Throughout the “Late Unpleasantness,” the Braves have avoided Mondays, and thus my recap duties and opportunities. If I thought my name rising to the top of the list might even slightly adjust the circumstances, I would have volunteered.
I saw that cat. Somebody must have thrown it off the Empire State Building. Although it bounced up when it hit, it was still dead as a doorknob. This win only causes us to allow some relief in our despair and gloom.
What are the elements of a winning game? Good starting pitching. Check. Chris Sale pitched 7 innings, got 11 strikeouts, gave up 2 walks and 5 hits, allowing only 1 run.
Good bullpen work. Check. Single scoreless innings of 0.00 WHIP with 2 strikeouts each from Dylan Lee and Raisel Iglesias (wait a minute. recheck. That is still what it says).
Good offense. When you score 7, you usually win (but not always with this team).
Mainly, I am pondering how bad the Brewers are.
Looks like we won a game! A couple more of these and I might be coaxed to poke my head out of my burrow and see if I encounter my shadow.
They say that winning is better than losing, and by George, they’re right!
Agree. Even if what we’re seeing is just the physics involved when a deceased feline falls. Beats a big splat on the sidewalk.
Eli White is in the lineup tonight for Verdugo after homering last night.
Profar’s return is approaching.
https://x.com/bravesmattc/status/1932414406119277053?s=46&t=_A5dHSx668X2WtFbjIu8dw
Guess which team is leading the other team in wins by 6 games:
OPS
Team A .704
Team B .674
Batting
Team A .243
Team B . 236
Pitching ERA
Team A 3.75
Team B 3.87
Fielding errors
Team A 26
Team B 36
Obviously Team A is Atlanta, Team B is Milwaukee. The Brewers are 3 games over .500 and we are 9 games under.
Interesting about Profar. I think a lot of folks are assuming that without PEDs he will be more like the pre-2024 version. That’s not especially good. OTOH, that would still be miles better than the production we’ve gotten from LF this season. If he somehow manages to produce at his 2024 level, that would be huge.
He’s had multiple decent seasons. He had 20 homers in 2018 with a near .800 OPS. The primary thing that spiked in 2024 was his OBP. His slugging was the same as 2018. He’s definitely capable with the bat, and I would expect something in line with that .800 OPS. A monster upgrade for this team
I’m excited for Profar’s return primarily for the OBP. That is something this offense really needs. And it may be that the PEDs did not impact that much. But Profar’s career OPS+ is just 98, including his great 2024 which was 133. So I’d push back a little and insist that his 2024 really was an outlier.
FWIW, verdugo’s career OPS+ is 100, including last year’s miserable season with the Yankees and this years worse season with the Braves. But the big difference is that Verdugo has been really bad for the last year and a half. He seems to have lost it somehow, despite being several years younger than Profar. Profar will almost certainly be a substantial upgrade.
Baldwin should be in the lineup every day. Batting second. Enough screwing around with Riley in the 2 hole.
If he’s not catching, bench Ozuna.
Sad to say, but we’ve seen this movie already…
Oh no, we suck again.
70s and 80s Braves teams had a few good players even when losing 90 games. Same with this team.
Recap is up: