Well, last night was not ideal and the Braves squandered another great pitching performance, this time courtesy of Charlie Morton. I did a little digging on Charlie and his 2024 performance and was pleasantly surprised. Charlie ranks as the 2nd oldest pitcher in the bigs, only behind Justin Verlander. Rounding out the list is Max Scherzer, David Robertson, and Adam Ottovino.
Here’s the breakdown:
- Charlie Morton has thrown 149 innings with a 4.11 ERA
- Justin Verlander has thrown 74.2 innings with a 5.30 ERA
- Max Scherzer has thrown 39.1 innings with a 3.89 ERA
- David Robertson (a reliever) has thrown 63 innings with a 2.86 ERA
- Adam Ottovino (a reliever) has thrown 49.1 innings with a 4.38 ERA
At the least, it’s a wash between Morton and Robertson which one has had the more successful season. With all the big name up there, it’s really nice to see Uncle Charlie leading the charge for the senior citizens.
Braves Lineup
Braves come into today 1 game out of the wild card and time is running out. Let’s hope September can ignite this team.
Last night’s game was one of the worst hitting efforts I’ve ever seen in person. We hit one ball kinda hard. We had three base runners. Took hittable strikes, swung wildly at crap, etc etc. Just brutal. Half the lineup shouldn’t be in the majors, let alone starting. It’s hard to watch since we’re all so spoiled. I have no clue how we turn this around. But I’ll continue to watch and hope for something to start clicking.
I heard that Chipper called out the entire team and org today for lack of emphasis on OBP. Preach.
ReyLo’s velocity was down 4mph or so. Wouldn’t be surprised if he’s hurt again.
Lopez is out after an inning. Now you got this offense and Jesse Chavez to overcome tonight.
Next man up.
Every time it looks like Chavez is washed up, he pitches some critical and effective innings. No matter what happens next inning, I’ll gladly take 3 shutout innings on very short notice with 1 hit and 3 ks.
krussell: I think it might be you. Stop going to games. You make them nervous.
Lol, I will try to use this power for the greater good then. Next homestand I’ll try to be nicer.
Where was this offense last night and in all the other shutout losses?
Apparently they sacrificed R.Lopez to Jobu to be able to hit.
Lopez out with right shoulder tightness…
I’d imagine he’s thrown his last pitch in 2024, even if there’s no actual injury.
How refreshing.
Uncle Jesse is 41 and 20 days which is older than everyone on your list other than Verlander.
Rich Hill got into a game this year. He’s the only player older than me.
Julio Franco is 6 months younger than me. That era is the last time I was close to the age of an MLB player.
Don’t forget that the Braves signed Satchel Paige at age 62.
True, that was a ruse to get him a pension, but Paige retired for real at age 59.
Well, I’ve enjoyed the slugfests we’ve had lately, but too much offense can get monotonous after a while, so I’m glad that tonight we finally went back to a pitcher’s duel and some good old-fashioned smallball and ABC baseball.
Alex, I think you may have written that comment last year and posted it erroneously tonight.
I know I initially overreacted about Lopez’s injury, but can you blame me? Ian has looked good down in AAA, so if Lopez’s injury is not serious, then I’d let Ian get a couple starts and let Lopez’s shoulder calm down. It’ll be a nice audition for Ian for 2025.
To be honest, I would just go ahead and shut Lopez down. He’s had an elbow and now a shoulder scare this season and he’s at 128.2 IP — he hasn’t thrown more than 66 IP since 2019. If they make the playoffs, a rotation of Sale-Fried-Morton/Schwellenbach is just as formidable.
I take a different tack. Unless he truly needs to stop throwing because of injury protocol, I’m not sure they can afford to shut him down completely, for two reasons. First, they are a playoff bubble team, and losing him from the rotation significantly hurts their chances of claiming a postseason spot. Second, if they did get into the playoffs, he would need ramp-up time to be able to get back into game shape, and there’s a good chance that he wouldn’t be able to be an effective postseason starter after taking the rest of the regular season off.
Yeah, but a lot of folks are playing for 2025. They’re assuming, reasonably, that even if we make the playoffs, we will get embarrassed. I do not agree with that because the playoffs is a lottery, and with a strong rotation, you can beat anybody with a bunch of 3-2 games.
I think I’m somewhere in the middle here, and it’s pretty much been decided anyway. He’s on the 15 day IL, so he’ll just rest and then re-evaluate. If you ramp him back up and he can make 2 regular season starts before the playoffs, then it should be ok. I would still start him over Morton in the playoffs, but I do understand the desire to start a healthy Schwellenbach over a potentially injured and rusty Lopez.
The playoffs are indeed a lottery ticket, and I want to see what our rotation can do in a short series. We’ll undoubtedly be poised to win a 3-game series, and I also trust us to get 3 good starting pitching performances out of 5 in a 5-game series. And then for what it’s worth, Schwellenbach or Morton as a game 4 starter in a 7-game series is as good as any team can throw out of the fourth spot. The bullpen can shorten games with the best of them.
And anyone who dares try to guess what this offense can do in a short series is foolish. Maybe we get Riley back, maybe we don’t. Ozzie will be back. And just like in 2021, you just need a few guys to get hot.
I’m not looking towards 2025. 2025 means no Morton or Fried right now, who knows if Sale and Lopez can repeat these seasons, and who knows who the hell will be healthy next year. Acuna, Harris, and Ozzie have been crapshoots so far in their career. We’re getting bailed out by Merrifield, Laureano, and Urshela, and I want to see what a bunch of veterans can do in a postseason series as well.
Sorry about the delayed recap. I’ll get one up in the next hour or two.
recapped, finally