For those of you Braves Journal Kremlinologists who pore over each nuance here looking for signs of political discord and behind-the-scenes chaos here, I request: Stop! But for those of you who read that Ryan will do his first 2025 recap today should draw no inferences from the fact that that is untrue: instead, you need to calm down. All is well here in Politburo Thomason.
The truth is much simpler. Apparently Ender Inciarte found out that Ryan was due to make his first start of 2025 and planted a pipebomb at his school. Wait… it wasn’t a pipebomb; it was a pipe… a ten foot section of drainage pipe. But, through an elaborate series of misunderstandings, Ryan’s debut was terminated with extreme prejudice.,,, Maybe next Thursday.
So we won three out of four from the our national capital warriors. That’s about what a well above-average team does when it plays a slightly below-average team. Four game sweeps are unusual even when great teams play bad teams. So suck up the bad loss on Wednesday, and accept today’s win with good grace. The much-maligned Raisel got a save, and the scary we-almost-blew-it inning was the eighth, in which a very shaky Dylan Lee wiggled in just the right way. Starting pitching, defense and just enough offense to win. Keep it up.
There will be a Green Monster tomorrow, in the “traditional rivalry” which lacks only tradition and rivalry. Braves Field is now the Northeastern University football field. Get over it.
The Red Sox are 22-23, and are in second place in the once-vaunted AL East. Your 0.500 Braves come into Fenway tomorrow night featuring former Red Sox hospital inpatient Chris Sale. Garret Crochet will attempt to weave success for the home team.
The Red Sox just dropped three to the Tigers.
“”MLB.com’s Ian Browne shared that Boston will become the first team in big league history to face the two reigning Cy Young Award winners in back-to-back games.
“‘By facing Tarik Skubal tonight and Chris Sale on Friday, the Red Sox, per Elias, will become the first team to face the reigning Cy Young Award winners in both leagues in back to back games,’ Browne shared. ‘Obviously this would have been hard to do before Interleague started in 1997.'”
https://www.si.com/mlb/red-sox/boston-red-sox-news/red-sox-set-to-make-odd-mlb-history-friday-vs-braves-pat3
That’s cool, Val. Of course, what makes this uniqueness possible is that it is limited to the two current reigning Cy Youngs. I’m sure there have been hundreds of instances in which teams faced two consecutive Cy Young winners; after 1996 any time a team faced Maddux, Glavine and Smoltz in succession they faced three former Cy Youngs in a row. I’ll do a little research, though, to see how many faced the two Cy Youngs of some particular year, not just the previous year.
I would also note that this was completely impossible before 1966 not just because of a lack of interleague play, but because until then there was only one Cy Young awarded per year.
I would also note that this would not have been impossible before 1997 because the previous year’s Cy Young not infrequently will wind up on a new team through trade or free agency. Just in the recent past:
• Blake Snell changed teams after his 2023 CYA, from the Padres to the Giants;
• Justin Verlander changed teams AND leagues after his 2022 CYA, from the Astros to the Mets;
• Robbie Ray changed teams after his 2021 CYA, from the Blue Jays to the Mariners;
• Trevor Bauer changed teams after his 2020 CYA, from the Reds to the Dodgers.
‘s not unusual!
Was just looking up the career of Randy Johnson who I think has to be the greatest free agent signing in major league history. After the Diamondbacks signed him to a 4 year deal in 1999 with a 5th year option, he won 4 consecutive CY awards for them including two 10-WAR seasons.
I know it’s been talked about quite a bit, but I can’t help but marvel at what Drake Baldwin is doing this year. He exercises great plate discipline, has incredibly quick hands (second on the team in average bat speed), can hit the ball extremely hard, has plenty of power potential, can drive the ball to all fields with authority, etc. He’s not an all-world defender, particularly when it comes to pop time and throwing, but his 80th percentile in framing is encouraging.
He’s running a .397 BABIP and is greatly outhitting his xwOBA, so I’m sure he’ll come crashing back down to Earth at some point. Still, aside from Ronnie, Baldwin might just be my favorite player on this team, which is not something I would’ve expected to say a couple of months ago.
I guess we will get to face Sean Newcomb during the series with Boston. It is amazing to me that he’s still in basesball. He only pitched 47.2 with -.9 WAR between 2022 and 2024 after leaving Atlanta. He has a -.1 WAR this year but his ERA of 3.51 and 37 Ks in 33 innings looks respectable. However, I would be a little concerned about his 1.77 WHIP. Of course he will probably pitch a Maddux against us.
Acuna looks pretty major league ready, no? Even including the careless dropped fly ball. Lol.
Whoops, didn’t mean to reply to a different comment.
https://x.com/mlbtraderumors/status/1923452922144158180?s=46&t=WSNPrB2JyUoeKSn2PZsXZg
Future Brave?
Wow. Yankees kept him on a short leash. The dude only pitched 7 innings. Of course, a 2.5 WHIP doesn’t exactly win friends and influence people.
I am pleased to report that the report of the Red Sox being the only team to face the previous year’s Cy Young winners is not just wrong, it is spectacularly wrong, as there are games in which a team faced the both previous year’s Cy Young winners on the same day. This has taken me all friggin’ day to do, but for a great example, check out this game https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/KCA/KCA199004090.shtml in which the Orioles had to face both Bret Saberhagen and Mark Davis, Davis having signed as a free agent from the Padres to Kansas City in the offseason.
If you don’t consider the same game as disproving, in the game after that first game where Saberhagen pitched, Davis pitched again
Good old Elias! Bill James was right about them.
Sorry to send you down a rabbit hole there.
One great new baseball tradition is the player who makes a baserunning mistake immediately calling for a replay after being called out.
Best thing Fairchild could have done there was keep the bat on his shoulder; nothing good could come of a swing from him.
Is this enough Raisel Room?
Recapped