To paraphrase Saint Thomas More, I am commanded by my unwillingness to spend much time thinking about this game to be brief, and so brief I will be.
I forgive the Braves right readily.
The umpire sucked. Jorge Soler, for whom we traded even though he’s more a DH than an outfielder, was bad in the outfield. The Braves scored five runs on ten hits, leaving only six men on base, which is actually better than our usual, but it wasn’t enough, as the Brewers absolutely feasted on our bullpen. You can’t win games when you score no runs, as we did a day ago; but you rarely win games when you yield 16 hits, either.
Bad game by a team that’s been less than the sum of its parts all season. Of course, it’s possible to sleepwalk through the regular season, limp into the playoffs, and catch fire for a few weeks. It doesn’t make it any easier to watch the games all summer. We’ve still got a powerful core, particularly if you squint, and the starting pitching is still pretty impressive despite the occasional off night, and the bullpen has mostly been quite solid.
But the Braves are 2-4 in August with a -17 run differential. One of two things will happen: either that will turn around, or nothing will.
Thursday Game Thread
Charlie Morton gets the ball today against the Brewers and Frankie Montas, but before we look at the lineup, let’s take a look a the latest roster transactions and it’s a doozy.
I was fine with the signing of Eddie Rosario and I’m also ok with the DFA’ing of Eddie Rosario. It was worth a shot prior to the trade deadline, but he has proven that there’s no Braves magic that will save him in 2024. Eli White looked good his last time up and I hope he gets a few shots to stick. Parker Dunshee has been putting up insane numbers at both AAA and AA, so I’m interested to see if it will translate to the majors.
In my opinion last night’s game was harder to watch then the 10-0 shellacking. Every team gets beat 10-0 at some point but the 8-5 loss with the collapse of the bullpen was really bad. The Braves had the lead for a long time until the bullpen totally gave in (2-0, 2-1, 4-3). That is the kind of game we not only used to win with ease but were winning earlier this year.
P.S. It’s good to see Rosario go away again. About time. I hope MH2 comes back real soon.
Duvall hitting against a righty? Snitker has mailed it in.
Thank you, Charlie, for freeing up my day.
Are you Kidding me Morton? I hope that guy retires after this year. He still has the Velo but the command is terrible
Get him out of there!
I’m beginning to consider the possibility we may not win the division this year.
Now the question is we will we even end the season over 500? I don’t see it.
And we will need 2-3 SPs in the offseason without even thinking about SS and the OF. Lots of gaps on this squad, but could easily bounce back and win 90 next year.
Odd team/season
“Parker Dunshee” sounds like a pseudonym for a guy who doesn’t want his outing to go onto his baseball-reference page.
This is a clear nadir for the season. It certainly feels as though AA’s deadline strategy was a bust. I don’t have any good ideas – I don’t think firing people is necessarily the right move, or any other specific change, but the status quo appears not to be working, quite aggressively so.
This is an all-systems failure but at a minimum the team needs a different offensive perspective from a new hitting coach.
The front office has built a team of high-power, average-to-low OBP players but I think that should be adjusted immediately.
Acuna, Olson, Riley and Murphy aren’t going anywhere and AA would be mad to let Ozuna — his only consistent hitter this year — walk for nothing. Soler is way better than Kelenic offensively and he’s the obvious DH replacement after Ozuna leaves in 2026.
Where can upgrades actually happen? Shortstop is the obvious answer but the cost is probably too high, both in dollars and prospects.
Harris is young enough that he could feasibly learn more patience and his defense is still elite. He shouldn’t go anywhere.
I would strongly consider trading Ozzie and finding a middle infielder who can get on base more. His defense has completely degraded and his max-effort, high-power approach at the plate will not age well.
Why was this guy even brought up? I’d rather see Dodd, Wynans or Vines
We are quickly approaching back up the truck territory. This is getting out of hand and there aren’t any answers aside from hoping guys get back to their “normal” production levels over the next few weeks.
Just after i begged the braves not to give me hope here, they go and lose five in a row. Message received!
I don’t understand why they put 3 automatic outs at the back of the lineup. Even if we do make the playoffs, no way we beat the other teams that will be in the playoffs
And now they’re burning Iglesias in a 14-3 game. Unbelievable.
Burning Iglesias will ultimately hurt us this weekend when we need to get back to back saves and we have to use Minter or Jimenez instead.
Feels like we will look back on this series as when we realized the season was finally toast. Hope I’m wrong
This feels like the final six weeks of the 2014 season. Frank Wren paid for that collapse with his job.
AA isn’t going to be on the hook here, but there will be a head or two that rolls.
Would you really even want this team to make the playoffs?
Also, trading Contreras to create a d’Arnaud/Murphy catcher platoon has got to be AA’s most questionable move of his tenure.
Sure I’d want them to make the playoffs – I don’t want them to watch them on TV just to send a lesson to the suits. I’ve seen far better teams lose in the first round.
My bigger concern is, selfishly, it’s not fun to watch them right now.
Also, more evidence that maybe our hitters should get time off: https://blogs.fangraphs.com/dear-hitters-its-okay-to-take-a-break/
I have to agree. Also it hurts that we didn’t give
Freddie that 6th year. Looks like it’s Olson who is going into decline.
I think the league has finally figured out that even mediocre pitchers know that they do not have to throw strikes because this team is entirely too aggressive. They will swing at pitches in the dirt, in their eyes and six inches off the plate. By then, the batter has two strikes and then they just watch a fat pitch sale down broad way or strike out on another pitch in the dirt. They need to learn more patience. That’s why the Phillies and Dodgers are so good. They make pitchers work. Also, the lineup sucks without Ozzie, Acuna and Harris. And for those who want to trade Ozzie? That just leaves another hole and will seriously piss Acuna off since they are besties. Thoughts?
Also, when Acuna comes back next year? He will probably have the same wet newspaper knee again just like 2022. Hope I am wrong
I understand the doom and gloom – we’ve looked horrible the last 3 games. However, I’m still jaded over last year. We easily had the best team over the course of the season but were beaten by a clearly inferior Philadelphia team. This year we are not good, but assuming we don’t fall apart, we have just as good of a shot at winning the World Series that we had last year. World Series has lost a lot of its luster to me( but I’ll take another win.
The World Series has lost luster? What else are they playing for (a paycheck)?
I think he means that it’s more of a lottery than ever. But we all dearly want to win it
Because there are so many teams and is mostly about who gets hot at the end, it rarely has anything to do with the best team. JonathanF calling it a crapshoot is spot on. I know it’s been that way for a long time but it really hit home last year. The expanded wild card makes it even worse.
If it’s any consolation, if the Brewers win the World Series, it will be in large part because we gave them the most elusive commodity in the game–a young, all-star catcher who can hit–for almost nothing.
I think it’s cute when people harp on about William Contreras but have little to say (in comparison) about Michael Soroka, Jared Shuster, Braden Shewmake, Shea Langeliers, Cristian Pache, Kyle Muller, Freddy Tarnok, Ryan Cusick, Joey Estes or Vaughn Grissom.
I’ll be at all three games at Coors Field this weekend. Last year, I knew we’d sweep them when we came into Denver. I’m not so sure this year.
What is that supposed to mean? Contreras is really only comparable to Soroka in terms of talent.
Well, time to get back into it. Gotta win the Rockies series and beat the Giants. Doesn’t look like it but the team is better than this past series. Go Braves.