Grant Holmes has the making of a Braves Journal cult hero:
- Was a Minor Leaguer for 10 years
- Has glorious curls (what the cool kids call “lettuce”)
- Is a helluva interview
Holmes will be getting his first start and will likely go 4ish innings before handing it over to the bullpen. His 2.70 ERA in the bigs comes as no surprise to me as I watched his filthy regularly at Gwinnett wondering why the heck he wasn’t in the show. Thus far, his stats don’t seem fluky and that’s likely due to a 1.9 per 9 BB-rate. And while his K-rate isn’t in the double digits, it comes in at a respectable 8.1 per 9. Colin Rea will start for the Brewers.
(Side note, if you missed Christian’s recap, check it out here)
Braves Trade Rumors
Because AA likes it that way, there’ve been no real rumors that have leaked but there have been several baseball reporters that have linked the Braves to the White Sox and Garrett Crochet. Reading between the lines here, it feels like the team is bracing for bad news on Reynaldo Lopez. My guess is that AA will add, but, as always, will go with someone that we fans would never expect.
Grant Holmes and Braves Lineup
Grant Holmes, you’re up.
Braves rumored to be in on Drew Smyly. Can anyone do a welfare check on Chief?
lol — he’s not even starting this year. Don’t think we need another LH reliever.
Haven’t we suffered enough?
He’s pitched at least 2 IP in 10 of his appearances. They probably feel like he can be what Holmes is tonight and maybe they can stretch him out further. It’s interesting idea to take a multi-inning reliever who’s pitching well that used to be a starter and maybe turn him into a 60-pitch pitcher in a couple months. He’s pitched well. I would take him if they picked up a big chunk of his salary. And he could be next year’s Reynaldo Lopez.
With that said, I do grant that he was hot garbage when he was a starter most recently. Maybe they see something.
Good news on Lopez. Clean MRI, may not even go on IL.
Are you saying maybe we can have nice things?
Murphy’s gonna continue to play less than D’Arnaud with plays like that.
Yeah man, I don’t understand why people can’t get over Murphy’s lack of playing time. He’s been a near-replacement level player for an entire 162-game stretch. I wish it wasn’t the case, but now’s the time to play who’s playing well.
This is a good example why you don’t make large bets on .250 hitters. There isn’t as much margin between where they are and terrible.
My desire to see Murphy play more often stems from the fact that his rolling xwOBA over his last 250 PA (dating back to last August) has not dipped below league average, meaning his inputs have been good even though the results haven’t always been there. Even when he appeared to be hitting terribly in September last year, his xwOBA never dipped below .359. This, combined with the fact that his career wOBA, xwOBA, and xwOBACON are all significantly higher than d’Arnaud’s shows that he has some major offensive upside.
The other thing to consider is defense. Last night’s error notwithstanding, Murphy has accumulated half of d’Arnaud’s WAR total despite appearing in 32 fewer games, and a lot of it has to do with his blocking and framing (he was first in blocks above average last year and in the 90th percentile currently).
I’m a big Travis d’Arnaud fan, for sure. And, with the way this lineup has hit this year, I do understand why the Braves have been playing the hot hand. That said, I think if Murphy is allowed to get into a groove, the results could be great.
Kenny Powers wriggles out of a jam.
That was a pretty incredible inning by Kenny. I like this guy.
Outside of Riley and Ozuna we have the worst lineup statistically that I can remember seeing.
The 2014 lineup that required a rebuild had a better lineup. The 2015 lineup that was the aftermath of a teardown had a better lineup. You have to almost be trying to have a lineup this bad.
Man, I was hoping that Nacho could provide a spark like Nick Green and Charles Thomas did back in the day. But he’s off to a Jackson Holliday like 2 for 23 start.
Arcia is swinging the bat better lately.
Ok Snit, don’t push him too far.
Olson looking lost again. Swinging through what looks like very hittable pitches. Hard to have a good lineup when 6 or 7 of your starting 9 are replacement level players right now
Rosario, Duvall, and Nacho are below replacement level.
Is Arcia finally waking up?
He’s 7 for his last 17 with 4 BBs & 2 HR. Modest stuff, but we’ll take what we can get.
Well, crap.
We’re not going to dump Ozuna, who has carried the Braves all year. That makes no sense at all. Glad Soler is back. He’s been hitting well lately.
Chavez was lucky Adames didn’t hit the hanger he threw the pitch before into the bleachers. Not sure why we were going inside when Adames was chasing outside but this isn’t the first time Murphy has called called for the wrong pitch with a bad location
Could have kept William Contreras and not sacrificed any prospects.
AA is better than average but he is decidedly fallible. And clearly he has overthought a thing or two.
The worst thing about the trade is there was no pressure to make it. If Contreras had gone out in a deal for Bryan Reynolds or some stud pitcher, nobody would’ve been mad bc it would’ve filled a hole. But we traded prospects for a marginal (at best) upgrade at a position of strength (2 all stars!) plus a $20M pay hike for the privilege
So we got Soler and Luke Jackson for Tyler Matzek and I minor leaguer. I hate to lose Matzek. I was not overly excited the last time we got Soler but it turned out pretty well. I’m a little less excited this time. Wonder if our next moves are for Freeman, Pederson, and Dansby. Let’s bring back everyone.
Jesse Chavez has an ERA of 5.11 this month.
That ball was mortally mashed.
Along came Bummer to remove all doubt.
This game is high up on the list of Annoying Braves Losses (anyone remember the list we had around here?) but Grant Holmes was legitimately phenomenal and the bullpen meltdown and offensive Hibernation Mode shouldn’t obscure that.
It really sucks that we couldn’t push across more runs against their pitcher. A lot of hard-hit balls with only a couple solo shots to show for it. Story of our season.
