Kevin Gausman was quite good for us down the stretch in 2018, when we got him in one of Alex Anthopoulos’s best deadline deals – we traded Brett Cumberland, JC Encarnacion, Bruce Zimmermann, and Evan Phillips, and the only one who’s had any kind of career is Phillips, who became a pretty good middle reliever with the Dodgers, but only after the Orioles and Rays both waived him.
But Gausman was so bad in 2019 that we waived him too, so we couldn’t even get anything good when he left. Then the Giants picked him up, told him to start throwing his best pitch a whole lot more, and he headed north as a $110 million free agent.
Cut to tonight, when he faced off against Spencer Schwellenbach. They both gave up two homers, but Gausman’s were of the solo variety and Schwelly’s were of quite the other kind, and that was really the ballgame.
This team isn’t very good right now, and the bottom of the lineup is pretty embarrassing, particularly given the continued struggles of Jarred Kelenic, who is perilously close to playing his way out of the majors. (He made a nice diving catch tonight, and he’s made several nice defensive plays lately, but his OPS is .506.) Tomorrow we’ll get Spencer Strider back, which could be a shot in the arm for the team.
This team needs a spark. I think the team could use a red-ass like Tommy Pham – someone to shake them out of their torpor. (Of course, I say that, but Pham is hitting .140 in Pittsburgh, so maybe he’s not the answer either.) I also suspect that the clubhouse may have suffered a bit of the same disappointment we all felt whe we expected all offseason that the cavalry would be coming and reinforcements would arrive, and then…
Some teams are pesky and play above their heads. I’d love to see that happen here. Tomorrow can’t come fast enough!
It’s hard to believe Kelenic peaked (modestly) when he was 23 but that is what it looks like. I figured we had, at worst, a plus fourth outfielder. But now he is a fringe fourth outfielder and dropping.
1 RBI between BDLC and Kelenic this year. Just a disaster.
The Kelenic move was one that seemed savvy at the time — Rays-like, almost — but in hindsight, AA should have just signed Teoscar Hernandez. Kelenic was an expensive experiment for the Braves and a harsh reminder that not all first-rounders pan out.
It would be interesting to see how many “change of scenery” trades work out and how many turn out not to be about the scenery at all.
It’s also possible that the scenery ended up worse. We do not appear to be able to help major league hitters get better currently. Kelenic probably just doesn’t have it but I doubt our coaches were very helpful
Our entire outfield is hitting less than .200. None of these guys are even supposed to be starting, so I’m not that worked up.
But I definitely don’t understand what the plot is for MHIII. What kind of player is he trying to be? He doesn’t hit for power, he doesn’t walk, and he doesn’t prioritize contact. He’s put on both good and bad weight, and I just don’t get what he’s trying to do. He’s only 24, and I’m sure he’s trying to figure out his game himself, but I just don’t understand the massive weight gain if you’re trying to be an elite defender and not producing additional power.
His similar players through age-23 is a confusing list:
Ellis Valentine (968.3)
Ellis Burks (965.7)
Grady Sizemore (963.8)
Ben Grieve (961.1)
Jeff Francoeur (960.9)
Bruce Campbell (956.5)
Nick Markakis (955.7)
Andrew Benintendi (955.6)
Jeff Burroughs (952.4)
Harold Baines (949.4) *
I could certainly live with a composite of those players. And at his worst, he’s still a 3 WAR player, so I’m not disappointed. I just don’t get it. And if he’s struggling to stay on the field (averaged 124 games the past 2 seasons), then why the additional weight? So yeah, just a lot of confusion here.
I am not so sure there is a plan or that the current coaching staff of this organization has a productive approach to getting the most out of players’ abilities. At one time we sure did but we seem to have prioritized easy-going good baseball guys that everyone liked such as Snit and Kranny. The idea that we couldn’t figure out how to help a pitcher as talented as Gausman is case in point.
Agreed that I’d like to see more growth from Mike in his control of the strike zone. I continue to have high confidence in his makeup and his athletic ability to make adjustments, and with his injuries the last couple of years he’s definitely had a little ground to make up.
