point Zack Short will hit in a key moment with 2 outs and runners in scoring position.
Oops.. 4 runs
Nacho Hit! That’s something to cheer about.
Alex, I didn’t know you just got married! Congratulations!! She’s a lucky gal.
Thank you so much!
Feels like this team is about to go on a long losing streak.
Winans is not fooling anyone. As usual.
Kind of sad to watch Winans walk off. He has to be wondering if he’ll ever be back.
I certainly hope he doesn’t. That is unacceptable. I would have rather seen Dodd, and that is saying something
Christ, what the hell happened to Olson?
Offense showed up today. This one is totally within reach.
The lineup is bad, I hope I am wrong but I really doubt that
All AA needs to do is trade for 2 starting pitchers, 2 relievers, a SS and an OF and we’ll be back on track
I think we may have seen the last of Jo-Jo Winans.
I would like to take back the tepid praise I offered for Winans over the last year. He fooled me with a couple of decent starts, but no…no, no. Even Hayley Mills could get through 3 innings without burning the place down
Ha, I love the Jo-Jo Reyes reference.
I didn’t initially think James Paxton would be worth a try because his Statcast profile is a beautiful arctic blue but at this point he can’t be that much worse than our quad A contingent of Elder, Winnans, et al.
Stephen Tolbert at Battery Power tweeted this out during the game:
217 players in MLB have at least 250 plate appearances this season
here are the bottom 5 by wRC+
213: Andrew Benintendi 59
214: Adam Duvall 58
215: Orlando Arcia 57
216: Jared Triolo 56
217: Eddie Rosario 54
Braves everyday lineup has 3 of the 4 worst hitters in baseball
I know injuries are a huge culprit but it’s still surreal to see after last year’s success up and down the lineup.
Finding a few players who are just average to slightly above average by the trade deadline shouldn’t be too difficult.
Well, this ain’t getting any better…
My Braves-game-replacement movie last night was a film noir from 1950, “In a Lonely Place,” featuring Humphrey Bogart, who plays a dangerously temperamental Hollywood screenwriter who’s tied to a real-life murder.
Essentially, the film asks: Is Bogie actually the murderer… or merely a raging, occasionally violent, self-absorbed asshole?
So, the very strained metaphor here would be: Will these Braves just end up as what we already see (i.e., perpetually underperforming & doomed to an early post-season exit)? Or are they something else that’s somehow more lethal – a pitching-rich club with obvious offensive flaws, nonetheless primed for the short post-season series?
Y’know, the 6th spot isn’t that far away (& it may not be a bad place to end up). Let’s just hope we can get to October ball in healthy place b/c these games right now ain’t so fun.
I believe I’ve seen that movie, and it’s a dark one. This season, I hope I saw this movie three years ago, instead of the one I saw ten years ago.
The Braves still have an excellent chance to make the playoffs (82.9% odds per Fangraphs), but they’ve also got some serious work to do. So many other playoff contenders are playing better while the Braves are scuffling. They had a real opportunity to put some distance between themselves and the Cardinals in the playoff picture but failed to do so, which was super disappointing.
Personally, I’m glad that tonight’s game has been rained out, because it means that Sale will now be scheduled to pitch in New York. “The Mets are now just two games behind us in the Wild Card standings” is something that I didn’t really expect I’d be saying at this point in the season, but here we are. I sure hope they can take care of business this weekend and get back on track.
The forecast called for rain tonight.
There was no reason for Snitker to start Winans in the opener. None. Just a total failure of planning on his part that could have been avoided if he had simply checked the damned weather app on his phone.
At Stripers-Bulls tonight. Game so far is typical AAA baseball, but I am so stoked because I got my picture taken with Andruw Jones!
I am super confused on why we started Winans at all, especially for the first game when there was a good chance, which was realized, that game 2 would be postponed. Why not at least schedule Winans to start the game that was most likely to be rained out? Why not give Winans the rest of the year at least in AAA. The guy is not ready and may never be.
Recap is up.