Bravda (From the Russian word “Pravda,” meaning truth.)
The Braves extended their error free streak to 4 games Sunday in San Diego, as the first series of the season goes into the books. AJ Smith-Shawver struck out 4 batters in 4 innings, and the bullpen combined to get 12 outs.
Atlanta batters worked the Padres bullpen for a walk, and raked Padres starter Nick Pivetta for a hit. The Braves also managed to hit into only 2 double plays.
The Braves efforts tonight allowed them to keep pace with the Phillies in the NL East, and they look now to exceed these results in LA on Monday as they open a 3 game series with the Dodgers. Grant Holmes vs. Tyler Glasnow scheduled for 10:10pm Eastern time.
Bravda, out.
I had forgotten about Bravda. Bravo.
But you neglected to note that Hector Neris had what was easily his best outing of the year.
In addition, Braves management, to avoid overuse of the pitching staff, has made maximal use of the so-called “road game loophole” which allows a team to only need 24 outs.
We haven’t needed one in a while, thankfully. Keep that positive news coming.
This dreadful start is super surprising when you think about all the moves that AA made to improve the team during the offseason.
Maybe I’ve been too hard on Arcia. He was our entire offense in game 4.
We can talk about the bullpen all we want, but this offense flat out sucks. What’s really frustrating is that you just know the entire lineup will be better if Acuna comes back healthy. And by that time, Kimbrel will replace Neris and Strider will replace ASS, so the roster overall will be better. But why does it take Acuna being healthy for the entire team’s gears to turn? Maddening.
With that said, something to cheer for: Michael Soroka pitches in his home country of Canada tonight against the Blue Jays and Newcomb gets the start for the Red Sox. I wonder what Folty’s up to. Actually, well, I probably shouldn’t.
Starting 0-4 is the only way to win the WS. Time to get right against the lowly Dodgers.
Love the Bravda, Rusty. But yeah, let’s hope we don’t need much more of that kind of reporting. Here’ to better results that allow for more glasnost.
We’re going to knock Glasnost all over Dodger Stadium.
Some quick “Here’s why we suck,” looking at the stats:
Overall, the approach hasn’t been good. Albies had a terrible at-bat in the third inning of Friday’s game that exemplified the exact kind of thing I hate:
Reynaldo Lopez was fighting it, having trouble getting into the strike zone with anything offspeed, and he’d just given up another run to make it 2-0 as the Padre ace Dylan Cease was on the mound. Cease got two quick strikeouts facing the bottom of the order, Nick Allen and Jarred Kelenic. But then our offense game to life and put together the best rally of the season. Profar singled to left on a seven-pitch at-bat, then Riley walked on four straight and Matt Olson walked on eight pitches to load the bases. With the bases loaded there was a massive hole on the right side of the infield, so Marcell Ozuna took an inside-out swing on the first pitch and muscled a ball through for a two-run single to tie the game.
That brought up Albies. On the previous 20 pitches, Cease had yielded two walks, two singles, and two runs, and he clearly was struggling. Albies promptly proceeded to swing at a ball in the dirt, a ball at the knees, and a ball around his eyes, and the inning was over.
That simply cannot happen. Maybe earlier in his career, Ozzie had better bat control and was better able to sustain the kind of rally-killing free-swinging that he’s become known for, but after nearly 900 games and nearly 4000 plate appearances, he’s got to get smarter, or he’s going to find himself at the bottom of the lineup before he’s 30.
In general, Drake Baldwin has looked okay to me, though he’s run into some bad luck. I like Profar at the top of the lineup and think he’s a good fit for the lineup. I generally think Riley and Harris will be fine, and I’m even willing to bet on Olson. The starting rotation will probably be more or less okay.
But the lineup just isn’t long enough, and the bullpen is a Superfund site.
This team will win 90 games, and is probably good enough to win a wild card, particularly considering that our two best players are still off the field. But we need some guys to step up. And that includes Anthopoulos.
I’m not willing to criticize the pitching (except for Neris) when the offense has been so dreadful. Our hitters should just be better, Acuna or not. We have never done well against the Padres, but no one notices so much when it’s the middle of the season and I hope we get them back at home. However this sweep is even worse than bad and not scoring over the last 20 innings is horrid. The Marlins have better offense than this. And Nick Pivetta???
Hector Neris is gone, just as he was starting to improve, as JonathanF noted. Uncle Jesse is back. Per DOB.
https://x.com/DOBrienATL/status/1906744465873924599
Hector Neris’s distinguished tenure with the club reminds me of the time the Simpsons were trying to find ways to economize, and so Bart offered to take up smoking and then give that up.
I’m still wondering if Angel Perdomo will be better (and LH) than either Neris or Chavez. I did not understand letting him go.
who is Stuart Fairchild? We just acquired him
Suarez pitched 3 innings yesterday so he’s down for a few days, so we needed another long reliever/mop up man in Chavez.
Stuart Fairchild is apparently going to replace BDLC on the roster. Fairchild is actually a good defender and had a better OPS vs LHP than BDLC last season.
As of today, please add Stuart Fairchild to the list of people I have heard of
So, uh, are you sitting down? There’s some semi-credible reporting that Profar failed a drug test and will be suspended. That would at least help explain the random acquisition of Fairchild.
Profar, pro not so good.
And we foolishly thought this year couldn’t be worse than last year. Passen just confirmed Profar’s suspension.
To be objective, there are a lot of reasons to think this year will be better than last year. As a replacement for Max Fried, Profar is a serious disappointment. But there’s still reason to believe our overall health will be better than it was last year, and that our hitters will generally regress upwards to their general mean of performance.
My biggest criticism of Alex Anthopoulos is that he spent a ton of money locking down the members of our roster to long-term contracts but appears to have given himself very little wiggle room — I wonder whether he was led to believe he would have a bit more budget than he wound up having. It remins me of the Cubs, who signed Jason Heyward to a $184 million contract and then ownership more or less told the front office not to spend any more money. Anthopoulos shouldn’t have made committments that lavish if he had any inkling that he had very little remaining margin in his year-to-year operating budget.
Absent a similarly star-crossed encounter with the injured list, this is still at least a 90-win team, but the lineup has holes, and the front office needs to be willing to fill them. Hector Neris, Stuart Fairchild, Nick Allen, and Chadwick Tromp ain’t gonna cut it.
Official.
https://x.com/Braves/status/1906827921722921219?t=g_8YnwSy66Py4dHlst9EmQ&s=19
To paraphrase Casey Stengel, even our boys who are takin’ drugs ain’t hittin’
Braves announce Jurickson Profar to be well rested for the second half.
Bravda, out.
Whew… 80 games.
Looks like last year’s masking agents aren’t working this year.
Reynaldo to the IL dues to shoulder inflammation. The news keeps getting better. His velo did seem down so far
We’ve moved Profar and Lopez news to “Profar Hot Takes” Also, feel free to comment on “Adios Hector”
And there’s a game in 3 hours!
To say this offense is anemic is an insult to the word anemic. Harris looks absolutely lost thru 4 games and 1 inning.
Further examples of that clutch hitting with RISP.