Overall, the Braves as a team have seemed to control the zone a bit better than they did last year, as I noticed a couple of days ago. Heck, even Ozzie’s been better! I think Harris, ultimately, will be okay, though the sooner he gets the hell out of the top of the lineup, the better for all of us. I genuinely don’t think it is helping his development and growth and it certainly isn’t helping our offense.
Kelenic, though… the only thing I can think of now is to just hit the pause button and send him to a sports psychologist like Smoltz in 1991. I have zero confidence that he’ll get better simply by playing through this. If he’s going to reach his potential, he needs outside help.
Alex, not to play amateur psychologist, but I can only assume that Kelenic has just completely collapsed under the pressure. He comes off as one of the most mentally weak players I can remember (Arcia is up there too). I feel like him just being in a pressure-free 4th outfielder role where he can just sit and be a big leaguer and breathe and learn what might be missing from his game could do him a lot of good. I don’t think he needs time at AAA and I don’t think he needs more big league ABs. But being around veteran players without the collapsing pressure to perform could do him a lot of good. And he’s a perfectly good 4th outfielder who could still play a valuable role in the right role.
It’s clear to me that he has lost his confidence and is killing himself right now. That’s why I was thinking a sports psychologist might help. He simply may never be a starting player. I haven’t completely lost hope that he could be something like Verdugo – a 1.5-2.0 win starting outfielder.
I’d be happy converting him into a fourth outfielder – I wanted to make Arcia a utility infielder. The real problem is that the roster, as currently constructed, basically needs both of them to be starter caliber.
Gosh, it’s nice to see Spencer blowing high fastballs past guys.
Strider seems to have not missed a step.
I take it back.
Ozzie Albies just walked on a borderline 3-1 pitch at or just above the very top of the zone. Quite frankly, I’m used to seeing Ozzie make terrible swing decisions on high pitches. But his walk rate is significantly better than his career average right now (it’s over 8% on the young season, compared with 6.2% last year and 6.7% overall).
Tim Hyers hasn’t been here long, but I genuinely think there’s reason for optimism that the team is taking him seriously about making better swing decisions.
Fantastic news
Strider was touching 98 in the first inning, laboring in the 2nd topping out around 95.
45 pitches through two innings…
Brutal call by the ump on strike 3 to Mike there.
I really sympathize with these guys when “too close to take” is the mantra because you can’t trust the ump not to ring you up on a ball.
On the game cast the strike zone looks typically terrible
The strike zone has been terrible.
Nice job by Sean Murphy and Orlando Arcia hosing Vladito on the bases there.
Bad chase by Mike there but with this strike zone today tough to blame him.
Another terrible call on Riley that would have gone 3-0
My kingdom for a leadoff batter who can actually get on base once in a blue moon. Just kill this outfield with fire.
And of course, Snitker won’t stick up for his team when Riley is the victim of a ridiculous strike call on a high-leverage pitch well outside the zone.
Sntiker is old-school, laid-back, whatever. And yes, ejections are performative to some degree. But I’d like to see some level of intensity, some visible fire. He looks checked out, like a senior in high school counting the days toward graduation. They’ll never fire him, because he’s been a loyal soldier, half-century of service to the organization, blah blah blah. But this isn’t working and it’s doing a disservice to everyone. If he’s going to leave after this year anyway, get him gone now before the season is completely up in smoke. I’m not interested in the thank-you farewell tour.
Maybe a little fight by Snit for someone not named Acuna would go a long way. He rarely seems engaged in games anymore and seems like he is just watching. The team deserves more fight from their leader and it is tough to fight when it seems like your boss doesn’t have your back. We are the brink of becoming a bunch of lolligaggers.
That’s another horrible call by the ump on the 2-0 count to Riley. Bill Miller’s zone today has been absolutely dreadful and it’s going to be mentioned in the postgame coverage.
Good sweet mother of mercy, the strike call on the 1-1 pitch to Olson is even worse. This is the worst ump performance I’ve seen all year and it’s not close.
The ump is seriously affecting this game. This is absolutely terrible to watch.
And the worst thing is, he will umpire again next week. Unbelievable.
They are almost untouchable as Angel Hernandez was allowed to do this for 15 years. The challenge system can’t come fast enough but it will terribly slow the game down because the umpires will have darn near every other pitch challenged. It is so bad this season it almost looks like they are encouraging the shift to the challenge system with the amount of misses they have game in and game out.