There really was no reason to bring in Chavez.
It made sense. Chavez might have come in earlier (bullpen game) if Holmes hadn’t been pitching so well.
Darius Vines again showing why he doesn’t belong up here
Jorge Soler is a Brave. AA is putting the band back together lol
And Luke Jackson
Well, it’s something.
Luke Jackson! That man took 3 years off my life the last time he was here
Can we get Joc back too?
Not sure what Jackson adds, he’s not had a good year. Guess we took on his contract to lessen the prospects we had to give up.
Sounds like the Braves are taking Soler’s contract also.
Guess the Braves will have to pay more luxury tax and might have a lower draft pick.
Tyler Matzek going to SF in the deal. Kinda sad.
I think Kelenic and Harris render Joc unnecessary. I bet Soler is leading off again; he may have a better OBP than anyone else on the team. I guess it’s something but we are not going to get the same bounce with Rosario, Soler, and Duvall that we had before and it’s costing us more. I hope that Jackson is going to fill a hole made by another trade to come but most of the best assets are gone. Sox don’t plan to trade Robert, A’s don’t plan to trade Rooker, and there’s lots of competition for the others (Ward, Rengifo, Crochet). Maybe we can get Andujar from the A’s. Can Andujar play 2nd? I gotta believe that acquiring Soler means that Ozuna will not be back next year.
And, yes, this game was a huge disappointment after Holmes’ performance. Chavez’s performance is the very definition of “a bloop and a blast” with a walk thrown in. After that both me and the team gave up on it.
I wonder if Iglesias is on the block. We still have Giles waiting in the wings. Someone will have to go just to make space for Soler and Jackson. With Matzek on the 60-day and Sabin a minor leaguer, we need two spots on the 40-man roster.
I guess I’m wrong about two spots as Vines seems to be the DFA (according to Fangraphs). Someone still needs to be optioned out (Luke Williams?) and someone else will have to get off the 26-man roster if Elder is starting tomorrow (either Lopez goes on the IL or Lee has to be optioned).
Giles hasn’t been good. Soler’s OBP will be 2nd on the team to Ozuna.
Vines was DFA’ed. My guess is that Laureano will be DFA’ed tomorrow. Rosario would be another candidate with his pathetic .532 OPS and bad defense since joining the team.
Duvall is unplayable against RHP (400-something OPS), so almost anyone is an upgrade. But we need a guy who can play OF capably and hit against RHP, and Soler is a DH who has a .696 OPS against RHP.
Duvall and Soler similarly mash LHP, Duvall plays good defense, and our DH is our best hitter. So where is Soler going to play? Does he platoon with Duvall even though they have the same strengths?
And we’re paying Soler’s salary. Doesn’t make sense.
I do like getting Jackson back. This team is looking more and more similar to 2021 Atlanta: average offense missing Acuna, depleted rotation, and elite and deep bullpen.
This is another trade I dont get at all.
Soler has 2 more years of salary too.
Weird
https://x.com/bravesmattc/status/1818137253404721233?s=46&t=WSNPrB2JyUoeKSn2PZsXZg
Iglesias would certainly be dealing from a position of strength.
Soler can/will play RF and will make up a DH/RF team with Acuna next year. If you recall Soler has a cannon for an arm. If Harris comes back to play CF then LF can go back to being the planned platoon with Duvall/Kelenic. That OF would be plenty good on defense and have a lot of offensive upside over what we have now.
I am wondering about a trade for Andujar. He can hit, he’s cheap, and I wonder if he can play 2nd (he used to play 3rd). He could play LF until Harris comes back (with Duvall/Kelenic in CF). If he can then play 2nd until Ozzie comes back, that would be perfect. I wonder if the A’s would take Laureano/Iglesias in trade. I also wonder if there might be a three team deal brewing for that combo where someone else gets Iglesias and the A’s get more prospects. That would be how AA can slip under the 3rd tier of luxury tax again.
And over the winter Ozuna and Andujar could go and with Morton leaving, there might be enough cash to make a play for Fried. That all would explain bringing Luke back. And Nacho could get more seasoning to replace Arcia.
Soler only makes sense if we’re keeping him and letting Ozuna go next year. Even then it makes us worse overall. I understand there’s pressure to do “something”, but the only thing that’s gonna save this team is for Olson and Riley to hit like last year and for Harris to come back and actually be somewhat productive.
I was looking at Battery Power just now and saw the headline “Braves Acquire Matt Kemp.” It took me a moment before I realized that was a “This Day in Braves History” story. At least Soler will be better in the field than Kemp. Of course, that’s one of the lowest bars ever.
Two words: Melky Cabrera
TRIGGER WARNING
I’m fine with the Soler trade. He’s been mashing lately (crushing four-seamers in particular) and doing a good job getting on base (his .330 OBP this year is higher than that of every Braves hitter except Ronnie and Ozuna).
It’ll be interesting to see where exactly he slots in position-wise. I think RF makes the most sense, at least until Ronnie comes back. He’s not going to supplant Ozuna as the DH, and he’s got twice as many games played in RF as in LF. Plus, he’ll have a little less ground to cover in RF at Truist (though he will have to handle balls bouncing off the brick wall).
Agreed. He played RF when he was here before.
I bet the Giants release Matzek and the Braves re-sign him on a MiLB deal.
Braves currently have 28 on the active roster. I wonder if that means they expect more trading before the deadline. I’d sure like to see a deal with the A’s and/or White Sox.
Trading out Iglesias’ salary would just about offset both Soler and Jackson.
I would be pro trading Iglesias and also reserve the right to tell you I never supported trading him when Joe Jimenez blows the 9th inning of Game 7 of the World Series.
Respect my decision.