In the famous July 4th, 1985 19-inning game, I had gone to watch fireworks at a friends’house and got home about 11 PM, only to discover that the game was in its second rain delay. I stayed up and watched the whole stupid thing.
Tonight, I had driven up late to the Berkshires, ready to get in and see how the game was ending. No such luck… it was in the top of the scond inning. Pretty soon, though, it was 5-0 Phillies, and the zeal of my 29-year-old self is much diminished. Plus, I have too much respect for baseball to put in too much time admiring mediocre play.
So I decided (after the obligatory Michael Harris II strikeout) to watch at least long enough to see RAJ bat once. But then Otto Kemp (wasn’t he the sub scommander in Das Boot?) made it 8-0. A Riley error made it 9-0… Elder was out, and I wondered if I was going to live long enough to see this mythical RAJ at-bat. Kyle Schwarber made it 11-0.
Stuart Fairchild replaced Ronald, who didn’t get that second at-bat. I went to bed.
I woke up at 6. I missed a couple of runs. They weren’t ours.
Enjoy your Saturday.
Another try tonight.
The team landed at 2:10am Friday morning, probably didn’t get to bed until close to 4am. Then had a 2h20m rain delay for a 9:35pm first pitch. The game didn’t end until after midnight. A shutout was foreseeable, I just wasn’t thinking a 13-0 shutout.
Since arriving in Atlanta, Sean Murphy has a 0.759 OPS and a 107 OPS+.
Not terrible, not amazing, but not worth $15M a year, and not worth the prospect capital expended to get him.
Murphy’s total WAR since the trade is 8.1. Contreras’ is 12.0. Then there’s the stubbornness over Year Six on Freeman, the bullpen failings, the extensions that are proving to be duds. The misses are outweighing the hits post-2021. He can’t live off drawing an inside straight at that year’s deadline forever.
Someone else other than AA should be leading the retooling/tweaking this team needs.
I do love the use of Dylan Lee in an 11-0 game to put him probably out for tonight or tomorrow if we need him. Completely nonsensical when we ultimately use Luke Williams in the 9th. Like what is Snit doing? I haven’t been a fan of his in a couple of years but something needs to change.
I’m sorry, but it’s time for people to start getting fired. For the longest time I excluded Alex but I’m not so sure anymore.
Our entire draft strategy is to acquire pitching and yet we have no pitching depth at AAA.
Remember that really bad game against the Pirates that cost Fredi González his job?
We seem to be approaching that nadir.
But to be fair, this roster just kinda stinks, like the last 2 games.
The injury to Chris Sale – I’m still trying to get over that one. That was the fiery heart and soul of this team…or close to it.
That ended it. Fuentes might be something in the future, but he isn’t today. Thus, two-fifths of the rotation is terrible, the bullpen is duct-taped together (and then the blithering idiot in the dugout uses his most consistently effective reliever in the 8th inning of an 11-0 game) and anywhere from 44 to 55 percent of the lineup is useless, depending on the day. The only question is whether this team avoids 90 losses.
It was Sale’s “fiery heart” that compelled him to lay his 36-year-old, injury-prone body out to field a grounder–when the Braves were pretty comfortably in command–that gave him cracked ribs and knock him out indefinitely. I know, I know, he’s a competitor, it’s instinct, blah blah blah. But this team is such a disaster I’m not inclined to be charitable to anyone.
Having said that, it’s AA I’m most pissed at, for the reasons Our New Insect Overlords lays out above. We are entering a very fallow period, fellow Braves fans . . .
I mean, I don’t mean to beat a dead horse, but this:
In 2022, AA had Austin Riley, Michael Harris II and William Contreras. He extended two and traded one. And for what? Defense? He decided after 111 games that Contreras wouldn’t get better at defense despite being one of the rarest of treasures — a catcher who could hit for power and for average, a trait Murphy has never possessed. It is fair to question this man’s vision. I’m totally out on him. I think he’ll flub a retooling just like he frittered away this window.
Moving on from Snitker represents a good opportunity for a healthy philosophical reset, even though I don’t expect many changes beyond the manager. Especially if we’re going to be dealing with ownership that will only spend to a certain level despite its 94 acres of cash-printing real estate because it must answer to shareholders who demand profit margins.
(Also, none of this absolves Snitker, who used Lee in the eighth inning last night and for reasons unknown will not give the clearly ailing Ozuna — .554 OPS this month — a rest and again crafted a lineup that has Murphy in at catcher and Baldwin nowhere to be found when at minimum he could be DHing and giving Marcell a break. Fire this moron into the sun.)
Agreed, this ultimately is on AA’s failing as GM. That being said, we have a dolt for a manager that doesn’t seem willing or able to overcome the roster makeup and plays right into it. If this was still a serious franchise, any or all of AA, Snit and/or Hyers would be gone. I find it hard to believe chance and bad luck made 2/3 of the lineup have career worst seasons.
Dylan Lee hadn’t pitched since Monday. Dylan Lee can easily pitch tonight and tomorrow, if those happen to be two of the rare games where we need him.
This team reminds me of mid-80’s Braves. One star. A couple of decent players. And a bunch of guys that are near the bottom of the league at their positions. Nobody is gonna get fired because ownership could not care less. My fear is that The Battery is going to make us the Chicago Cubs of my youth – no real pressure to win anything because people are going to eat and drink at the restaurants whether there’s a game or not. The entire organization needs to be wiped and reset. The game day experience is bland beyond belief, the fake ass “MAKE SOME NOOIIIISSE!” every 5 minutes – whoever runs that shit needs to go, now. The baseball team is harder to fix.
I noticed the Mets were playing the “Make some noise” bit also. Cringeworthy wherever you hear it.
However, Matthew Kaminski, the Braves organist is still a gem. Last night he was playing a bit from “The Barber of Seville” for Schwarber’s walkup music. Half a dozen of us really appreciated the joke.
Why is Verdugo pinch hitting for anyone? Especially when Fairchild has 3 hits the last 2 games?
Smurph!
Can we talk about how much Allen is trying to help the team win vs Harris? Up the middle players but with vastly different skill sets, one is hitting situationally, legging out hits, stealing bases, doing whatever he can. The other is not.
Montero has been pretty good lately.
Recapped