If we couldn’t get one run off dudes throwing 91/92, we probably aren’t going to get two runs.
Strider at 95 pitches…why is he still in? Like what point are we proving?
Oof. Well, Vladito got into that one.
The umpire has utterly killed us today, but as usual we’ve had traffic and stranded every duck we’ve had on the pond.
I just looked in but 13Ks in 6 innings is not good even with bad umps. The Blue Jays don’t have that many (5). It’s hard to watch K after K especially with Murphy standing on 2nd base.
I think we need to look at moving White to leadoff. He seems to have mostly good at bats.
Yet another ridiculous strike call on Harris, but it takes a special player to get the golden sombrero in the 7th inning. Eli White is the shining star of this outfield at the moment.
15 K’s in 21 outs is crazy.
Harris is awful right now. Definitely need to get him out of the leadoff spot.
There are a lot of things going wrong with Harris’s at-bats right now, but I’ll focus on just this one: he does not have a good two-strike approach. He’s struck out six times as often as he’s walked on this young season, and he really needs to figure out how to choke up and foul off more pitches when he’s down to his final strike.
Also, the ump called consecutive balls on Pierce Johnson in the exact same location (six inches off the plate) where he called strikes on Michael Harris, Matt Olson, and Austin Riley.
A high-level reliever against Harris is like the 1927 Yankees against Charlie Brown’s team. The result was as expected.
Things were looking good 2 days ago. We had won the first game, pulled to 6 games under .500, and we had Spencers on the hill the last 2 games of the series. Toronto sure has our number.
15Ks in 7 innings. MHII never got the bat off his shoulder. First three hitters have 9ks in 10ABs.
Can always count on our bullpen to leave no doubt.
The only pen arms with an era less than 4.00 is Suarez, Montero and Thompson (who was just sent down). Not a recipe for success.
And Montero had no track record to suggest he can be a positive
Bill Miller sucks, yes.
But EIGHTEEN strikeouts through eight innings.
About to be 5-13. Every win followed by a loss. And the words no one wants to hear: “Bryce Elder will start the next game.”
Too many voids in the lineup. Too much suckitude in the bullpen. A manager who seems content to trust that it’ll come around despite the fact that the team is 80-82 in its last 162, with a rotation and bullpen objectively worse than it was last September.
It’s not turning around. It’s not coming around. Not without the equivalent of the electroshock paddles on the patient.
On true talent and on paper, this should still be one of the better teams in the majors. Yet we’re playing like one of the worst teams in the majors. That’s an indictment of the organization.
https://x.com/b_outliers/status/1912574991498887668
The caveat this time of year is always small sample size, but my God, that’s just horrible. Even when he’s making contact, it’s average exist velocity. The Harris extension may really come back to haunt AA.
The Harris extension is only $9M AAV. Ill-advised? Maybe. But it shouldn’t handicap the organization.
That bomb by Drake was nice work to the opposite field. Nice job, rook!
We suck.
I’ve been saying this for a while
I really think Eli is our best leadoff option. The Harris experiment hasn’t worked and Ozzie doesn’t have great plate discipline to try to work a walk and get on base. I also think it’s time for Verdugo as Kelenic is just lost, Too many lineup voids should at least force us to try something else to see if it sticks. There is a long way to go but sitting g on our hands will only delay the turnaround.
Braves are 2-11 on the road and 3-2 at home. We get a day off tomorrow, and then 6 at home against beatable teams Minnesota and St. Louis (both .500 or worse). It is kind of annoying that we start the year with 13 road games with only 5 home games. Fortunately that will even out. I would say Atlanta needs to take 4 of 6 over the next 2 series. And then while we have to go back on the road, we get 3 @ ARI and 3 @ COL, so that’s a better west coast trip than LA and SD. Maybe we can split those, then we come home for 7 against the Dodgers and Cincinnati. That’s an objectively better stretch than the one we’ve had.
It’s not a perfect comparison, but this organization is giving me some Clemson vibes.
Saw a Sean Newcomb strikeout on Pitching Ninja and looked him up – he’s starting games for the Red Sox! Who knew? Somehow has a 3.63 ERA despite an unsurprising 1.90 WHIP. And hasn’t competed 5 innings yet this year.
Recapped, if you care