The final should read the Mets 2, Braves 2, and Roman Laureano 2, with everyone asking, “Is this hell?” Tonight’s final: Mets 3, Braves 2.
Chris Sale, pitching for the first time in 11 days, was as brilliant as he’s been all season long. He made just one mistake, a two-run gopher ball to Francisco Lindor. Sale struck out nine in 7.1 innings and allowed just one additional hit.
Inexplicable
Inexplicably, Roman Laureano’s two boners came in the 10th inning. He was the Manfred-man in the top of the tenth for the Braves. Orlando Arcia bunted him to third, setting the table for Jarred Kelenic and Austin Riley. However, for some reason unbeknownst to wise human beings, Kelenic squared to bunt. {He is a lefty, and in this situation, it made no sense to square around.} Furthermore, it made even less sense for Laureano to be caught off third and picked off. Out number two! Kelenic struck out moments later to end the top of the tenth, setting the stage for the disaster yet to come.
The Mets got their own Manfred-man on second to start the inning. Pierce Johnson as tasked with dealing with the 10th, and with two outs, induced a flyball off the bat of the ever-annoying Jeff McNeill. Laureano over ran the ball – it should be scored an error – and the Braves dropped their fifth in a row.
Sadly, not even Morris Buttermaker could make this turd shine. Y’all know the saying, right? I don’t care how much you rub it or buff it. I don’t care how much you try to polish it, you simply cannot make a turd shine! And the 2024 Braves are a giant turd! Is this hell? The Bad News Bears got nothing on this collection of players at this point.
The trade deadline cannot get here soon enough. Until then, go bring back Abraham Almonte or Guillermo Heredia. I don’t recall either one of them costing their team two runs in one inning – to the freaking Mets!
Well, in keeping with the neighborhood, that was certainly Buckner-esque…
Really tough one to cough up. Sale was darn good tonight.
Just too many key moments going to backup players. We got wrecked by injuries and the emergency backups have been replacement level or worse.
We need AA to improve the 40-man roster, and not just for this year. We’ve had more major injuries this year than I can remember us having in a while, but our lack of depth at both infield and outfield has been pretty stark, and it cannot continue this way.
It’s a shame that such a good Chris Sale outing was wasted. He’s almost up to 4.0 fWAR this season and has literally been the single most valuable player on this Braves team. I shudder to think just how much more dire the current situation would be if it weren’t for Sale along with a handful of others (Fried, Lopez, Ozuna, Riley).
Sell.
As of last night, AA needs to buy — not to make a playoff push, though, but to get some bodies here who won’t embarrass you over the next sixty games. FanGraphs playoff odds have sunk to 75.5% from 94.4% on July 20. Honestly, I don’t even know if I want to go through the suffering of this particular team being in the playoffs.
I think a “tailoring” strategy is appropriate here – what the Red Sox have done the last few years, selling here and buying there. It’s basically the same strategy the Brewers and Mariners have pursued in recent years where they’ve sold their closers while shoring up other areas and otherwise kept their teams intact for the playoff push.
The challenge is, who could we sell who others would want to buy, particularly if Fried is off the table? I really think it’s pretty much just the bullpen: Iglesias, Johnson, Jimenez, Minter, Bummer, Holmes. I’m not sure if we could get much back for any of them, and our bullpen is one of the clear strengths of the team, so blowing it up truly would weaken our playoff chances. But I’m not really seeing any other options, other than picking up near-free guys like Merrifield and Laureano, or taking on a bad contract like Gausman. And I’m fine with those things too!
When does Fried come of IL? Not sure we can trade him even of they wanted too.
As of right now I think we genuinely don’t know. They have shared very little other than the sense that they believe that the inflammation will subside on its own, and when it does, he can start throwing again.
I’m probably 50% there on selling, but there’s no way the Braves can survive the optics of selling. And even if we did sell, who are we selling? Some relievers? Ok, great, you get some back-end prospects back. What good will that do? You can’t sell Fried now, and he’s your only “rental”. Do you sell Morton? That doesn’t look very good since he clearly wants to retire a Brave. Same with d’Arnaud. I could see us trading a healthy Fried in an attempt to get a piece back that helps us this year and next year, and then you’re neither “buying” nor “selling”.
I think the answer is Ozuna. Him, you could trade. But we would get back a back-end prospect.
I have my doubts Fried pitches again this year. From Dan Szymborski’s column:
“Instead, the Braves are choosing to be cautious with Fried because neuritis in the forearm can be related to an underlying problem with the UCL. Fried has already had Tommy John surgery once, about a decade ago when he was still a Padres prospect.”
It’s the first I’ve read that the nerve can be related to UCL issues. It just seems like something that will take a long time to heal, plus a rehab stint will be needed. It’s also his walk year, so why would he risk further injury? I hope I’m wrong.
re: trade deadline, I think they get an outfielder but someone even below Jesse Winkler’s level because I can’t see AA paying a high price for a rental. One player probably isn’t going to make a difference; I think they do something very marginal and hopefully go into the off-season with a new offensive mindset. The high strikeout, low walk, and power-first approach should be reevaluated.
Do you think the Braves will make a trade, or do you think they will stand pat
I support the trade you concocted of Olson, Alvarez, et al for Guerrero, Bichette and Gausman. Get it done AA!
Good to see the Chief is back. We’ve issued you, Nockahoma!